Nantucket Lightship by Lindberg - 1:95 scale build

Fright, let there be fair winds and calm seas on your next build.  I look forward to sharing the adventure.

Scott

GMorrison - thank you for following along with this one and for your help and advice along the way. Cheers! 

Shipwreck - many thanks for the kind words 

Great model. Thanks for sharing. It brought back memories of when I built it OOB about sixty years ago.

I've come to end of the line on my Nantucket Lightship LV-112. I got my feet wet with using LED lighting and creating my 1st diorama water scene. Build time, approximately 6 months. I want to thank everyone for following along and provoding me with some helpful information. On to bigger and better builds 

Wonderful job on this Lightboat project Fright.  

That's awesome. What a nice job you've done.

I would suggest you drop anchor though.

This has been enjoyable to follow.

My progress over the weekend. My small craft advisory flag is now flying on the forward beacon tower. I glued the ship to it's base and begin filiing three layers with plaster of Paris, aloowing each layer to set and dry. I then broke out my acrylic paints and started to paint in my base colors for my ocean. To help create better ocean swells, I used vallejo Atlantic Blue gel. Once this has dried, I will start doing some blending and white caps followed up with Liquitex Gloss Varnish. I'm almost there!

Shipwreck - Thanks and, yes, a big difference. Here's the video that I followed in making my flags:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7bjEkFDqAs 

My wife came to my rescue once again. She works with miniatures so she was kind enough to reduce two images of a US Navy Jack flag and the American flag onto some paper. She used photos of actual worn flags to copy.

The plastic flags with staff were too thick and out of proportion. I removed the flags from their staffs with my #11 blade and then sanded down the staffs for a thinner look. I then drilled two holes thru the staff and ran line thru these to attach the flag .

After watching a video on creating flags, I cut out my reduced sized images and then glued a slightly smaller piece of tinfoil to the inside of one half of flag. I then inserted my line and folded and glued the two halves together. While still damp from the white glue mix, I bent my flags to create the wind blowing on them. 

I'm still waiting for my EZ line to arrive so I can add the radio wires to the beacon towers and complete the rigging of the ship.

Bob - thank you for this info and this link! Your Constitution is FaNTaSTiC !!!

I'm now watching and reading some articles on water effects for dioramas so I can finish up with this model. I'm really happy with the way this model has turned out and I'm hoping my 1st attempt at creating the ocean effect will go smoothly. Keeping fingers crossed!

Check out Woodland Scenics water effects collection.  Have everything from a muddy puddle to white capped oceans.

https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/Water

Videos on site are very helpful.  Going to use it on one of my old pinball projects.

Here are a some pictures with most of my rigging in place. I'm waiting for my EZ Line to arrive so I can add the radio wires to the beacon towers. I still need to add the Union Jack flag on the bow and the American flag on the stern of the ship.  I'm now watching and reading some articles on water effects for dioramas so I can finish up with this model. I'm really happy with the way this model has turned out and I'm hoping my 1st attempt at creating the ocean effect will go smoothly. Keeping fingers crossed! 

Fright- you've been talking to my 6. It sits in the window. Well taken care of, but yes it needs to be finished.

Bill- don't even get me started on lighthouses! I have a nice book on lighthouses of the New England coast I can recommend.

You guys are to be applauded for building these little ships.

GM, 

Thanks for posting that link. I just ordered a copy!

-Bill

GMorrison - Once again, I thank you for sharing this info with me. I just purchased this book online to add a little history lesson for me on these ships. Thanks again and, speaking of ships, how is your America yacht coming along? All of your extra work that you are doing with this plastic kit is superb! 

https://www.amazon.com/Lightships-Cape-Cod-Frederic-Thompson/dp/0961132000

I keep meaning to post this Robert. It's a very good book. There are a fair number of good b/w photos in it which show detail.

Sharkbait - I saw that this ship is up for sale. I guess the non-profit group couldn't keep up the funds neccessay to keep her going. $5.2 million is all we need!!!! LOL Thanks for dropping in and taking a look. Cheers!

Wilbur Wright - I'm having a lot of fun building this kit and a lesson in electronics as well! The price is right and it makes a great RC kit as well. A gentleman by the name of rcboater has his RC version of this ship on youtube. Be prepared for a lot of clean up and sanding on every part with this kit! Thanks for taking a look 

You've done a nice job here. The rigging should really make it.

This is a great looking model available at a very reasonable price.  I'm tempted to get one of these.

Had to paste this.

apparently a 1:1 scale model is available!

http://realestate.boston.com/news/2019/01/31/nantucket-lightship/?fbclid=IwAR3lapfnb2u8MhUjxPslcoAGwVYFXGDYGLIM6z1F0jHt0jduOpIeJu5EbJI

So I have finally finished work with all of the deck parts (minus Flag pole at bow and stern). The kit poles seemed a tad too large and the flags are much too thick. I will try to find 1:95 or 1:96 scale flags to use instead.

2nd part now is to tackle the rigging lines, antenna wires, and stays. I wish I had some better instructions other than what Lindberg provides with this kit. I've been looking at a few good quality photos of the beacon towers to get an idea of of how the lines hook up but there are very few good detail photos to work with.

The final stage will be to create my water effect in the frame to look like she is anchored at sea.

Bill - It's been a little time consuming but I didn't like how the kit's pulley system was suppose to glue to the boats. I do know one thing and that is, if and when you work on yours, it will look outstanding. Your Cutter build was fantastic!

Robert,

Great move on replacing the boats’ falls with scratchbuilt replacements! (The kit parts are truly awful.)

On my model, I only did the first part of the job- the tossing out of the bad parts! Now that I’ve seen yours, I may have to take a shot at making similar replacements!

-Bill

Two boats down and one to go!

I decided not to go with the rope and pulley parts that came with the kit. Instead, I drilled fine holes into the tops of the davits and into the bow and stern of boats for my light ship. I made eye rings and hooks with pliers and wire. I used some spare blocks that I had and some black thread to finish attaching the davits to the whaleboat on the starboard side. 

In hindsight, I should have used a light tan thread instead of the black. I may paint this thread to match the tan lines I will use on the port side boats.

coming together nicely fright .

Very nice work, and Happy New Year to you Fright

I was able to work on adding some of the deck parts this weekend. I now have the three boats and davits to go and then on to the rigging. 

A Very Merry Holiday Season To All !!!

Superb work Robert!!!

I like her with the Lighting Kit you installed. Very nice.....Cheers mark

My wife gave me a hand in installing the deck into the hull. I put a big smile on my wife's face when I realized that I had soldered all of the connection and forgot to run the wiring up through the hull! LOL What a dunderhead !!! Anyway, after correcting my mistake, the deck fir pretty well into the hull with only a slight gap between the deck and hull. A little CA glue and tying it with string until dried and... Wallah! Now I can start gluing parts to the deck and get the rigging on. I did another test in our bathroom to get an idea of how it would look like at night. 

My Micro Set and Micro Sol arrived earlier than expected, so I worked on adding the ship's name to the hull. I masked off the lower two-thirds of the hull and sprayed the upper hull with a clear coat. After it had dried, I cut up the name into individual letters and started in with the deacals. Everything went rather quickly! 

Gene1 - 1st off: "Merry Christmas" to you and loved ones! 

I had no issues with paint' bleed' when spraying this kit this time around. I also made sure that I rubbed down the edges several times with a circle end clay tool and toothpick. Lesson learned from previous model! I like your tip about using a clear coat to seal the edge of tape.

After getting a couple of tips from rcboater and GMorrison, I ordered Evergreen .219 inch round tubing to create my two mast towers. I used my Xacto knife with new #11 blade to cut off the two small lights on the forward original tower and then used my round file to shape to fit 'new' tower. I used a leftover piece of 1/32 x 1/32 strip of wood from my Bluenose to create my electrical cable that runs up the masts towers. I 'borrowed' a few of my wife's jewelry carft rings for the towers as well. The 'electrical box?' that sits on the forward tower was made from a styrene strip that I notched out to fit over the wood electrical cable and then glued in place. 

This photo may be a cause for confusion the way that I posted it. On the right is the kit's forward mast tower. I was just using it as a guide while I was making the 'new' electricol box from the styrene strip. What did I learn from this: The electrical cable on the tower could be created by possibly gluing/soldering small cross wires (that would simulate the cable connectors to mast) onto a larger wire wire and then glue it all to the tower? 

It's not perfect, but I'm trying to be as accurate as I possibly can. I really want to thank the wonderful people, such as yourself, who have been kind enough to follow along, offer support, suggestions, tips etc. that have helped me to move forward with my kits! Cheers !!! 

Robert, Your painting looks really great & your masking had to be as good as it could be. Your hull is beautiful. I like the colors you chose. 

   I don't quite understand what tool you used to gut the wire notch on the mast. I will read it again. I am behind times on a lot of tools. My Foredom drill is over 50 years old & still works beautiful. Everything I have is old.

 Robert, I read it again & must have been asleep when I read it before. . That was not an exotic tool you used.

Robert, You are really putting a lot of nice detail into this model. I want to see some more full ship pictures. You had trouble with leaking masking tape & using Tamiya curve tape. I have used a piece of glass & a 12" Ho aluminum ruler to cut regular tamiya tape to any size I want. I like the HO aluminum ruler because it is very thin & works well. The glass is double strength & about 9" x 12". I cut with a #11 Scapel or a regular hobby knife.  I buy single edge blades at Lowes , 100 for about $8 & use them at times.

    When I mask I burnish good with a toothpick & use M&M glosscote to seal the mask. Sometimes I will put 2 coats on. 

    Merry Christmas to you all.   Gene

I had some time before leaving for work and I glued the radar unit in place atop the aft beacon tower. Once again, I wish that the Lindberg directions had shown this unit in their plans! I also wish that the model companies would name the parts as well as the numbers to help one learn what it's function is. LOL My wish list to Santa. I'm still looking for the 'clause' in the fine print!

Someone in one of their posts made mention of the electrical wire that runs up the beacon towers to power the lights. He also mentioned the little 'box' that is attached along the wire as possibly being a breaker box. That was the one thing I was not able to cut off from the original tower.

Long story short, I sat down with a strip of styrene and anchored it into my vise. I then used my Xacto saw and notched a grove down the middle of the strip just big enough to fit over my 'wire' cable running my new tower. I also used a round file to help shape it to the tower. I colored the notch just so it would show up in the photo. A little sanding and it was glued to the tower. I'll paint it in the morning.

CAUTION: On the sprues in the kit, there are some parts that do not apear on the instructions.  Neither are they shown in the pictures on the 4 sided instructions. Lindberg really needs to correct their instruction sheet, an/or, show you the option of using these parts!!! It turns out that they go to the tower nests and also include three pieces that are for the radar, which was installed during WWll. Needless to say, I am going to try to incorporate the radar  unit on the aft tower. I sanded a forty-five degree angle to the base of the unit and this will allow it to snuggly sit into the top of the aft tower.

Wilbur Wright - on my previous  model, I used only Tamiya yellow masking tape and I did have a couple of spots that had some paint bleed issues. I tried the Tamiya Curve tape for this one and, and after burnishing the edges several times, it seemed to work fine.

Mark - Thank you for taking a look and for your kind compliment. Cheers!

Bill - once again, thank you for sharing this historical information on these light ships for myself and others to read and use. I also want to thank you for helping me along the way with respects to the lighting. Your beacon tower lights are more accurate than mine due to that processor and circuitry that you used in your build I just didn't feel confident in giving that a try. Your Nantucket RC model really looks fantastic in the water! p.s. Your USCG Cutter project is another keeper as well 

"Good Holidays" to Everyone !!!

Have just caughht up with this Build. Very nice work.....Cheers mark

Darkhorse

That’s the answer I was hoping for! Thanks

Bad news, I’m afraid.    LV -117 did serve on Nantucket Shoals station, and was a sistership of LV-116, your Chesapeake.    

But the Lindberg kit is a model of LV-112, the ship that was built to replace LV-117, when the latter was rammed and sunk by the RMS Olympic in 1934. The replacement ship (the subject of the Lindberg kit) was quite a bit bigger.  She was 149 feet long, versus 135‘ for the older ship.  More importantly, LV-112 had a displacement about 65% larger (1050 vs. 630 tons) which means she had a much fuller hull shape than the old one.  

LV-112 was a unique Light Vessel- built bigger and stronger than any of her contemporaries, designed for duty on Nantucket Shoals, a very hazardous station. If you want an accurate LV-116, it would be less work to scratchbuild one than to start with the Lindberg kit.

Now having said all that, if you took the Lindberg kit and made some minor alterations to make it look more like LV-116 topside, and painted it red with big white CHESAPEAKE on the hull, 99.9% of the people seeing it wouldn’t notice or care about the inaccuracies.  (Just don’t take it to a Lightship Sailors Association reunion!)

-Bill

The ship looks great and is a very interesting subject.

One has to be very careful with the Tamiya masking tape for curves or it will leak a little. There is a learning curve to it which I have not completly mastered.

Nino - I used 1/8 " Tamiya Curve white tape for the edging and then I used ScotchBlue 1.5" tape covering over the large areas of the hull. I usually use Tamiya 6mm masking tape on most of my needs. Thanks for taking a look and I wish you GooD HoLiDaYs !!!

Your masking for the Hull boot topping realy turned out well. The Tamiya masking for Curves tape would seem to be a great product.

I suspect for heavily curved sterns the thinner widths of Tamiya's Curve tape might be best. Do you recall what thickness tape you used for the Hull painting?

     Nino

Wow !!! I got locked out for 6 or 7 days !!! Great to be back. Final test run with all lights wired. Only the pilot house and both beacon towers are glued to the deck. I hope to get the deck installed sometime this week. The one light that is hanging below deck will help illuminate the engine room skylight and random portholes under the deck. I blacked out most of them by gluing strips of painted flat black styrene over portholes. A few of them have been covered with translucent yellow film to give the effect that some cabins are in use.

Sure you could. I have lost track of which ship the Lindberg kit is, but if it is 117, that ship was built in the same yard at the same time as 116 the Chessie ship. They look pretty similar too, so for your purposes it looks to me that changing the name would suit your purposes.

I would suggest rub down letters. You can't print white ones without getting tricky with white decal paper and red outlines.

Hi,

I don’t mean to sidetrack this thread, but how difficult would it be to alter this kit to change it to the CHESAPEAKE lightship do you think? My wife is from Maryland, and I‘d love to build some of the ships that are in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Steve - thanks for following along on this one   This is my 1st attempt with lighting and it's been a good learning experience for me with this lightship. Evan Design lights have made this very easy to install! I have to say that, if it were not for sites such as this, I would not be at this stage today with this kit.  

really enjoying your build robert , very clean work , I should learn from you . 

Forward cabin is finished. Port and starboard navigational lights are in place. Both beacon towers have slow flashing lights now installed. Forward tower shown in picture.

Bill - I was surprised with how nice the running lights looked when lit up. Many thanks for your tips on the LED lighting. All of my lights and connectors came from Evan Design. I was a little intimidated in trying any type of circuit board for controlling lights at this point with my electrical skills LOL.

Your RC lightship is amazing and your current work that you are doing on the USCG Cutter is looking fantastic. Thanks again!!!

Robert,

I think you’re doing a great job with this kit- the best I‘ve seen!

Aren’t LEDs fun?  They are easy to work with, and will last 10-20 thousand hours before burning out!

Keep up the good work...

-Bill

Steve5 - thank you! This kit is my learning process in wiring lights, but I'm also trying to improve on a few things as I go along, to the best of my ability 

that's some very nice work fright .

This morning I was able to drill openings into my port and starboard Navigation lights in order to house my 1mm LED lights. I was able to install the green starboard LED into housing by using a little tacky glue with a dab of CA glue to hold light into place. Did a test run to make sure my light would still work. Wallah! 

Also installed my 3mm LED slow flashing light and crossbeam into my forward beacon tower. The three-legged tower top was badly warped, so I now have only two of the legs glued down to circular nest. One to go.

gene1 - thanks Gene for sharing the tip from Don Stauffer on using a clear coat to run a seal along the tape line. I used Tamiya's masking tape for curves for my paint lines and Scotch Blue masking tape for the large areas. I had no bleed issues.

As for the Lindberg kit, the two hull parts had a slight difference in shape. A lot of flash and pin marks on most of the parts with this kit. With all of that said, I still am enjoying working on this lightship! 

I have a bottle of Microscale decal film and I have used warm water for my decals on my past build. I'm just starting to connect up the lights and wiring for the beacons and for port and starboard running lights. I'm hoping I can finish this by the end of year.

With that said, I always appreciate your feedback and I wish you and loved ones a warm Thanksgiving for another years!!! 

Robert, A really great build on your Nantucket & beautiful paint work too. I have had to over coat my dullcoat with gloss a lot. On masking, I believe it was Don Stauffer that reminded me to seal the masking tape edge with a color or gloss coat of paint I use Gloss coat & sometimes I put 2 coats on before I paint my final color.. I always did that years ago & forgot it.  It does stop any bleeding of the final color.

   I built the Nantucket when it first came out. I built most all of those old ship kits. On the decals,if they are old, you better put 1 or 2 coats of Microscale decal film for old decals. You can even brush it on. Dip your decal in warm water too when you apply them.

GMorrison - now there's another lesson I just learned about pipes and boilers! There are so few decent photos of this ship that I could find to use as a reference for me. It just did not seem right to me to leave it so open. I'm happy with my outcome. Thanks for taking a look and sharing your knowledge about the pipes and boilers. Much appreciated! Have yourself a warm Thanksging!!!

That is a nice detail. I suppose there should be a pipe per boiler, don't know how many she had but it looks really good.

I finished working on the smokestack this week. The ship's whistle had snapped off from the smokestack so it needed to be glued back in place. Ladder was added and glued into place. I didn't like the way the smokestack's large opening allowed one to look down to the decking, so I decided to close up that void and add some interest as well. I cut out a small rectangular shape from a piece of styrene sheet and used a hole punch to open up the center. I took a piece of my round styrene tubing and glued it into the hole that I had punched out. I then used a file to round off the edges of the rectangle until it fit into the smokstack. I painted everything flat black and then glued into place inside of the smokestack. I like that it added some detail to an otherwise empty opening! 

Finished cutting and gluing all of the railings atop the structures. I added a tiny amount of weathering to the structures by using Testors CreateFX rust and weathering powders from Bragdon Enterprises.

I also did a test run on my two 3mm LED bright lights for my beacons. The picture show both lights on but each one has a slow flash. I will be using 1.8mm warm lights to illuminat the cabins and two Pico sized lights, red and green, for my port and starboard running lights. All of my LED lighting is from Evans Design. Side note: the gentleman at Evans is really helpful and even called me to go over my order! 

Nothing is glued down on the deck at this point. Next step is to complete all of my wiring and install the deck to the hull. Then I will add the rest of the deck fittings and move on to the diorama.

Steve5 - thanks for taking a look and the kind words! October was really busy at work but I hope I can make some headway before work gets busy again with the holidays.

GMorrison - thanks for your advice and help with the two towers! Cheers!!!

This is looking sharp!

your cruising along nicely on this build fright , looking good .

Had some time from work to start adding some of the smaller parts to the superstructures. I also started work on my two beacon towers which is made from Evergreen .219" tubing, metal rings, very small strip of balsa wood, and a couple of cut-off parts from solid towers. 

GMorrison - It finally arrived and I opened up the package to inspect them. I could see where they may begin to warp over time. Thanks for the insight on a possible problem.  I may be able to reinforce part of the inside with something that is solid for better bracing. The wiring that will run inside is 28G and pretty thin. One thing that I like is that the bottom ring on the solid mast fits perfect to the bottom of the tubing. I can drill a hole through it for the wiring. 

I also got some time to paint some of the funnels with the Spar and red paint. Sorry about the blue tint on the photos! 

I'm a little concerned about the styrene tubing. I have a bunch of it, the Evergreen stuff is pretty flexible. Another choice would be brass, which is about as easy to work with and can have stuff glued to it with CA.

Just my two cents worth.

TankerBuilder - Go for it!!! LOL this was one of my characters at Six Flags Fright Fest. Here's a pic of my wife and I with "BELATRX", our vehicle for we use for those 'special' occassions. 

Yeah ! 

 Dat Scary Day is shortly upon us aint it ? I used to do it up as Dracula's Dad ! I'm Old what do you expect ? I may do Zombie Modeler this time . A Zombie with a model boat ! Weird !

"Children of the night... what music they make". - Dracula 

HaPpY HaLLoWeeN !!!

I haven't had a lot of time for any progress due to some home improvement projects and working weekends with Fright Fest as a scare actor !!!  I ordered my Evergreen .219" round tubing and they should arrive by this weekend. Once the styrene rods show up, I can finish working on the wiring that will run inside of the beacon towers and finish all connections thaat will lie inside of the ship's hull.

Bill - thanks for sharing all of this information on this post!

Red and green sidelights are only used when underway- never while anchored.  using them when anchored would invite a collision, especially with a vessel under 50m.

Rather than scan the applicable page from my copy of the rules, I googled and found this handy study aid:

https://www.google.com/search?q=72+colregs+rules+of+the+road&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXg5iP2tzdAhWpnuAKHfdtArAQ_AUIESgB&biw=768&bih=922#imgrc=NX9-Y4pduKl46M:

Regarding anchor lights— the rules require a 360 degree white anchor light for vessels under 50 meters long. Vessels over 50m are required to have two  such lights- one forward and one aft, and the aft one should be lower.   The LV-112 (Nantucket)  was 147’ LOA, so two lights aren’t required. But two lights are optional for shorter vessels, and I’m pretty sure Nantucket has two. One is on top of the jackstaff at the bow, and the other is on top of the flagstaff  at the stern.  (I don’t think the Lindberg includes these?)

I never served on a Lightship, but a Lightship sailor I know said they always had the proper lights and dayshapeMwhen anchored on station.  I sure that was done service-wide -  no CO would risk being found partially at fault for a collision bec his command wasn’t following the rules.

One reason lightships were hit or endured many close calls (esp. in the pre-radar days) was because ships would home in on the Lightship’s radio beacon in the fog, where lights didn’t really matter.

 -Bill

CapnMac82 - It is really difficult to find a lot of the technical information regarding lightships. Once again, I'll repeat myself on my feelings about companies that only use a number system for the model parts. The person building the model learns nothing about what parts were on the vessel, nor any nautical terms to educate beginners like myself. It's pretty frustrating!

Because of my lack of knowledge with wiring, circuit boards etc., all of my lights will be working when they are turned on. This is my 5th model, so I'm just trying to give the appearance of what the ship would look like with lights, and not focusing on being historically correct. This is way out of my league. LOL 

I'm going to try and purchase a book about these ships for a referrence on Ebay. I also want to thank everyone for all of their input, feedback and helpful suggestions! 

rcboater

the red and green running lights would not be on at the same time the masthead beacon is flashing.

Hmmm.  That does not jibe with my understanding of the Rules of the Road for illumination.  At anchor, power vessels are meant to display R&G, a white masthead, and a white stern light (a white range light if over a specific LOA).  Those would be 3/5 mile lights; and not the 15/20 mile beacon, so, they'd only be visible close aboard.

But, maybe lightships have an exemption.  Which would explain why so many were run oer by transatlantic liners.  Maybe.  Perhaps.

Just checking here, especially since CG is the one enforcing light use in the maritime and inland waters.

Bill - As a newbie to ship modeling. I still stumble over many of the nautical names of ship parts. I constantly go to Google to look up something. LOL

Now that you brought the white lights on masthead and stern to my attention, I do remember that my father-in-law had them on his 36' Yorktown sailboat when we'd go out to Catalina Island from Long Beach.

I was not aware of the running lights not being used along with the beacon lights, but I can understand the reasoning of that. Once the vessel was anchored and stationary, it only needed the beacons, foghorn or bell to warn ships of it's location.

Thanks again and, I'm always open to someone's input which will help me learn and move forward with modeling. Cheers on this one!!! 

I don’t know how much you may already know about the operation of real ships, and lightships in particular. Please tell me to stop if I’m telling you obvious things you already know....

Here’s one: One other thing to keep in mind- the red and green running lights would not be on at the same time the masthead beacon is flashing. When the ship is underway ( a rare occurrence) she would be at darken ship, with only the red and green runnings lights, a white stern light, and a white masthead light on the foremast, and probably a white range light on the main mast.

That is why my RC model has a switch that sends power to either the nav lights ( when sailing about) or to the masthead beacon ( when anchored on station, or on display).

Bill - I am using Pico size warm light for the interiors. I'm also trying to depict that some cabins were not in use. On those, I have blacked out the portholes by painting the styrene flat black and gluing to the inside of openings. I have used red transparancy film behind the wheelhouse portholes. On the remaining structures, the portholes are either blacked out, or I have used a yellow transparecy film behind them. On the engine room's skylight, the top four portholes will have no film, but the ones on the bulkheads are with yellow film. 

Beacons will be 3mm 'slow flashing' white lights. I'm using 1.8mm red & green led's for my port and starboard running lights. Here's a pic of the wheelhouse with a Pico light inside. NOTE: the top deck and wheelhouse are not glued in place. Just for testing light and any leaks elsewhere from the cabin.

Bill - I want to thank you for all of your help that you have provided and being so kind in sharing your wonderful RC build on this ship! Cheers!!! 

Robert,

Your model  is really coming along nicely- I’m impressed with  what you’ve done so far.

One question: what’s your goal for the interior lighting? Are you looking to show off the extra interior detailing, or going for scale effect?   The reason I ask is that white lights are not used in the pilothouse or any spaces topside that directly access the weatherdecks.  The reason is that white interior lights ruin the watchstanders’ night vision.  The only time white lights are used in those spaces is when a ship is in port, moored to the pier.

The below deck living spaces use white lights until taps (10 pm, usually), then red after that— so you may see either from the portholes in the hull at night. On every CG Cutter I sailed on, we always closed the darken ship covers on the ports at night.  But I never served on a lightship, so I asked a guy who did, and he told me that they rarely closed those covers when on station.

I’m not trying to say you’re doing anything wrong- you should use whatever light color you want to give the effect you want.   I’m just letting you know what the real ones did, in case you (or some other reader) wants to know....

-Bill

fright

I'm still working on my game plan on how I will illuminate the beacons. I thought the towers would be in two pieces and I could run the wire up the center, but it turns out they are one-piece solid mold. The wire is pretty thin, and I'm wondering if I can attach it to the towers and then help conceal it underneath the ladder that runs up the tower. But I need to do some more brainstorming.

On my RC conversion, I replaced the solid plastic masts with Evergreen styrene tube the same diameter.  It was easy to run the wires to the beacon that way.  I used the kit part for the ladder.  I had briefly considered brass tube for this, but I didn’t want that extra topside weight on an operating model....

-Bill

CapnMac82

 

This is where having a Radio Shack on nearly every street corner was a good thing (even despite what it eventually did to Tandy Corp.)  I remember being able to go and get incredibly fine fire, like in the high 30s AWG. 

And don't get me going on Heathkit.

My wife just came in from the dining room.

"I didn't know you had a lightship model. There's one spread out all over the table."

That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm at Monterey Jazz Festival, which is in the next City over from us.

Opening last night with Diana Reeves and Wynton Marsalis.

CapnMac82 - I'm currently using 28guage wire for main to battery. The wiring on the Pico sixed lights about the size of a cat's whisker. LOL Mine are already striped and I hope I do not have to do any of that myself. All lighting is from Evan Designs. Thanks for taking a look and your feedback on the masts. Enjoy the weekend! 

GMorrison - thanks for taking the time to look at your kit and provide me with me tip on K&S tubing for the beacon towers(masts) ? I'll do some research with them online this weekend. Enjoy the weekend! I'm working mine @ SixFlags Fright Fest as 'Captain John Roberts' - who commands a crew of cutless-dropping, arthiritic squids who happen to be Ship out of Luck!  LOL 

Tanker-Builder - I used Krylon grey primer on my hull and deck. I then sprayed the deck with Yestors Semi-Gloss Primer. I then sprayed with DullCoat to flaten the sheen. I looked online at a sample color Gray used by the USCG. My gray is not accurate but I think I got close. I thought about going lighter but have decided to keep what I have. I appreciate input and help that I have received. Enjoy your weekend!!!

GMorrison

You could run an insulated single conductor up the middle, or there might even be room for two. I know I'm chatting from the cheap seats, but this would be way cool.

This is where having a Radio Shack on nearly every street corner was a good thing (even despite what it eventually did to Tandy Corp.)  I remember being able to go and get incredibly fine fire, like in the high 30s AWG.  Mind, you wanted serious maginfication to strip 38awg wire.  And, you had to test the circuits to be sure the wire would carry the current needed.

So, conductor mast with single wire inside is a good answer. 

Another one is to use uninsulated fine copper wire as the stays.

Mind, I used to have rather a large pike of not-finished masts in my junk pile.  Sigh.

fright

I'm still working on my game plan on how I will illuminate the beacons. I thought the towers would be in two pieces and I could run the wire up the center, but it turns out they are one-piece solid mold. The wire is pretty thin, and I'm wondering if I can attach it to the towers and then help conceal it underneath the ladder that runs up the tower. But I need to do some more brainstorming 

So I broke out my kit and mic'd the mast. It looks tapered, but it measures a constant 0.20". I guess my eye is just telling me what I think I see. K and S makes 12" brass tubing with an OD of 7/32", or 0.218" which works. You could run an insulated single conductor up the middle, or there might even be room for two.

I know I'm chatting from the cheap seats, but this would be way cool.

Robert ;

 I was talking to my client the other day . It seems the Haze grey I used , as it aged in the bottle the shades were off . Even after shaking and stirring for about a half an hour !

 So the U.S.S. Kidd Model I am building for him is three different shades in places . He loved the idea ! Go Figure . I have to say .You got your *** going here .That is real nice ! T.B.

GMorrison - many thanks! My technique is called a 'lot of touch ups' after noticing those little 'oops'. LOL  I'm pretty happy with how this ship is coming along. Now that I have the frame, I can start working on the light and wiring that will go inside the hull. Once everything is in place, I can install the deck into the hull.

I'm still working on my game plan on how I will illuminate the beacons. I thought the towers would be in two pieces and I could run the wire up the center, but it turns out they are one-piece solid mold. The wire is pretty thin, and I'm wondering if I can attach it to the towers and then help conceal it underneath the ladder that runs up the tower. But I need to do some more brainstorming 

Well you did it! Your model looks like a heavy steel object with thick coats of paint (because of Lindberg's soft details). Just like the real thing.

Keep going- your detailing really adds to the project.

I did a test run with one of my LED lights that I purchased from Evans Designs. It is a Pico size warm LED. I originally going to light only the wheelhouse, but I have ordered a few more lights to illuminate the rest of the cabins, as well as my running lights and beacons. *The top decks and structures are not glued - the tip that I got from GMorrison about blacking out the interiors paid off. Thanks! 

Robert,

Looking very nice.  Really digging how large those rivets look all a long the superstructure pieces.

Marcus

Here are some photos showing my progress on the smokestack 'vent'? and the superstructures that will eventually be lit with 3v led white lights. 

For the 'vent' , I used two pieces of styrene to back the vent and keep it from snapping while I drilled it ope to add a little more realism to it.

On the superstructures, I used a strip of red transparency film for the wheelhouse portholes. On the other portholes, I either bolcked them by gluing a piece of styrene that I painted flat black behind them, or I used yellow film for the others. I'm trying to give the effect that some cabins are being used and others are not.

As far as the hatches go, I'm not sure if all of them were painted a gray or were some of them painted white like the walls of structures. I've looked at a lot of pictures but, again, most are all after 1960 and this model is before that period.

Just when you think it looks good, a camera sure brings out all of the imperfections in one's work. It looks like I'll be going back and doing a bit of touch painting! Arrrrrr!!!!!

I worked on my mushroom anchors for the bow of the ship. I noticed that on the actual anchors, there are for small triangular openings spaced evenly around the rim. I used a small diameter drill bit to make my small openings on my anchors. I think I will just go with that instead of trying to create a triangle shape on something that is so small. 

GMorrison - thanks for this advice. I will do just that. I'd hate to have to mask everything off again and you're certainly right about the size of the decals. Cheers!

Robert, you should be able to gloss coat the area where decals go without doing the whole hull. Mask below the highest wale, and the handrail. Coat just that part. If you go to the edges like that, it shouldnt show later.

It does make a huge difference in eliminating "silvering", and this is a BIG decal job.

TankerBuilder - I want to thank you for all of the pointers and tips you've offered to me along the way and I hope to get this one finished before the end of the year. So far, things have been going smoothly with this kit. When finished, I'll make sure my beacons are bright enough so you don't slice me in half as your tanker ship glides by! Cheers and a good weekend!

Oh My Gosh ;

 I love It ! More power to ya ! Now , back to models . Get yer wife Into figures .I think she could help and learn lots . You are doing great on the ship . T.B.    P.S. It's hard to keep a Tanker out of trouble when loaded . 

 We'll try to steer clear . Many have been run over in their history . We don't want yours to be one . My H.O. full scale Tanker is 6.5 feet long .

  For the search-lights I do this  , a disc of Foil Chrome at the back , and then I paint the sides with some decanted Molotow Chrome Pen paint ! I use 1/24 and 1/25 and 1/32 Lucas headlight lenses for them  ! I use Aleen's craft Glue to mount the lenses .

You may have gotten ahead of yourself with dullcoating the hull so soon.  Decals like a glossy surface- it prevents “silvering”.  I would have left the hull glossy so I could apply the big “ NANTUCKET“ decals first....

It is an easy recovery, though- you can always apply a gloss coat, then decal, then dull coat again....

Yesterday, I was able to mask off the lower part of hull and sprayed the upper section with a gloss red. This morning I was able to spray the hull with Dullcoat to flatten everything out.

I set the hull aside to dry and went and taped off all around the 'railings' on the superstructures and painted the rails a brass color. Once dried, I will need to paint the fire hose which is attached to the one cabin. I need to look at real photos to see if the hatch doors were painted white or gray or ?

I also decided to drill out the searchlights that will go atop of the wheelhouse. The back side of the two smaller lights had a mold indentation, so I used a dab of Elmers to seal up the holes. I eventually will paint the insides of lights with silver(?) and use some of my wife's clear decoupage and place a drop or two to create a lense. One could almost fit a Pico sized LED into the main search light but I don't think I'll go there. 

My LED lighting arrived. From left to right: (2) wired connectors, (1) AA battery pack with female connector, (1) package of shrink tube, (2) Pico size warm white led's, (1) 1.8mm Red led, (1) 1.8mm green led, (2) 3mm flashing cool white led's. 

Masked off upper and lower portions of hull and painted my boot stripe flat black. I used Tamiya tape for curves for the edging and blue painters tape for the large ares. It came out pretty clean.

Here are two photos after masking off and spraying the anti-fouling red onto the lower portion of hull. I went ahead and drilled two very small holes into the hull, just about midway, for the intake/discharge openings.

After a suggestion was made to 'black out' all superstructures for any light leaks, I painted all of the interiors with a coat of silver paint. Once dried, I went over everything with a flat black paint. Once these have dried, I will repaint the interiors with white and pale green. Again, but better safe than sorry 

GMorrison - Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I'll sit down tomorrow and paint the interior walls flat black and then re-paint them a pale green and white. I ran beads of glue along all of the interior seams (both CA and white glue). I'll do a test run in the evening so I can check for any leaking light.

I am planning to place the led in the wheel house section of the compartment and the two lower portholes on the front will be blacked out from the interior. I am planning on gluing a red transparency for the wheel house portholes and I also have placed a thin wall (made from styrene) with a little opening that should allow some light to filter into the 'chart' room cabin. Hopefully, only a small portion of light will shine out through the open hatch. 

I also have two Pico size lights (red & green) to use as my port and starboard lights that will attach to the wheelhouse. That's my game plan anyway! LOL 

Be sure to really black out the cabin. That includes not only making the walls opaque, but making all of the seams tight and opaque.

My pretty simplistic approach in breaking up the openess of the cabin. I created a chart table out of pieces of styrene sheet and square and added a chart that I drew on a post-it. I cut a tiny 45 degree shape from thin styrene as my triangle. I had strip of round styrene that I used as my rub rail, so I cut two pieces and painted one black, the other blue, and glued them to the interior wall for piping. I think this is enough to block some of the light that will emit light through the open hatch, yet still give some interest.

Commonly there would be a heavy canvas curtain that would be either pulled back, or hanging closed. You could play with that idea too.

Here are two photos showing thhe main forward cabin. Only today did I notice that I have an open hatch which shows an empty room. Not good. My lights will arrive Tuesday and I would like to show a littl more interest inside when it is illuminated. So here's my game plan:

1) Create a small wall just inside the ope hatch which would block looking all the way across the cabin. It would still allow light to shine through. My wife made a suggestion about taking a real photo of the inside of the cabin and shrinking it down to glue onto the fake wall.

2) I'm thinking about cutting a small opening just indis and to the right of open hatch and then installing a HO size ladder that would give the appearence of it going down to the lower deck. 

I also need to tone down the green - too bright. It needs to be a very pale mint color green.

Yes Bill, great gallery.

And it is really nice to see a ship (model) in her natural element.

BILL - What a wonderful job you did on your Nantucket, plus the fact that she is RC and looks amazing in the water!  Your posts of this are some of the best I've looked at on this kit. I also want to thank you for all of your tips and leads into helping me along with my progress. Many thanks kind Sir!!! 

I updated my Nantucket photo gallery-- I put the photos in a more logical order, plus I added titles and captions to all the photos to better document the build.

https://billmichaels.smugmug.com/Bills-Stuff/Modelling/n-fK4qbP/ProjectsBuilds/RC-Boats/Nantucket

-Bill

Billy Butcherson!

Creative!

Can I commission an “Allison” figure?

Jim - I had no idea about this section for figures and misc. I'll let her know about this one. Many thanks for the tip!!! Speaking about stealing my thunder, here's a picture of us with our little 'baby' when we go out on special occasions.  BELATRX our 1966 Oldsmobile 98 Hearse.

Robert,

  Get your Wife signed up here.

There's an entire forum section for Figures and Misc.

And speaking of "Fright",  I think she can steal your Thunder.

    Jim.

I had a little setback this morning. I discovered that I only have one of the round mushroom anchors! I'm not certain whether it was missing from the 'trees' or if my litlle helper, Monster, might have gotten a hold of it. My wife said she will make me a new one from Sculpey this weekend. Phew!!!

She does miniatures and creates dolls based on 'creepy' literature. Here is one of her creations based on the movie, Hocus Pocus.

I had some time to work on the three small boats that will go on the deck. I have decided to go with white hulls, black keels and rails and wood colored seats. I notice thhe seats are too glossy so I will spray them with DullCoat and add a rope coil to the interiors.

So I'm a happy camper - here's a pic of my USCG Spar paint by White Ensign! 

I went back to the hull and set about filling in the half-circle cutout on the starboard bow that is suppose to house the spare mushroom anchor. Here's a picture of ship's bow compared to kit's bow:

I held a post-it up against the inside of my hull and traced the shape of the opening with a pencil. I then transferred it onto a styrene sheet and cut out with x-acto knife. I sanded edges until it fit into the opening and used liquid cement to bond it to the hull, both on the inside and out. I then used some gray putty to fill in the seams and waited overnight for it to dry before sanding. I gave it a shot of gray primer to check for fit. Needs just a little more touch up before it's finished, but it now looks accurate to the real deal!

Went to HobbyLobby ( my nearest hobby supply shop) and I picked up a bottle of Testors enamel gray paint that I needed but struck out on a can of DullCoat and a black Painter pen. I'll light some incense and send my prayer to the universe that they arrive in next week's shipment. I did finish my final top deck so all of my superstructures are together. I need to do the portholes and any trim paint before I glue them in place.

Once again, thanks to Bill and Bob for suggesting the paint pens!

GMorrison - thanks for your advice on permanent markers and I'll stay away from using them. You're right in the fact they they do have a bluish tint to them. I looked at a few pictures that were taken from the interior of the wheelhouse. The actual porthole windows were receased into the walls and from the exterior, they appear as only round openings.

 I do plan on spraying everything with a dull coat after all is attached to the ship. I am thinking of adding some weathering sparingly with this build. I need to start doing some homework with electrical wiring and on running multiple lights for the ship. My goal is to create the effect that some lights are on behind some of the portholes. On this kit, I will be building a stand that will hide the battery connection and possibly incoprorate an on/off switch. Tea.... tah's it,110,220, whatever it takes! LOL   ~~poof~~~

I second the paint pens.  Handy little tools for detail work.

Using permanent markers is risky. Many clear coats, including Future, can make them bleed. I assume you will be weathering the ship, and usually that works best putting washes on over a clear barrier coat.

Also most markers are really dark blue or purple. I like paint pens. Most art stores sell them, they come in silver, white and black. Three or four tip sizes. Extremely useful things for jobs like your portholes. 1/700 aircraft canopies.

In between having a new roof put on my house, I was able to assemble the superstructures to be placed on the decking. I filed and sanded away a bit of flash on all of the pieces, especially cleaning out many of the portholes, and dry fitted pieces for placement. I used liquid cement to bond all of the walls together and finished with some white glue to help fill in any seams that showed gaps. I then sanded smooth and sprayed with white primer. Everything seems to fit properly on the deck (not glued down - they need to be detailed).

I'm going to look at photos to see what color the portholes were. Then I will try to figure out the best way to color them. I was thinking about using permanent marker instead of paint. Has anyone tried this method for portholes? 

I also removed any flash from the ship's three small boats and sprayed with white primer. I believe the colors used for this time period were white hull, with black railing. The original colors were red and black.

A real ship modeler!

I sat down and was able to work on adding the missing rub rail to the ship's hull. I used two Evergreen round styrene strips and taped them down on the ends to hold in place. I used a sanding block to flatten down one side of each strip and a sanding file to round off the ends. They were then cut to the right length. I used a ruler to mark off distance from top rail and ran a tape line along the markings for placement of strip. Strip was attached to hull using CA glue. Sanded off any excess glue and then hit with gray primer.

Went online and ordered my White Ensign USCG Spar paint from Sprue Brothers (thanks to GMorrison for this tip); ordered two 5mm 360 degree LED's from Super Bright Leds; and ordered my flasher light controller, which simulates a lighthouse beacon, from Bakatronics (both the LED light and controller were leads from RCBoater). 

Working on cutting and sanding off any flash from the structure parts to be assembled. Thanks for all of the help and a good day's work. 

GMorrison - big THANKS for sending me this site for the paint. I placed my order for USCG Spar paint. Cheers and thanks for your help!!! 

http://store.spruebrothers.com/product_p/wempm22xxx.htm

(Ignore the jar shown).

PFJN @ Pat - for some unknown reason, I've found an interest in the history of these ships. I posted that I am planning on installing lights for the beacons and another person, who goes by the name RCBoater, suggested to me an LED white light that has a 360 degree by www.superbrightLEDs.com. He also gave me the tip on a flasher unit that simulates a lighthouse beacon by http://www.bakatronics.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=575. 

There are quite a few discrepancies with this model and I will try to change a few of them if I can. One is the actual ship has two rub rails in which the black waterline goes between. I noticed the model has a cutout in the starboard bow to house the spare mushroom anchor. On the real ship. it has the same placement as the main bow anchor and sits right next to it instead of higher up placement on the model kit.

I hope to give this my best shot with some of the changes that I will be making and I am looking forward to a fun build. Thanks for taking a look 

CG Bob - I will go online and look up Badger's Marine colors. THank you for this info and for the color numbers. 

You might want to reconsider the Badger Union Pacific Armor Yellow.  The Badger Marine Colors #16-405 Deck Tan is a closer match to Spar (or Buff); an alternate is #16-408 Navy Buff.

Hi,

Can't wait to see more.  I enjoy seeing what people can do with some of these older models, that were around when I grew up.  Admittantly they may seem primitive compared to alot of more recent kits built with newer technology, and sometimes time and age have taken there toll on the moldings, etc.  But with care they can be a nice looking build .

Pat