Nantucket Lightship by Lindberg - 1:95 scale build

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.

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.

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 

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 

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.

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. 

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....

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 .

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!

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.

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!

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. 

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!!!!!

Robert,

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

Marcus

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! 

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.

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 

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.

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.

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.

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 - 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 

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! 

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

 

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."

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

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

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!!! 

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).