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Author Topic: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.  (Read 523124 times)

unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #400 on: April 03, 2017, 10:37:20 pm »

I have spent Sunday afternoon slapping humbrol No111 all over the primer grey superstructure, giving almost all of the model it's final colour. The two boat decks retain the primer grey at the moment. They are going to get the timber deck treatment, so it was kind of pointless laying a coat of colour down to then glue planks to it later. There is the possibility I may try and fake the deck effect with paint instead. There is an area in front of the bridge that is virtually unreachable for planking, paint may be my fall back option. The last fake deck I painted was twelve years ago in a manned battleship and the planks were 1" wide..much easier.
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #401 on: April 03, 2017, 10:46:11 pm »

I still have details to add, including pop guns ( must put the US pattern 5" gun on that circular platform aft, someone else referred to it today as a 'flight deck'! ), boxes, crates and winches, deck plumbing, all busy busy things, which help to make a semi-scale boat look more 'scale'.
Also the electrics for the whizz bangs, plus associated electrical plumbing still need to be fitted..so it's not finished yet.
Today was a test to see if I could launch and recover the model on my own. I cannot lift it with strops when it is all bolted together, however, if I bolt the bow and centre section together, I can launch this, then attach the aft radio section once afloat.
Also, it was a brushless motor test day, so I had my mid refit Perkasa with me also. 37" model for scale alongside Ohio.
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #402 on: April 03, 2017, 11:29:48 pm »

Happy noises from me..August 1942, Valletta Harbour, Malta, and April 2017, Canoe Lake, Southsea. Looks good, just need to get the pumps working..
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #403 on: April 19, 2017, 01:03:21 am »

A short play on the pond on Sunday, 10:45am till 4:30pm. Ran out of batteries!
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #404 on: April 19, 2017, 01:13:36 am »

Right, to work. Deck planking. One, I'm not planking it. Too much like hard work, so I am trying another option, faking it!
The idea being to produce a deck looking effect, without adding every single plank.
First job was to slap on some acrylic Ochre as a base colour. Acrylic is pretty impervious to solvents, so should stand up to whatever else I do to it later in the process.
Next job is to lay random 3mm wide masking tape, in a planking pattern, to allow me to paint a different colour in the gaps. This all went well for about eight plank widths, after which I mostly lost the plot. Trying to remember what repeating pattern is next, while randomly leaving some planks out, proved too much for my little mind! Not helped by me having introduced four full length tape lines to keep me on the stright and narrow. None of these followed the pattern :o :o
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #405 on: April 19, 2017, 01:18:54 am »

Next job was to apply a rough coat of a similar, but lighter deck colour. I went with Tamiya Buff. Light in colour and quick drying. This was chased in, in varying depths of colour, between the tape. Making sure, wherever possible, to build up a bit of thickness along the tape edge, which comes in handy later.
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #406 on: April 19, 2017, 01:25:07 am »

Before removing the tape, I chased in an oil based wood stain, randomly applied. it was at this point I wished I had laid this plywood deck with the grain running fore and after, rather than athwartships,
 D Head.... %) ..
Then off with the tape, and in with some more wood stain. This time working on the individual exposed planks. Also, anything that had previously dried and looked a bit tat, could be re-worked with a brush damp with fresh wood stain.
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #407 on: April 19, 2017, 01:30:19 am »

Happy with that. Once I have some clutter on the deck painted grey, plus cut the planking in with grey, a couple of millimetres in from the outer edge, it should all look tikkety boo ( that's technical speak for 'Not Pants' ).
Three more decks to go...great >:-o
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #408 on: May 02, 2017, 09:12:33 pm »

The fake timber deck finish is now complete. Initially it looked for all the world like a matchstick deck, which I personally, don't like the look of at all...so another great success %) %) . Still, once I cut in around deck fittings etc, all started to come together nicely.
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #409 on: May 02, 2017, 09:19:03 pm »

At Beale Park last weekend Ohio got to come out to play with fellow modellers, and a great day it was too :-))


NOT a flight deck guys <*<
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #410 on: May 02, 2017, 09:30:16 pm »

Not. A. Flight. Deck!
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Akira

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #411 on: May 15, 2017, 01:05:14 am »

She is looking wicked! The foamy wake is perfect. How did you manage that. It must have been planned and engineered. I have always had a spot in my heart for Ohio. One of my first models was a Texaco tanker. I never let go the love. Keep up the spectacular work.
Jonathan
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #412 on: May 15, 2017, 11:22:19 am »

I think the foamy wake is a byproduct of the distinctly non-scale look of the stern. It is flat bottomed and just below thw waterline. This combined with the very un-hydrodynamic shape of the under hull, and its power plant, leads to the prop producing much more power than the hull can usefully use. So loads of drag up front, with loads of power aft=foamy wash, as the hull can never reach the speed the prop is trying to push it up to. Not designed, a happy coincidence!
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Akira

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #413 on: May 15, 2017, 12:26:25 pm »

It is funny how, at times, unintended results occur form our decisions and add wonderful effects.
I think you should claim credit for an amazing scale effect. I have always wanted to find a way to add foam to my wakes without putting my tugboat or destroyer on plane. I have seen air pumped in the prop wash but your tanker captures the effect of the upper prop blade breaking the surface and foaming the wake. Brilliant!
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derekwarner

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #414 on: May 15, 2017, 02:15:57 pm »

I reckon she must steer like a bran door on a windy day {-)......& the cavitation must be excited by engine overspeed >>:-(

But it does look good  :-))

Derek
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Derek Warner

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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #415 on: May 15, 2017, 07:02:01 pm »

Now listen. Me, being a bit of a div today (Div=spud,plank, donut, Donald.) forgot a certain something fitted to the Tanker. Derek's comment regarding the maneuverab, manouverab, steering ability of my fine vessel ( shouldn't you be in bed..), reminded me. I fitted a sexy addition to the rudder, in the shape of a wedge to aid steering. This allows me to turn the old girl on a sixpence, but is probably the main cause of the bubbles. Photos follow...
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #416 on: June 23, 2017, 08:36:07 pm »

Ohio as part of our fleet train, at Sumners Ponds show a couple of weeks ago. Still no whizz bangs on board. Being in the middle of display season, all work has stopped..AGAIN..however, we have a lax period coming up. Must try and add some detail for this August 12th. Also find some water not covered in pond weed!
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ballastanksian

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #417 on: June 23, 2017, 09:10:30 pm »

I love the planking effect you created there! Better than actual planking. Another attractive model ship.
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #418 on: June 24, 2017, 05:11:41 am »

I love the planking effect you created there! Better than actual planking. Another attractive model ship.


Cheers, it was either going to work or fail badly, happily it worked.


The Americans have a knack for adding just that bit if flair into many of their ships. I have a reprint of an identification guide book from WW2 which mentions a comparison between the North Carolina class and the King George V class. Describing the latter as very stark, with sheer, straight lines everywhere, while the North Carolina's had flaired bows, streamlining to the superstructures etc. It went on to explain that the British ships cost 40% less to build and were built to do a job, not look pretty, and this was an American publication!
All this holds true for SS Ohio and her sister ships, after all, they represented the Texas Oil Company and Sun Ship Builders, so they didn't make her an ugly bug!!
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #419 on: August 15, 2017, 07:30:40 am »


On the fifteenth of August 1942, a lifetime ago, the tanker SS Ohio entered Grand Harbour, Malta, for the last time. As part of Operation PEDESTAL, a last gasp effort to save the island of Malta, and with it, the attempt to alter the course of the war in the Mediterranean.

The operation involved a fast convoy of merchant ships and warships, which had to run the gauntlet of axis forces from Gibraltar in the west, all the way to the little island of Malta. In the process losing the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, cruisers HMS Manchester and HMS Cairo, the destroyer HMS Forsight. Merchant ship losses were high, Empire Hope, Waimarama, Clan Ferguson, Glenorchy, Deucalion, Santa Eliza, Dorset, Wairangi and Almeria Lykes were all lost. Only five merchant vessels arrived at Valletta Harbour, Brisbane Star and Rochester Castle, despite both having been torpedoed, Melbourne Star, Port Chalmers and the tanker SS Ohio, barely afloat and being supported by two destroyers strapped to her sides.
These ships delivered well over thirty two thousand tons of supplies, plus the invaluable oil held in the tanks of SS Ohio, totalling about eleven thousand tons.
With this stay of execution, the forces on Malta were able to both defend the island and disrupt the supply of food, fuel and ammunition to Rommels army in North Africa, leading to their defeat at El Alamein three months later.
Seventy Five years ago, on August 15th 1942, the Texas Oil Company Tanker SS Ohio, with a mainly British crew, sailed into Valletta Harbour, to the sound of cheers from the people of Malta. One small moment in a far greater conflict.



Print size increased
ken

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BFSMP

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #420 on: August 15, 2017, 10:39:03 am »


some might say she wasn't beautiful as a ship, being only a tanker............but what she and her crew represented make her probably one of the most beautiful ships in history.


triumph over tragedy always wins, and what those merchant men and the Royal Navy did for the people of Malta GC did the day that normal ship became immortal and sailed into Valletta , probably changing the course of the war in the Med, will live on in history forever, and should never be forgotten.


remember September 3rd.....Merchant navy day.
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ballastanksian

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #421 on: August 15, 2017, 08:29:36 pm »

It is a touching tribute to the crews and sailors  :-))
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Akira

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #422 on: October 11, 2017, 08:51:59 pm »

I love this build. I am reading my way thru"At All Costs". It is an account of the Ohio's trial and the efforts of two American merchant Marine sailors who boarded her during Pedestal after their ship, the Santa Eliza, was sunk during the convoy and the contributions they made to her survival. Interestingly,, Ohio had a salvage air system that allowed HP air to be blown into almost all of her various tanks. Installed on the Clyde, it was powered by compressors installed at the same time as other "improvements" following her loan to England.
Jonathan
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unbuiltnautilus

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #423 on: October 12, 2017, 09:02:18 am »

Thank you for the kind words. It is certainly a long build!
Sounds like an interesting read. Who is the author, I think I need to find myself a copy?
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Akira

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Re: SS Ohio tanker build, Pedestal convoy.
« Reply #424 on: October 12, 2017, 01:20:39 pm »

The author is Sam Moses, and the publisher is Random House, ISBN-13:978-I-4000-6318-5
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