1/100 freighter “Proteus”

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1/100 freighter “Proteus”

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11 October 2010 at 14:46 #6677
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
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@laurentgontier-versailles47241
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11 October 2010 at 14:47 #28572
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
Hi Guys,

hereby a building report of a little dutch freighter named Proteus

Proteus has been built as “Minna” by Janssen & Schmilinsky at Hamburg in 1921 for the August Ciellier Co, Hamburg. She became [i]Proteus[/i] in 1927 when bought by the dutch company “Koninklijke Nederlansche Stoomboot Maatschappij” (KNSM), she’s been sold in 1934 to a norwegian company, Norske Amerika Linje A/S, and was renamed “le Norvégien II”, she survived WW2 and was sold again to a indian company, was then named “Mahahursheed”, she then was sold for scrap and broken up at Karachi in 1960.

“Minna”, as built, had two identical sisters-ships, “Rudolf” & “Harald”, Rudolf has also been bought from the August Ciellier Co by the KNSM, that one was renamed “Odysseus”, here under a picture of her:

I have no informations about the further life of Harald…

Those freighters were 65 m long (between PP), 10 meters broad, with a draught of 4.5 meters full loaded.

Now the question as to why building this very ship?

Back in 1985, I visited the Amsterdam Maritime Museum, went to the shop there, to ask for some modelling plans. What I could see were plans from the Nederlandse Vereniging van Modelbouwers (NVM), there was nothing interesting to me, as I was looking for a steamer of the 1900-1930 era. Then the young guy after the desk invited me to the cellar, where there were more plans. I found there a pile of other NVM plans, till the guy showed me original blueprints of a little freighter, named Proteus. After a lot of nagging, I could buy those blueprints, the guy asked me to be quiet about this.

I left the museum with those prints, and they stayed on my shelf for 24 years, almost forgotten, I was no real model builder at that time…

When I began to write articles for a French modeling magazine, namely “le Modèle Réduit de bateau”, writing some articles about my way of modeling ships out of in paper & cardboard, the boss there asked me to start a project from ground zero.

Proteus came back in my brain, I dig up the plans, and started the building in September 2009.

Scale is 1/100, she will be R/C’d, the hull will be built plank (2 mm thick ply) on (4 mm thick ply) frames, the plating will be done with paper, the superstructures will also be out of card & paper, as I usually build my models.

As by the blueprints, there was no hull lines, I had to draw them by myself, the plan appeared as a free plan in the september 2009 ( n° 551) issue of the “Modèle Réduit de Bateau”.

to be continued…

Regards,

Laurent

Edited By Laurent Gontier-Versailles on 11/10/2010 14:49:02
11 October 2010 at 14:54 #28573
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
I always use paper & card to build my hull plating. I use this material because it’s cheap and can easily be made waterproof with resins like G4, which is a PU resin used in the plastic industry as an underlayer on wood before it may be laminated with fibreglass & polyester resins.

First to do is to put an underlayer where the complete plating will be drawn on, strake by strake, with the “IN” & “OUT” strakes, plate by plate. When this is done, we may begin with gluing the “IN” plates, followed by the “OUT” plates. Some strakes are “IN & OUT”, it needs some thinking before the paper is glued “in situ”. When the underlayer is put on, the two hawsetubes may be put in place and sanded.

To be continued

Laurent

Edited By Laurent Gontier-Versailles on 11/10/2010 15:01:18
11 October 2010 at 19:00 #28580
Bob Wilson
Participant
@bobwilson59101
That looks splendid! For a long time, I have felt that I was practically alone in producing models of relatively recent vessels. Look forward to seeing further progress.

Bob
11 October 2010 at 21:14 #28584
neil hp
Participant
@neilhp
yes! quite superb……..look forward to seeing more of your build.

neil.
12 October 2010 at 08:39 #28587
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
Hi!

Thanks or your comments,

Bob,

You have been my souce of inspiration for some times! We don’t work at the same scale, but we model the same kind of ships.

Now, About the superstructures.

the deck where the superstructures will stay is a piece of 2 mm thick ply, where I glued a 0.6 mm thick cardboard layer, on this layer I’ve put the vertical walls of the main castle, each part of the walls is glued with CA glue, CA glue, just like G4, also has the property to set the card, it becomes very tough. On the walls comes the boats deck, which is a piece of 1mm thick brown cardboard, on which I drew the caulking of the planks with a 0.05mm drawing pen. There were two kind of doors on the castle, wooden ones and steel ones, the steel ones were done with 0.3mm card, the wooden ones are an assembly of brown paper, the first layer being the door panels, the second layer being the door frame, the third layer being the door jamb. the air ventilators feeding the boiler room are made out paper either, the shape of the cowl is typically german. The other ventilators I’ll use for the cargo rooms will comme from the Graupner range, shortened & hollowed out

The boat are done out paper, building up the clinker paper planking up on a card stem/keel/stern piece, the ribs are done in paper, kind of a pita to put them right in, the davits are made in brass tube.

The funnel is out paper, just a rectangular piece of paper wrapped around a wooden dowel, two turns around.
12 October 2010 at 09:43 #28588
David Wooley
Participant
@davidwooley82563
Hi Laurent Good to see your Proteus on the Model Boats site.

Dave Wooley
12 October 2010 at 12:52 #28589
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
Thanks Dave!

the next step was the building of the cargo winches and the windlass. They all are built in paper, the shafts being 1mm brass rods, I represented the connecting rods with 0,5 mm brass rods either

a typical cargo winch of the 1920’s:

the model:

the windlass:

the gears are made of paper, no teething but the spokes are in paper.

typical steam anchor winch:

the model:

here, you have seen with those pictures for about 8 months of work, a lot of other works still have to be done!

Regards,

Laurent
12 October 2010 at 13:10 #28590
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
Now, miscellaneous parts.

The rudder is done, I used a galvanized iron plate, with an inox shaft:

Here under the sternpost, made out of a 2mm thick epoxy plate, the propeller & rudder:

the propeller is a Raboesch one, 35 mm diameter, I filed the blades to get the right shape, they were too large for a 1920 freighter, the boss is also filed and sanded, to get a rounded appearance, shaft is 3mm, the assembly between prop & shaft happens with a little M3 bolt, the boss being threaded and the shaft flattened where the prop bears :

the pulleys for the cargo booms are made out of 0,3 mm “bristol paper”:

the bulwark stanchions:

Here the PE stanchions I use for my railings, the brass ones are for RC use, the others for static use. I buy those PE parts in Germany, at Zinnecker or at Hobby-Lobby. The top wire of the railings is in this case in steel, for more strength.

I’ve put on board my model the same steering gear system than on the real ship, being with wires on the decks, from the rudder to the steering machinery. There is no steam used here, of course, but the idea remains. main advantage in this is that everything stays on deck and can easily be repaired if broken.

Edited By Laurent Gontier-Versailles on 12/10/2010 13:12:38
12 October 2010 at 13:18 #28591
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
You all may know I’m an “el cheapo” guy, here the way I do my wooden gratings:

I have drawn with the “Paint” program a grating, this grating is then printed on a brown paper, cut out to the right dimension I need, glued on a card underground, is then varnished and there it is, here under the emergency steering station on the after deck:

left an expensive grating in wood, laser cut, and right, one of my paper grating, no real difference at scale 1/100

How I build my steering wheels out paper ( just call me “el cheapo”, remember?):

The whole stuff together:

See you!

Laurent
12 October 2010 at 13:26 #28592
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
the open chocks, full cardboard, except for the roller, which is from Evergreen plastic tubing. A little reinforcement has been put under the chocks :

the navigation lights, including the red & green side lights, the frame is paper, the two red & green parts come from coloured plastic foil, the lights are made out a brass tubing being 2mm inside & 3mm outside, the perspex rod is 2mm:

the anchor chain stoppers, with a whole view on the fore deck:

To be continued.

Laurent
12 October 2010 at 13:46 #28593
Mark Beard 1
Participant
@markbeard1
Awe inspiring!
12 October 2010 at 14:05 #28594
Bob Wilson
Participant
@bobwilson59101
That is all looking excellent and the detail is superb. Look forward to seeing it finished.

Bob
13 October 2010 at 17:49 #28600
Laurent Gontier-Versailles
Participant
@laurentgontier-versailles47241
here above the model as it is now.

here under her first plunge into her element:

the model is powered with a little “Speed 280” motor, contained in a reduction gear, the reference for that little set is Graupner 1147. The propulsion battery is 4,8 Volts NIMH, speed controller is also from Graupner, 4 Amperes max, kind of expensive stuff, but I know it works well.

Total weight of the model at her full draught: 2.025 kilos.

I still have a long way to go to finish her…

the full album is to be seen here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rmslusitania/Proteus?authkey=Gv1sRgCL-jgsGD5Ond4AE#

Regards,

Laurent

Edited By Laurent Gontier-Versailles on 13/10/2010 17:52:14
13 October 2010 at 19:25 #28601
Bob Wilson
Participant
@bobwilson59101
That looks excellent from all angles and sails very well. I especially like the deck machinery. If you wish to simulate teeth on the gear wheels, you can get self adhesive sheets of closely spaced lines. I cut them off and use them to simulate miniature ladders, but they would look just as good round the edge of your gears.

Must be great fun sailing her.

Bob
29 November 2011 at 20:06 #32586
mike gv
Participant
@mikegv51458
en hoe zit het met de vorderingen met de protheus?

gtrs mike
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