TEV Wahine 1/35 Build

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

The Murray Robertson link is very interesting. I had read other accounts of the disaster, particularly as we crossed the Cook Strait in 2013, fortunately under much more benign conditions.

It is amazing just how much damage the ship took and still remained upright and afloat almost until the end. She was a well built and designed ship.

Colin

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

She sure did and if she had foundered any earlier it would have been total loss of life, the conditions were so bad.
I have the navy divers damage report of her but it is probably not of any interest, if it is pm me but this is a page from it that shows the damage.

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

Anybody care to share techniques for straightening very slightly bent prop shafts?.

My 2 x 8mm SS shafts that have been threaded for the props are very slightly bent evenly.. (maybe 4mm over the meter). I reckon a small amount is ok as its going into an outer sleeve with bushes each end like a standard prop tube only 600mm long.

Or am I wrong on all counts, I am finding it really hard to find 8mm in stock let alone someone to thread it. so want to try and fix old shafts

I would have thought if I can get it within 1 mm it might be ok.

Thoughts?

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

I receive my brand new CNC in 4 days, finally a dream realised.
I will be able to cut parts, carve, and mill aluminium and brass.
I have got the Stepcraft 2/600 with the programmable head.

I also need it for guitar building in the future.

Also considering a 4k mono resin printer in a few weeks.

After seeing the result of the KA models 1 /200 Titanic fittings I think it could be a very valuable tool for fittings, and because I have decided to prototype a semi kit of Cutty Sark at 1/48 scale based off my data from the ship I will need both.

I will do a separate build blog for this in due course, once I design the wooden hull structure in cad, however I plan to make it very accurate, I am planning on strong frames at every web frame on the real ship which is about45 frames over the length, why is that needed you might ask, the answer is I want to have accurate planking on hull in 2 woods  with the butts in the right locations on every strake so by having every 3rd frame its possible to fit buttstraps in between those frame that locate into notches.

Considering weather to pre taper planks for hull or leave it to builder.

I don't want to build a kit at a small scale as that's been done to death, but I think 1/48 is something most could handle? thoughts on scale?

 

Edited By Richard H Dunn on 25/06/2021 07:56:22

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Edited By Richard H Dunn on 25/06/2021 08:20:56

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Richard when you say CNC is that a CNC miller or a CNC lathe?

Although I personally really like 1/48th scale the trouble is that a large ship can end up simply being too cumbersome for most people to handle. I don't think there would be many of us who have a car big enough to carry a 1/48th Cutty Sark. It would also make the kit very expensive so narrow your available market down by quite a bit.

Edited By Richard Simpson on 25/06/2021 08:48:28

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

https://stepcraft.com.au/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=253

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

1/75 better?

I won't bother to go smaller as it defeats the purpose, only looking at static model anyway for display.

I am not planning on selling a lot just niche market for the odd person who wants that size may be 1-2 a year.

I guess once the prototype gets underway I might see how much interest I get.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I really can't see any demand for a 4 1/2 foot long Cutty Sark kit. I have been building and selling model ships for many years now, but no collector has ever asked for Cutty Sark. They all seem to prefer obscure or semi-obscure. ships, and none of them want models made from kits. For private individuals, I would think 4 1/2 feet is just too big. Things like this are most popular, "unknown" workhorses of the sea, but are too small to be made into kits anyway – Sorry to be so negative, but if it is just a "labour of love," it may be OK for you –

Edited By Bob Wilson on 25/06/2021 09:43:26

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Richard,

There is a plank on frame complete kit for Cutty Sark by Sergal at 1/78th scale sold by Mantua Models of Windsor for £475.

Looking at your work you will want to build at a larger scale

How's Wahine's hull coming on ??

Regards Ray

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

Yeah thinking I will just do it for myself and if anyone asks then so be it.
The Wahine Hull is still coming along,

I have shaped the sheerline of the knuckle which was not a bad a job as I expected, it helps when you are good at sharpening chisels to razor edge that can shave hairs off your arm as well as a razor, if you don't own a diamond stone and angle guide I reccommend them highly, I have used them for 28 years right through my furniture and guitar career

I am also laminating the Bow block which is made up of plank numbers 12-25 so a bit of work there.
have also been cutting the upper sides ready and cutting out all the carving templates on the scroll saw.

Once I have done that I will add some deck beams and then start carving, the worst part of that will be the rise of floor and keeping it flat on a hull this size, in hindsight I should have left each side of the FOB as full planks and packed up one side and passed it through thicknesser to taper them before cutting out the shape, the reason I didn't is I thought it better to have a solid flat base in solid contact with base board to keep it all solid and level. time will tell.

When I calculated the planks for this I did the reverse of most, I did not get wood to match existing waterlines, I instead bought my wood planed and re drew new waterlines to suit the wood which was 19.1mm.

Even so after 10 layer the error is about 1-1.5 mm so will do a tiny packing on knuckle before installing pre laminated bow and stern block.

I have also had the shell expansion printed on polyester film at full scale for transfer of openings and hull detail

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

Robert your work amazes me how neat it is, the model looks bigger than it is, I hope I can get mine as tidy as that, how did you do the water?, it's beautiful.

Ray, yes I have seen all the kits and probably would have done one years ago just to experience the whole kit thing but I have never seen one that does not have screaming errors in lines or scale.

Edited By Richard H Dunn on 25/06/2021 22:27:15

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Richard,

Thanks. The water is just that horrible flaky polysyrene foam that they use to pack electrical items. I shape the waves with a small gas totch with the air intake turned off to make it more like a candle flame. Then I paint it with white wood glue, and press crepe paper onto the top. Crepe paper is ideal because it stretches into the troughs. I then prime it with car body aerosol grey matt primer. Finally, I hand it over to my wife who paints the sea using Humbrol gloss enamels, adding the white whilst it is still wet to make it run.

Robert

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

Sounds a very similar way to the way my father did his except he sculpted it into filler with a toothbrush I think he said.

These were built by him on commission from the USSC where he worked, built in late 60's and have held up pretty well, some collapse of bridge on the Kiamiro though.

Fittings were from a company back then called Webb

These are still on display

Notice Wahine in the background

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[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Very nice models – much larger than mine, that are all miniatures, with all fittings made by myself.

Miniatures were more convenient for me when I was at sea, and after I retired, I just carried on with them.

Robert

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Here is Rangatira that I photographed in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, in 1982

Robert

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

I have been pondering my next choices for model to test out the cnc for parts.
I would like to know what people think, about these 3 subjects , purely from the aspect of looks and interest as a model, as all have interest to me and full sets of plans.

Tamahine (the first Picton ferry)

MV Kanna and Katui

MV Waikare (one of the sisters to one of my dads models above)

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Love the Kanna, loads of atmosphere and incredible amounts of detail. A little bit of a different layout as well with the aft funnel and the midships bridge.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Tamahine for me. An elegant looking ship and reminiscent of the UK Channel Island ferries Isle of Sark, Jersey and Guernsey built in the 1930s by Denny although Tamahine looks a bit smaller. A nice painting of her here with an interesting anecdote about her permanant ballast.

**LINK**

Colin

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

It sort of reminds me of a story my father told me of his very early days at sea in the 1950s. He was on a tallow carrying ship and the heating system packed in. Once you let the tallow go hard no amount of heat is going to change it back to a liquid so it was a docking job and they had to go in and manually dig the solid tallow out.

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

Tamahine I have
Lines
Shell Expansion
Midship
GA
Photos including onboard

Kanna
Lines
GA
Midship

Rigging

Some Photos none onboard

Waikare

Lines
GA

Framing
Rigging

Midship

Shell Expansion

Photos galore with many high res onboard taken at launch

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

By the way, my apologies for not commenting, your fathers models are absolutely beautiful. I could spend all day enjoying looking at ship models, in particular in a maritime museum.

Unfortunately here in the UK many models are being placed in storage as they do not seem to hold the attention of the kids any more and are being replaced by yet more interactive screens. As if they don't have enough of them in their lives to mess up their eyesight and scramble their brains!

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

Cheers

I know they are carved hulls covered in filler and the paint is the actual paint from the ships paint locker which makes these a very good record of the colour scheme of the union company ships, luckily I have the formulas now but still.

These were built on the kitchen table with no fancy tools.

The Kiamiro was done as a hobby and the Marama was commissioned by The union line for an upcoming trans tasman ship, in fact I have the plans and in an early iteration of the GA there is a note dated 1969 (plans on loan to H Dunn) signed by naval Architect William waters… also the designer of Wahine and a family friend.

These were the only 2 he did sadly, he was more of a ship painter and now is a prolific ship photograper in New Zealand based in Tauranga.

These days he spends most of his time restoring and processing other peoples ship collections of old slides from all over the world.

Edited By Richard H Dunn on 30/06/2021 22:01:33

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Lovely models Richard. Tauranga is also a very picturesque place. We stopped off there on our tour of NZ.

Colin

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

Also it is the busiest port in NZ, hence the location.
In regard to the above 3 ships this is why I have wanted to do the same ship my dad did at double the size.
Apart from having all required plans such as

Lines

Shell Expansion

Framing of decks

Framing of shell and bulwarks

rigging

Derricks

I have the photos my dad took on board MV Kawerau to build his model and they are taken for the purpose of a model so very informative, these were taken in 1967 before I was even thought of.

example of above

[Richard H DunnParticipant @richardhdunn]

I also have a question , What sort of paint would you recommend for this Wahine model given it's size and area to paint.

I have the actual formulas for the colours from the BS381c Chart and can get it made easily at any hardware as acrylic paint and I can also get the same thing done as automotive paint but what do you think works best for wear and tear and painting large hulls?.

I really want to avoid matching by eye as its a very hard green to get, It also used on some military vehicles in the UK

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