Search the Community

I thought this would make a nice change to building ships bristling with guns. And it's not something I know much about, so the research has been interesting. Built in just 56 days and launched on the 19th June 1943, she was supposed to cross the Atlantic just once, but actually cross the Atlantic four times. She then crossed the English Channel eleven times, in support of the D-Day landings. She then sailed as far as Calcutta, the Philippines and Australia before returning to San Francisco in 1946. She was mothballed until 1966 when restoration started to bring her back to her original war time condition. She opened to the public in 1980 and still makes day trips around San Francisco Bay. In 1994, the O'Brien was the only ship that had taken part in D-Day that made the trip to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. I've ordered a PE set to enhance the detail and some 3D printed guns to replace the kit offering, which aren't very detailed. I won't be doing much for a bit, as finally I'm going on holiday to sunny Cornwall, first holiday for 18 months, since the madness started. So, here I start my project to try to show her as she would have looked on 6th June 1944. Wish me luck. Jon This is my first problem, as you can see the hull is very smooth so I will have to find a way of showing the plates. Another problem is it doesn’t come with a stand, so I’ll have to make something.

Well after much toing and froing, what set out to be a simple kit to expand my rigging skills (for a Wingnut Wings aircraft), the end result is here. Rigging has been with the very fine EZline and the aerials to try and get the sag has been with very thin copper wire. Weathering in the main AK Interactive brown streaks but there has also been thin washes of acrylics and water colour pencils. Main painting was hand brush Vellejo. Base tin foil and acrylic paints with a bit of tropical tank filter thrown in for good measure. Yes I've enjoyed it but it took on life of its own because the rigging exercise turned into the model you see.

Hi, my first posting on the ships forum. I got this little kit but beautifully formed, as an exercise in rigging for as yet to be made WW1 Wingnut Wings biplanes. Like everything else ignorance can be bliss until ignorance rears its ugly head and I found out some of the rigging was not worth the patience or the trials... My colour vision is not the greatest so I've relied on AK ship weathering to help put some Atlantic crossings on the ship. Problems with posting photos I'm happy with the ropes that controlled the derricks and the mast stays but when I tried to place the ropes that would have controlled the crane hook I just couldn't work behind the rigging that had been set up previously. Still some way to go but I think I've reached the peak and now on the way to completion.

I am currently converting a Liberty Ship kit to a Royal Navy repair ship of the Xanthus class as in 1945. The few images available show HMS Assistance and HMS Diligence in a sort of measure 22 (5H and 5N); however, one ship served in home (UK) waters and the other in the far east theatre. My question is: would the deck be painted blue (20B) for both these vessels, considering their different operating areas? Mike

in 1940 the British Government realised that they would need more ships to get essential materials from the United States than they had the shipyard capacity for, especially due to the continuous bombing of their shipyards from German bombers. As a consequence, a British delegation was formed to go to the U.S. with the sole intention of ordering ships that were being built in America. At that time though, the Americans were themselves busy building there own commercial merchant fleet (they had not yet been drawn into the war) and their yards were full building the 'standard types' of the C-1, C-2 and C-3 designs for private shipping companies. Whilst touring these sites and seeing their designs, the British contingent realised that these ships were large, welded types and they were taking too long to build to meet Britain's urgent needs. A representative in the delegation, from J.L Thompson Ltd of Sunderland, had taken a set of plans of their own design (which was to become Britain's Empire Ship type), of which was based on the s.s. Dorington Court of 1939. The plans were for the construction of a 10,000 deadweight ton (dwt.) standard, dry cargo steamship with a gross registered tonnage (grt.) of approximately 7,000 tons and providing a speed of 11 knots. The design was presented to the U.S. Maritime Commission with the aim of being able to produce a simpler vessel to build, as compared to the C1 -C-3 types, thereby reducing shipbuilding time in order to meet Britain's urgent requirement. As the months of 1940 progressed, the commission finally authorised the building of sixty vessels from this design and a new shipping syndicate, namely Six Services Incorporated, was set up which consisted of two shipbuilding companies - Todd Shipyard Inc. and Henry J. Kaiser Inc. with each yard delegated to produce thirty of these ships each. Slight modifications were made to the original design and they received the designation 'Ocean Type' with each vessel's name being preceded by the word Ocean; as in the first launched being Ocean Liberty. Late in 1941 everything changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the United States into the war. The need for more shipping, both merchant and naval, became as urgent for the U.S. as it did Britain and so, with a few more changes to that original British design, the famous Liberty Ship was conceived but that is a different story. This build, my third in the 'Taking a Liberty' series will be based on the genesis of all this; converting the Liberty Ship back, to the original design type for a 10,000dwt. standard dry cargo ship originally based on the s.s. Dorrington Court. This plan shows the original design that was taken to the U.S.A. and which formed the basis of the Ocean type (and subsequently the Forts, Parks and Heads that were built in Canada); however, on initial examination of this plan and that of the Liberty ship you will notice that appear not to have the same shape. The hull dimensions are the same but the upperworks were modified, mainly out of the need to keep building time down and, as such, the Liberty had a centralised midships accommodation block whereas the British vessels had split accommodation structures. Also, the Liberties had bulwarks along their sides whereas the original had chain rails. There were other minor differences which I hope will become evident during the converting of the Liberty Ship kit. The main work for me on this Liberty Ship kit will be to remove all the bulwarks along the sides, construct a new split-structure and modifiy the poop deck for a British merchantman in wartime. The initial stages of the build will be the same as my other project "Taking a Liberty No.1 - Royal Navy repair ship" therefore I will not take up space repeating those stages here. Well, that is my cunning plan and now I need to get some serious researching done in between continuing with the other two 'Taking a Liberty' WiP's! I hope to be able to post some images soon and also hope that you will find something different and interesting as this build progresses. Mike

I'd like to build a 1:350 Liberty Ship and know that Trumpeter has produced two; Jeremiah O'Brien and John W. Brown. Problem is I don't know which to get. Can anyone please advise me what the differences are with each kit? I am presuming there must be some. cheers Mike

This is the SS Hellas Liberty now a museum ship in Piraeus harbor, Greece. She was built as SS Arthur M Huddel, by the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company with keel laid 25 October 1943 and the yard workers working overtime to launch on 7 December 1943 (now thats fast!). As well as normal shipping in the summer of 1944 she was converted to a pipe carrier and transported pipe in her aft two holds from the US to England that was used in Operation PLUTO, a fuel pipeline under the English Channel to serve Normandy landings area. She made the first and last pipe transport voyage carrying 70 miles (112.7 km) of pipe departing New York on 22 September 1945 and then spending eighty-four in London discharging 17 miles (27.4 km) of pipe into pipe laying ships and unloading the remainder at the dock. For the remainder of the war and immediate post war period Huddell carried coal, general cargo and personnel in voyages between Europe and the US. She was laid up in 1945. In 1956 She was chartered by AT&T, and converted to a cable transport and layer. After operations in support of Distant Early Warning (DEW) line she was transferred to the US reserve fleet from 1957 until 1964. The ship was used to support cable operations for the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) until 1984 when she was laid up again. After that date many components, including the rudder, were removed and used as spare parts for SS John W. Brown. In 2008 she was transferred to Greece for conversion to a maritime museum and was renamed Hellas Liberty. On December 6, 2008 she left Norfolk, Virginia under tow for Piraeus harbour in January 2009. General repairs and conversions took place at Perama and Salamis during 2009 and 2010, including installation of a new rudder and propeller. In June 2010 she was presented to the public in her restored form in Piraeus harbor. Pics are thanks to Mike (bootneck)