ArnoldAmbrose Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Gidday Steve, yeah I think most of us do the odd "dry fit" test from time to time. I think it's good to see a ship progressing like this. Otherwise a ship model can bog down a bit, with subsequent loss of mojo. That's certainly a nice-looking stand. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc2 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Its certainly looking a bit different to the artisits impression back on page 1! Great work. Malc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 On 28/01/2024 at 23:15, Malc2 said: It’s certainly looking a bit different to the artisits impression back on page 1 Yes indeed. Of course it’s very important to remember that both are just artists impressions and I don’t really consider this one ‘right’ and the other one ‘wrong’. I was surprised at how much superstructure Ross gave this interpretation and hence how ‘modern’ it looked, but despite Xantho’s faults she was a sea-going steamship capable of travelling from Scotland to Australia. She was also capable of carrying up to 24 people or more so it’s not unreasonable that she would have a bridge, charthouse/ captain’s cabin, galley, and skylights. She will also need a toilet (heads). This view is supported by the list of auctioned items. I now think that the original impressions have a deck plan that look a bit sparse. A shame really because ‘sparse’ is much easier to model! 🤣 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said: She will also need a toilet. Err, "Heads" Steve. 🙂 I guess to maximize cargo capacity in the hull a lot of the stuff you mention would be superstructure, with crew space in the bows. But I stress the word "guess". 🙂 Regards, Jeff. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 12 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said: Err, "Heads" Steve. 🙂 I guess to maximize cargo capacity in the hull a lot of the stuff you mention would be superstructure, with crew space in the bows. But I stress the word "guess". 🙂 Regards, Jeff. ‘Heads’ edit made. ’Maximize cargo capacity?’ Yes - agreed. No point in wasting potentially economic space. WRT the layout, much depends on how much Robert Stewart was willing to invest time and money on this project. It’s easy to dismiss this as ‘do as little as possible’ but if with a bit of ‘superficial’ superstructure construction he could make a more modern-looking ship his additional outlay might be more than recovered. ’Guess’ Yes, it is a guess. But one that’s fairly tightly constrained by documentation and by the known state of shipping technology of the day. As stated at the start I want to make something that can’t be proven wrong. That’s why Ross rejected my suggestion that we put a heli-pad on the stern. 🤣 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 1/29/2024 at 6:06 AM, Bandsaw Steve said: That’s why Ross rejected my suggestion that we put a heli-pad on the stern. Of course he did. Everyone knows it should be up front! Ian 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 7 hours ago, Brandy said: Of course he did. Everyone knows it should be up front! Ian It can’t go fo’ard - helicopter operations would interfere with the navigation radar. 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 28 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said: 41 minutes ago, Brandy said: Of course he did. Everyone knows it should be up front! Ian It can’t go forward - helicopter operations would interfere with the navigation radar. Who needs nav radar when you have GPS? And we ARE talking 19th century vessels? 😁 Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 8 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said: Who needs nav radar when you have GPS? And we ARE talking 19th century vessels? 😁 Regards, Jeff. As it says in the first post of this thread - ‘Xantho was a rather extraordinary vessel in certain regards’. 🤔 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 Stolen Time Over yonder on the Aviation WIP pages I recently made a pledge that the Mirage III project would be wrapped up by no later than 01 March 2024. This is both the 103rd anniversary of the formation of the RAAF and the third anniversary of that mad project. Unfortunately, since I'm having a great time at the moment with the SS Xantho - and actually making progress too - I fear that I am stealing a great deal of time from the Mirage and spending it on this thing. Here's where we last saw our little steamship. As noted in the commentary much of the superstructure shown here is just a sort of preliminary 'roughing out' of what the final shapes might look like. Having made the hull of this ship four times I have no qualms about spending five minutes cutting a piece of MDF to about the right shape just to see how things might look. Sooner or later though some serious work must begin. Ross chose to put the ship's galley in a prominent, elevated position directly behind the bridge which makes sense to me, not only because this is a typical arrangement but because some galley equipment was salvaged from the wreck, so may have been near the surface after the ship sank. If you have read my threads before you may well have heard me rant about the excellent properties of gridded plastic. Once again I sing this stuff's praises. As a modeler who is always geometrically challenged and incapable of building any 'true' right angle this stuff is a Godsend. Here I've marked up the walls, window and roof of the galley in such a way that I can just... cut out the outline of the basic geometrical shapes and scour where certain folds need to be made... and fold the whole thing like a piece of oragami. Obviously some of the edges are a bit rough and this needs some more surficial work, but this structure is both geometrically 'true' and a very close dimensional match to Ross's drawing. It's also hollow, so by cutting out a couple of rectangles of exactly the correct shape I can make a little floor for the galley which... when glued onto the deck of the ship serves as a mounting block for the rest of the structure. Now I can remove the galley at will and return it to exactly the same spot every time. It's a bit like making my own kit. Now let's turn our attention to 'cabin-shield' or 'weather-guard' or... whatever it's called. (If anyone knows the proper name please write in). This is the curved, continuous band of protective metal that extends right across the beam of the ship - from gunwale to gunwale - directly under the bridge. Underneath this shield, we hypothesize, was a captain's cabin and chart room, a small first mate's cabin and various lockers for stores and equipment. Of all the features that Ross incorporated into the final drawings this is the one that most surprised me. I'm not saying it's 'wrong' just that I never would have thought to incorporate it. I have also been very worried about how to model it. Here's how I managed. Start with a piece of 0.25mm thick brass sheet and carefully mark up the relevant geometry. Note that I know of no such thing as gridded brass, but i wish there was such stuff! Now chain-drill the brass and cut from hole to hole with a jeweler's saw. I'm not sure why I made such a complete mess of the drilling and cutting but... there you go. Now sand all the rough edges flat. Brass is magnificent material to work with; very forgiving. I used to be intimidated by brass as a modelling material thinking that only 'professionals' could use it. Nothing could be further from the truth, it's easier to use than cardboard. This is the result of the first cuts. Now I annealed the brass with the family's creme-brulee burner... carved out a balsa former... taped the brass to the former... and bent the entire thing into the required shape with my fingers. After a bit of measuring, cutting and adjustment we have a fairly convincing looking 'weather-shield' thing. Now I've cut the balsa former in an appropriate way to ensure that it fits in between the gunwales, have made an alley for the crew... and used some more gridded plastic sheet to tidy up the front and rear of the cabins. Here’s the hatch at the rear of the alley-way. This will be at the top of a short interior ladder. Mind your head! Here is this structure fitted alongside the galley and some new cargo hatches. And here's what the SS Xantho looks like at the moment. Note also that there is a new access at the fore-castle for the crew to get to their fo'ard, below-deck cabins. This structure was made in a very similar way to the galley. Here she is from a different angle. That's about it for now. This project has had long periods when it has not been much fun, but at the moment I'm really enjoying this so you never know, I might just steal a few more hours off the Mirage. Stay tuned. Best Regards, Bandsaw Steve. 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theskits62 Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 Looking great, must be nice to not be working on the hull !! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bandsaw Steve Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 7 hours ago, theskits62 said: must be nice to not be working on the hull !! Yes it is! And it’s nice to have the bulk of the research out of the way too although some of the forthcoming details, including the rigging, might require some more investigation and thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bissyboat Posted February 10 Share Posted February 10 This vessel grabs the eye. I´m watching with interest. ⚓👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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