Boxboat! Without the boxes! - Revell, Columbo Express, 1/700 - Finished

[Mjwomack]

Technically Hanover Express is finished😉

 

 

Some paint touch up(s) required and some of the decals didn't respond to the decal fix as much as could have been hoped. So, why isn't it on it's way to the gallery yet?

 

Ah yes, all the cargo is still waiting to be loaded, or even painted! Optimistic on keeping schedule for this though. Just got to knuckle down to it and get bored with a paintbrush. 

[Col.]

Boat built and waiting to be loaded so you can claim this one done at any time  

[Dave Swindell]

On 26/03/2023 at 20:15, Mjwomack said:

Ah yes, all the cargo is still waiting to be loaded, or even painted! Optimistic on keeping schedule for this though. Just got to knuckle down to it and get bored with a paintbrush. 

You should have this boxed off in no time now

[Mjwomack]

Doctor, I keep seeing colourful blobs in front of my eyes...

 

 

Oh that's easily cured, stop painting containers!

 

Which might be my best appear h for getting this into the gallery in time, how about a box boat with no boxes?

[Alan P]

12 hours ago, Mjwomack said:

how about a box boat with no boxes?

Don't stop now! So close to the finish...

[flashlight]

Looking great so far! Still 4 days to go - plenty of time to finish her!

[Mjwomack]

Thanks for the encouragement @Alan P and @flashlight but that is stilll over 1,000 containers per day and I've done all the easier ones with the big blocks of Triton brown for the faces that will be obscured. Plus Hapag Lloyd are the dreaded 'O' colour!

 

Pressing on, and should get some of the shorter stacks finished for a partial and unrepresentative load.

[Mjwomack]

Prototype for everything department to the rescue (as often happens_

I'd assumed the deck of the kit was not accurate and that in reality the cargo holds were open all the way down. Seems though that there really are hold hatches, at least on one conatainer ship (and that's good enough for me)

 

[Col.]

For some reason (possibly stupidity) I was initially surprized at how high above the waterline these rode when empty

[Mjwomack]

3 hours ago, Col. said:

For some reason (possibly stupidity) I was initially surprized at how high above the waterline these rode when empty

Quite! What was that Archimedes bloke waffling on about 🤔🤷🥴

[Dave Swindell]

On 11/05/2023 at 19:42, Mjwomack said:

I'd assumed the deck of the kit was not accurate and that in reality the cargo holds were open all the way down. Seems though that there really are hold hatches, at least on one conatainer ship (and that's good enough for me)

Pretty much all larger container ships have hatches at main deck level. Some small feeder vessels don't - primarily to speed up turnaround time in port - this works on smaller vessels because the container stacks aren't too high.

Nedlloyd tried hatchless designs with two classes of contai ner ship in the 90's but didn't get the benefits they hoped for. Because there were no hatches at main deck level the cell guides were extended consideraly above the deck, which meant each lift from inside the hatch had to be lifted up above the cell guides before traversing to the quay instead of traversing as soon as it was clear of the hatch. So the time saved opening and closing hatches and fitting and removing lashings is lost hoisting and lowering every container to clear the cell guides. Initial costs were higher IIRC, you saved money on steelwork for hatches and lashing gear, but then had to strengthen the whole hull structure as the hatch lids contributed to the strength of the torsion box hull, there was extra steelwork for the extra above deck cell guides, and there had to be a significantly larger and more complex bilge pumping arrangement for the cargo holds.

The Nedlloyd hatchless classes were nicknamed the Toothbrushes due to the cellguides sticking up when empty looking like the bristles. The baby toothbrushes were the Nedlloyd Asia, Africa, America, Oceania and Europa, and there were two giant toothbrushes, Nedlloyd Honshu and Hong Kong. I believe Matsons and Norasia tried this approach as well, but all these ships were scrapped early or converted to have conventional hatches.

[Mjwomack]

20 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

The Nedlloyd hatchless classes were nicknamed the Toothbrushes due to the cellguides sticking up when empty looking like the bristles. The baby toothbrushes were the Nedlloyd Asia, Africa, America, Oceania and Europa, and there were two giant toothbrushes, Nedlloyd Honshu and Hong Kong. I believe Matsons and Norasia tried this approach as well, but all these ships were scrapped early or converted to have conventional hatches.

I'm going to miss the education that your comments have been for a landlubber you is more used to seeing containers on trains leaving Felixstowe than in the wild!

Love the idea of toothbrushes- if only Ocean Network Express had taken them on, they'd be pink toothbrushes, and Maersk ones would clearly be blue toothbrushes!

 

https://www.one-line.com/en/standard-page/ocean-network-express 

 and 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Mærsk

for those with better things to do than note shipping liveries!

 

Meanwhile, I've docked over in the gallery. Thanks to all the crew for encouragement, the stowaways for just being there, Somali pirates for ignoring me and especially @Dave Swindell for all the sensible parts of this build.

[Dave Swindell]

56 minutes ago, Mjwomack said:

if only Ocean Network Express had taken them on, they'd be pink toothbrushes, and Maersk ones would clearly be blue toothbrushes!

God forbid they should breed!