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Building a working conveyor system

Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
92
Points
88

Location
Windsor, ON
Hi fellow model ship enthusiasts. I don't know if I am a glutton for self punishment, but in looking for ways to not only improve my model building skills, but also upping my game with potentially cool new ideas I have an interesting concept I am trying to conceive.

I know most model ship builders generally do historic sailing vessels or military. As you may (or may not) know I focus on modern steel hull ships that focus on trading on the Great Lakes / St. Lawrence Seaway. All of my builds since I started in 2020 have been bulk carriers, a couple what we call "flat backs", but recently did 2 self unloaders (with the boom). As these are static models for my own collection of maritime goodies, I am quite happy with what I have built. That being said....I like a challenge.

Some people have asked me if I would ever do an RC laker.... not sure on that, as I have no idea what is involved, but that would be an interesting topic nonetheless.

What intrigues me more than RC would be constructing a working model of a self unloading ship. Would this even be possible at a hobby scale (1/200 1/192)? Maybe using some type of small pebbles like they use in the model train world to represent stone/coal?

I know how the real world belt systems works, but I don't know if it is even possible to scale that down to even some basic model scale system.

Thoughts?
 
YES!
BUT!
Personally, because the prototypes are what is mostly fabricated trusswork, I absolutely would not model it in wood and mostly not in styrene shapes. It's near impossible to make wood thin enough to look authentic and while styrene strips and shapes can be thin enough to look right, it is far too flexible in those fine dimensions. I'd have to do it in brass, and soldered, not ACC'd. I also think I'd have to learn etching. HAR, whole new hobby.

And your self unloader _is _ the kind of a thing that I would model were one of them somehow to have grabbed my interest. The boat (yes boat for readers not necessarily familiar, we are after all talking Great Lakes talk) itself wouldn't interest me but I would do the unloader as a vignette diorama. I'd model a flat "base" for the unloader, perhaps like a half-deck with several hatches open and closed, very shallow only deep enough to show a top of a cargo pile. I'd include the nearside deck, and maybe a small edge of "hull" just for context. The _Model_ would be the unloader, not the boat.

alf in Iowa
 
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