Help with hatches on my freighter

[TJCampbell]

Doing a 1:200 and 1:250 scale Great Lakes freighter. These are my 2nd and 3rd builds as well so experience is low.

I want to be as detailed as I can of course. The hatches on thix class are quite complex/detailed with what i assumd are supports for the coaming as well as having some piping on each side that run through the support structure. Model is solid wood hull and been using balsa for other details. Any suggestions on how to approach these aside from leaving out these details? I was planning on using some type of flexible metal tube or rod for the piping.....if I don't end up skipping it.

 

[Bryian]

You might need some photo etch for that job.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

do you have drawings for the hatch and hatch cover or photos showing clear details?

i see what you have are more complex than these i assume the rail you see if for crane or gantry to lift the covers.

what i suggest is to draw out the hatches and have them 3D printed, there are a few people here on the forum that can print the files for you., i can put you in contact with Mike Shanks he might be able to do the printing and i can do the drawings and send them to him.

all the hatches are the same so drawing would be easy, just do one drawing and have them printed multiple times. the cad drawings can be done from photos or from original drawings. Just need the size.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

a lot can be done with 3D printing
just a bit of CAD work and your on your way
this is NOT a model it is the real thing

 

[Jimsky]

Can you show us the model?

 

[TJCampbell]

do you have drawings for the hatch and hatch cover or photos showing clear details?

i see what you have are more complex than these i assume the rail you see if for crane or gantry to lift the covers.

what i suggest is to draw out the hatches and have them 3D printed, there are a few people here on the forum that can print the files for you., i can put you in contact with Mike Shanks he might be able to do the printing and i can do the drawings and send them to him.

all the hatches are the same so drawing would be easy, just do one drawing and have them printed multiple times. the cad drawings can be done from photos or from original drawings. Just need the size.

View attachment 226607View attachment 226609

The hatches for my Fitzgerald would be like these in the photo posted. The scale was small enough I could just stack a slight bigger cut of 1/16" balsa onto a smaller one, and not worry about the clamps, as these are so basic (simple shape).

Here is a better view of the hatches, that show the piping running down both side of the ship. The gantry rail runs outside of the piping. The first one is the self-unloading sister ship of the one I am doing (I will tackled the unloading boom one day soon). The other shows a good detail as well.

I have the general hatch dimensions from the drawings I have. Somewhere in the files I got there might actually be hatch details, but I'd have to go through them more thoroughly. These 2 should help show what I am talking about though.

 

[danielsje]

Try styrene plastic shaped strips and shapes..there are many different sizes and shapes all to scale. Evergreenscalemodels.com is the source I use. I use styrene shaped strips for many applications In ship modeling...most common being hull moldings and building up quarter gallery windows.