Sterling American Scout WWII Cargo Ship

[jscherb]

I've long planned to build an HO model railroad harbor scene and one of the features I want to add is a large cargo ship. I'm also interested in WWII history so I've been thinking maybe the ship should be a Liberty ship or similar.

WWII cargo ships have been part of a number of model railroads, for example Rod Stewart (the rock star) included a Liberty Ship model on his very large model railroad:



Another modeler, Howard Lloyd, built this next ship and dock scene in HO. It's modified from a Deans Marine "Melanie" kit (https://deansmarine.co.uk/shop/product_info.php/products_id/372) and is about 35" long - maybe a foot shorter than the Sterling kit. It's also 1:96 scale, and doesn't look out of place next to the 1:87 locomotive and boxcars and the HO seamen figures on board don't look too far out of scale for the ship.







I've also been following Vic Fordyce's excellent American Scout build thread: https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/american-scout-c-2-cargo-ship-by-sterling-models.17309/ and he's given me much inspiration.

I'm beginning a build of a Sterling American Scout kit as a WWII freighter, even though the Scout is alleged to be 1/96 scale which is a bit smaller than HO scale (1/87, more on that later). I've just started construction, photos to come.

 

[jscherb]

With the ship models in the last post as inspiration, my original plan was to use the Sterling kit as a basis for building a Liberty ship but my research uncovered the fact that over 300 C2 cargo ships (the prototype for the Sterling kit) were built during the war years and a number of them served in the war. Here's an example (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Polaris_(AF-11):







Another C2, this one's the USS Whiteside and is a U.S. Navy attack cargo ship.



More on the WWII Emergency Shipbuilding Program, C2 ships are reference in here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Shipbuilding_Program#The_emergency_ships

So I've decided to build the Sterling kit as a C2 in use by the military - I'll paint is Navy gray like the Polaris and have similar armament added to make it a plausible WWII C2. I've already sourced 3d printed armaments from https://distefano3dprint.com/



For prototype inspiration, I also plan a visit to the S.S. John W. Brown, one of two WWII Liberty Ships now serving as floating museums. It's berthed in Baltimore, which isn't very far from where I live. https://www.ssjohnwbrown.org/

 

[jscherb]

I plan to build the kit as a waterline model but rather than build the complete hull and cut it at the water line, I'm going to cut the bulkheads to the correct waterline height as I'm building. I've got a bandsaw so cutting the completed hull at the waterline wouldn't be too difficult but the balsa hull may be fairly fragile so I'm thinking it might be best to build it from the start as a waterline model and avoid the stress of cutting it.

I'm assembling the bulkheads but not gluing them to the base at this point - before I glue them to the base I'll shorten them so the base, which is below the waterline if the hull were to be built according to the plans, will be the waterline.



I may also finish the exterior of the hull in fiberglass - while my model will never see actual water, I believe I can achieve a much smoother and more realistic hull with fiberglass than trying to seal the porous balsa. I've got years of experience with fiberglass, having designed and built several custom hardtops and other body parts for Jeeps over the years, so coating the hull in fiberglass is no problem.

 

[dockattner]

Fun project!

 

[jscherb]

I finished assembling the bulkheads. They're not glued to the base yet, they're just setting in the notches in the base.



According to the plans, the balsa base is roughly 1 3/8" below the waterline. Since I'm building this as a waterline model, my next step is to trim 1 1/4 off the bottom of each bulkhead before gluing it to the base. As I trim them, I'll recreate the tabs on the bottom so the bulkheads will still assemble into the slots in the base.



Once the bulkheads are trimmed and glued to the base, I'll make a sub-base out of 1/4" plywood to strengthen the assembly. I mentioned above that I'll trim 1 1/4 off the bottom of each bulkhead, the extra 1/8 or so plus the thickness of the plywood base will provide a bit of reveal below the waterline for red bottom paint.

 

[Vfordyce]

If the ship is empty, you might want to have some extra hull showing. How deep will your resin sea be? You’ll need to add at least that much below the waterline plus perhaps another 1/8 to 1/4 inch because of the lack of cargo.

 

[jscherb]

If the ship is empty, you might want to have some extra hull showing. How deep will your resin sea be? You’ll need to add at least that much below the waterline plus perhaps another 1/8 to 1/4 inch because of the lack of cargo.

Vic,
Thanks for the input, those are good thoughts. What I posted earlier about taking 1 1/4" off the bottom of each bulkhead and then adding a 1/4" plywood base under the balsa base would result in about 3/8" reveal below the waterline, so not an empty ship. But I'll have to give it some more thought before cutting. The photos of Howard Lloyd's ship in the first post shows the holds open and cargo inside; I wasn't thinking of doing that but it does look good so I'll have to think about that too before I cut, maybe I'll cut off a little less than 1 1/4".

A few other things I plan to include in my scene... in the 50's a company called Rewal produced operating gantry crane kits in HO scale. I found two of the crane kits on eBay complete and unbuilt so those will be stationed on the dock next to the ship. The kits are motorized but I haven't decided if I'll build them as static kits, build them with the motors and controls provided with the kit, or make a bigger project out of them and power them with an Arduino microcontroller, something else I've got some experience with.



It's fairly large and a pair of them will look good on the wharf next to the ship. This is a damaged third one I picked up for parts:



Model railroad manufacturer/retailer Walthers also offers a number of harbor kits, some of which I'll use in my scene. Walthers also offers gantry cranes, but I'm going to use the Renwal cranes in my scene.



I've also got several tubgoat kits, so probably I'll include one of them in the scene as well. The Walthers tug is 1:87 scale and the Lindberg one is 1:84.

 

[Vfordyce]

Vic,
Thanks for the input, those are good thoughts. What I posted earlier about taking 1 1/4" off the bottom of each bulkhead and then adding a 1/4" plywood base under the balsa base would result in about 3/8" reveal below the waterline, so not an empty ship. But I'll have to give it some more thought before cutting. The photos of Howard Lloyd's ship in the first post shows the holds open and cargo inside; I wasn't thinking of doing that but it does look good so I'll have to think about that too before I cut, maybe I'll cut off a little less than 1 1/4".

A few other things I plan to include in my scene... in the 50's a company called Rewal produced operating gantry crane kits in HO scale. I found two of the crane kits on eBay complete and unbuilt so those will be stationed on the dock next to the ship. The kits are motorized but I haven't decided if I'll build them as static kits, build them with the motors and controls provided with the kit, or make a bigger project out of them and power them with an Arduino microcontroller, something else I've got some experience with.

View attachment 563374

It's fairly large and a pair of them will look good on the wharf next to the ship. This is a damaged third one I picked up for parts:

View attachment 563375

Model railroad manufacturer/retailer Walthers also offers a number of harbor kits, some of which I'll use in my scene. Walthers also offers gantry cranes, but I'm going to use the Renwal cranes in my scene.

View attachment 563376

I've also got several tubgoat kits, so probably I'll include one of them in the scene as well. The Walthers tug is 1:87 scale and the Lindberg one is 1:84.

View attachment 563373

Would you make the tug waterline as well?

 

[jscherb]

Would you make the tug waterline as well?

Yes, definitely. The Walthers Railroad Tug Boat I pictured above is already a waterline model because it's intended to be used in a model railroad seaport scene. The Lindberg Coast Guard tug has a full hull so it would need to be cut to the waterline. Haven't thought about which one I'll use yet.

 

[ENJAY49]

My ship in Little Creek, Va., was the USS Algol-AKA 59, ( as the one above) imagine this type would be a good choice. (AKAs were named after constellations, she now lies off the NJ coast).

 

[jscherb]

I set up a mockup of a pier using the damaged crane I showed in a previous post, some piling castings I made and an HO boxcar. If I built the ship without lowering it, the waterline would be about 7.5' above the water. I don't know if that's realistic for an empty C2, maybe someone with more knowledge about C2's or similar cargo ships could chime in.

Looking back at the photos of Harold Lloyd's dock scene in the first post, the deck of the ship in the mockups below is quite a bit higher than the deck in his photos. I'm still thinking I should lower the hull a bit, but I'm looking for input to help me decide how much to lower it or now even if I build it lower.

 

[Vfordyce]

I set up a mockup of a pier using the damaged crane I showed in a previous post, some piling castings I made and an HO boxcar. If I built the ship without lowering it, the waterline would be about 7.5' above the water. I don't know if that's realistic for an empty C2, maybe someone with more knowledge about C2's or similar cargo ships could chime in.

Looking back at the photos of Harold Lloyd's dock scene in the first post, the deck of the ship in the mockups below is quite a bit higher than the deck in his photos. I'm still thinking I should lower the hull a bit, but I'm looking for input to help me decide how much to lower it or now even if I build it lower.

View attachment 563572

View attachment 563573

In your first and second pictures, it appears to be ships that are not fully loaded. It looks like the waterline is 8-10’ above the water.