I know it has been a while ..

 But here's the proof, she actually sails ..

This is it !!

Yes!! I finished the build of my Smit Rotterdam, The "last" thing remaining is to find room for all the needed electronics and RC and have her out for sailing ...

Radar Mast

I Continued with the Radar mast and decided to scratch build the Work light Spots around an 5mm Hi-Bright LED, Additionally I used 3mm white & red LED's for all the other signal lamps and cabled everything.
I have my concerns about the "rotating radars" and hope they still work, no matter what, i don't have access anymore to the motors and  i can't even change/adjust the rubber bands after this stage..

and here is the mast with all lights turned on, "an x-mast tree :-)"

Top Deck

Finally !! also the Fire monitors & Compass are now installed, so the end is near... 

The "only thing" remaining is to finish the Radar mast and I still need to fit and install all the RC (and electronics) and make sure it all works.

Fire monitors

After searching the web for possible fire monitors/water cannons, I finally decided to reuse the supplied fire monitors provided by the fitting set, not because they are looking that great..., but at least they are not over dimensioned in any way.

I also have planned to have 2 of them "working" so for realising that I removed the top pipe and drilled a 2 mm hole through the body and refitted a 2mm brass pipe.

Progress on the upper structure

Still a long way to go, but I think it's starting to look impressive...

Creating ladders

Finally I found a way to create ladders..

Maybe not the easiest solution but at least they are reproduce able.

Underneath a sequence of the process, the pictures themselves are self-explaining if you want/need to see them in a higher resolution, you can download the ladder.rar file

     

Life raft and boat fenders

a close-up of the boat fenders and the life rafts.

The life fenders and storing racks are pretty much as suggested by the kit, the life rafts are made a bit more realistic from scrap wood and wire and by using an electrical drill as a lathe.

Bridge Progress

Not a lot of progress I must admit, I'm still working (slowly) on the bridge and all of it's details, I painted it more or less in it's base colours and will "weather it" when finally everything is in place. 

Note: The "Exhaust pipes" I scratch build from a plastic tube and are not included in the kit  

Bridge interior

I found several pictures of buttons and old meters on the internet and used these in Visio where I created the toplayout of the desks (1:1) download layout and glued them afterwards on the white desks and painted matt varnish on top.

Additionally I made some handles of wood (and wire) for creating the third dimension on the desks and I added handrails.

Dry Fit Preview of the Bridge

I continued with upper structure and the interior of the bridge.At this stage I’m still a bit uncertain about how detailed I want to go with the interior.As there are a lot of windows, my first guess is that you actually can see quite a lot of it when looking through them.So I will most likely end up with a nice detailed look but I need to find out first how to achieve it.

“common basic” tools

Here’s an picture of all the tools I have used during the build of the Smit Rotterdam so far.

What it doesn't show is the airbrush/compressor, my selection of paint brushes and the electrical drill which I use as an (primitive) lathe wherever needed...

Rotating Radars

As I’m about to build the upper structure lots of decisions had to be made to make sure that all "special effects” will become as invisible as possible. So I spend quite some time to find out how to build the (rotating) radars..

As I had an cheap, small and broken "3 channel" RC helicopter lying around, I decided to re-use the tiny dc-motors. As it turned out, these could actually be build inside the tower structure.

As this seemed like the brilliant solution, it also started to give me lots of problems as most of the parts I needed additionally had to be scratch build.

Like for example the rubber belts, these where impossible to find in the diameter I needed, “Cutting” them from a larger belt was not the difficult part, but find the glue which could glue the ends together was a real challenge..

Additionally, as I only used “common basic” tools for this build so far (besides my airbrush ), I realize now how valuable it is to have the right tools..

Even dough I managed without dedicated tools, it was not that easy to get this far..

What I additionally need is a “speed control” for these radar-motors as they currently rotate too quick..

signal lamps

They just look great when illuminated !!

Mast

I installed the mast today, the mast itself  is pretty much as suggested by the kit, the only thing I added was a "parallel pipe" which also can be seen on the original ship.
Additionally I use this pipe to hide the wires connected to the 3 signal lamps in the mast, and I used the brass pipe itself for the ground wiring of the lamps.
I found a cheap (Christmas) light chain with 10 small Ø 3 mm white LED's but unfortunately they were too big to fit inside the original kit's signal lamps so I had to make my own.
I used a Ø4mm brass pipe, created an oval hole, shortened it, fitted the LED and glued a slice of Ø3mm wood on top of the LED inside the pipe.

Another thing what can be seen on the mast of the original ship is a long ladder, I tried to create one in the right scale for the model, but my talents (and/or used materials) where not perfect.. so I gave up this idea for now..



Weathered cranes

I found some time to finish the cranes.

For the yellow color (on the entire ship) I use "pale yellow" (no.81) as the base color and "dry brush" it with "trainer yellow" (no.24) to create a more brighter yellow without overdoing it. After this I give it "rust" (no.113), "dark gray" (no.32) and "aluminum" (no.56) to create the weathered look.

I also "weather" the wires/ropes by soaking them in a thinned mixture of "dark grey" (no.32), wipe them clean and give the same treatment again but now with a thinned mixture of "rust" (no.113).

Afterwards I slightly dry brush it with "aluminum" (no.56) and this gives an realistic impression of a "steal wire"..

The mentioned numbers are refering to "Humbrol" enamel colors.

 

Crane No.1

Finally I can present a preview of one of the 3 cranes.

I used the kit version as a guideline and I tried to copy the original cranes as much as possible by adding more details with common materials like wood, nails, brass and electrical wire.
It took longer time as expected but i think it was worth the efforts..

Life Boats in place



And here's the result after painting and weathering the lifeboats..

Life Boats

Also the lifeboats supplied by the kit, is a bit too simple compared to the real thing, so also here I added more detail.
Again I used the nails and copper wire to simulate the knobs and ropes on the side of the boat, and I added stabilizer bars and a rain cover.
The rain cover is cut out of  a (black) "report cover".

Lower decks

I continued with the fine details on the lower decks and besides the cranes and the life boats I’m just about finished on these decks.
I'm not sure how to bend the railing in shape in one piece without losing the "straight lines" and the sharp edges, so I cheated by "cutting" them in the 90 degree corners and soldier them together afterwards

"rusty look"

After the "shiny" look, here's the "rusty" look.

I might have overdone it a bit, but after having looked at it for a while it actually starts to appeal to me..



In theory she’s ready to sail now..

At this stage the rudders and the engines, propellers and shafts are in place.
I added some visual details on the rudders and the only thing left on the hull is to get rid of the "shiny surface"..

Bow with details

I continued with some fine detailing on the upper deck and finished it, only thing remaining is the mast and crane.
I'm really satisfied with the result so far..

Lower deck complete

I completed the lower deck and finished it with an more "used and natural" look.
For achieving this look I painted the parts in their normal base color, for example "mat black" (Humbrol No.33).
After this layer I "drybrush" it (not to heavily) with "dark Grey" (Humbrol no.32) to achieve a more dirty look, on top of this I "drybrush" "rust" (Humbrol no.113)
Sometimes as the final touch and to achieve a metallic look I “drybrush” it with "aluminum" (Humbrol no.56) on strategic places.

Life Boat

My version of the life boat, I added a few more details.
The rope on the sides is copper wire (as this stays in the shape you bend it), and the "knobs" are shortened nails which were included in the kit.
As you might have notiched, I also added some more details to the middle deck..

Equipped Lower deck preview part2

the still shining towing winches and the "rusty" towing bars..

Equipped Lower deck preview

I spend some time on the lower deck details and try to give it an worn out / used rusty look by using a technique (found on the internet) called "drybrushing", I spend some money on dedicated “drybrushes” and I’m very positive about the results.

It is an simple and efficient technique and creates the look I was looking for, the only worry now is not to overdo it.. 

Colorful and shiny

Here she is with all her colors except the white stripes..
The colors I used are humbrol enamel paint no.48 "Mediterranean Blue" and No. 69 "Yellow" together with No. 21 "Black" and  No. 19 "Bright Red"

Black..

At this stage the shiny black is airbrushed in place..
I find it very easy to cover the parts with aluminum foil, it's very easy to shape and always stays in the shape you want it.
…I haven’t found the perfect tape yet, I’m open for any suggestion…

The Ferrari look

Finally !! I can paint the hull..
I started with painting it with 5 layers of the same acrylic polyurethane based lacquer as I did on the inside, after this i primed the hull for finding any imperfect spots on it, and sanded/filled and primed several times until I was satisfied with the result..
At this stage I already airbrushed the "Ferrari red" humbrol color no.19 underwater line on the hull..

Middle deck preview

Not really finished yet, but you can already get a feeling how it will look.

Note: I also added more detail to the "boxes" on deck, not exactly as they are shaped originally but that's more because of the limitations of wood, lack of other materials and my skills and creativity in general..