Sylvan announces container ship

[John]

On my last trip out of Miami - there are a number of small tramp steamers that ply the waters of there bringing maybe a dozen or so containers at a time to the Bahamas ...

[pnolan48]

The Reliance-class fits firmly in that era, no?

I mean, they're (mostly) still operating today, but they were all built in the '60s.

If you ever decide to do something a bit more modern, namely an Island-class, let me know and I'll be first in line.

Yes, they were built in the mid 60s, reconstructed in the mid 80s, and still in service. So they are in the latter part of the era. My phrasing was sloppy.

I am going to do an Island-class as the next "small hull" project.

I too have seen container ships in the Caribbean that ranged in capacity from ten to perhaps 200 containers. That would be ships from 450 tons to perhaps 3000 tons, or 180' to about 300'. I'm interested in building them because they have little rigging or deck details--much easier to produce.

[JoeD]

Here is a shot of one of the OOCL container ship models I worked on back in the late 90's.  This one (part of a batch of 15) was done close to Z scale.  We also did several that were N Scale.  It was my first interaction with Mtl when I requested a quote on 6,000 40' containers.  I also sought quotes from Delux and others for the project.  In the end we laser cut blocks with rastered detail on them to save money.  Thinking back, painting all those container would have been an interesting feat.

The customer wanted the hulls to be resin castings and not fiberglass for some unknown reason.  First couple of pours, even though they were hollow were spooky to watch set up.  I've seen these size molds erupt in flames...and these were smoking even with slow cure resin. 

Joe

edit, fixed img tag.  -gfh

[TiVoPrince]

Fabulous,  
those modern container bunks fascinate me.  That ship (in APL trim) would be my nirvanna...