The Ship(s) That Ate My Dining Room

[pnolan48]

Let's try this:

[jereising]

Works for me!  NICE!

[pnolan48]

The superstructure of the world's current largest ship is a good-sized eight-story hotel. Crew rarely has a chance to go on shore, as facilities are usually miles offshore or, with rare exceptions, a long taxi ride from cities. I slathered a coat of vinyl joint compound on the hull to seal the "end grain" of the MDF. Some say MDF doesn't have end grain; others insist it does, so a few minutes of slathering and later a few minutes of sanding won't hurt things. It was like fingerpainting. Also flattened the deck camber where the two houses sit. Here the bridge wings do not extend all the way to the ship's sides. Stairways and railings next, plus the feedpipe for the inert gas system.

[pnolan48]

Here is the rear view. You can just barely see the camber on either side of the front house, along the break in the hull.

[peteski]

Nice looking superstructure!  MDF doesn't really have "end grain" but it is uniformly fuzzy.    I usually seal it with polyurethane clear (which likes to soak into it so several coats are needed.  But once the urethane dries it can be sanded very smooth.  I hope that vinyl spackling adheres well to the MDF.

So, how much does this model weigh?    Do the ends sag a bit when held in the middle?

[pnolan48]

The joint compound will be almost entirely sanded away, Pete. I'll start with 220 grit, then finish with 400. Then solvent-based paints will be used. And wet sanded. I'll probably stop at 600 grit. I'm not sure that 600 is necessary, or even effective. I'm going to use gloss paints, as I can always dull them later. The hull and deck and superstructure on this ship are white, as a method of reducing hydrocarbon gasses in the tanks.

The hull weighs about 80 pounds. Structurally, it is a 3.5 inch plank, perhaps stronger due to the longitudinal stringers--an engineered beam is usually stronger than a solid plank. A solid plank hull would weigh more than 200 pounds. I'm pretty sure I could suspend it at each end and jump in the middle with the full weight of my 225 pounds and nothing would happen. I know I inadvertently trapped a small piece of 1/4" wood under the center, and I could have spun the hull like a top. I.e., it's pretty rigid.

Even my build-up styrene structures are pretty rigid. Somewhere back in my Stupid Mistakes series on Trainboard were stories about my nephew using a long span bridge as a Peter Pan sword and baseball bat without too much damage, and my jumping on an architectural model with the intent of destroying it, only to damage a knee when the model didn't budge. I was maybe 55 at the time, and could still dunk a basketball, so landing on something that didn't collapse as expected put me on my butt in a severe way.

It's the old "You can drive a Rolls Royce over a bridge made of cardboard" type of thing. This hull ain't going nowhere.

[peteski]

Thanks for the info Pete - both informative and amusing! 

[nkalanaga]

Sounds like your model is seaworthy, if it can be supported at the ends or in the middle without sagging.  It should be able to take even scale-size rogue waves.

[John]

This is pretty interesting ..

http://www.aukevisser.nl/supertankers/id240.htm

[Spades]

Pete

Since you are going large. http://gcaptain.com/prelude-flng-worlds-largest-floating-object-nearing-completion-video/#.VnHsiPkrK70

G

[pnolan48]

Here are some of the deck fittings: oversize winches and windlasses, deck houses, fire monitor stations, cargo cranes, hose handling cranes, anchor pockets.

[up1950s]

So where are you going to find a bottle big enough to put this in ?

[Alaska Railroader]

Me too .. my first carrier air wing, CVW8 on Nimitz was just introducing the F14As in the late 70s,  and thats what I remember

John, one of the bigger thrills in my life was when my husband and I got two of a very limited number of invites to tour the Nimitz back in '89 or '90.

My son is serving on the USS New Orleans but as a Marine. An Osprey, known for troubles, crashed the deck last week but no one was hurt, thankfully.

Pete, put a Z scale harbor scene on one of those large hulls 

Karin

[pnolan48]

Help! They're multiplying!

[up1950s]

So the more pointy bow though a bit longer reduces the interior cubic yards ?

Is that less space for goods ?

Is there a savings in fuel vs speed ?

Why not a more pointy stern to reduce or ease the suction or does that exist below the waterline already ?