Two Possible Ideas That I am Thinking About Doing

[PFJN]

Hi,
The topic of this group build really sounds interesting, and I have a couple ideas that I am thinking about.  The first would b to convert the old 1/125 scale Lindberg Minesweeper model into a research vessel, by adding an A-Frame to the stern along with some cranes, winches and maybe a small hangar for handling a towed SONAR (or something similar).

The other idea is a little more out there though, in that I am thinking of taking an old Airfix HMS Fearless model and converting it into a Carribean or Mediterranean "Party Boat/Vacation Resort".  In general I was thinking of replacing the landing craft in the davits with sail boats, covering the flight deck in sand with maybe a little "Tiki Bar" and Beach Volley Ball courts, and then making the stern well into some sort of "Swim Platform/mooring space for Jetskis, Windsurfers, and kayaks etc".   I might alos add one of those inflatable water slides from the flight deck (along with a boarding ladder for people to climbe back onboard back up to deck), and maybe would alos update the ship's superstructure a little to add a big enclosed bar and/or restaurant space either in front of the bridge, or overlooking the beach/flight deck.

I'm not sure if I will have time to complete both (since I'm kind of a slo builder), but I kind of like both ideas, so I will see what I might be able to do 

Regards

Pat

[LemonJello]

Both ideas sound really, really good.  As moderator, I say:

[PFJN]

Thanks,

Here's a rough sketch of the "Party LPD" idea (I hope I scaled it right).

Pat

[The Rat]

An idea I'll never get around to, because I've had it for about 20 years, and you can have if you like, is along the lines of your party boat. I was thinking of an old aircraft carrier conversion, with a helipad, mini-golf course, large pools, maybe even some carnival rides, like a roller coaster. Tennis courts, basketball, even an ice rink would be possible. Bungee jumping? Sure, why not? The carrier flight deck gives you more room, literally(!), for all sorts of things.

[PFJN]

Hi,
That sounds like a cool idea.

Below, is a quick sketch of what I was thinking of for the Minesweeper conversion.

The Rust colord thing on the back would be an A-Frame for handling stuff over the stern.
The Red Box would be a small Hangar for a towed body, and the Orange cylinder ontop of the Hangar would be the winch for the towed body.
The Yellow Box would just be an extension of the deckhouse amidship for labs.
The Light Green shape would be a revised smokestack.
The Dark Green Box would be another small Hangar for handling stuff over the side of the ship, where the Black box shown in the profile view would be the door to that Hangar.
The Light Blue shape respresents a revised enclosed Bridge, and the Dark Blue shape forward is just another deckhouse extension (if needed).

An alternate idea would be to get rid of the Dark B,lue deckhouse forward and replace it with a location where you could store some 20 ft containers for stores and/or scientific equipment.  Like I said though its really just a rough sketch for now.

Pat

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Apply "Scale-O-Rama" and make it 1/144th scale and that would make a lot of fittings more readily available.  FinsRin has several of the same kit and I still have one sitting here taking up space with the intention of making it a patrol craft in 1/144th scale.  Same plan for the 1/131 scale PG-85 USS Defiance from Revell to make it 1/144th scale so I can use the parts from a Revell Type 43 Fast Attack Craft on the Defiance hull. 

[Kerick]

I like both of these ideas. The party boat needs more room for sun bathers on the foreward deck and maybe a helideck on the research ship. Just my $0.02.

[PFJN]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions.

When I originally bought the Minesweeper kit I had thought about doing a scale-o-rama type build, but since this group build is meant to be military stuff converted to civilian use I thought it might be best to leave it as-is so that it would reflect a real world warship class converted to something else.

For the Party Boat I guess another thought might be to stretch the converted "flight deck" all the way to the stern to provide more "beach" space. 

Pat

[finsrin]

John Wayne's yacht (Wild Goose) was formerly a USN mine sweeper.  Larger navy ships can become even larger yachts.

[Buzzbomb]

All great ideas for this type of build

[PFJN]

Oops,
When I dug out my HMS Fearless kit I discovred it is missing a sprue, that included the helicopters, davits, a couple superstructure pieces and the stern gate.  The missing sprue may eventually turn up, since its possible that I just put it into the wrong box but in the mean time I went ahead and ordered another copy of the kit off eBay.  That way I can use the second kit to help me model replacement parts for my conversion and still have a second kit if I want to build that one as the original ship.

Overall the superstructure pieces don't look like they will be too hard to replicate since they are mosdtly flat pieces (or only have a really simple curve) with a few rectangular ducts and stuff added on.  Additionally I won't be using the helicopters in this build, and the lack of the kit davits might be an excuse for me to try and replace them with something that looks a little more modern.   As such, the only thing I'm not sure of is the stern gate.  Its not really very complicated, but does have a kind of "waffle pattern" on one side.  I can look into trying to replicate that, or I may try and scratchbuild something that looks cleaner, assuming that when the "whatif" was converted the owners decided to go with something a bit cleaner looking than what was on the original warship 

Pat

[PFJN]

Hi,
I finally got a chance to get started on this build.  I really like these old Airfix kits, since I had built a number of them when I was younger.  And I always liked how most of this particular kit fit togther.  Unfortunately though, over time sometimes the kits parts can get a little warped.  In the particular kit I am building the starboard hull side in particular ended up warping a bit forward.

Fortunately by glueing the parts together one section at a time and cutting the main deck into three parts (that I could temporarily fit those in between the hull sides as I glued them together) I have been able to deal with most of this warpage, though as shown in the images below you can see just a little bit of a gap between the sheel and deck right near the staboard side bow.  Hopefully with a little more work I can try and still clean this up a bit.

In addition I have also sanded down the flight deck to remove the raised details there.

Hopefully once I finish cleaning up the bow I may be able to start painting the hull. 

Regards

Pat

[LemonJello]

Off to a good start! Onward!

[PFJN]

Hi,
Sorry for the slow progress, I don't always get alot of free time to do everything that I'd like each week 

Here are a couple images of where I currently am at though.  I think I've decided to not extend the deckhouse forward, but I did build it up aft, (as shown by the reddish brown area.  I also took the time to shave off some stuff from the hull and superstructure.  I think that the pieces on the hull may have just been meant to be vertical rub rails or something like that near where the side davits are, while the pieces in the superstructure may have been external vents.  In general I figured for a commerical/passanger ship a cleaner hull and superstructure might look nicer.  Additionally I am also thinking of maybe deleting the aft mast since the ship won't really need alot of radars and such (though it may need some SATCOMs and TV/Comms antennas added).

Anyway, I've painted the lower hull black for now, but eventually intend to hull a red hull bottom with a broad black boot topping.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to do a little more work soon.

Pat

[Kerick]

Lots of party space on that rear deck!

[finsrin]

A long ignored kit.  Refreshing to see you are building one.  Neat configuration !

[PFJN]

Hi,

I did a little web surfing looking for some free 3D models of davits, cranes and small crfaft and tried printing them out at 1/600 for use on this build.  Overall they came out better than I had hoped, as shown below.  I inadvertantly broke the keel off one of the sailboat figures and there are a couple small holes that will need to be filled in, but overall I think that they turned out nicely.  The cranes that I printed turned out a little smaller than I was hoping for, so I might use them as smaller cranes at the transom for handling stuff in the welldeck, and look for some larger crane models for use on the former "fliht deck".  I also am not sure if these are the davits I will end up using or not, but wanted to see how they looked.

Regards

Pat