SD 14 General Cargo Ship

romanmodels

New Member
I got this marvellous model is a birthday, Christmas present in 2007 and have been building it on and off at weekends. Since then. So I thought I would post some pictures of the build here.

The model comes in three sections bow middle and Stern of the ship, each section consists of two boxes of A3 Manila card with the printed parts on them, and the instructions for that section.

The model builds the basic steel structure for British registered version of the ship. So extras like propellers, anchors, engine and engine room machinery are not included.

The designer of the model made it as a teaching aid for cadets and firefighters, so you build the model as if it was a real ship.with the cardboard taking the place of steel sheet and it gives you an insight into the structure of ships.

I decided not to build it with cutaway portions and that I would add an engine and add in oil and water tanks and workshops and provision stalls on the engineering flats and the engine room shelter deck's.
SD14 stands for shelter deck and the 14 is the 14,000 ton displacement of the ship, shelter deck is a secondary deck inside of the forward part of the hull.
the good reference book that shows all the ships made and their history is SD14 the full history by John Lingwood. isbn 1-901703-64-9. It also contains a reproduction of a general arrangement drawing of one of the ships.
I started off with the intention of making each section in turn from the bow but then changed it to making the ship completely in one go from bow to stern as I thought it would be easier to build not having to worry about damaging the finished bow section while building the midsection, especially when it came to putting the whole plates on as you need to be turned on its side and the top.
I started off building the model on an inch thick piece of ply the looked flat but it wasn't and I ended up with a banana boat well just the bottom. I then got seem MDF with some strips screwed to the underside to keep it flat and then made sure it was level on top of a planning chest strip of MDF is about 14 inches wide by 8 feet long gives a little bit of room to manoeuvre the model on also handy is in metre rule just check the model is flat. I used to separate table to cut out the parts,a 50 cm rule is also useful to cut out some parts as they are longer than a foot.
Sorry to the mix of measurements but I am dyslexic and started school when metric was introduced in the UK. That's enough text to now go the first group of pictures of the start of the bow bottom.
 

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romanmodels

New Member
the six pictures in my last post show the buildup of the double bottomed Hull under number one hold and part of number two hold, the double bottomed Hull is split into separate tanks, port centre and starboard and are used as ballast tanks to trim the ship.

The first picture in this post is of the instructions you get as well as showing how to construct the model they also have pictures of the real ships being instructed and snippets of information about the ship these snippets are also on the sheets of parts which are shown in the next picture. The third picture is of the railings as being laser cut by a third party Zeist Bouwplaten a Dutch models site and are about 35 euro. The fourth picture I have extra parts I have brought, three anchors 2 the bow and one spare and 2 propellers again one is a spare. Picture five shows the number one forward bulkhead with frames and stretches that make up the bow. The six picture shows the number two watertight bulkhead in place, along with the hold pillars and centreline plates.
 

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sjsquirrel

Member
Source?

What's the source of this model? Can you provide a link or more info? It looks incredible.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your progress.

Steve
 

inky

Member
I am giddy with excitement on seeing the progress of this build. I would love to build this marvelous ship one day.
 

romanmodels

New Member
ok some more info and some more pictures the model was designed and illustrated by Capt G.B. Robinsonand is sold under licence by Marcle models http://www.marcle.co.uk it costs £280 oversee orders £310 for the complete model the individual sections forward midships and after each cost £105 overseas £120 the scale is 1:70 and is about 7 feet in length link for railing is http://zeistbouwplaten.nl

the next four photos show the addition of the longitudinal box girders and transverse box girders that make up the support of the shelter deck and the pontoon Hatch covers. The two longitudinal box girders are a bit fiddly to glue up as for part of their length. They have a step to take the Hatch covers but they also have formers inside the box girder that poke through this step.they also need dry fitting to make sure that they are not too out of square. Once they are glued and dry . I found that they needed the slots that fit over the corrugated bulkhead trimmed or opened out so they fit my corrugations. The final picture shows the edition of the web frames which are wider frames that help support their ends of the transverse box girders.
 

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Z

Zathros

When you're done, fiberglass the Hull and sell them with the top side made out of PVC for $800 or $900 bucks, you'll get some takers!
 

romanmodels

New Member
Zathros deprive people of the fun building this model.
a bit of history first i am actually painting the hull at the moment and was just checking. I'd got my heights right for the hull painting and remembered this picture in the book . The caption reads a 1978 view of Austin and Pickersgill's Southwick shipyard the ship at the fitting out berth in the left foreground is cluden and to the right of the fitting out quay are the fitting out workshops. To the right of these is a steel stockyard with another larger stockyard further to the right. The paler coloured sheds right on the River in the centre of the picture are the fabrication and erecting shops built-in 1976; the darker sheds inland date from the laying out of the new yard in 1955 . The sd14 on the far bank of the river wear is believed to be the Australind fitting out at the pallion quay, the former shorts Bros quay which was acquired by Bartram's in the 1960 on the conventional berths on the north bank the grey hold aegira is almost ready to be launched, with the funing in the early stages of construction alongside. beyond them are the covered building birth,Stern section and block assembly Hall dating from 1975.
In 1978 . This shipyard was arguably the most up-to-date shipyard in the world at the time but destined to operate but only another 10 years before government policies dictated the end of large-scale merchant shipbuilding in Britain and the site was quickly razed to the ground. Shows what nationalisation can do to an industry.
back to the build next picture shows the transverse beams fixed that support the shelter deck at this stage. I then decided that I would build the model in one go, so that I wouldn't be building a new section on a completed part of the build. So next we have the bottom plates the midsection and Stern laid out this picture was taken at the end of March. The next one was taken in October showing all the floors in place. This is this builds equivalent to making tracks. I can cut a sheet out of these floors in an hour and about 200 of them.
 

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romanmodels

New Member
forgot to mention in the above post but you will notice that I have changed the base in the last picture from the war before this is what I thought was a nice flat piece of plywood but it was slightly bent, so I ended up with a banana shaped boat when I got the stage of the last picture. I fixed it by cutting across the whole where the midsection joins the bow and where it joins the aft section the cut went through the floors but not the bace plates. It did still have a tendency to bend up. So until I'd got the bulkheads and the box girders running the length of the ship. I kept a stack of about five paperbacks placed along the length of the ship to keep it flat and it seemed to work.
 
Z

Zathros

There are many who would love to make an R/C version of this ship. There far fewer would take on such a project as this. It is one of the best reasons to follow this thread, seeing her come together. I could not do this model. Life and other obligations would just rob me of the time and the I feel the sands of time running short in my hour glass as it is. :)
 

romanmodels

New Member
i don't think that it is that dornting and i whoud have finish by now but i have only worked on it at weekends and theen maily in the winter. have just painted the hull to day so have a nice green deck and have done a yellow strake along the sides. primed the topsides with gray spray primer and bellow the fully laden line whith red/brown primer used 3 cans and need one more to do the rudder, yester day . i will paint over the top part with a more red couler.
 
Z

Zathros

Well you have a new fan in me, and all I can say is that you build look quite right!
 

romanmodels

New Member
A jump forward for the first picture as I have just finished the bulk of the painting on the hull and it was looking so good. I just had to share with you all.:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
Going back in time.
The next picture shows tank top plates in place and the bases for the propeller shaft bearings.
The third shows the watertight bulkheads in place, the smaller hold in the middle is the dead centre of the ship and has watertight hatch covers enabling this hold to be used as ballast tank sinking the ship centrally in the water or for carrying a liquid cargo.
The fourth is a close-up of the aft side of the aft engine room watertight bulkhead showing the sliding door giving access to the shaft tunnel escape.
Which is seen in the fifth photograph with the tunnel sides in place and another ballast tank bulkhead in place.
Moving on to the six picture showing the buildup of the ballast tanks either side of the escape tunnel that will form the base of number five hold.

 

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romanmodels

New Member
:wave:the next fix of Sd14
the first picture is from the bow's looking aft with the shelter deck box girders in place and the web frames holding the transverse girders. You will notice that the midsection hatches are wider.
the side view showing a large number 2 hold and behind it. The number 3 hold called a deep tank . This is a totally watertight tank and can be used to hold liquids or to sink the ship century in the water as it is the centre of gravity of the ship.
looking forward from number 4 hold. From this view. You can see the smaller Hatch openings to number 3 hold.
the next shows longitudinal deck beams in place.
sorry about the focus being a bit pants in this picture, but I think you can make out the deck beams the engineering flats. These are subdecks in the engine room.
another one with not very good focus but you can see the engine room flat decks in place and the access ladders fitted. I am adding in extras don't come with the model so fitting all water tanks and workshops in on the engineering flats. The far side has water tanks full, clean and drinking water, across the forward end of the engine room are clean and dirty oil and fuel tanks the aft side of the near flat has the electrical store and workshop and against the opening the engine is the control room with all the engine control panels. I left the control panel out.
the final picture shows a completed rooms and tanks on the engineering flats from above. It also shows the well under the engine when it is fitted.
 

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Z

Zathros

Incredible! This is really awesome. I have never seen one of these built up like this. Keep up the pictures. Excellent!
 

romanmodels

New Member
Next we have the buildup of the Stern above the propeller one seeing the buildup from aft and one from the front. This is built up as a separate unit and is only fixed by a small area to the rest the ship and is a bit of a weak point until all the ribs are in place to make number five hold. The third picture shows the Stern piece in place on the rest of the ship.the next two pictures show the ship from the top. the sixth show's the aft bulkhead to number five hold with the tunnel escape rising up and accessing into the steering flat and it's aft bulkhead with the frames to support transom and the spacing between acting as a rope locker.I added these bits on out of sequence to add a bit more support to this Stern part before adding on the shelter deck to the rest of the ship

I forgot to mention an earlier post that I have saved all the waste pieces of card offcuts, which is worked out a good move as I have had to remake some parts especially Hull plates. Also proving useful at a later stage are the roughly 3 mill wide strips card in between tank top longitudinal is as I'm using them to represent the swageing that characterises the sides of the deck houses and accommodation block
 

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romanmodels

New Member
bit of a break in posting build progress but had been sorting out a new laptop and getting the voice recognition program to work properly

First three photos are various views showing the shelter deck transverse beams in place and the start of the hull frames being put in place starting from just in front of where the foredeck starts.
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The bow seen from the side and with frames in on the bow you can start to see the shape of the hull.
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Start of the shelter deck deck plates going down and in the next picture bow section shelter deck is completed and the pontoon hatch covers been made and are in place.
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Shelter deck plating around number four hatch and the engineering room.
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Midships shelter deck plating with two small watertight hatch covers of number threehold to the sides of hatch openings on their runners and all the frames in place.
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looking at the forward number one hold bulkhead. In the background you can make out the aft number two hold bulkhead and nicely illustrates the rise in height of the forward end of the ship to allow the bow to clear the sees better.
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there is no fixed number three shelter deck hold although the centreline plate is fixed in position to allow a temporary bulkhead to be put in place if on the third hold is needed otherwise is just a big member to hold.
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romanmodels

New Member
shelter deck watertight bulkhead looking forward from the engine room.
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looking forward from the stern with the top deck longitudinal and transverse box girders in place you can just see the ribs for the sides of number five hold in the bottom of the hold, I chickened out fitting these until I put in the deck beams as their is no shelter deck in number five hold and so it was hard to correctly locate the ribs.
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an oblique view of the same from the bow's
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the fitting out of the engineering flats with the provision stores on the starboard side and on the port side engineers and electricians workshops.note the rather large empty space where an engine would sit.
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back to the bows and fitting of the longitudinal deck beams.
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bit of a bad blurry picture of the Stern again longitudinal deck beams and transverse beams between the steering flat and the counter I think is a rope store is in their.
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