Top notch, Tim!

I'm a big fan of replacing round plastic parts with brass tube/rod, not just for strength when adding rigging, but to hid all those nasty seems and moulding marks.

I'll be looking to replace a fair bit of the moulded plastic masts with brass on my Liberty build.

Hi Tim

Looking superb, The 3D printed blocks are really effective.

Si

Finished the life rings at the stern today. The original Revell moldings weren’t that great, so I carved them off early in construction
I made new rings from .050 inch rosin core solder, forming the individual pieces around a suitable diameter rod...
...then filled the ends with cyanoacrylate, sanded them into seamless rings, and primed them.


After painting them red, I placed them inside their racks. I had originally intended to use the photoetch rack parts from the Tom’s Modelworks set, but since then the even better Squadron/Encore photoetch became available, so I used those instead.

Like the lifebelts Tim, Great idea with the solder.

Si

Among the resin upgrades provided in the Squadron/Encore kit were new propellers.

I had been satisfied with the original kit parts (white) and didn’t really see the need for improved props, but looking more closely at references I saw that the new ones are indeed more accurate. The kit parts credibly depict the Olympia’s unraked three-bladed propellers, but they are simplified and don't have the same skew (radial asymmetry of the blades) as the originals; the new propellers are better. Like the kit parts, they are also “handed”. That is to say, each prop is designed, like the originals, to fit on a particular side of the ship. In this case the port screw is right-handed (turns clockwise to generate forward thrust) and the starboard is left-handed (turns counterclockwise). Also, the propeller boss caps (hubs) on the kit parts are blunt, while the real ones were more pointed. The Squadron/Encore resin replacements more closely capture this detail as well.


The differences are not all that dramatic, but the new props do look better. Plus, the upgrade is a simple parts swap - nice job Squadron/Encore!

Tim,
I'm really enjoying this build. I started my USS Olympia last weekend. Keep posting!
Happy modelling,
Andrew

Hey Andrew,

Good luck with your Olympia! You are going to like this kit – 1959 plastic model design and molding technology at its best! I hope you bought the recent Squadron/Encore upgraded version. The extra goodies really do dress up the old girl.

One of the new parts I really like is the photoetch nameplate. Relief etched in brass, the nameplate is a big improvement over the oversized plastic version that came with the original kit.

The only change I made was to drill out the simulated attachment nail heads in the corners of the plate and replace them with real brass pins. Also, to highlight the text I spray painted the entire plate black, then sanded off the paint over the raised areas to expose the brass.

The new plate is a super easy way to add a professional looking touch to the display.

Back to the ship herself, the next details to be placed aboard were the main boat davits. Typical of ships of her day, Olympia had numerous boats nested inboard amidships. To get them to the water, she had a system of boat mounts which slid the inboard boats laterally along elevated rails to reach the ship’s sides. From there large davits, hinged at their bases, would tilt outboard to lower each boat into the water. The davits in the old Revell kit/toy were designed to be workable in the same way. Kinda cool for a kid I suppose, but this annoying design choice resulted in gaping holes for the hinges at the base of the superstructure which had to be filled in and sanded smooth prior to painting.


It also meant the davits themselves were simplified and a bit heavy. They are still decent though, and with a few improvements they can actually look pretty good.


The first of the details I added were the davit stops, which were U-shaped straps mounted on each davit hinged to swing up as the davit was lowered to limit its drop angle. I made these out of scrap from a l’Arsenal photoetch chains set. I used the chains themselves for the safety restraints which secured the davits to the deck.


I also added new wire strongbacks to the tops of the davit pairs to replace the excessively thick kit parts. Pulleys were from the Gold Medal Models photoetch set.


The GMM brass pulleys are beautifully etched parts designed to be folded in half to create a three dimensional look. I mounted them to the davits and rigged them with wire. Together with the new strongbacks and other bits, the completed davits look ready to let their little boats down into the sea.

And had I built them according to the original 1959 Revell design, I guess they would actually have been able to lower...!

Tim, this build is now beyond Museum standards. It is an class by itself!

Tim,
I agree with Gene. From your latest photos I could swear I was standing on the wharf looking at the old girl herself.
Mega kudos!
John

Brilliant job Tim, your attention to detail and finish is outstanding.

Si

Thank you guys, I appreciate your kind words!

Having completed the boats in the racks, I set about fitting the boats which hung directly from their davits. The two small cutters (“lifeboats” according to the Revell instructions) located on the superstructure between the racked boats came first. I had previously improved them with new keels, floorboards, gunwales, and oars. In addition, they now received new brass wire davits to replace the kit parts.

Photoetch pulley blocks to mount the boats to them came from an old Gold Medal Models Yamato set; they are tiny, but they are still fairly resilient. I set the pulley blocks securely into the boats with cyanoacrylate. These little guys would bear the whole weight of the cutters, so the connections had to be strong!

After the new davits were painted up and mounted to the superstructure sides, I attached the completed portside cutter by the pulleys with drops of cyano. There wasn’t much surface area to work with here, so I just did the best that I could; in the end, the bonds holding the boats to the davits are secure but very fragile. I also added some chain strongbacks and lateral supports between the little davits using the trusty l’Arsenal photoetch chains. Bent into gentle curves to give them a natural-looking hang, they are secured in place with Gator Glue.



The starboard side is a little different. One disadvantage I had noticed with the portside boat mounting is that it obscures the searchlight tower I had expended so much effort to scratchbuild. On the empty starboard side, though, the view of the tower remains unobstructed. I liked this, so I mounted the photoetch pulleys to the davits and attached the lower ends to the davit bases, as if the crew had taken the cutter out on some errand.



Meanwhile, the port cutter is standing by!

Absolutely stunning work Tim. If mine turn out half as good as yours when I get to it, I will be a very happy Man.....Cheers mark

Awesome work Tim! The only question I have is: How do you stop your fingers from finding the completed work and breaking something off? The reason I ask is, that mine seem to have no problem taking an oerlikon off here, a hose reel there, or whatever it is that is hiding behind my big clumsy hands

Superb workmanship Tim.

The level of detail is splendid.

Si

Hey Russell,

I do it all the time, unfortunately. Mounting the model on a temporary base helps, but I can't tell you how many times I knocked those *&%^#$ boats off their davits while working on other parts of the ship. And the rigging...!

Anyway, the last of the boats are now installed - the whaleboats mounted above the main deck aft. These, like the small ‘midships cutters, were mounted on lighter duty fixed davits by pulley blocks and falls. As with the smaller boats, I replaced the kit davits with brass wire and used leftover Gold Medal Models pulleys to mount them to the davits.


Delicate as the connections were on the small cutters, these larger boats were even more so due to the greater weight of the boats and the longer davits. These mounts, on the model as in real life, needed additional support as they hung the whaleboats out over the sides of the ship.
One source of support was the fixed mid-davit strongbacks mounted midway up which served to stiffen the twin davit mountings. I also added photoetch chain fore- and backstays as well as chain spanwires connecting the tops of the davit arms. An additional length of chain between the davits at thwart level served to check the inward swing of the suspended cutters. Along with photoetch embarkation ladders set amidships, these details added a bit of stability to these rather spindly assemblies.


Additional stability came from the forward and rear davit crossties. These fixed supports connected the davits to the superstructure at waist deck (01 level). Although the old 1959 Revell kit did supply these (parts 111 and 112), I opted for the much better photoetch replacements provided in the Tom’s Modelworks brass set. They fit perfectly, and they add a delicate sense of complexity to the structure.

Still getting better - I like the tidyness and neatness of this build, while I often prefer and build ships "used" it really suits this old lady to look her best!

Inspiring !

Cheers/Jan

Thanks Jan!

I too prefer a little more "used" character in a build, but after all the time I spent correcting kit shortcomings (as well as fixing my own mistakes), I found it hard to mess with her pristine finish...

The open door on the port side superstructure is a photoetch part from the Squadron/Encore set. The plastic kit parts had come with closed doors relief-molded into the superstructure, but I had screwed this one up earlier on with a wayward drop of super glue... so I opened it up to cover my blunder!

It worked out ok in the end; the opening is small and the interior dark, but if you get down low and use a penlight you can see the bulkheads and overhead girder detail I added in there. The red-brown planking visible through the door is a remnant of the Evergreen scribed plastic I had originally intended to use as the main deck.

The accommodation ladders on the ship’s sides were photoetch brass parts from the Gold Medal Models set. The Tom’s Modelworks and Squadron/Encore sets also provided these ladders, but they each seemed a little too wide, so I used the GMM parts. They were installed unaltered except for davits/tackle and supports for the upper landings made from bits of brass wire.

Installation of the ladders was straightforward, but painting turned out to be less so. The kit instructions recommend white, and a large scale USS Olympia model at the National Museum of the United States Navy in Washington, D.C. shows the accommodation ladders as white too... but I had seen other interpretations. Other models of the same era at the same museum, also painted with white hull and buff upper works, show the ladders in a deck tan color (lighter than the buff upper works), while 1890s-era black and white photographs of Olympia show them in a darker color which appears to be buff, or possibly even black. In the absence of definitive information, I went with the photographs and painted them buff with dark brown (i.e., varnished wood) landing grates. It may or may not be absolutely correct, but the darker color makes a pleasing contrast with the white hull.

Great work Tim,

Very tidy build, Your attention to detail through the open door really is worth it, it adds so much depth.

The rigging on the davits and accommodation ladder are impressive.

Thanks for sharing.

si

Hey Andrew,

For the replacement gun shields I used Evergreen .015 X .100 inch plastic strip.

To form the curved shapes of the shields, I cut pieces to their approximate length and then bent them around some brass rod. I used rod of slightly lesser diameter than I wanted for the final curve to offset the springback of the plastic. No trick to it really, just bend it and put pressure on it repeatedly until the revised shape starts to hold. Then glue it in place. If the curves just won’t take you can help this along by taping the pieces to the rod and dipping in hot water to fix the shape. Good luck with them!

best regards,
Tim

I do have one question for you, do you have a cover or case that you are going to put your Olympia in to protect all of the fine detail you added to her? Not to mention dust as well, I'd hate to have to dust a build like this. Very nice build Tim, and thank you for taking the time to share all of the little details as you've come along with her progression.