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Scratch building a dry dock
pascalemod
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Harju, Estonia
Member Since: June 07, 2018
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Posted: Sunday, August 12, 2018 - 08:32 PM UTC
Hi!
I wanna build a dry dock in 1/700.

Can you help me with suggestions:
- What to use for walls
- what to use for floor
- what to use for ladders

for cranes I can use PE. But I need help building the base. Legos? Plastic card shaded with pencil?

RobinNilsson
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Stockholm, Sweden
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Posted: Monday, August 13, 2018 - 02:56 AM UTC
It depends on how the original dock was built. Some are built by blasting a hole in the rock so most of the walls will be blasted rock with some concrete to fill in where needed or to make structures like ledges and stairs. Others are all concrete























and

This one in Helsinki is more of a dry harbour ...
Maybe go visit Suomenlinna?
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Suomenlinna/@60.1452507,24.982346,291m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x46920b8db8853885:0xc98ef166ae80717!8m2!3d60.1454!4d24.9881401?hl=en

















Mare Island, dry dock used by the US Navy


Portsmouth Navy Yard



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/USS_Greeneville_%28SSN_772%29_-_dry_dock_Pearl_Harbor_%281%29.jpg/1280px-USS_Greeneville_%28SSN_772%29_-_dry_dock_Pearl_Harbor_%281%29.jpg
Link to Wikimedia, USS Greeneville in dry dock



A few images to feed your imagination and creativity.

/ Robin
zedhol
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Ohio, United States
Member Since: December 01, 2009
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Posted: Monday, August 13, 2018 - 12:31 PM UTC
I know that this is in the scratchbuilding forum, but there is a kit in 1/700 scale for what you are looking for. Comes two in the box, so you can customize it quite nicely. If you look closely you will see that it looks very similar to some of the examples that Robin provided.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/1158185-skywave-sw-07-dry-dock

A quick check gives several on ebay for sale, fairly cheap.
pascalemod
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Harju, Estonia
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Posted: Monday, August 13, 2018 - 10:43 PM UTC
Thanks for the provided examples. I am quite sure how mine has to look, the steeped walls or straight walls, concrete, color etc. The Sky Wave is made for Fletcher class destroyer - I need one thats similar to Dry Dock 4 in Norfolk, VA, one that takes IOWA with room to spare.

I was thinking to buy a bunch of legos but seems like Legos are not so cheap to buy even in bylk. Plastic card and such might be the next best bet.
RobinNilsson
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Posted: Monday, August 13, 2018 - 11:09 PM UTC








https://i.redd.it/4jb0ib5yu3qz.jpg LARGE image, nice view of the dock walls, scaled down view below



Build from plasticard. The surface structure/texture of concrete scaled down to 1/700 will be smoother that matt paint anyway.
Large surface details like small joint lines between slabs of concrete or the mould lines should be replicated. The forms used when pouring concrete can be made from individual planks or from large sheets of plywood. The planks result in lots of narrrow "strips" in the finished concrete, big sheets result in large smooth surfaces with distinct lines. If planks are nailed together to form large boards then both types of texture will be visible.

Planks:


Plywood sheets:




Hard to tell:


Don't know which method they used back in 1919 ...

The real trick is in the paintjob, to avoid a uniform surface ...
/ Robin
timmyp
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Virginia, United States
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Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - 06:23 AM UTC
Nice pictures of various drydocks, Robin! Are any of those your personal pix, or did you find them in various places on the Internet?

Good examples, too, of the various textures & looks of concrete that has been poured into forms. But it also begs the question: what color is concrete?

Tim
RobinNilsson
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Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 - 07:19 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Nice pictures of various drydocks, Robin! Are any of those your personal pix, or did you find them in various places on the Internet?

Good examples, too, of the various textures & looks of concrete that has been poured into forms. But it also begs the question: what color is concrete?

Tim



Pictures from the internet. I asked G about torrdocka, the Swedish word for a non floating drydock, which gave me the Swedish and Finnish examples. Then I asked about drydock which gave me the others, including floating drydocks.
At the end I asked G about "Dry Dock 4 Norfolk" which gave me the last ones, Mare Island could have worked as well.
Swedish makes a distinction between torrdocka (dry) and flytdocka (floating or submersible) since we don't have the type of tidal harbours where a closed bassin is used to get rid of the effects of tide.

What's the colour of Money, errr concrete ...
Someone told me many years ago that there is often a faint yellowish tint to concrete, not just plain grey.
That goes for clean concrete, once there is dirt on it the painter needs to consider what kind of dirt it is. Is there moss or algae growing on it, could be green/brown/red/rust-coloured? Is it near something that creates soot, such as an old railroad? Other airborne contaminations?
Calcium can also cause white/grey patches on concrete. Trying to eliminate this effect by tinkering with the recipe when mixing/pouring can lead to weaker concrete.
What kind of sand or rock material was used when mixing it? Grey, black, reddish or yellow sand?
If we just stick to granite it can range from almost black via grey to red. Asphalt made with red granite will be a dull pale red once the topmost layer of tar has been worn off ...

The only usable answer is to try and get pictures of a the object in question, specific drydock in this case, or a selection of typical examples when modelling a generic drydock/bridge/embankment/wall.

We humans tend to generalise things, it makes it easier for our brain to analyse and organise what we see and hear.
Asphalt roads are black. Usually wrong.
Concrete is grey. Usually wrong.
Water is blue. Hmm, on postcards yes but usually almost any other colour.
Rust is red-orange: Less than 25% correct, it goes from red-orange to a very dark brown.
Similar generalisations come into play when painting and weathering models.

/ Robin
18Bravo
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Colorado, United States
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Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2018 - 03:08 AM UTC
Interesting project. I know what I would use, especially for the dry docks with the "step" design. You can replicate this very easily with insulating foam. It's lightweight, easy to cut and very cheap. You can then coat it with a thin layer of plaster and texture it any way you want.
Alternately you could use sheet rock. I've used it for several projects. The downside is that it's heavy, and you have to first wet it to get the paper off. The it has to dry again thoroughly before you can use it. The advantage is the you can simply carve your detail to into.
If I were doing the straight wall design I'd probably use foam for the horizontal surfaces and sheet rock for the vertical ones.
zedhol
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Ohio, United States
Member Since: December 01, 2009
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Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2018 - 09:00 AM UTC
looks like your timing is perfect.

Just announced on Model Shipwrights

https://modelshipwrights.kitmaker.net/news/29676

This is the HLJ link

https://hlj.com/product/WKO85400

Based upon the size of the overall package it looks like the battleship sized version is big enough for a model about 37 cm long.

That should be big enough for all US Battleships.
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