Newbuild Nbr 29 "little" Voyager of the seas

[ahecht]

Thanks for the update. This is a fascinating project!

[bigkauhuna]

John, you have a wonderful talent in building the ship models. Thank you for sharing with the ppl in cruise critic.:rolleyes:

[modelbuilder]

Another message from the model shipyard. Electronics seem to be fine. I hope to do a next trial soon. I can not go by myself, another modeller has to come with me with a model tug boat to push the Voyager back in case something happens. So this person lmust be availabe, weather must be good...

 

But I have been working on the construction, the wellness deck above the bridge is nearly done.

As you can see still some trimming to do. The peek-a-boo bridge does not give a clear view to the bridge. The bridge has consoles and so on, but you will not be able to see anything so I decided not to make windows there. The opening in the sundeck was also made. I can not simply copy/past as my hull is 20 mm too narrow so I have to compensate the difference even for this small differerence. One will never see that but I have to make sure everything still fits at the end.

 

But I need you help /opinion. Looking at pictures from the Voyager over different years and other Eagle class ships, the decks have colors from beige to grey or light brown to taupe color. I painted the deck above the bridge a bit darker to see what looks better. The front deck is lighter. What looks better?

 

I intended not to add any lights as you cannot see them in daylight. I will never take the model on the water when dark. But I saw an exhibition in Germany recently where they built model cities. I was amazed by the lights (it gets dark every 15 minutes) and what LED's can do for models these days. They are very bright and very small. I will not install a lot of LED's but only those that can be seen even in daylight. So I did a test

 

Here is the adult pool. After the LED is in place I will fill the pool with a liquid that becomes hard and transparent. the lights will be evenly distributed over the pool. Every jacuzzi will get one LED too.

I will be adding some 50 LED's over the ship. The LED's are good, inexpensive but again a lot of work to connect the whole thing.

 

More to come later,

Best regards,

John

[curcurt]

Thanks for the update, keep the pictures coming for this project. You are a very talented person.

[Pomperaugrr]

Amazing work! I have to say the color of the decking above the bridge looks closer to what I recall on the Voyager Class ships.

 

Eric

[pzerba]

I have no opinion for color - but must say this is absolutely amazing. Thanks for sharing

[modelbuilder]

It's a new year, hapy new year everyone. I hope many of you have facinating cruises waiting.

 

I had some time in the holidays so I have been working on the model again. Some things take a lot of time to make and they are hardly noticeable. But I have been working at the pool area. All those round shapes are very time consuming to make. The jacuzzi's were difficult becasue I had to make each layer seperately. I have to make everything myself, there is nothing I can buy ready to use. The 3 levels were the deckchairs come next to each side of the poolbar are all bent are time consumers, but my favorite part to make.

I also inserted some LED's at the pools. The painting is temporarily becasue it requires still a lot of sanding and filler and more sanding before the final paint is added.

I have also done some tests on the teakwood-like surface, and it will look great.

 

The actual pools themselves are colored in beige, but with the LED the color was just not right. Now blue paint and blue color looks better. It reflects a bit hard on the white surfaces, but that will be smoother when everything is painted.

 

A transparent gel will poored into the pools and the jacuzzi's that will become hard as glass.

Edited January 2, 2013 by modelbuilder

[ehfl]

I love it! Great work :)

 

It would be very neat to see a model of Oasis or Allure, complete with water-jets at the aft-pool.

[modelbuilder]

I have been looking at the Oasis, but I doubt I would ever be able to get the plans from this ship. I got the plans by exception from the Voyager, and todays sucurity... It would be impossible to build that model without plans anyway.

But to make it large enough to see all the details, I's have to use the same scale I have for the Voyager, meaning the model would be nearly 3 meters long. But no doubt I can make it.

 

Anyway, little Voyager is being further built. I have the pools almost ready. I have made some lounge chairs myself, and I have made molds to make the seats, becasue they will be visible in the windjammer and Viking Crown. I will be needing lots of them and absolutely lightweight for stability.

 

Here is what she looks like today;

 

Still color to add, the Windjammer is almost done. The construction inside is largely based on the real thing, only it functions as support for the deck above. A difficult thing is the widows. I have milled out supports and built it into a construction that also supports the deck above, and will hold the windows. It is just a construction, so when the green teinted windows will be added, they will have the blue-green colored lines on them, and the white construction will not be visible anymore. the floor of the Windjammer will be painted so it looks like the real carpeted Windjammer floor. Only the chairs and table will remain white, or they cannot be seen otherwise.

You can see the base for the Viking crown there, it holds 2 decks and they have elevator doors and one "glass" elevator that can be seen. There is a big window there so I had to make the elevators visible.

 

I have a cool idea about the Viking Crown. I have a fible optic wire I will imbed in the floor of the insicde of the Viking crown, following the contours of the windows. It gives a soft blue light. When you(re in the real thing they have lights there too.

 

To be continued....

 

John

Edited January 28, 2013 by modelbuilder

[klingoncruiser]

That is amazing. Best wishes in finishing the model. :)

[rubrrick]

John, thank you so much for bringing us along with you and sharing your beautiful work. I look forward to the finished product, which looks to be in the not too distant future!;)

 

Rick

[Texancruisers]

How amazing!! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent!!! I too will be interested to see the finished product, as others have stated!!! Keep up the good work!!!

[schwpaul]

You are truly delivering WOW with this model! Thank you for sharing.

 

Paul

[Highlander]

John,

Now these models are the WOW factor. Absolutely amazing!

Cheers,

[Darkwolfe]

Every time this thread pops back up, I think "Cool, more process on the model!" Never disappointed either. Fantastic job!

[erbunny]

Welcome back, John. I , too, am always thrilled to see your updates, esp as I have sailed on Voyager. Beautiful craftsmanship !

[CruiseIreland]

Just discovered this thread tonight. Your work is so detailed and painstaking...it is FANTASTIC! Well done. I am really looking forward to the finished ship. Ken

[modelbuilder]

 

Thanks for the remarks y'all.

This is a test for the windows. I obviously need to trim the sundeck or the roof of the Windjammer café, but I'm near to move up one deck. When that deck is trimmed and installed aI can put in the top windows. Very time consuming thing to do.

I have made a mold to make a few hundred chairs and tables, lots of those are for the windjammer. I have to glue those in one by one before the deck is glued in, I cannot reacht that are anymore after.

 

John

[curcurt]

Great job, keep the pictures coming.:)

[modelbuilder]

I added some more paint here and there. window supports aft are all installed meanwhile. The upperdeck is not fully installed yet. I have now trimmed it to exact size, but I have to install the Windjammer cafe windows fist before I can glue in the upper deck. The curved windows are tough to make to fit perfect in the round and tilted shape.

 

John

[schwpaul]

She is looking fantastic!

[pzerba]

I'm enthralled with each update. What talent!

[travelplus]

I love your ships. Could we open up a business together onboard and call it Models On Sea? You build and I'll help you to market and sell it.

[UNV-IT!!!]

Looking great

[modelbuilder]

Time for another update.

I have spent hours making those windows at the windjammer cafe. They are very time consuming, especially the rear round window. They are made in parts of about 2 inches long each, and are made from 2 components. I added the green-blue frame after the green teinted windows were installed. But it is all in place now for the rear part of the ship. The forward part will follow now. The deck (roof of the Windjammer) in not in final position yet, and when it is, I need to make edges that will nicely blend in with the windjammer windows.

 

The yellow tape on where the Viking crown will rest is to prevent dust goes in there. The windws are plastic and because of static electricity they attract dust. With lots of sanding to follow I taped that of until the viking crown will be made.

 

The large window under the Viking crown I made new. I did not like the one I made first, this one is better. the pools are far from ready. I added a type of gel that is supposed to simulate water, but it turns the blue color of the jaccuzi's green:mad: so I will have to mill out that stuff and paint it again. the "wood" surroundings are a test to see what it will look like. I used to make real teak wood flooring but I decided to try this new technique instead. Saves weight and can be better made into detail.

John