Details

While waiting for the weather to change and allow the hull to be sprayed, I amused myself by making a few of the bits that will be needed later.
The stern crane was made from styrene tubing for the base with the main body and cab made from styrene oddments from the scraps box. I started to represent the telescopic jib by building up layers of thin sheet, but this was soon abandoned as impractical.  In the end a thicker piece of styrene was filed into “steps” at the end to look like the telescopic elements. The hydraulic ram was made from Albion Alloys brass tubing with 0.3mm tube fitted inside 0.5mm tube.
The foredeck crane was made in similar manner.
A feature seen on a number of photos is pair of yellow tanks with a framework around them in the manner of a shipping container. These were made from styrene and the framework was made from pieces of single bar railing from different PE frets.
I intend to adapt the L’Arsenal US battleship winches to represent the anchor winches and also the ones on the stern.
Four deck hatches made from PE and 10 thou styrene are the other details waiting to go.
The laboratory which was added to the fore deck has now also been made.
Shipping containers or laboratory modules were made simply by cutting styrene rectangular rod to length.