Britain's bergship: A 1/350 scale HMS Habakkuk "ice" aircraft carrier.

[seadude]

In some respects a smaller scale "complete" model and the bits and bobs you already have, particularly around the cutaway interior structure, to my view is actually more informative around the project.

I already did that long ago with my 1/700 scale Habakkuk model. Picture below.

A diagram with the full size craft, with the built section that is on display highlighted might also give a very real comparison of how big this was with out going fullsize build which would appear to be almost impractical if downright impressive.

A diagram won't suffice for my needs. It's full 1/350 scale or bust! Damn the German torpedoes and full pykrete ahead! 

[seadude]

Current status of this entire project:

German uboat = DONE
Habakkuk "houseboat" prototype = DONE
Habakkuk bridge island superstructure = 40% done
Habakkuk main hull = Working on drafting schematics to send to a plastics company to hopefully make.
Habakkuk interior cross section = 60-70% done
Habakkuk armament = 5% done
Aircraft for Habakkuk = Not started
Display base = Not started

Another item which I just recently gave thought to creating, but which will not be included on the display base, is making and showing an interior section of the Habakkuk, but show what the interior hangars could potentially look like. It would be a small display where you are looking overhead/downward above the aircraft storage/hangar level.
The below pics illustrate my idea. To "cut costs" so to speak, I'm going to use part of the hangar bay deck from a 1/350 scale Trumpeter USS Franklin ESSEX class aircraft carrier model. You can see in the bottom picture below where I scribed how long and wide I want the deck floor piece to be and where the aircraft elevator is on the far right side. The measurements aren't perfect for the model kit deck piece nor for the blueprint in the other pic. I'm going to have to "fudge" things a bit to make this new interior cross section display work. But I'm hoping things will turn out fairly ok.

[seadude]

Well, this is going to be costly.  

About 2 weeks ago, I contacted a plastics company in my area to see what it would take to create at least one portion of the hull for my Habakkuk model. I did tell them I wanted a material that was lightweight, cheap, but also strong. I also wanted to use a thickness of at least 1/4" inch for all the walls.
The dimensions for at least one portion of the hull that I gave them were to be 2 feet long x 6 3/4" inches high x 10 1/4" inches wide.
In short, this would have been roughly the same as the prototype box hull piece I made and showed in earlier posts.
Oh, also, I asked for dividers (for lack of a better term) to be put inside to prevent the walls from bowing in. This is similar to what I did with my hull prototype section.
So anyway.............I just got a reply back this afternoon. For just building one hull section, they would charge me at least $275.00 + Shipping. And the structure would be made of black ABS plastic.
I'm not fond of black.    If I were to use it, it would probably have to have at least 2 coats of gray primer to completely cover the black. And I took a look at pictures of ABS plastic sheets on the Net, Why does ABS plastic look like it has a rough surface to it? Kind of like the rough surface of the skin of an orange?
This is also not what I want. I was hoping instead the surface would be smooth like regular plastic sheet.
And anybody know what glues work best for ABS plastic? And what doesn't work?
So............$275-300 just for one hull section. But my model needs two. So at least $600 total. But that's if I were to have them built with ABS plastic. God only knows what the cost would be for other types of plastic. 

[scooter]

And anybody know what glues work best for ABS plastic? And what doesn't work?

Besides Superglue?  Weld-On ABS solvents and Plastruct Plastic Weld.  I've got 4 pieces of 4" square ABS I bought back when I was going strong on the bus conversion (which, like my mojo for plastic is somewhere in the Pine Barrens cavorting with the Jersey Devil) to replace one of the control panels.  Butt welded with Plastic Weld, they've held up for close to ten years at this point.

[seadude]

I just found out some devastating news. 
The town of Jasper in Alberta Province in Canada has recently suffered at least 30-50% destruction due to severe wildfires in that area.
One particular place in that town which I don't know if it was destroyed or not is the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum & Archives.
That would be a main point of interest for any inquiries and research concerning the Project Habakkuk prototype that was built on Patricia Lake not far from the town. If the museum is lost, then so too would be all the records and history related to that prototype.
Here's a few links:
https://weather.com/news/news/2024-07-25-wildfire-devastates-jasper-town-canada-rockies
https://www.fitzhugh.ca/local-news/up-to-half-of-jasper-burned-by-wildfire-9268716
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/photo-galleries/in-pictures-jasper-wildfire-aftermath-1.6976875

[Weaver]

Just heard about that from my cousin in Canada.

Hope the museum is okay.

[Weaver]

I just found out some devastating news. 
The town of Jasper in Alberta Province in Canada has recently suffered at least 30-50% destruction due to severe wildfires in that area.
One particular place in that town which I don't know if it was destroyed or not is the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum & Archives.
That would be a main point of interest for any inquiries and research concerning the Project Habakkuk prototype that was built on Patricia Lake not far from the town. If the museum is lost, then so too would be all the records and history related to that prototype.
Here's a few links:
https://weather.com/news/news/2024-07-25-wildfire-devastates-jasper-town-canada-rockies
https://www.fitzhugh.ca/local-news/up-to-half-of-jasper-burned-by-wildfire-9268716
https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/photo-galleries/in-pictures-jasper-wildfire-aftermath-1.6976875

There's a picture in that bottom link showing the museum apparently intact. Low building with a green roof with a cherry picker outside.

[NARSES2]

Hope everything's ok.

Been watching footage of this, and the huge California bush fire, on the BBC.  They think the California one was started deliberately, what are these people on ?    I've been to Jasper, a lovely stop on our Rockies tour and it's so sad to see the devastation.

[seadude]

This model project will be on hiatus for awhile. I'll be switching back to working on my stealth USS United States aircraft carrier instead in a different thread.
Though there is a chance I could go "back and forth" between my Habakkuk model and the stealth aircraft carrier in future months. We'll see.

In other news.............
For the last several months, I've been trying to contact a plastics company to inquire if they can make portions of the center hull section for me. I've been exchanging messages with them up until about late May or so when contact was "lost".    My last message to them was showing them the prototype center hull section I made out of styrene sheet to give them an idea of what I wanted them to make for me. After that, I never heard back from them. I'm going on the assumption that after they saw my picture of the prototype hull section I made, they probably thought it wasn't worth their time and effort to make me anything since they thought I could just make the center hull sections myself. I could probably do it myself, but my measurements won't be perfect and the two center hull sections I need probably won't match up perfectly if put end to end. This is why I need a plastics company to make the center hull sections for me instead. The measurements have to perfect. Where I go from here, I don't know. Maybe I'll try contacting them again. We'll see.

More other news.............
Is The Habakkuk Truly Unsinkable? Yes. Yes It Is!

Wherever I go and whatever I read, people tend to believe the Habakkuk was unsinkable due to the large amount of pykrete that was used in it's construction. That is partly true to a certain degree. It's not just pykrete that makes the Habakkuk float and be unsinkable, but also regular (non-pykrete) ice that is used in the construction of the Habakkuk.



Now I've probably mentioned it before in this thread, but for those who may have missed it, Contrary to popular belief, the interior design of the Habakkuk vessel was not the following as having upper and lower port/starboard aircraft hangars on either side of the central crew section. (Various pics shown throughout this model thread.)
Any illustrations that show this, particuarly in the Illustrated London News, Pgs. 14 and 15, Saturday, March 2, 1946, No.3071, Vol. 115 or 118..........ARE WRONG!
This interior illustration of a Habakkuk vessel design was most likely based on a press release that was given to the public and media in 1946 by Canadian and/or British government and military figures. The interior illustration is wrong in that it shows upper and lower port & starboard aircraft hangars on either side of the central crew and engineering levels.
As has been shown in other schematics in this model thread, the left & right areas on either side of the center crew and engineering areas were to be filled with a "resin block construction" mainly consisting of regular ice with possible addition of other non-pykrete structural materials. According to The Canadian Habbakuk Project book by Lorne W. Gold, the ice block construction used in the areas on either side of the central crew area was to be for mainly buoyancy (and/or structural integrity) issues. The following describes more about the use of ice from the book: (Pages 257 to 259)

"Initial studies were based on the use of a pykrete shell (hull) with inner supporting columns and bulkheads made of either concrete or pykrete. However, the resulting designs did not comply with condition B (The vessel to be unsinkable with all compartments flooded.). When all compartments were flooded, a vessel with the inner structure of concrete would definately sink. Under similar conditions, the all-pykrete vessel would lie so low in the water as to render it useless. To overcome this difficulty, it was decided to use a lightweight non-absorbent filling material in the interior of the vessel so that the necessary buoyant effect could be obtained and the craft still remain unsinkable. The general outline of the proposed design is shown in Figure 1. (See Post 8 on Page 1 of this model thread.) It consists essentially of an outer pykrete shell supported internally by hollow reinforced concrete columns and with spaces between columns filled with a suitable material weighing not more than 25 lbs per cubic foot. Ice containing at least 60% air bubbles or voids has been proposed for this material."

NOTE:  Bubble or void ice refers to blocks of regular ice (Not pykrete) that have air bubbles inside of them or where the blocks of ice are more like a hollow brick of sorts.

In short, any media source that shows the interior of the Habakkuk to look with port and starboard aircraft hangars is wrong. I suspect the media misinterpreted the press release (Either accidentally or intentionally), but decided to just go ahead with what they wrote and drew to sell their paper, make a few bucks, and just give the public what they wanted: A wild and incredibly fantastic news story.

So with the main hull made of pykrete and large internal areas filled with regular ice, the Habakkuk is truly 100% UNSINKABLE! But, that doesn't necessarily mean it still can't be damaged/destroyed. I'll have more information on that later.

[seadude]

So in my post above, I mentioned that the Habakkuk was truly unsinkable. But...........that doesn't mean that it still cannot be damaged or destroyed. So what would it take to damage or destroy the Habakkuk? Or even to defend it? Below are scans of pages I wrote up from a binder I put together when I had taken what I had constructed so far of my model to a local contest a few months ago to show for display and included information with it to educate the public about Project Habakkuk. These are pictures of scanned pages from my binder. All the blue Wikipedia or other links are not clickable.

[NARSES2]

Great read 

[sandiego89]

Well, this is going to be costly.  

About 2 weeks ago, I contacted a plastics company in my area to see what it would take to create at least one portion of the hull for my Habakkuk model. I did tell them I wanted a material that was lightweight, cheap, but also strong. I also wanted to use a thickness of at least 1/4" inch for all the walls.
The dimensions for at least one portion of the hull that I gave them were to be 2 feet long x 6 3/4" inches high x 10 1/4" inches wide.....

Have you considered wood?  Luan sheet wood in particular is inexpensive, can be found at hardware stores, is very light, easy to work with, surprisingly strong, and can be cut precisely to any size you desire with any reasonable table saw (even a portable, hobby type table saw).  It is smooth to start with, can be sanded even smoother, and primes well. Wood glue works great.  You could also make hull stringers and bulkheads out of it.   

[seadude]

Well, this is going to be costly.  

About 2 weeks ago, I contacted a plastics company in my area to see what it would take to create at least one portion of the hull for my Habakkuk model. I did tell them I wanted a material that was lightweight, cheap, but also strong. I also wanted to use a thickness of at least 1/4" inch for all the walls.
The dimensions for at least one portion of the hull that I gave them were to be 2 feet long x 6 3/4" inches high x 10 1/4" inches wide.....

Have you considered wood?  Luan sheet wood in particular is inexpensive, can be found at hardware stores, is very light, easy to work with, surprisingly strong, and can be cut precisely to any size you desire with any reasonable table saw (even a portable, hobby type table saw).  It is smooth to start with, can be sanded even smoother, and primes well. Wood glue works great.  You could also make hull stringers and bulkheads out of it.   

See my Post # 195 further above at the top of this page.
Anyway, wood might be nice to make the larger 1/350 scale Habakkuk hull out of, but I live in an apartment so woodworking is out of the question.
I don't own any woodworking/carpentry tools and I don't know of anybody near me that does woodworking/carpentry.
Either I get the plastics company to make the hull sections for me, or I figure out a way to scratch build the whole damn thing myself. 

[Spino]

Well, this is going to be costly.  

About 2 weeks ago, I contacted a plastics company in my area to see what it would take to create at least one portion of the hull for my Habakkuk model. I did tell them I wanted a material that was lightweight, cheap, but also strong. I also wanted to use a thickness of at least 1/4" inch for all the walls.
The dimensions for at least one portion of the hull that I gave them were to be 2 feet long x 6 3/4" inches high x 10 1/4" inches wide.....

Have you considered wood?  Luan sheet wood in particular is inexpensive, can be found at hardware stores, is very light, easy to work with, surprisingly strong, and can be cut precisely to any size you desire with any reasonable table saw (even a portable, hobby type table saw).  It is smooth to start with, can be sanded even smoother, and primes well. Wood glue works great.  You could also make hull stringers and bulkheads out of it.   

See my Post # 195 further above at the top of this page.
Anyway, wood might be nice to make the larger 1/350 scale Habakkuk hull out of, but I live in an apartment so woodworking is out of the question.
I don't own any woodworking/carpentry tools and I don't know of anybody near me that does woodworking/carpentry.
Either I get the plastics company to make the hull sections for me, or I figure out a way to scratch build the whole damn thing myself. 

That does present quite a problem.  Have you considered 3D printing?  You'd have to create a 3D model of the ship and then cut it into quite a few sections, but it could work.  Of course to do it well you'd need either help from a print farm or experience with that technology yourself.

[seadude]

That does present quite a problem.  Have you considered 3D printing?  You'd have to create a 3D model of the ship and then cut it into quite a few sections, but it could work.  Of course to do it well you'd need either help from a print farm or experience with that technology yourself.

3D printing may be nice, but I don't have the skills, experience, time, money, or even apartment space to do 3D printing.
Just count me as being one of those "old fashioned" model builders who still occasionally likes to do things the old way with scratch building, kit bashing, brushing with paints, and so on.