Ship Model Great Lakes Self-Unloader W. W. Holloway

My first foray into scale modelling: a 1:300 scale model of the W. W. Holloway, a self-unloading Great Lakes freighter that featured in the bridge jump scene in Blues Brothers.  As far as I know, this is the first and only published model of this specific ship.  It may also be the first printable model of any self-unloading Great Lakes freighter.

Fun fact: the "self-unloading" aspect means (in the real ship, not in this model) there's a conveyor system running under the entire length of the cargo section that can carry any compartment's contents forward and then up into the base of the swinging boom to be deposited on shore.  This makes self-unloaders more flexible carriers because they aren't limited to destinations with special unloading facilities.  (I learned this and many other things while doing the research for this ship.  What really surprised me is that the self-unloading system was retrofitted midway into the Holloway's career -- quite a feat of maritime engineering, yet actually not uncommon!)

PRINTING NOTES

• I designed this at 1:300 scale, which makes the finished model about 56cm long.

• It is intended to be full FDM printed with a 0.4 nozzle in PLA at layer heights from 0.2mm (hull sections) to 0.1mm (most other parts) and down to 0.05mm (the prop, some of the tiny deck items, and the self-unloading tackle).

• HOWEVER, this might make for an extremely challenging printing experience for some folks, so if you don't feel confident printing such small and fine-layered parts, I recommend just scaling up to some larger scale like 1:150 that will make the parts easier; just scale the hardware items accordingly.

• I strongly suggest figuring out top layer printing settings that will not leave any gaps before you print this model, as spray paint will expose any gaps mercilessly!

• It is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE I missed an STL with this fileset.  If something appears to be missing, please leave a comment.

• The hull sections (bow, middle 1-5, and stern) are all provided "base down", but I printed the middle 5 standing on end.  The hull curves lined up well enough for me with sanding.

• All other parts are provided in the recommended printing orientation, but you do you, boo.

SCALE MODELLING EXPERIENCE REQUIRED!

See the pictures for an assembly guide, but EXPECT to be post-processing parts for fit and finish, figuring out paint and weathering, etc., yourself.  Many parts will need sanding, trimming, drilling, filling, and fiddling.  Oh, and more sanding.  So much sanding.  And more filling.  I included a bunch of photos from my painting process to show you how I handled that aspect, but I was really just figuring it out as I went, and you can probably do better!  I am honestly not a very experienced scale modeller, but I got along okay with skills and ideas osmosed from watching too many NightShift and Plasmo videos on YouTube.  Either way, please don't ask me for help, ha.  There's absolutely nothing I did that isn't featured in lots of easy-to-find videos and tutorials by much better modellers.

The model does float quite well, if you care!  It's very stable and floats very high in the water.  It could be remixed for RC but it would need a lot of ballast to float convincingly low in the water.

ASSEMBLY NOTES

• READ THE PRINT FILE NOTES!  A few parts need multiples, and in two cases you'll need to print mirrored pairs of something (the boom trusses).

• Most of the assembly should be self-explanatory from the photos, but exploded views of the conveyor housing and boom truss are included since these are a bit more puzzle-ish.

• The bow thruster is a hassle to fix inside the bow tube.  I eventually managed it by weakly supergluing the tip of the thruster to the tip of a paper clip so I could poke it inside with more CA on it and then break it off inside once the CA cured.

HARDWARE/SUPPLY NOTES (Substitute as needed)

• At 1:300, the hull is intended to be stiffened with 1.5mm carbon fiber stringers, like a printed RC plane.  You can go full-length stringers or just insert short pieces for alignment.  (I actually did both, full-length on top and pieces on bottom.)

• The masts are 1.5mm CF but could be whatever material works (you might like to get more detailed).  My build has 28.8mm of forward mast ABOVE the pilothouse, and 38mm for the aft mast ABOVE the funnel, but do what looks good to you.  (Don't trust these numbers, either; I wrote them down but I don't have the model anymore to double-check).

• The A-frame is meant to be stiffened with 3x pieces of 1mm CF, and the "yoke" that swivels on top also uses a short piece of 1mm CF for both strength and as a hinge.

• The self-unloading conveyor is built around 4mm square profile CF tube.

• For the "ore" on the conveyor, I built up volume with CA glue and cotton from cotton pads, painted that black, then PVA'd a layer of iron sand collected from Lake Michigan over top.  So it's the real deal in the pictures!  (Unfortunately, I'm not sure the Holloway carried iron ore, but oh well.)  I masked the ore before clearcoating.

• The conveyor uses paper clip pieces for both the base hinge and in the strengthening hole through the center of the lifting block.

• The conveyor swivel uses 4x 1x5mm round neo magnets, the same way that swiveling gun turrets are sometimes done for model battleships, tanks, etc.

• I raided my wife's sewing kit for the thread.

• The prop uses a piece of heavy paper clip for a shaft.

• The rudder uses a sewing pin for a hinge, cut to length as needed.

• The funnel's two angled exhausts are bent and cut pieces of paper clip.

• All other alignment "pins" AND the sternhouse pillar supports (at aft) are pieces of 1.75mm printing filament.

• I used gel CA glue for most of the assembly, thin CA only for parts that truly fit flush, and 2-part 5-minute epoxy (gorilla brand) for mounting deckhouse and sternhouse to the hull, along with the self-unloading conveyor housing, the A-frame, and assembling the pieces of the base.

• I used Krylon "5x better adhesion" spray paint (red and white) for base coats (plus red to put a transparent red over my very bold acrylic hull paneling and waterline filth to unify everything), random painting acrylics borrowed from my wife for everything else, and Rustoleum matte clear coat to finish.

• I created the cable texture on the various winch spools by scribing the drums with a pin before painting, and added the shiny "steel" finish with graphite pencil after painting but before clear coating.  (NOTE this doesn't apply to the 5 hose spools, or whatever they are, that go on the forward end of the sternhouse.)

• The base has a hollow compartment you can fill with steel washers or other heavy stuff for stability.  I used 5-minute epoxy to secure all the stuff inside and also to hold the bottom cover over it.

DESIGN NOTES

I modeled this based on limited photo reference, so it's only so accurate, although I did my very best to true up proportions and features within the time I had to get it ready for printing; I could not locate any actual plans, available dimensions are limited, and some areas (especially the sternhouse) had no up-close photos that I could locate at all.  (I suppose this is probably par for the course with modelling a ship that was broken up in 1986.)  Like most ships, the Holloway evolved over its long lifetime of service, so I chose to model it as it would have appeared near the end of its career in the late 70s/early 80s.  There were tons of features on the masts and pilothouse/sternhouse roofs that I would have loved to include, especially radar and search lights, the ladders and shrouds on the aft mast, and the winch lines that help swing the boom in and out, but piecing together placement and identity for many smaller objects was just too hard with the reference available, and at 1:300 scale I ended up just having to do some filtering.  If anybody does a 1:150 build of this one, I hope they flesh out the greebling a bit!

Based on @DanBranBuilds model of the Daniel J Morrell: https://www.printables.com/model/823981-daniel-j-morrell-lake-freighter-1160-scale  (specifically, some of the hull geometry, the life boat hulls, and the rudder).  Due to the license he used and the extent of changes, this is posted as original rather than a remix; this was done with Dan's explicit permission and blessing.  Backstory: I wasn't planning to share this model, as it was originally just going to be a Christmas present for my father, who sailed on her briefly in the 70s, so I had no qualms about starting from a "no remixing allowed" model to get a jump on my timeline.  I was 2 months late for Christmas anyway, mainly because of painting, but it came out well enough that I decided to ask Dan's forgiveness for borrowing some of his geometry and he was gracious enough to give me the go-ahead.  (Dad loved it, btw, and said it looked "perfect" to him.  Unfortunately, he also said I should "do the supertanker next" =0)