1/350 Liberty ship Martin Van Buren (Trumpeter)

Starting from Trumpeteer 1/350 S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien I realized a Liberty ship with torpedo net deployed and under torpedo attack. The diorama is inspired to the submarine attack to the Martin Van Buren, on January 14th, 1945. The ship was hit bit one torpedo in the stern area and sunk.
I did not use PE sets apart from railings and ladders I had from my scratch box. I overall spent about 18 months on the project and built about 270 small pieces; mayor alterations to the basic kit were the following:

• The torpedo booms and nets and their riggings
• The catch baskets (frames used to collect the torpedo net after usage)
• The “monkey island”
• The hatch covers
• The funnel (it was reshaped, being oval and with a hole much smaller than in the kit)
• The lifeboats and their winches; the life rings
• The safety rafts frames
• The top of the masts
• The rear boom holders
• Machine gun shields were built
• The incoming torpedoes

The model was lightly weathered. For rigging I used Usci Van Rosten (0,01 and 0,05 mm) and fishing wire (0,105), for the sea I used “Prochima effetto acqua” 2 components resin, the surface wavelets are made with Maimeri Gloss medium gel, the bow and sterns waves are enhanced with cotton, acrylic white and Water transparent gel by AK. Paints are acrylic.
Other construction details can be found in the post “calling all Liberty / Victory ship fans” on this site.
I also made a more detailed video explaining most of the activities I did and uploaded it on Youtube. 

Gallery updated 1/28/2021

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