MS MOLEDET, ZIM Israel Navigation, 1961, 1/400

[Decaturbeginner]

Hello All,

The inspiration for this came from user Avraham RL's posting of Israeli ships earlier this year:
Israeli ships

I had never heard of MOLEDET, and started researching her. And while the original IDF. Model is fine, decided I really wanted to see her...a little more clearly. So this is my first first into scratch-building.

So, the real ship: She was the first purpose built cruise ship for ZIM, and the first new build not from a German yard as reparations, but from Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne at Nantes. 126.65 m long by 19.89m wide, 7811 GRT. Passenger capacity of about 590. Her first commander I believe was Edouard Shaggi.

Her ZIM career was apparently only marred by engine troubles, and was well loved even in spite of this fact. Comfortable if not flashy, she served Haifa, Napoli, Genoa, Piraeus.

ZIM left the passenger business by 1970, and she was sold to Epirotiki Lines and became JUPITER. Found a brochure detailing some cruises in the Caribbean during the 1970s: for some reason it makes me happy she crossed the Atlantic at least twice.

Unfortunately, she did not meet her end at a scrapyard: on 21 October 1988, minutes after departing Piraeus under the command of Yannis Helmis with a group of British schoolchildren, she was struck by the freighter ADIGE on her port side midships and sank in about 40 minutes. A teacher by the name of Butts, and a female student whose name I cannot immediately locate, died, as well as two Greek crew members whose names I have yet to find.

If any good came of the disaster, it was in the study of PTSD done with the survivors, detailed in the book "Jupiter's Children." a psychologist I know told me that the Jupiter study had been instrumental in the understanding of PTSD, and was of value following the events of 11 September 2001.

Interestingly, there's disagreement in the internet sources I've seen regarding her propulsion: German Wikipedia, a Danish page, and a wreck site state her being twin screw, while English Wikipedia, a Greek site, and a ZIM tribute site list her as single screw. Cannot yet locate a photo of her in drydock, a ZIM, ACB, or Epirotiki doc saying anything about it.

[Decaturbeginner]

Ok, the model is derived from Deckplans from her time with ZIM and Epirotiki, an almost dead abeam photo for her sheer line, and as many pics as I could dig up online...not many.

Using one pixel-based program, and one vector-based, printed 'keel' and decks scaled to 1/400...31.68cm by 4.97cm. I realize there are parallax issues with using a photo in place of a proper diagram, but I figured it would be closer to the prototype than sheer-less. My first hull came to an abrupt end when I realized I had a scaling error with the Restaurant deck, and so I tried again. The ship's stairwells were used to locate each deck in relation to the others. I laid the ship out in terms of 'frames' 10mm apart, each deck having a uniform frame height except for the lowest, where varying the height of the frame would establish the sheer line.

I was mostly happy with the second hull to that point, and in my greenness, tried to make the hull sides. The original hope was that I could print each side as one piece, no seams, since she is small enough to fit on American Legal size. I used successive dummy sides, pieced together, to get to a final shape; then scanned that shape. Again using the deck plans and photos, tried to accurately-ish place the details.

I printed off the sides and ran out of ink, and it might be a little bit before I can get more...so in spite of me finding an error, duplicated on each side, I cut the sides to fit, and proceeded forward anyway: the error is right as the hull sides go from being parelell and taper aft. Unfortunately, this misplaced a bunch of portholes still, but that means also I didn't have them in the right place to begin with. I still continued, maybe out of impatience? in spite of the problem.

As always, the ship deserves better. But even with my errors, I hope to have captured something of the real ship's visual character. At this point I have the funnel framed and the most important part of the mast.

[Front Light]

Hello Tim,

I like those smaller liners of the 1960ies. MOLEDET looks pretty good and you´re research and informations about her history and fate make it much more lively.

And so you´re scratch build MOLEDET shows that you seriously dealt with her and this will lead to a fine result. I guess you´re model will come out as a nearly new design and I am sure it will capture her visual character as you hope - What I can see looks quite good

All the best for you and you´re build!
Nils

[Mike1158]

You have done a great job on her, a brilliant result for your persistence. Errors? I see none mate.

[Beachead]

Great build and a great background to go with it. Thanks.

[Decaturbeginner]

@Nils- her appearance is what first drew me to her, she does have a small bit of the ALEKSANDR PUSHKIN aesthetic doesn't she? I like the research part, to get to know the subject as well as I can...curse of the landlocked?

@Mike -thank you for your generous evaluation...as far as persistence, Wile E Coyote has always been the fictional character I identify with most

@Greg- thank you, experienced modelers such as yourself give us a build quality to strive for

Oh, two things I had forgotten:
A ZIM promotional film from the 1960s, filmed mostly aboard THEODOR HERZL, but MOLEDET (and SHALOM) make an appearance towards the end, in open sea. MAURETANIA (II, in cruising green) and one of the American Export sisters INDEPENDENCE / CONSTITUTION make an appearance.


And a collection of news stories on the demise of JUPITER, the ship herself does briefly appear sailing past the camera:

[Decaturbeginner]

Hello again, it was brought to my attention there may be a problem with my YouTube links...today 3 December 2020 they don't work for me either, so I will try this and contact a Sysadmin

ZIM promotional film:
https://youtu.be/wGohQaTFQtQ

Collection of JUPITER disaster news stories:
https://youtu.be/5ad2KdxiytU

[rickstef]

I hope my explanation in the PM makes sense

[Decaturbeginner]

Yes it does, thank you for your time

[scon10]

A good model. You have succeded in getting a good fit for the hull sides. The bow and stern look very good!