August 2023 Ship Club Meeting

Thanks to everyone who was able to participate in our online meeting.  Here is the LINK to the meeting recording.   I'm not going to post all the ship model photos, so if you wish to go back and look at them please review the recording.

Here's the recap....

We started with a recap of what we're working on.

David Angelo gave us an update on his model of the Victory.  David gave a comprehensive description, holding back "adult language" on the challenges of the kit rigging with the tools supplied by Heller.  

Rob gave us an update on his new project, Dragon Models 1/700 USS Albany.

We then took a look at the new kits from Tom's Modelworks.  Richard has a new joint effort with Model Monkey, Black Cat Models, Starfighter Decals, Mike with Combrig, and Northview Foundry.  the kits are the USS Midway CV-41, and USS Frankling D. Roosevelt CV-42.  The hull is waterline cast resin and most of the detail parts are 3D printed resin.  Richard also includes necessary photo etch parts.  Richard didn't have time to complete the model before the show, so looking forward to seeing that.

Here are some photos of the 3d parts in these kits

Next we discussed three new kits coming from Black Cat Models.  These are 1/350 long foc'stle Flower Class Corvette's from Canada with the mast forward and aft of the bridge.  The first two models depict the HMCS Sackville, and HMCS Snowberry.  The Sackville is the last remaining Flower Class Corvette in existence and is a museum ship located in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The third is the HMS Mimosa which sounds more like OJ and champaign!  I wish these kits were available when I did mine.  So much aggrivation could have been spared!

Next on the horizon is a new kit from HS Models, an Arleigh Burke Class destroyer in 1/700 scale.  The drawings show some amazing detail including the hull hooks molded on the sides.  Far more detail than the Dragon kit.  They are also hinting at a 1/350 offering.  We shall see what comes...

Something different is a kit from a new manufacturer called Nautic Models.  This is the Portuguese Frigate Vasco da Gama.  The kit is available on Etsy.  The actual ship is based on the German MEKO 200 design.  The kit does not seem to include railings so you will need to source that in the aftermarket.  

Is this the next thing in ship model aftermarket?  Here is a new product from a company called "Print Scale" out of the Ukraine.  It is a 3D printed deck.  We've seen this material with aircraft cockpit aftermarket sets.  It appears to behave just like the thin wood deck stickers we've seen.  There is however much more opportunity than what we are seeing with this first effort.  For example why not print on the cleats, hatches, etc.  We'll see what develops with this technology.  Currently they have 1/350 decks for the Dunkerque, Yamato, and the Dreadnaught.  

Back to our friend, Richard Harden with Colourcoats paints.  The small 14ml tins are being phased out for the new larger 30ml tins.  I recently received some of these from Richard and I have to say I prefer them to the smaller tins.  Primarily because the lids are superior.  They don't bend and are easier to open and close.  Highly recommended!

Rob shared photos from his recent visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.  Here's an example, but to see all of them please review the meeting video.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to photos of the models at the IPMS National Convention in San Marcos.  I'm not going to post them all here so please review the video to see them all.  

There were two models that really stood out to me and they are from a gentleman named Joseph Lavendar.  These are very small model ships built at the level normally associated with large ship models.  I encourage you to check out his web site and see how he goes about building these remarkable models.  The Kongo wont first place and the Bounty won second in it's category.  Here's a LINK to his web site.

That's it for this month.  I look forward to seeing you in September in person and on Zoom.

July 2023 Ship Club Meeting

Greetings all,

Thanks to everyone able to attend our meeting Saturday.  I have to apologize for the rough start we had with the meeting.  For some reason we were having a connection issue and I kept flipping in and out of the meeting.  After restarting everything my connection was slow (as you can see in the recording) and I couldn't get the presentation to open.  I think this was due to some software changes with Zoom.  I truly appreciate your patience at home while I worked through that.  I'm going to do a test before the next meeting to make sure everything is working.  

Before I forget, our next scheduled meeting is Saturday, August 5th which conflicts with the IPMS National Convention.  My thought is that we will have a virtual meeting the evening of Saturday,  August 12th.   I'll send a message out to see if that works.

Here's the link to the recorded meeting, less the dead space in the beginning.  

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Tr4nHZx8xyYBIT_UobDTuIg3v8nH7F24v_SZu0j3ZeD6CUyYJPKRidGn5IYouKMx.iKFWX7xIoDlaBwB6?startTime=1688226955000

Passcode: gOn#?4??

Okay, so here's a recap of the meeting...

There was interest in knowing how to get Gator's Grip PVA glue.  Kenny advised that you can buy it from Squadron.  

Original Formula 

Thin Blend Formula

You can also buy directly from Kenny.  Here's the link to his web site where you can email him to purchase directly.  

We had a lot of recaps this month.

First off we followed up on this release from Takom and the rocket launchers.  They look very modern.  What they did was launch a rocket trailing a wire.  At the end of the wire was a mine.  The idea was to snag airplanes on the wire which would drag the mine to the plane and knock it out of the sky.  Great idea... right?  

We then had a long discussion about Ultrasonic Cutters.  Several of our members have them.  The units available on the market are...

Wondercutter available Micro Mark.  They are on sale currently.  This is the unit that Len has. They are currently selling for $360.00 and I think you can find an additional 10% discount on their site.

Hondacutter  is the brand John has.  It is sold as ZO-41II.  You can find them on eBay for $344 with free shipping from Japan.  Also available on Amazon for $455.00.  

Another unit is the Phrozen Sonic Cutter available on Amazon for only $229.  This unit cuts at 35,000 strokes per second instead of 40,000 strokes with the other brands.  It's marketed to the 3D printing community.  Phrozen doesn't seem to have a great reputation for quality, but if you don't like it you can take it back to Amazon.  Here's a review of the cutter.  Go to the end of the review to see what he does with 3D printed parts.  John and Len, I would appreciate you guys looking at this review and comparing it to how your cutters work.

The next generation of Wondercutter is coming out soon.  The kickstarter price was $411.  Not sure what the retail price will be.  I've heard it will be available on Amazon?  

Looking at some reviews it was pretty clear that the Wondercutter S (sold by MicroMark) was far superior to the Phrozen Sonic Cutter.  In fact I would take a hard pass on the Phrozen offering.  Based on John's review of the Hondacutter, I think it would also perform very well.  In conclusion I think this could be a very useful tool to have, especially for cutting supports off 3D printed parts, and especially figures!

On a related follow up.  Kenny talked about his knife collection that he uses professionally.  Kenny recommended both the NT cutters and OLFA cutters, especially the blades.  For $11.00 on Amazon delivered, I thought I would give the Graphics Knife Set a try.  It did not disappoint.  The blades are excellent and I can see this coming in very handy for cutting out masks, decals, etc.  

We got some nice updates from the club.

David Angelo shared some updates on his Heller HMS Victory.  David said he had quite the time rigging the bow sprit.  It's definitely looking the part.

Rob Weilacher was unable to join us but sent along some photos of his progress.  I'm going to save his deck masking experience for the next time he can join us.  

John Widmar shared his HMS Colombo D-89 from Trumpeter in 1/700 scale.  John reports it to be a nice kit.  

Kenny Loup shared his work on the USS New Orleans in 1/700 scale.  Kenny mentioned that he's working on ships named after Louisiana cities.  

I finally almost completed my model of the U-35 with a ship crew surrendering.  I say "almost" because the run railing on the aft gun emplacement came loose.  I can't believe I didn't lose that thing!  Anyway, thanks to Gator's Grip Thin the railing is secured back in place.  A wood base has been made and we'll take this to the NATS.  This is the old Yankee Modelworks, later Blue Water Navy release.  Figures were made for me by Luis of holden8702.  

I also shared my current project of a WWI submarine in 1/72 in a not so deep pour resin.  I wanted to practice on something at Jerry's recommendation so I did this three layer pour using a 1/350 sacrificed submarine.  I learned a lot from this test.  Some of the main take aways...

• Only so much dye can be added to the resin before it stops curing properly.  
• Even with the most allowable dye, it is very transparent.
• Placing a black sheet on the bottom after it cured did a nice job of darkening the water the way you would expect from an ocean scene.
• The frame must be perfectly sealed to make sure no resin leaks out.  The tiniest hold will cause a leak.  I learned the hard way on that one.  
• Resin has a nasty habit of creeping up the side of anything it comes in contact with above it's leveled height.  I'll mitigate that with the next step, adding an acrylic gel to the surface.
• Acrylic gel over the surface makes for a nice surface effect and obscures the object below in the resin for a nice effect.  It also sticks beautifully to the resin.  No need to rough up the surface in advance.

Another follow up item from the last meeting.  Rob pointed out some new releases from SS Models.  This shows a CAD drawing of the USS Arizona.  It looks great, but we're all wondering how they are printing the structures.  Previous releases are challenging to paint because they didn't break up the different deck layers.  I contacted SS Models to see if they had any photos of the printed parts.  They had none yet telling me that they haven't received any completed kits yet.  It does show a lot of promise so we'll continue to follow up with this company.  Here are some photos of their latest releases.

USS Arizona

                                                                                USS Nevada

Pensacola Class Heavy Cruiser

SEED Hobby is also releasing some nice 1/700 3D printed aircraft of the IJN.  Notice the printed canopy frames.  Brass propellers and masts are also included, although I think the brass pitot tube is overdone.  I also don't like the deep panel lines.  They would be better without them.  Never the less, they are a big improvement over other 1/700 aircraft options available.  But maybe not.  More on that later.

Pit Road has a new offering that some might find interesting.  They are offering a 1/700 kit of the IJN Aircraft Carrier, Chitose with a pre-painted deck.  This could save a considerable amount of time masking and decaling the deck.  They offer the same kit unpainted and at the same price.  You can find this at hlj.com.  I'll be interested to see if somebody in our group builds this one.

Orange Hobby continues to release excellent 3D printed parts.  This set would be excellent for a modern aircraft carrier.  Perhaps for the new USS Ford that I'll talk about later!

Trumpeter has a new release that is creating a lot of excitement.  This is the 1/350 kit of the French Light Cruiser, Marseillaise from Trumpeter.  No details to show yet, but it's proving to be a popular subject.  

3D Wild continues to impress.  One of their partners is releasing all the parts needed to make any of the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers.

This next release from 3D-Wild is causing quite a stir.  It is the latest carrier in the fleet, The USS Gerald R. Ford, CVN-78 in 1/350 scale.  That's going to be a big sucker!  My understanding is that you can order different air wings with this kit.  Price to be determined, but hold on to your wallets!  😎

And finally, you all thought what you needed was another Iowa Class Battleship.  Well, how about the USS Iowa in 1/350 scale from Trumpeter.  Unlike some other releases this one seems quite complete with photo etch including a full set of railings, anchor chain, and turned barrels.  

That's all for this month.  Next time I look forward to telling you about the Nationals and also some great 3D printed aircraft from Black Cat Models.  

June 2023 Ship Club Meeting

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend our June ship club meeting via Zoom.  We had a great turnout and it was nice to have Kenny Loup join our group and share his 5in/38 twin mount from Takom that he's working on.  Our next meeting will be coming up quickly on July 1st.  

Let's get to it!  You can view the meeting recording at this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/MrkefqYvNYcNfJGPvHuSrWndAdaQWNxN9aqDiaREJCJK9ppgR9h53bglqYgMxBFu.4RTQ9ABFV8rn7zfJ?startTime=1686444706000

Passcode: =0*TphGb

We got started following up with John Widmar on how he uses his Dspiae vise to secure his models.  John uses a narrow board with double sided tape that he gets from Harbor Freight.  

John later describes how he uses a a socket to make adjustments while he's working.  

We then followed up on why dive planes on modern submarines were originally mounted on the sail, but later moved back to the hull and how they operate.  

Another meeting follow up was a discussion on modern Photonics on submarines and how they replaced the optical types we came to know on early submarines.  

Modern periscopes do far more than they could ever have imagined back in WWII.  Today this high tech periscope is controlled with a gameboy controller which is cheap and provides quick training to our modern sailors who were raised on them.  

Rob shared with us his progress on assembling and painting his air wing for his current carrier project.  Rob had his friend Mike cast individual wings which made the process much easier.  Rob says this is his last aircraft carrier, but we'll see.  😎

  

David Angelo shared his latest project which is the USS Neosho (AO-48) oiler that was also a Pearl Harbor survivor.  Better yet I finally got the names right!!

David also shared his 1/700 USS Guadalupe loaded down with 77ft Elco PT Boats.  If you've seen the movie "They were expendable", these boats were the subject of that show.  Nicely done David!

If that isn't enough, David continues work on his big HMS Victory.  

Our meeting was delayed as my wife and I were on vacation in New York along the Hudson River in Dutchess County.  While on a river boat tour I realized I had stumbled upon the famous.. or rather notorious Fleet Obsolete where an attempt was made to restore old PT boats.  This has been going on for some 20 plus years and little if no progress has been made.  They have the only remaining 78' Elco PT Boat.  Unfortunately they are not making any progress.  It was interesting to see these old historic boats, and sad that nothing is happening with them.  You can still see some excellent restorations of Higgins PT boats at the WWII museum in New Orleans, and Save The PT Boat in Portland, Oregon.  

While there I did find a hidden gem.  The Kingston Maritime Museum.  I only had a few minutes to walk through before they closed so I took photos of all the wonderful models.  I'll definitely be going back.  Here are some period tugs they had on display...

Here are some of the many models on display there...

Passenger ferries were quite the show on the Hudson River back in the day.

Examples of Hudson River Sloops.

There was a special display to a ship modeler named Charles Niles.  He had a basement workshop and gravitated towards making models of ships and boats that worked the Hudson River.  

The information indicated the models were close to 1/350 scale, but they seemed smaller than that to me.  All scratch work of course. 

For Tool Time I discussed my favorite hobby knife, the NT Cutter which I use for all my general work.  John Widmar mentioned scalpel blades, and I have to admit that I'm starting to use those for my photo etch.  But this is my daily driver.  In the past you could only get them from Japan, but now you can buy them for good prices on Amazon.  Kenny mentioned that in his sign making business, this is one of his two go too knives.  Highly recommended.  

Breaking news!  You herd it here first.  Brandon Lowe from Squadron/Free Time acquired Flagship Models from the family of Rusty White who created this brand.  Rusty passed away a few years back and the family wished the brand to continue.  Brandon is taking the molds to the next level with 3D printed parts as shown below in this USS Choctaw sample.  Brandon has worked out a deal with the photo etch provider who Rusty worked with.  Expect to see the brand continue with upgraded parts for modern and improved detail and quality.  Thanks Brandon!

An interesting subject from Takom gun turret from the HMS Hood.  This is well done but what is curious are the rockets on the top of the turret.  We're going to talk more about those at the next meeting.

Another interesting naval subject from Border Models is the bridge and flight deck from the Akagi.  Border is focusing their aviation efforts on 1/35 scale and this looks like an interesting way to display your IJN Kate.  But does the bridge have mattresses?  Hmmmm

Here is the CAD drawing for the kit.

And of course the 1/35 Kate that you can display on the base.

Last this week, Starling Models has announced that they are finishing up work on a new release, the Country Class Guided Missile Cruiser, HMS Kent in 1/700 scale.  Look for this to be available in the next couple of months.  

That's all for this month.  I look forward to seeing you at our July meeting.