April 2025 Ship Club Meeting

Due to CoMMiESFest (The Colorado Modeling Militia Enjoying Science Fiction) being held on our normal meeting date, we held our meeting early on March 29th.  Here's a LINK to the recorded meeting.

So what's up with CoMMiESFest?  The People's Glorious Modeling Contest is a local IPMS show which will be held on Saturday, April 5th at the Jefferson County Fair Grounds.  The only information posted is that it will be at 15200 W. 6th Ave, Golden, Colorado.  When I asked which building to go to I received these instructions:

There will be signage, but it’s the second right once you enter the grounds. Follow the road past the livestock space and into the parking lot, continuing west past the single story office bldg. the facility is on a bit of a hill. If you have non-vendor unloading to do, you can bring it in and park it in guest seating, then move your car out of the loading zone and into the greater parking lot. Will have someone out front of the building directing traffic.

More information is available at their Facebook Page.  

So what are we doing at CoMMiESFest?  A number of things...

• We have sponsored the ship category for the awards.
• We will have a table in the Vendor area with an Estate Sale for Jerry Beasley's remaining kits.  Proceeds for the sale will go to Warrior Dogs Foundation at the request of Jerry's wife, Deborah.

There are a few seminars which are in this attachment I stole from their Facebook page

One of our members, Martin Sagara, will be giving a seminar on Modeling Motivation.  

Here's the flyer for our table...

Okay, on to our meeting...

We started the meeting with an excellent presentation from Sam on Bathurst Corvettes.  Please review the video for a full rundown.  This is in support of our group project.  

I think everyone who wanted one of the models at the meeting got one.  Those not in attendance, yours are on the way in the mail.  I'll get right to the paint schemes Sam shared with us...

Here is a color chart that Sam shared with us.

Some photographs...

What we're working on....

David Angelo's finished Victory in her case that David built.  We've enjoyed watching this one come together!

Here's David's next project...

David is designing and 3D printing parts to convert this ship to the HMS Bellerophon.

Next John Widmar shared with us the Corsair Armada ARD-2.  This kit was re-released by Mike at Corsair Armada.  John added some photo etch cranes and parts from his spares box to add some detail.  He also added the 1/700 Balao class submarine which I believe is from Aoshima.

John also built this Spanish Battleship Pelayo from Armo Models, also in 1/700 scale. 

Rob Weilacher finished his Kraken Models, USS Patterson 1944 in 1/700 scale.  Rob gave overall favorable reviews of this kit and enjoyed building it.  

Len advised that he's working with somebody who may be able to help Mike out with his kits.  We'll keep an eye on that development as Kraken is producing some really nice products.

L'Arsenal offering free shipping on their kits ordered before April 13 while they are down for Ramadan.  If you're looking for some of their parts now is a great time to buy.  

I took some photos from their Facebook page to prepare this slide of what they are coming out with.  The CAD drawings look good and I know Rob has reported that their products continue to be of good quality.

Flyhawk has released a new 1/700 kit of the USS Enterprise.  I put in my order in hopes of beating the tariffs and Customs figuring out how to charge for duties.  We'll talk more about this at the next meeting.

We took a look at Very Fire's new 1/350 IJN Takao.  There is some incredible detail in this model.

Helenic Models is releasing a 1/350 PGM USS Crockett, Asheville-Class Gunboat.  Note the 3D printed railings!  Be sure to take a look at their web site to see the other parts and kits they're releasing.  

Len's contact in Italy has released a new kit of the HMVS Cerberus in 1/350 scale.  He has several other kits being sold through the 3D-Wild banner.  Very interesting looking kit!

Note that the kit comes with a 1/144 scale "Turruet w/Interior".   An interesting display piece.  

He's also released a USS Lexington in 1/350 scale.  Quite a group of notable experts helping him with this project!  It can be purchased with the cage masts or the later tripod mast.

Can also be purchased waterline or full hull.

Another release from 3D-Wild is the HMS Hermes (R12) Light Carrier in 1/350 scale.  This is a very interesting looking ship!  Lots going on here!

Hobby Boss is releasing a really odd ship.  This is the 1/350 Lord Clive.  That aft gun is really odd looking!

From Trumpeter we have a lighting kit for the 1/200 Olympic and Britannic.  Hmmm... I thought these ships were supposed to be blacked out at night?

Orange Hobby is releasing one of their epic 1/700 kits.  This is the Royal Navy Type 22 Frigate.  I think this is the kit that Rodrigo had hoped for!

Black Cat Models is releasing a new French ship kit in 1/350.  Can you name that ship?  And no, it's not the X62!  Geesh!

It's the French ship Mogador which an also be made as the Volga.  This is typical Black Cat construction.  Resin cast hull, lots of 3D printed details, and minimal photo etch.  The casting on the hull is impeccable!

Starling Models in the UK has a few new releases which look very interesting...

First the 1/700 3D printed kits of the HMS Stord, Scorpion, and Venus.

My personal favorite the 1/350 HMS Brave, Algerine Class Mine Sweeper

My friend, Oto, at RCSubs.cz continues to surprise with this 1/350 USS Colorado, Virginia Class Submarine.  This is a much more manageable size than the 1/144 kit I've printed.  He floated the idea of this kit and got a very strong response.  So he's decided to move ahead with this kit.  Look for this kit to be coming out soon!

Here is a much talked about kit.  This Chinese manufacturer is hard to track.  I believe they sold with 3D-Wild, but now may be working with Very Fire?  Anyway, this is their latest release.

An interesting release from Fujimi.  This is the carrier Shinano.  What makes this kit interesting is that they have molded it in close to actual colors.  It also includes photo etch which isn't color.  

The kit also includes camouflage decals... I think they're decals.  

Revell is releasing a two ship kit.  The Fletcher was advertised as a new tool model and the Indianapolis is a re-release.  Both in 1/700 scale.  Revell released a 1/700 Fletcher back in 2014 so I'm guessing that this is not a new kit... and probably not the Fletcher we've been waiting for.  

Last new release is from S-Model which is the 1/700 USS Casablanca Escort Carrier.  This is a nice looking kit and there are some nice detail sets available for it.  Best place to find this is at hobbyeasy.com.  We'll talk more about this kit later.

Some models of note we found are the Flyhawk 1/350 CG-63 USS Cowpens by Won-hui Lee.  Another beautiful model from that team.  

Also the 1/700 HMS Naiad which is also a Flyhawk kit.  Really amazing work by Kelve Chan.

That's all for this month!