Greetings all,
Quick update on our founder, Hugh Letterly, and his accident last week.  Roger reports that he spoke with Hugh yesterday.  Hugh is out of the hospital and resting at home.  He is sore from the fall and has stitches, otherwise feeling fine.  He's under doctors orders to rest for a few days and his family is looking after him. Roger asked him to look at his emails and text's as club members and friends may be reaching out to him.  Hugh will not be in the shop at Colpar this week.  Thanks Roger!

Wow!  What a meeting!  Thanks to everyone who attended!  We covered a lot of ground today!

First and foremost our thoughts are with Hugh Letterly who is recovering from injuries at home.  Thank you to Roger for keeping us informed.  Get well soon Hugh!

Today Sam continued his presentations with the story of the USS Stewart, DD-224 which was a Clemson class destroyer.  In this part Sam discussed the operational history of the ship leading up to her loss in February of 1942.  Sam also discussed some of the other ships in her class as well as the tenders and other supporting vessels.  In the next part Sam will be discussing her transition to IJN Patrol Boat 102.

Photo courtesy of Navsource

Martin brought in his collection of Mirage Hobby kits of this class including a re-pop by Airfix as the HMS Campbelltown.  These kits are in 1/400 scale a nice size to work with.  We also had both photo etch sets that are available to support this kit series which are available from Gold Medal Models and White Ensign Models.

The Mirage Hobby USS Ward would build into a respectable USS Stewart.  And Mirage also has an offering of P-102 after the Japanese recovered and converted her to IJN service.

White Ensign Models

Gold Medal Models

Sam also asked me to bring in my 1/700 USS Ward made by Flyhawk Models.  A very impressive little kit!

Next we continued with the review of the new Tru-Color paints.  This is an acetone based acrylic lacquer which has been very popular with he model railroad community for some time.  After a dubious start with this product I decided to do an in depth study of how this paint performs.  In the initial use we found that the paint and primer did not adhere well.  Using light tack Tamiya tape caused the paint to lift off the model.  At that point we decided to take a deeper dive to find out what this paint was all about.

I began with a test on styrene and photo etch.  In this photo I applied Badger's Stynylrez gray primer to the pointy end.  The center section was left unpainted.  The bottom section was primed with Alclad's microfiller primer.  These are both primers that I've had good success with.  Also the Stynylrez is a water based primer and Alclad is lacquer based.  The photo etch is some extra material I had from North Star Models and was primed with the Stynylrez primer only.  There are hundreds of tiny flood holes in this piece and I was concerned that the Stynylrez primer would clog them.  That did not happen!  Note that all pieces were cleaned prior to being painted.  I also scribed lines in the styrene to see if we would lose any detail in the process.  

Next some Tamiya tape was added to make sure the original primer coat was untouched.

Then we painted the styrene and photo etch parts with Tru-Color TCP-1037 5-NG Navy Green Early 43.  To the paint I added 10% TCP-015-2 Thinner (previous test showed this to be about right ratio) plus two drops of TCP-310 Retarder.  The Retarder was used because I live in a very dry climate and wanted to extend the drying time of the paint.

For accuracy the painted part was compared with Snyder & Short color chips and found to be a very good match.

Tamiya tape was applied over the paint and allowed to sit for 24 hours.  Tape was not applied over the photo etch in this photo but was added later.

Now the test!  The tape was removed pulling back over itself as recommended by the manufacturer.  As you can see in the photos below the primed areas held up extremely well.  The area painted over styrene showed the paint lifting.  

Next the photo etch.  Interestingly where the photo etch had been primed with Stynylrez the paint did not come off.  Where there was no primer the paint peeled away completely.

Finally we wanted to test the paint on resin castings.  Two L'arsenal castings were used for this test and were cleaned thoroughly prior to painting.  The larger one was primed with Stynylrez gray primer and the smaller left unprimed.  The hull was painted with TCP-1000 Norfolk 65-A Anti-Fouling Red.  After 24 hours drying time I applied Tamiya tape to both.  After waiting another 24 hours no paint was removed from either hull.  I did notice that there was some discoloration on the unprimed hull.  Also as I hope you can see in this photo the primed area covered much better with fewer coats and had a more consistent color with no lost detail.

All paints have their quirks.  I found this paint worked very well but you have to know how to use it for best results.  In Conclusion I found the following...

• Tru-Color primer is not very useful.  It covered well but did not adhere well to styrene.  It behaves much as the finish coats of this paint.  May be okay on resin but not recommended for styrene or photo etch.  
• Use a good primer that adheres well.  I found that the water based Stynylrez and lacquer based Alclad primers performed extremely well providing a perfect base coat with no loss of detail.  Note that Stynylrez requires an airbrush with a large needle (.5 or bigger) and a lot of air pressure.  It can be thinned with water (only water!) but not recommended by the manufacturer.
• For Airbrushing the paint should be thinned with about 10% thinner.  I'm told that Acetone works well but have not tested it.  However I do clean my airbrush with Cutex nail polish remover which is 98% acetone and it did a great job cleaning out the airbrush.  Note that at this point I have not tried brush painting.
• Paint in thin coats.  Allow to dry between coats.  That said the paint dries quickly.
• The finish colors are very accurate.  I have only compared a few colors but they match the Snyder & Short color chips well.  
• If you are masking the photo etch priming is a must.  The primers used did not detract from detail and I would recommend priming your photo etch first before using this paint.  
• The paint adheres well to resin.  However I strongly recommend priming first for the most consistent results.
• Although acetone naturally occurs in our bodies, I would recommend a respirator or extracting system to clear out paint fumes.  
• Availability of the paint and color choices are excellent.  Currently they have the entire range of current and past USN colors.  At theme of this writing they have also added some Japanese colors to their range and I would anticipate other colors coming available soon.  Tru-Color is based in Phoenix and are very excited about their product.  I found their customer service excellent.    

I feel comfortable recommending this paint for airbrushing.  The colors are accurate, the paint performs well, and as long as you use a good primer the durability of the paint is excellent.  

Victor followed up with his test of the Tamiya Acrylic Paint Retarder for use in hand painting.  Victor painted one side of a styrene name plate with straight Tamiya gray and the other side using the Paint Retarder.  Two coats were applied.  The side without the retarder did show some signs of brush strokes while the side with the retarder was completely smooth and coverage was more even.  Very little retarder is required and in fact less is better.  Thumbs up from Victor on the paint retarder.  This can also be used with an airbrush but again no more than a drop or two in the color cup.

And there's more!

Shawn Wong (once manager of Colpar Hobbies) visited with us.  Shawn brought his 1/32 F-8 Crusader, parts from his current build of the F4D-1 Skyray from Fisher Model and Pattern.  Shawn also brought a 1/350 AFV type VIIC U-Boat.  Shawn has a collection of these AFV sub models that he's working on.  Welcome Shawn!

Ron Newberg shared some of his scratch building skills with us and brought in some of the projects he's working on.  Great reminder of the roots of our group which is creating masters for ship kits and building rare ships from scratch.  Note the top photo of the ship used in the film Mr. Roberts.  This was the USS Hewell (AG-145) that the Navy provided for the movie.  I'm expecting to see a palm tree Ron!

John Widmar did not disappoint bringing in some unique kits!

First from Jadar Models in Poland, The French cruiser Dupuy DeLome which was considered to be the first steam powered cruiser. 

Flyhawk's new 1/700 Prince of Wales deluxe edition with all the goodies!  Can't wait to see this one!

From Combrig the 1/700 Grille which was Hitler's yacht and used for multiple roles by the Germans in WWII.

John also shared his new method for attaching photo etch rails.  John is using Contact Cement to attach photo etch rails.  John has never been a fan of using PVA glue.  What John likes about this method is that you can apply the glue to the rail where it attaches to the kit and then just stick it where you want.  You have time to place it before it dries since the contact cement is only applied to the photo etch.  John's going to share with us how this worked out for him.  Interesting idea John!  

Daniele shared a great tip for applying wood decks to model ships.  The kit is Pit Road's 1/700 Hokoku Maru.  He applies Liquitex heavy acrylic gel to the deck and applies the wood deck over it.  This bypasses the self adhesive and gives you some opportunity to position the deck.  Daniele also reported that it does a better job of securing the wood to the deck.  No need to come back later and spot glue and the deck looks great.  Nice tip Daniele!

Jerry brought in his ducted fan F-8.  Fly it Jerry!!  

Finally I brought in my recently completed 1/350 Soviet K-21 submarine.  There were three goals with his build.  1)  Add the amazing photo etch deck and fair it into the hull for a smooth transition.  2)  Work with the tungsten wire for the rigging.  Tungsten wire allows for a natural drape and is very strong.  3)  Try to create a gray cold looking water scene that allowed the viewer to see the model.  adding the photo etch went extremely well with the exception of the pieces for the gun on the conning tower.  It was not well designed.  However the deck photo etch was fantastic.  I used very thin styrene placed against the edge of the photo etch deck which was sanded to form a perfect transition to the hull.  This part I was very pleased with.  This model had the distinction of going into the trash and then recovered.  I was having difficulty attaching and trimming the Tungsten wire to the support on the conning tower.  I resolved this adding attach blocks from styrene at the bow and stern, drilling holes through them.  Then I attached the very end of the tungsten wire to the conning tower while feeding the wire through the attach blocks.  I glued the wire at the attach blocks and trimmed.  Perfect!  Insulator blocks were added with drops of carpenters glue which were later painted.  The water worked out okay but not completely happy with it.  Also I was unhappy with the way the hand rails on the deck went down.  If I had to do it over again I would remove the base and very carefully secure it to the deck.  

Greetings Ship Club family!

Usual details...

Meeting place:
Rockler Woodworking (basement)
2553 S. Colorado Blvd., Suite 108
Denver, Colorado  80222
Date:  1/27/2018
Time:  10:00

Sam will be back to provide us with a presentation on Flush Deck Four Stack Destroyers, Specifically the USS Stewart and her subseqent conversion to IJN P-102.  This will be a two part presentation.  Martin and I are planning on bringing a few finished and unfinished examples of these destroyers.

I'm hoping Victor will give us some feedback on Tamiya paint retarder and it's use with brush painting.

I will be following up on my paint test with Tru-Colors paint.  This has been interesting and I'm anxious to share with you what I learned.

I'm working hard to complete another model.  This one a  Soviet WWII K Class submarine (specifically K-21) in a water base.  Some interesting challenges with this one!  Goals on this one were using photo etch decking, tungsten rigging wire, and water scene.

As always.....

Bring finished models

Bring new kits, parts, and tools.

Bring any issues you may be facing

See you Saturday!