Hello Ship Club family
It's that time again and we have a full agenda again.  But first the usual information...

Meeting Location:
Rockler Woodworking (in the basement)
2553 S. Colorado Blvd., Suite 108
Denver, Colorado  80222
Date:  02/02/2019
Time:  10:00

John DuGene is going to give us a presentation on his trip to Eduard in the Czech Republic.  Eduard is a dominant player in the after market world and has even produced some nice upgrade parts for ships.  I'm really looking forward to John's discussion.

Next up we're going to discuss some of the challenges of masking decks.  I'm looking for lots of participation on this one.  Can everyone think about how they mask their decks and paint them?  Some things we'll want to talk about are...

• Commercial mask sets as shown above?  Have any of you tried using them?  What was your experience?
• Tools for cutting tape to fit complicated areas on the deck.
• What kind of tape do you use?

Rodrigo contacted me about some trouble he was having with automotive primer sealer.  He ended up with a dusty finish.  I'm to blame here because I've used this product before for priming my models.  Have any of you had similar experiences?  I know Hugh prefers the filler primer of the same brand.  Rodrigo also asked me about Tamiya primers.  I haven't used these before so I'll try to put together a sample using Tamiya rattle can, Tamiya bottle, and my current favorite Stynylrez.   I would love to hear you all share your experiences with these products.  

I'll have an update for you all on my container ship project.  We're on the right path now!

As always, bring...

• Problems you're having with your project
• New additions to your "collection"
• Projects you're working on
• Finished models.  We love finished models!

See you all Saturday!

I almost forgot about the AFV Club LST kit that I brought.  And look what AFV Club made just for me!  A detail set!!!

I know, I know... Focus!  back to the containers!!  So many containers!!

Great to see everybody again.  

I began the meeting discussing my dilemma with 1/700 containers for the Colombo Express.  My idea of making disposable jigs and using sanding sticks/Dremel tool to square up the bottoms where the pour blocks were was not going to work.  I could not get a perfect flat bottom.  I think you can see in this picture that this container is slightly bowed.  

As they stacked the ability to stay square became progressively worse as you can see.  These should be flat across the top.  This clearly won't do!  So much for plan A.

Thanks to Jerry I have a better solution which is working well.  I'm now using a vertical mill to shave off the bottoms of the containers to make perfectly flat bottoms.  

I tried it after the meeting and it's doing the trick.  Here's the little beast.  This is an expensive tool,  but using this or something similar is key to getting this right.  I'll either bring this to the next meeting or have a video demonstrating how I used it.

Next Victor brought in his 1/350 Russian 1904 Tsesarevich Battleship.  This kit is from Trumpeter and they make it in two versions, 1904 and 1917.  Although it gave Victor some fits, as we've come to expect he mastered it.  Beautiful model Victor!  

Roger treated us with his work on 1/700 Corsairs.  Roger used some great sets from Starfighter Decals.  He used paints from some Vallejo model air sets which left an excellent sheen.   Roger set up his models on an assembly line basis and then went down the line duplicating the markings on each aircraft.  As you can see they came out amazingly well.  

John DuGene shared a 1/350 Type VIIC U-Boat that he's been working on.  John took a photo etch set designed for the Revell kit of the same type and scale.  It's really bringing this kit to life.  

Maximo shared with us his wood cruise ship.  Rodrigo advises that the two of them are working on some other ships.  We'll look forward to seeing those!

Bill shared with us a very nice book on the US FRAM program.  It's in Germany and Bill advises that there is a translation floating around on one of the modeling web sites.  Bill advised the he'll put together a presentation on the US FRAM program.  We'll look forward to that!

Same shared his lates project that he's working on.  A 1/700 US "S Boat" class submarine kit.  Sam had some excellent photo references of the prototype.

Kit hull plus the scale drawings he's working from.  

Martin finished up by telling us about his Christmas trip to Sweden where he visited the Vasa museum.  The Vasa was a famous 17th century sailing ship that sank on her maiden voyage.  Much has been discussed about this ship and why she sank.  It was interesting to get the Swedish take on what happened as relayed by Martin.  Hopefully I'll be able to visit this museum someday.  

See you all next time!

Greetings Ship Club and Happy New Year!  My wife and I just returned from vacation in Palm Springs so I apologize for being a little late in getting this out.

Meeting Location:
Rockler Woodworking (in the basement)
2553 S. Colorado Blvd., Suite 108
Denver, Colorado  80222
Date:  01/05/2019
Time:  10:00

So I have a dilemma.  I've been working on the containers for my 1/700 container ship.  I created some jigs and have been using my Dremel tool to square up the bottoms.  I've been pretty much eyeballing it but my biggest issue is grinding away the jig itself.  Clearly I need another answer.  I think Jerry's going to help me with this one and we'll talk about it at the meeting.

I'm anxious to see what Santa brought you all!  I have a few things related to some of our recent presentations that I will be bringing.

If anyone has something specific they would like to discuss let me know and I'll share it with the group.

As always, if you're like me and dealing with some modeling dilemma, let's see if we can help you with that.

Otherwise, please bring new tools, kits, etc. to share with the group.

See you Saturday!
Dave