It's time for virtual ship club, part two!
When:  May 2nd, at 10:00 MDT
Where:  In the cloud...er.. on Zoom.  A link to the meeting will be sent to you.

First some changes at Zoom.  You may have heard that with the huge influx of business they have experienced some activity by low life's that have hacked into meetings.  They've implemented some changes to prevent that from happening.  One is that I believe everyone will log into a waiting room.  As you arrive I will pull you into the meeting.  So be patient with me as we go through this.  Otherwise it should be the same.


We'll kick it off with another episode of "where's Dave?"  I think I have a good one this month.  It ties in to Dave Angelo of Loose Cannon East who I hope can join us this month to talk about what he's up to.

I have a couple of finished projects to share with you all.  I'm hoping that you will all share what you've been working on during the isolation.  Sam is going to provide me with some history on one of these projects that I will share with you.

I have some nice photos of Rodrigo's finished work and works in progress.  He's done some very artistic cases for his ship models that I look forward to sharing with you.

I have really come to enjoy podcasts.  There are several that are focused specifically on scale modeling, and one of them devotes time to ships!  There are a couple that I'm listening to and I'll share those with you.  I'd like to hear what you guys listen to or watch while you're modeling.  And do you partake in "modeling fluids"?  I'll explain later.

We will be talking about some new tools.  Jerry will be sharing with us a new sanding tool that he's recently acquired.  I came across a new jig that's winging its way to me, designed specifically for the model ships we build.  

As always please bring...

• Any questions you have
• What you're working on
• Finished models you would like to share with us.

The link to the next meeting will be sent out by email shortly.  Be sure to use the current link because they will change with each session.

See you Saturday, May 2nd.

Okay, so apparently when I clipped the hour off the first part of the recording it wasn't permanent.  I updated the link again and apparently it's fixed now if you ant to try it again.

I asked Jerry what camera he bought and it was this one.

When I checked Logitech web site it showed that they were out due to high demand.  There are many sellers using the amazon and ebay platform that are asking a small fortune for this camera.  I suggest hunting around until you can find a good price.  

Thanks to all who were able to attend the Virtual Ship Club meeting today.  Unfortunately David Angelo was unable to attend.  I'll reach out to him and see if we can reschedule for next month.

The meeting was recorded and is available at this LINK.  When I got the original recording it was over three hours!  There was somebody with handle of Drgw1 that had been signed on for over an hour.  The recording allows you to edit out which part of the meeting you want to save so I removed all that.  Anyway, the front part of the recording is banter.  The meeting starts at about 21 minutes into the recording.

I would really appreciate any feedback you would provide on how to make it run smoother.

Starting off, I happen to have a green screen so I set that up.  It's not at all necessary but it was fun way to start the meeting... Where's Waples?  I'll plan on that moving forward.

John Widmar started off with a discussion on a couple of kits he finished.  This first one is from a company called Fairy Kikaku.  It was the subject of the video I posted a link to earlier in this blog.  Definitely watch that video.

I'm assuming because of space, but this manufacturer decided to quarter the hull and that's kind of their trademark.  Here's what one of their kits looks like in the package.  John had to find parts from other sources to complete the kit the way he wanted.

John didn't have video but sent these photos to me later on two other kits he discussed.  You've got to love John's photography!

Next Bill Smallshaw discussed how he went about designing a part he needed t complete the front end of his PT Boat cabin.  Bill provides a great narrative in the video linked above so be sure to check it out.  

I talked about the growing number of weapons systems kits coming to the market, in this case from Tacoma.  One that will be released soon is the 2nd main gun turret from the Yamato in 1/72 scale.  

The second is a Russian AK 130 in 1/35 scale.

I also discussed a new masking product from MOLOTOW.  These are the same folks that brought you the chrome pens.  They come in 2mm and 4mm tip sizes.  The big tube is a refill.  The two pens can be reloaded with the masking material.  I tested to see how it would behave on plastic and it worked extremely well.  I'm going to next test it with some paint to see how it holds up.  

Tim shared with us a couple of projects he was working on.  He discussed having to replace some rivets.  John DuGene brought up another great use for the UV glue we talked about last month.  By placing little dots of the glue on the subject then hitting it with the light, he was able to replace lost rivets in his project.  Another great use for UV glue!

We went around the room and talked about what everyone was working on.  You can view all that in the video.  See you all next month!

Hi all,
Reminder that our meeting is at the usual time (10:00 am) but on Zoom Video Conferencing.  You should have all received the invite.  Again, be sure to log in early, especially if this is your first time.  If you haven't received the instructions reach out to me.  See you then!
Dave