April Ship Club Meeting recap

 Hi all,

Thanks to everyone who as able to attend our meeting Saturday.  I apologize for losing our internet connection.  I simply ran out of battery on my phone which is how we connect.  As already mentioned we stopped presenting in person and will pick it up where we left off next month.  

Here's the LINK to the meeting recording.  

So here's a recap of what we were able to get through....

We talked about what's in the news.  The US, UK, and Australia have entered into a new submarine program.  In short, the US is going to sell between three and seven existing Virginia Class submarines to Australia.  Australian sailors are currently attending Nuke School in the US and reports suggest that they are doing very well.  The UK has been working on a new design to replace the Astute Class submarines.  They are now working with the Australian Navy on this plan which is to build these submarines in Australia.  A multi billion dollar investment is being made into upgrading Australian ship building infrastructure.  The entire program is expected to cost some 245 billion over 30 years.  

In hobby related news, Shapeways announced a new "Fine Gray Plastic" which was purported to be of finer detail than their other plastics and cost less.  I bought an example to compare with previous items I've bought from Shapeways.  True it costs a little less, but as you can see the quality isn't very good.  It may be worse than their previously offered best material.  The printers they use are from a manufacturer called ProJet.  Their system uses lasers and wax supports.  It may be useful for some purposes other than scale modeling.  If you look closely at the photo you'll see what fuzzy material all over the part.  This is the wax support that their process can't remove from the actual part.  This has been the prime criticism of their print process, especially relating to the parts we use in modeling.  Fortunately the scale modeling designers have really been stepping up their game with SLA resin printing.  More on that next month!

Finally in the news this month, Iron Shipwrights has been stepping up their quality by incorporating 3D printed parts into their kit.  They are working on four battleships in 1/350 scale which are the pre-war USS Florida, USS Wyoming, USS Delaware, and USS New York, all sporting those wonderful cage masts.  Hold on to your wallets though as these are expected to retail at about $300 each.  The below photo shows the use of 3D printing in gray.  The hulls remain cast in resin.  Hopefully with a price tag this high the hulls are of the quality we have become used to from other manufacturers such as Black Cat, Starling, etc.  

Sam treated us to an excellent discussion on what led to the rapid sinking of the Titanic.  Below is the summary of the discussion.  Sub standard rivets!  Go figure!  If you didn't see it watch the recorded video of the meeting to get the full story.

Roger gave us an excellent presentation on a new clamp from Dspiae.  For some reason this image didn't appear in our presentation.  But Roger didn't need it and put his excellent teaching skills to work.  These clamps sell for about $50 each.  They have a unique soft jaw system to protect your model from damage.  

Some enterprising designer has come up with an expanded jaw system which allows you to hold larger subjects.  They come in two different sizes and are for sale on Etsy.  

If you prefer rattle cans to prime your models, AK has come out with a line of spray primers in three colors shown below.  Nobody has tried these yet.  If you get some let us know how they perform.

On to what we're working on...

David Angelo brought us up to speed on this big Heller HMS Victory build.  David had some challenges getting his decks to fit and came up with some ingenious fixes to bring it together.  

David's efforts paid off with the top decks in place!

Rob brought us up to date on his new project, USS Hornet.  Rob reports that this kit from Dragon is quite accurate and happy with the way it's coming together.  Rob also picked up the complete island section made by Model Monkey.  Rob is very happy with the quality of print (not Shapeways) which improved detail and saved a lot of time in assembly.  Steve Larsen of Model Monkey uses a Form Labs SLA printer.

Len shared with us a new kit he got from SS Models of the German Navy Light Cruiser, Emden.

SS Models is releasing some highly detailed and challenging kits lately, and this is no exception.  They are also interesting subjects.  Here you can see the excellent quality of these 1/700 scale parts.

I shared my annual Easter project.  This year it is the USS Saratoga CV-3 which originated as the Chibi kit of the USS Lexington.  I added considerable detail with parts from Fine Molds and Flyhawk.  The kit and everything went together well with the exception of the photo etch.  I picked up a set made by Gold Medal Models.  Although the photo on the Free Time web site looked like brass, it was in fact steel which is very difficult to cut and work with.  I probably went through 20 blades cutting out the parts I needed.  If you buy Gold Medal Models photo etch from anyone, be sure to find out if it's brass or steel.  If steel, run!

The last thing we got in before the power went out was this new kit from Gecko Models of a British LCA landing craft with Grappling Hook Rocket Launchers.  This kit is in 1/35 scale and the second LCA they have released.  

That covered it for this month.  We'll pick up where we left off next meeting.