Greetings all,
Thanks to everyone able to attend our meeting Saturday. I have to apologize for the rough start we had with the meeting. For some reason we were having a connection issue and I kept flipping in and out of the meeting. After restarting everything my connection was slow (as you can see in the recording) and I couldn't get the presentation to open. I think this was due to some software changes with Zoom. I truly appreciate your patience at home while I worked through that. I'm going to do a test before the next meeting to make sure everything is working.
Before I forget, our next scheduled meeting is Saturday, August 5th which conflicts with the IPMS National Convention. My thought is that we will have a virtual meeting the evening of Saturday, August 12th. I'll send a message out to see if that works.
Here's the link to the recorded meeting, less the dead space in the beginning.
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Tr4nHZx8xyYBIT_UobDTuIg3v8nH7F24v_SZu0j3ZeD6CUyYJPKRidGn5IYouKMx.iKFWX7xIoDlaBwB6?startTime=1688226955000
Passcode: gOn#?4??
Okay, so here's a recap of the meeting...
There was interest in knowing how to get Gator's Grip PVA glue. Kenny advised that you can buy it from Squadron.
You can also buy directly from Kenny. Here's the link to his web site where you can email him to purchase directly.
We had a lot of recaps this month.
First off we followed up on this release from Takom and the rocket launchers. They look very modern. What they did was launch a rocket trailing a wire. At the end of the wire was a mine. The idea was to snag airplanes on the wire which would drag the mine to the plane and knock it out of the sky. Great idea... right?
We then had a long discussion about Ultrasonic Cutters. Several of our members have them. The units available on the market are...
Wondercutter available Micro Mark. They are on sale currently. This is the unit that Len has. They are currently selling for $360.00 and I think you can find an additional 10% discount on their site.
Hondacutter is the brand John has. It is sold as ZO-41II. You can find them on eBay for $344 with free shipping from Japan. Also available on Amazon for $455.00.
Another unit is the Phrozen Sonic Cutter available on Amazon for only $229. This unit cuts at 35,000 strokes per second instead of 40,000 strokes with the other brands. It's marketed to the 3D printing community. Phrozen doesn't seem to have a great reputation for quality, but if you don't like it you can take it back to Amazon. Here's a review of the cutter. Go to the end of the review to see what he does with 3D printed parts. John and Len, I would appreciate you guys looking at this review and comparing it to how your cutters work.
The next generation of Wondercutter is coming out soon. The kickstarter price was $411. Not sure what the retail price will be. I've heard it will be available on Amazon?
Looking at some reviews it was pretty clear that the Wondercutter S (sold by MicroMark) was far superior to the Phrozen Sonic Cutter. In fact I would take a hard pass on the Phrozen offering. Based on John's review of the Hondacutter, I think it would also perform very well. In conclusion I think this could be a very useful tool to have, especially for cutting supports off 3D printed parts, and especially figures!
On a related follow up. Kenny talked about his knife collection that he uses professionally. Kenny recommended both the NT cutters and OLFA cutters, especially the blades. For $11.00 on Amazon delivered, I thought I would give the Graphics Knife Set a try. It did not disappoint. The blades are excellent and I can see this coming in very handy for cutting out masks, decals, etc.
We got some nice updates from the club.
David Angelo shared some updates on his Heller HMS Victory. David said he had quite the time rigging the bow sprit. It's definitely looking the part.
John Widmar shared his HMS Colombo D-89 from Trumpeter in 1/700 scale. John reports it to be a nice kit.
Kenny Loup shared his work on the USS New Orleans in 1/700 scale. Kenny mentioned that he's working on ships named after Louisiana cities.
I finally almost completed my model of the U-35 with a ship crew surrendering. I say "almost" because the run railing on the aft gun emplacement came loose. I can't believe I didn't lose that thing! Anyway, thanks to Gator's Grip Thin the railing is secured back in place. A wood base has been made and we'll take this to the NATS. This is the old Yankee Modelworks, later Blue Water Navy release. Figures were made for me by Luis of holden8702.
- Only so much dye can be added to the resin before it stops curing properly.
- Even with the most allowable dye, it is very transparent.
- Placing a black sheet on the bottom after it cured did a nice job of darkening the water the way you would expect from an ocean scene.
- The frame must be perfectly sealed to make sure no resin leaks out. The tiniest hold will cause a leak. I learned the hard way on that one.
- Resin has a nasty habit of creeping up the side of anything it comes in contact with above it's leveled height. I'll mitigate that with the next step, adding an acrylic gel to the surface.
- Acrylic gel over the surface makes for a nice surface effect and obscures the object below in the resin for a nice effect. It also sticks beautifully to the resin. No need to rough up the surface in advance.
Another follow up item from the last meeting. Rob pointed out some new releases from SS Models. This shows a CAD drawing of the USS Arizona. It looks great, but we're all wondering how they are printing the structures. Previous releases are challenging to paint because they didn't break up the different deck layers. I contacted SS Models to see if they had any photos of the printed parts. They had none yet telling me that they haven't received any completed kits yet. It does show a lot of promise so we'll continue to follow up with this company. Here are some photos of their latest releases.
USS Nevada
Pit Road has a new offering that some might find interesting. They are offering a 1/700 kit of the IJN Aircraft Carrier, Chitose with a pre-painted deck. This could save a considerable amount of time masking and decaling the deck. They offer the same kit unpainted and at the same price. You can find this at hlj.com. I'll be interested to see if somebody in our group builds this one.
Orange Hobby continues to release excellent 3D printed parts. This set would be excellent for a modern aircraft carrier. Perhaps for the new USS Ford that I'll talk about later!
3D Wild continues to impress. One of their partners is releasing all the parts needed to make any of the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers.
And finally, you all thought what you needed was another Iowa Class Battleship. Well, how about the USS Iowa in 1/350 scale from Trumpeter. Unlike some other releases this one seems quite complete with photo etch including a full set of railings, anchor chain, and turned barrels.
That's all for this month. Next time I look forward to telling you about the Nationals and also some great 3D printed aircraft from Black Cat Models.
