August 2023 Ship Club Meeting

Thanks to everyone who was able to participate in our online meeting.  Here is the LINK to the meeting recording.   I'm not going to post all the ship model photos, so if you wish to go back and look at them please review the recording.

Here's the recap....

We started with a recap of what we're working on.

David Angelo gave us an update on his model of the Victory.  David gave a comprehensive description, holding back "adult language" on the challenges of the kit rigging with the tools supplied by Heller.  

Rob gave us an update on his new project, Dragon Models 1/700 USS Albany.

We then took a look at the new kits from Tom's Modelworks.  Richard has a new joint effort with Model Monkey, Black Cat Models, Starfighter Decals, Mike with Combrig, and Northview Foundry.  the kits are the USS Midway CV-41, and USS Frankling D. Roosevelt CV-42.  The hull is waterline cast resin and most of the detail parts are 3D printed resin.  Richard also includes necessary photo etch parts.  Richard didn't have time to complete the model before the show, so looking forward to seeing that.

Here are some photos of the 3d parts in these kits

Next we discussed three new kits coming from Black Cat Models.  These are 1/350 long foc'stle Flower Class Corvette's from Canada with the mast forward and aft of the bridge.  The first two models depict the HMCS Sackville, and HMCS Snowberry.  The Sackville is the last remaining Flower Class Corvette in existence and is a museum ship located in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The third is the HMS Mimosa which sounds more like OJ and champaign!  I wish these kits were available when I did mine.  So much aggrivation could have been spared!

Next on the horizon is a new kit from HS Models, an Arleigh Burke Class destroyer in 1/700 scale.  The drawings show some amazing detail including the hull hooks molded on the sides.  Far more detail than the Dragon kit.  They are also hinting at a 1/350 offering.  We shall see what comes...

Something different is a kit from a new manufacturer called Nautic Models.  This is the Portuguese Frigate Vasco da Gama.  The kit is available on Etsy.  The actual ship is based on the German MEKO 200 design.  The kit does not seem to include railings so you will need to source that in the aftermarket.  

Is this the next thing in ship model aftermarket?  Here is a new product from a company called "Print Scale" out of the Ukraine.  It is a 3D printed deck.  We've seen this material with aircraft cockpit aftermarket sets.  It appears to behave just like the thin wood deck stickers we've seen.  There is however much more opportunity than what we are seeing with this first effort.  For example why not print on the cleats, hatches, etc.  We'll see what develops with this technology.  Currently they have 1/350 decks for the Dunkerque, Yamato, and the Dreadnaught.  

Back to our friend, Richard Harden with Colourcoats paints.  The small 14ml tins are being phased out for the new larger 30ml tins.  I recently received some of these from Richard and I have to say I prefer them to the smaller tins.  Primarily because the lids are superior.  They don't bend and are easier to open and close.  Highly recommended!

Rob shared photos from his recent visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.  Here's an example, but to see all of them please review the meeting video.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to photos of the models at the IPMS National Convention in San Marcos.  I'm not going to post them all here so please review the video to see them all.  

There were two models that really stood out to me and they are from a gentleman named Joseph Lavendar.  These are very small model ships built at the level normally associated with large ship models.  I encourage you to check out his web site and see how he goes about building these remarkable models.  The Kongo wont first place and the Bounty won second in it's category.  Here's a LINK to his web site.

That's it for this month.  I look forward to seeing you in September in person and on Zoom.