Greetings all and thanks for attending the September club meeting. Our connection for Zoom meetings seems to be struggling the last couple of months. This time the connection dropped several times during the meeting and the streaming was not smooth from the meeting room. I'm not sure what's driving that but will work on some solutions. Here's the LINK
We started the meeting with a discussion about a competition in China
Children were given 18 hours to complete their project. These are all ship models of one sort or another.
Next Sam his presentation on the Titanic and her construction issues.
Sam discussed the issues with rivet heads of different materials under stress.
We then moved on to what our members are building.
Kenny shared his kit bash of a Landing Craft Control. These boats were used to direct landing craft. Kenny used the Revell UDT model as the basis for his conversion. Another aspect of this model I liked was the lettering on the wood base. Rather than laser engraving, Kenny prepared a mask and spray painted it. With a clear coat it looks stunning. Well done Kenny!
From this I found some information on other Chris Craft boats that were built during WWII.
Next Rob shared his completed model of the USS Albany CG-10. For some reason it didn't show up on our slides during the show. Here's his finished model.
Rob shared with us his next project, the 1/700 Prince of Wales. Excuse the spell check error on my part!
Rob discussed one of the challenges of the Flyhawk kits, and that is the incredibly tiny parts you have to work with. Is this too much?
John Widmar shared his 1/700 WWI SMS Emden kit from Flyhawk. John also expressed frustration over the size of some of the parts.
Then John shared his 1/700 NMF Friant. Not to be confused with the NMF Friend (damn spell check)
That's a lot of builds you say? Well John had a couple more. A couple of Etarafu Class escort ships in 1/700 scale from Pit Road
And a ferry from Niko. 1/700 Seikan No. 6 railway Ferry with rail cars!
Roger Schafer shared some of his work as well.
Here we have the ICM 1/700 König Class Battleship, GroBer Kurfürst. Roger reported it to be a very nice kit.
Roger also showed us his Loose Canon East Harriman Passenger/Freighter in 1/700 scale.
And Roger finished with his 1/700 J Class Destroyer, HMS Jupiter which I think is from Aoshima.
Roger shared his method for creating a water base for the purpose of photographing his ships in a water scene. He started with a clear acrylic top that had a water like effect molded into it. Then he took a piece of cardboard the size of the acrylic top and painted it various shades of gray and blue. He then puts the wavy acrylic over the cardboard and has a very convincing water base to photograph his models from. Nice idea Roger and very convincing!
I didn't bring this to the meeting, but this is my "not so deep pour resin" project. At this stage the resin is fully poured and curing for the next couple of days. Since then I've removed it from the pour box in good order. More to share later.
For Tool time this month we started with Roger Schafer giving the all time pitch for the Micro Mark Vortex paint mixer. Roger took some otherwise hopeless bottles of paint and with this mixer restored the paint to a mixed paint without clumps. So of course several of us immediately bought one.
At the IPMS Nationals I had the opportunity to have the WonderCutter, Ultrasonic Cutter, demonstrated. I was particularly interested in how well it would trim 3D printed 1/350 and 1/700 figures from their supports. John also demonstrated this during a meeting. Micro Mark had an offer I couldn't refuse so I picked one up at the Nats. I brought it home and used it to remove several 1/700 figures with great success!
I demonstrated this at the meeting. What I learned was that you have to let this thing cool down. At 45,000 strokes per second this thing produces a lot of heat. They suggest an equal amount of cooling for the amount of time used. I showed that cutting thick sprue can be a problem as it gets so hot it melts the plastic while it's cutting it. It also works well with foam board that you might use to band a diorama base, etc.
I demonstrated this at the meeting. What I learned was that you have to let this thing cool down. At 45,000 strokes per second this thing produces a lot of heat. They suggest an equal amount of cooling for the amount of time used. I showed that cutting thick sprue can be a problem as it gets so hot it melts the plastic while it's cutting it. It also works well with foam board that you might use to band a diorama base, etc.
New kits on the market
First up we have a company called Metallic Details. They've been around for a while but this is their first plunge into 1/1200 ship kits. These are nice looking 3D printed models in a very small scale. That WonderCutter Ultrasonic Cutter would come in handy with this kit. You have to buy them from one of the stores listed in the top right. Kits include 3D printed parts and photo etch.
- SMS Blucher
- HMS Indomitable
- SMS Seydlitz
- HMS Tiger
Here is the 1/350 offering. Note the 3D printed railings now available on the 1/700 model.
And our last new kits are also a follow up. It comes from Kraken Models. The deck has exquisite detail and the guns in this prototype look very good as well.
Another kit we saw coming from Kraken is the USS Downes in 1/700 scale. It's only a CAD drawing at this point but is an interesting subject that I don't think I've seen before.
That's all for September. I look forward to seeing you in October!
Dave
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