Ship Club meeting recap - February 2024

Greetings all.  Here's a recap of our monthly ship club meeting.  I'm still working through some of the technology issues with having my new iPad tablet.  I purchased a dongle specifically said to work with the Apple iPad Pro and guess what... it doesn't.  You think I would have learned from previous experience, but I didn't... Shame on me.  😒

To add insult to injury, the Zoom recording didn't happen.  Today I put up a quick video that recaps everything we talked about in the slides.  This may be helpful for those who attended as the only screen that worked because of the useless dongle, was the screen on my tablet.  Too small!  Here's the LINK to the recorded video.

So here's a recap of what we discussed this month.

The USS Texas undergoing restoration in the Houston area is about read to come out of dry dock.  There's a lot of work still going on above deck.  My understanding is that they are going to replace the teak decking.   There are some good videos on YouTube and postings on Facebook with her current situation.  I noticed that the screws are not going back on.  They sealed up the propeller shafts.  Another thing I noticed was that they were restoring the gun mounts behind the casements.  It looks like they're doing some great work.

Roger gave us a recap of the Adams County Veterans Memorial at the Riverdale Regional Park.  It was suggested that we have a club meeting out there sometime.  I think that could be a fun idea.

There are monuments to all the branches of military services.  

Here's a nice video about the memorial and some interviews with veterans of the USS Colorado.  

Here's a map of the Veterans Memorial location

We had a discussion about what's going on with Squadron.  Brandon has set up a Personal Warehouse, much like the Private Warehouse that Hobby Link Japan has run for several years.  You can read how it works in this slide.

Brandon is also hosting an hour long YouTube meeting every Wednesday night at 7:00 pm MST or 9:00 pm EST.  The first time I watched it they did a complete review of the new Magic Factory 1/700 USS Gerald R Ford.  Last Wednesday Brandon did a recap of some new kits and projects he's working on.  Much of it is ship model related.  Just look for Squadron TV on YouTube.

One last update on Squadron.  They have two "pre-order" sections now.  One is regular pre-orders which have a confirmed pricing.  Then they have future pre-orders which are kits announced by manufacturers but don't have a price established or deliver date set.

Rob Weilacher showed off his Vee Hobby 1/700 USS Indiana.  Rob reports that the kit is excellent and he found the photo etch easy to work with.  

John Widmar shared his latest creation from Triumph Models.  Who?  I swear John has a kit from every ship manufacturer ever come to market.  John reports that this kit had good detail but had difficulty with some of the parts breaking.  Very nice job, John!

I brought my little nightmare.  This is a 1/2000 scale 3D printed kit from SS Models of the HMS Weymouth Class Cruiser.  This kit is printed as two pieces.  One piece above the waterline and the other below.  The masts on the model are too short and thanks to an accident, I solder some new ones from brass and added the correct number of yard arms.  I first painted the model gray with Tamiya lacquers.  I then masked and painted below the boot also with Tamiya lacquers.  The boot was made using very thin black line decals.  This cruiser started its life in WWI.  I'm working on a couple more in this scale, one of which is an SS Models kit but with more printed pieces than this one.  

I then went on to share my adventure with 3D printing.  The jury is still out for me on whether this is a good idea or not.  But I'm deep down the rabbit hole and now ready to print some useful items.  More on that at future meetings.

Here are my first test prints.  The complex Starship prints were printed at 16 and 18 seconds.  To my eye they look identical.  There is another test print called the "Cones" which is more precise.  After printing at 16, 17, and 18 seconds I found that 17 seconds was the perfect print time.  

Time to start looking at what's new in the market.

I brought in my Flyhawk 1/700 Aegis Class Cruiser, USS Bunker Hill.  When I saw this come to market I sold the two Dragon kits I had in my collection.  This is the deluxe version.  What makes it deluxe are the beautiful 3D printed masts and weapons.  

The next Vee Hobbies kit coming to market is the 1/700 USS Houston.  Rob advises this is on his list.  

Here are some shots showing the photo etch details.  Looks like a nice little kit.

Trumpeter is releasing the HMS Naiad in 1/350 scale.  It's available from Squadron for $89.99

This kit includes an extensive set of photo etch to detail the kit properly.  

Dragon Models has re-emerged with a new team and produced the first new ship model.  This one is the HMS Nelson in 1/350 scale.  The CAD drawings look good and it appears will include a good photo etch set as well.  

Takom continues to put out new ship subjects.  This is the 1/350 Admiral Gorshkov class frigate which is currently in service.  

Starling Models has now released their 1/350 HMAS Yarra.  This includes a resin hull and 3D printed parts.  Also included in the kit are turned brass, photo etch, 3D printed parts, and Uschi lycra rigging material.  Everything you need.  

Here's an example of the quality of 3D printed parts

Also released from Starling Models is the HMS Amethyst, 1949 version.  This ship was made famous in the movie "Yangtse Incident".  This ship made a famous escape during the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

A future release from Starling Models will be the Grimsby Class Sloop, HMS Deptford in 1/350 scale.  Price and release date have not been made public yet.  

Finally we look backwards to a kit from Freedom Models who are not known for ship models.  This is a French multipurpose frigate called Aquitaine.  This is an interesting subject in that this ship doesn't have railings as part of its design.  The only exception are the safety nets around the flight deck.  It's available for only $29.32 from HLJ.com.

That's it for now.  We'll see you next time.