February 2026 Ship Club Meeting

Thanks to everyone who turned out!  We had a full day today!  
Here's a LINK

To start the meeting we had a little fun with this cartoon.  Thanks for everyone participating.  I found this on one of the modeling Facebook pages.  Too funny!

Thanks to Brandon Lowe for making us aware of Loren Perry's passing.  Gold Medal Models has always been a part of ship modeling from the time I started.  Fair Winds and Following Seas, Loren!

I've updated the Blog page to include the video of "The Battle of Leyte Gulf" from the National Museum of WWII Aviation.  I also added the video that Sam requested on "Early U.S. Logistics in the Pacific, 1941-42.  Check it out!

We had an in depth discussion on Ultrasonic Cutters.  

Sam had a follow-up discussion on Logistics and Rob's recent build of the USS Kitty Hawk.  The link to the video he discussed again is on our Blog main page under special presentation.  Give it a look!

David gave us a talk on a ship that the Nave planned to construct in 1916 and decided it was a really bad idea.  110 years and the Navy hasn't learned their lesson yet!  This is a really interesting build and looking forward to see it build out.

Rob Weilacher shared with us his build of the USS New Orleans

Rob's next build is the USS Enterprise from Tom's Modelworks.  These are amazing little kits.

A look at all the parts included in this kit.

Rob got a big shout out from Squadron on their weekly live show on YouTube.

Here's my rabbit hole...  Making progress on the base.  More information to follow...

The model includes the DSRV USS Mystic which we had a short discussion on.  I sent everyone a good video about this rescue vehicle which fortunately never had to be used.

For the model I replicated the striping using white and red line decals from ANYZ.  It's a tiny little craft and I think this works much better than trying to mask and paint.

The DSRV has been replaced with this.  We'll talk more about this at the next meeting.

My second sub is a Los Angeles Class, 688(i) flight III boat.  

I'm making wood bases for all my 1/350 boats using Alder.  Taking advantage of the nice weather I milled out a bunch of lumber and assembled bases for all the subs I have in progress.  I'm working on a way to finish these bases during the winter months as I want to take at least one of these on my trip to the HeritageCon contest in Canada.  More on that to come...

On Squadron's weekly live show they discussed what they are doing with the line of Iron Shipwrights products.  The first up will be a remake of the Edmond Fitzgerald.  The original cast resin version of this kit had hull warping issues, not to mention the usual air bubble problems with those castings.  The new version will be completely 3D printed, hull and all.  The other models in the que are submarines.  Exciting news from Squadron!

Squadron also announced their full detail conversion set.  This will be the for the upcoming square bridge Fletcher from Trumpeter in 1/200 scale.  

Squadron is also expanding their line of 1/350 3D printed detail parts.  Included in these parts are the complete variations of the gun directors.  

Starling Models in the UK released their plans for 2026.  

Here's a unique ship that they are working on now.  It is the HMS M-33.  Sam knew what it was.  Looking forward to seeing more about this model.

New from a company called Beacon out of China is a new 1/350 Arleigh Burke kit.  It colmes as a basic kit, or you can buy an upgrade kit which includes a full set of photo etch and a lot of 3D printed upgrade improvements.  This photo depicts the model with the upgrades.  Upgrade kit is sold separately.  

Aladdin Models which is a site for designers to sell their 3D print files, has a $10,000 contest for a creator to come up with the best 3D print design.  Here is one of the designs entered.

The detail in this work is impressive.  But we agreed that this would be a nightmare to try and print.  

Look!  Another 1/700 Yamato kit!  This one from Very Fire and marked by Beaver Corporation.

As shown earlier, Pontos is releasing an upgrade set for the Trumpeter 1/200 round bridge Fletcher.  Different than what Squadron is planning to release, but it will be interesting to compare.  It's on pre-order from Squadron now.

Hasegawa is re-releasing their kit of the Gambier Bay as the Shamrock Bay, CVE-84 escort carrier.

This one really got everyone's attention.  This is the 1990's version of the USS Long Beach.  This is a unique kit loaded with detail.  it's designed by Rafael who owns Blandy Maquetes navais.  Rafael does the design work and 3D-Wild prints the kit.  

Another announcement from 3D-Wild is this commercial ship, SS Cleveland, which was a Great Lakes passenger ship.  It was later converted to the USS Wolverine.  This is one to watch!

This is my little project.  I've been working with designer Oto Gerza of RCSubs, and Ron Schneider who is a model builder and earned his Dolphins on a Flight II Los Angeles Class submarine.  These are going to be great kits, 

Some photos of the resin prints...

The flood holes are carefully researched and include the doors for the anchor and aux propulsion system.

That's it for this meeting.  We'll see you on build night or at the next meeting!