April Ship Club Meeting recap

 Hi all,

Thanks to everyone who as able to attend our meeting Saturday.  I apologize for losing our internet connection.  I simply ran out of battery on my phone which is how we connect.  As already mentioned we stopped presenting in person and will pick it up where we left off next month.  

Here's the LINK to the meeting recording.  

So here's a recap of what we were able to get through....

We talked about what's in the news.  The US, UK, and Australia have entered into a new submarine program.  In short, the US is going to sell between three and seven existing Virginia Class submarines to Australia.  Australian sailors are currently attending Nuke School in the US and reports suggest that they are doing very well.  The UK has been working on a new design to replace the Astute Class submarines.  They are now working with the Australian Navy on this plan which is to build these submarines in Australia.  A multi billion dollar investment is being made into upgrading Australian ship building infrastructure.  The entire program is expected to cost some 245 billion over 30 years.  

In hobby related news, Shapeways announced a new "Fine Gray Plastic" which was purported to be of finer detail than their other plastics and cost less.  I bought an example to compare with previous items I've bought from Shapeways.  True it costs a little less, but as you can see the quality isn't very good.  It may be worse than their previously offered best material.  The printers they use are from a manufacturer called ProJet.  Their system uses lasers and wax supports.  It may be useful for some purposes other than scale modeling.  If you look closely at the photo you'll see what fuzzy material all over the part.  This is the wax support that their process can't remove from the actual part.  This has been the prime criticism of their print process, especially relating to the parts we use in modeling.  Fortunately the scale modeling designers have really been stepping up their game with SLA resin printing.  More on that next month!

Finally in the news this month, Iron Shipwrights has been stepping up their quality by incorporating 3D printed parts into their kit.  They are working on four battleships in 1/350 scale which are the pre-war USS Florida, USS Wyoming, USS Delaware, and USS New York, all sporting those wonderful cage masts.  Hold on to your wallets though as these are expected to retail at about $300 each.  The below photo shows the use of 3D printing in gray.  The hulls remain cast in resin.  Hopefully with a price tag this high the hulls are of the quality we have become used to from other manufacturers such as Black Cat, Starling, etc.  

Sam treated us to an excellent discussion on what led to the rapid sinking of the Titanic.  Below is the summary of the discussion.  Sub standard rivets!  Go figure!  If you didn't see it watch the recorded video of the meeting to get the full story.

Roger gave us an excellent presentation on a new clamp from Dspiae.  For some reason this image didn't appear in our presentation.  But Roger didn't need it and put his excellent teaching skills to work.  These clamps sell for about $50 each.  They have a unique soft jaw system to protect your model from damage.  

Some enterprising designer has come up with an expanded jaw system which allows you to hold larger subjects.  They come in two different sizes and are for sale on Etsy.  

If you prefer rattle cans to prime your models, AK has come out with a line of spray primers in three colors shown below.  Nobody has tried these yet.  If you get some let us know how they perform.

On to what we're working on...

David Angelo brought us up to speed on this big Heller HMS Victory build.  David had some challenges getting his decks to fit and came up with some ingenious fixes to bring it together.  

David's efforts paid off with the top decks in place!

Rob brought us up to date on his new project, USS Hornet.  Rob reports that this kit from Dragon is quite accurate and happy with the way it's coming together.  Rob also picked up the complete island section made by Model Monkey.  Rob is very happy with the quality of print (not Shapeways) which improved detail and saved a lot of time in assembly.  Steve Larsen of Model Monkey uses a Form Labs SLA printer.

Len shared with us a new kit he got from SS Models of the German Navy Light Cruiser, Emden.

SS Models is releasing some highly detailed and challenging kits lately, and this is no exception.  They are also interesting subjects.  Here you can see the excellent quality of these 1/700 scale parts.

I shared my annual Easter project.  This year it is the USS Saratoga CV-3 which originated as the Chibi kit of the USS Lexington.  I added considerable detail with parts from Fine Molds and Flyhawk.  The kit and everything went together well with the exception of the photo etch.  I picked up a set made by Gold Medal Models.  Although the photo on the Free Time web site looked like brass, it was in fact steel which is very difficult to cut and work with.  I probably went through 20 blades cutting out the parts I needed.  If you buy Gold Medal Models photo etch from anyone, be sure to find out if it's brass or steel.  If steel, run!

The last thing we got in before the power went out was this new kit from Gecko Models of a British LCA landing craft with Grappling Hook Rocket Launchers.  This kit is in 1/35 scale and the second LCA they have released.  

That covered it for this month.  We'll pick up where we left off next meeting.

Greetings all,

Thanks for attending our March meeting.  You can watch the meeting again at the following 

Recording Link

Passcode for the recording: ^WfhTC7e

March was a catch up meeting for us.  Here's the recap...

3D printed ship weapons and detail parts are going crazy.  There's a new kind on the block. Heavy Hobby is releasing mostly Russian and British 1/700 and 1/350 products.  They are available at Hobby Link Japan and Hobby Easy.

Same provided a follow up to the use of "Yellow Pine" on ships.  Turns out this is a fairly generic name for this lumber.  Same shared some examples of where pine was used extensively.  

Talking about decking.  Here is a photo of the USS Alabama with a beautiful new teak deck.  I checked with the museum to find out if the old deck might be available for purchase.  They advised that the deck needs to be decontaminated before it can be sold.  They estimated the wood would be available sometime in 2024.  What a great base for your Alabama kit!

Roger Schafer gave us an update on the progress of the Veterans Memorial in Brighton based on the USS Colorado.  It's blocked off so it's not easy to get to.  Roger reported that they're making progress.  Looking forward to seeing this completed.  

Roger and Jerry showed us some decals in February from a company called I-94 Enterprises.  Mostly they make decals for small aircraft models used for gaming.  However they have a series of decals that work great for 1/700 ships side numbers.  

NIKO released the USS Absecon that we talked about a few months ago.  This is a variation of the Barnaget Class.  Traditional resin and photo etch kit.  Looks like it will build into a nice kit.

David Angelo shared his project on the Heller Models 1/100 scale HMS Victory.  We'll continue to follow David along his journey.  

Fred Bustard sent me a photo of his latest creation.  This is the HMCS Buckingham in 1/350 scale.  This is scratch built and a beautiful representation of the ship.  He's depicted it during helicopter trials and has beautifully reproduced the ship during this period.  

Paying homage to David with his Victory and Rob with his Constitution, I shared this model of the 1/700 Artist Hobby HMS Victory in dry dock.  What a brilliant model and inspiration for future builds!

Richard shared a model he found on eBay, made by Gaga Models, and sold by Global Toy.  Not a an inexpensive kit but a nice looking 3D print.  This led to a discussion about a documentary Jerry and Roger raved about called "USS United States: Lady in Waiting".  It's not available to view online or on TV right now.  I found a copy of it on DVD on eBay and purchased it.  I'll bring it to the next meeting making it available for our members to borrow and view.  

Next we talked about a publisher called Glenn Hoover.  They make books that walk you through every single step of building a kit.  They make three ship books including 1/350 Oliver Hazard Perry, 1/350 Tamiya Fletcher, and Trumpeter 1/350 Iwo Jima LHD-7.  Planned is the 1/350 Tamiya USS Enterprise.  Glenn Hoover are beyond out of the box.  They are made with aftermarket kits which are identified.  The books are in a checklist format so you can mark off the steps as you proceed.

Looking at new kits.  Let's start with something old that's been re-released.  Trumpeter has converted their iconic 1/200 Arizona to an RC model.  Something great for the pool or neighborhood park.

Trumpeter has released their 1/700 USS Hawaii CB-3, which is a never built ship.  It was intended to be the third of the Alaska Class Cruisers.  Available now at Squadron for $53.20.  

ICM in the Ukraine is releasing a 1/144 kit of the Kriegsmarine KFK Kriegsfischkutter.  This is basically a fishing trawler converted to a gun boat.  

Special Hobby is also working on the same subject in 1/72 scale.

AJM Models has a new 1/700 release of the HMCS Prince David and HMCS Prince Robert.  AJM make wonderful kits and this appears to be no exception. 

A kit AJM is working on now is the HMS Enterprise.  

Combrig announced the releases of the French Liberte in 1/700 scale.  This is built in full hull and resin construction.  This was a Pre-Dreadnought battleship and the lead in her class.  This is a CAD drawing but it looks like a dandy.  

You know the old saying.  Take a deep dive in trying to fix a kit the way you want it to be and somebody will come out with a kit that incorporates all your work.  We'll, that happened and it's actually kind of flattering.  I've been improving upon what is intended to be a 3D printed RC model.  Oto of RCSubs.cz saw what I was doing and decided to upgrade his kit.  This is the kit that I wanted it to be.  RCSubs will be releasing this kit soon and it includes photo etch and turned brass parts.  Well done Oto!

RCSubs is also making upgrade parts and decals for the Border Models 1/35 U-Boat type VIIC sail section.  If this is on your build list, these parts will bring it to the next level.  

Not to be outdone by Border Models, Oto is releasing a type XXI U-Boat sail section which looks amazing.  This should be released soon.  

Oto is taking it to the next level by offering a bow and stern sections.  When combined this will be over 7ft in length.  This is printed on a high quality FDM printer.  

Some new releases coming from 3D Wild.  First up the IJN Furutaka/Kako kit in 1/350 scale.  Should be out now but it's not showing on their web site.  May still be coming.  Stay tuned.

The Asama, Pre-Drednaught armored cruiser is now available in 1/350 scale.  We were all drooling over this one.  

Here is a gun that has been missing from the market.  It is the 5in/51 deck gun that you find on the Arizona and many others.  It's available in 1/350, 1/425, and 1/700 scales from Kraken Hobbies.

We came across a company in Greece that specializes only in Hellenic ship subjects.  These are 3D printed models.  Check them out at  this link.  They have quite a variety of ships from sub chasers to submarines in waterline and full hull.  

We found a company that sells files for a few different guns in incredible detail.  These are able to be printed in 1/200 and larger.  You can find these on Cults3D.com web site where you can find all kinds of 3D files to print in ships and many other subjects.

My friend Zucas in Taiwan is working on a couple of new kits.  First a Virginia class Chibi submarine as well as a generic harbor tug.  You know I'll be happy!  

That's about it for this month.  I look forward to seeing you in April.

February Ship Club Meeting Recap

Thanks for everyone who was able to attend our February ship club meeting Saturday. You can find the meeting recording HERE.  

We started the meeting getting caught up with Brandon Lowe who has purchased Squadron Hobbies and bought back Free Time Hobbies.  It was great to see Brandon and his dad and get caught up with old friends.  Definitely check out both web sites and get on Brandon's mailing list to keep up to date with what's going on there.  Brandon is also doing YouTube videos ever couple of weeks or so with updates.  

Link for Free Time Hobbies

Link for Squadron Squadron

Next we discussed what's happening in the news.  I learned that 3D Wild is a US based company who is producing their own kits as well as partnering with other kit manufacturers.  Their latest partnership is with Bunker Studios who make some incredible 3D printed weapons and fittings.  Their commitment in this partnership is to sell these products and reduced prices.  Indeed they have done that.  A quick comparison showed their prices to be about 20% to 25% less that what you can currently find them for.  At this time they have 1/350 and larger, however they expect to have 1/700 in their next shipment.  Here's the LINK to 3D Wild.

Next Sam led a discussion on ships wood decking materials.  

Rob pointed out that the USS Alabama museum ship is getting a refit of its teak wood decking.  How pretty is that!  Not the tonal variations between the planks as well as the caulking between the boards to allow for expansion and contraction of the wood.  This is a 3 years, 8.5 million dollar upgrade.  Parts of the original deck may be available for purchase.  I'm checking into that now.  Here's a LINK to the decking replacement project.  

Following up from previous meetings, Above & Below Graphics has released the anti-slip pad decals.  The decals are available from 1/700 to 1/96 scales.  The standard pads are now available in three different sizes which should cover about any subject you can imagine.  Here's the link to Above & Below Graphics

Some things to be aware of are...

• The sheet is one piece carrier film so you'll have to cut to size what you want to use.  
• The decals release quickly in water.  Allow no more than 8-10 seconds before the decal is ready to apply.  Any more than that and you risk the decal floating away from the backing paper.
• I found it works well with most setting solutions, however recommend MicroSet and MicroSol products based on recent experiment.

We also followed up on some previous kit releases we discussed from Starling Models.  Apologies for messing up the slides during the meeting.  This first slide shows the HMS Lagan in 1/700 scale.  These are completely 3D printed with photo etch and decals.  

The second is an updated release of the River Class Frigate, HMS Nader in 1/350 scale.  This new release includes 3D printed parts, photo etch, and decals.    

We did another follow up from a question put forward by Len.  How do you paint these complicated 3D printed models?  

My suggestion was to take a more artistic approach to airbrushing.  Instead of trying to make all the vertical surfaces match in all those nooks and crannies, take a more artistic approach to painting with the airbrush.  Take advantage of the fact that all those areas would be blocked from natural light.  

Paint all the shadow areas black or very dark gray.  Try and concentrate this color in the shadow areas only.  In other words don't just blast the who areas.  focus on the shadows.  This will create our shadow effect with subsequent layers of paint.  Get the insides of the cage mast and areas under the overhangs.  Avoid getting the black in the upper horizontals surfaces more exposed to light such as the gun tubs and upper platforms.

Paint finish coats on the horizontal surfaces first.  In this case I would paint the low wood deck first.  After dry, mask off the lower wood deck.  Then paint the horizontal surfaces that are metal or linoleum.  In other words the second color.  I would thin this paint quite a bit so that when you spray it the underlying black is not fully covered up.  This will make the color look darker.  Paint as you would like to see it.  The same horizontal color in lighter areas such as the gun tubs and upper surfaces exposed to more light get more coverage.  Again, use thin coats and work close so you can concentrate the lighter color.  

Mask what you can to avoid overspray.  The next step is to paint the vertical surfaces.  Spray at 90 degrees and maybe slightly lower as Gerald suggested so that you avoid overspray to any horizontal surfaces.  

The process should result in shadow areas darker as they would naturally occur.  Areas more exposed to light will be lighter.  

Final step is going to be to come back and touch up where you can with the airbrush or hand brush.  Hopefully this helps Len!  

David Angelo then shared some prints he made from free 3D files.  This one is the French ship Jaureguiberry.  Good luck pronouncing that one.  There are some additional parts such as funnels and masts that David is having printed.  

We'll look forward to seeing this one come together.  The additional freeware that David used is listed below.  He also printed up some lions that he's going to use as a base for his current HMS Victory project.  Great idea!  

Rob Weilacher shared progress on his Fujimi IJN Hiryu with deluxe upgrade set in 1/700 scale.  

Rob's finishing up on the air wing.  I can appreciate how much fun it is to apply those striping decals to those planes!

John Widmar then shared His USS San Francisco C-5 made from the 1/700 Ocean Moon kit.  

Richard shared a rabbit hole he went down.  Here's a company that has designed and prints historic ocean linters.  You guessed it, Historic Ocean Liners is the name of the company.  They produced 1/1000 complete models of merchant ships.    

Richard had them blow one the Queen Mary models to 1/700 scale.  He described this as a mixed bag.  Note that they had to split the hull at the bow to get it to print.  It looks like most of the models are printed with an FDM printer but Richard mentioned that this was printed with an SLA printer.  

Tool time!  We spent some time talking about these micro rotary tools that are flooding the market.  I saw an add for this first one on eBay for $11 delivered which included four grinding tools.  What the heck.  I ordered one up and it arrived within a week.  It appears that these were pre-shipped to the US and were sent to me by a reshipper in New Jersey.  

Bottom line is that they work great and hold a charge for a long time.  They fit very comfortably in the hand and are light weight and easy to work with.  They aren't the strongest of motors but I had no trouble grinding brass strips.  When you order these on eBay you select from a variety of packages that can change the price.  Read the following but here are the big bullet points for the one I bought.  It's very important to understand that the bits have 2.35mm shanks.  There is no collet.  The one I bought has a press fit so you have to use 2.35mm bits that you can buy on eBay.  The tolerances are tight so something you might have purchased in the past may not fit in this tool.  I also can't say for sure how accurate the bits on eBay are that say they have 2.35mm shanks.  I've bought some 2.35mm drill bits and will share with you how they fit into this drill.  Proceed at your own risk but so far I'm happy!  

Note that the tool below does not have the press fit capture for the bit.  It is just like the Dspiae shown later. 

Jerry bought this Dspiae tool which I'm sure is exactly the same as the one above except it's typical Dspiae.  Very nice with the red finish which as Jerry mentioned matches his workshop.  He bought it with a rotary sanding kit which is beautiful and I think will be very useful for cleaning up decks and such.  This version like the photos shown above has two hex screws on either side of the tool to secure a 3mm bit.  Again, it has to be exactly 3mm to work in this tool and there are many 3mm bits listed on eBay.  The tool for tightening the bits fits in the back of the tool which should help you keep from losing it.  I got the sanders from Jerry and I'm wishing I had picked up this rotary tool as well.  They are a great combination.

We went long today thanks to Sam's presentation and catch up with Brandon from Squadron/Free Time.  I didn't get a chance to show everything and it will be pushed to the next meeting.   Thanks again for a fun meeting!  See you in March.