The Ship Model Forum

Can't wait to see more

Just wanted everyone to know that I will be posting an update this evening and hope you have a great day.

Really good to see you back on the forum! I've been patiently waiting for updates on this project

Thank you for the kind words Greg, and yes it is a different kind of crazy but it's still crazy.

Well I have been working diligently over the past few days on the diorama and I have been focused on the (2) drydocks, DD#1 & DD#2, I have nearly completed DD#1, well it's done except for the "fine tuning" and the other is about 80% done. I hope to have them both 100% in the next day or so. But I think after I completed them I would like to see a ship or two completed. Switch back and forth to keep from getting burned out on one or the other.
It's going to be a long, long, long time before the end of my project but I have been getting more and more excited to see how it goes and challenging myself as well as one of my son's. Some of you might remember my son Chris, well he is now grown up, married and has a little boy that is Papa buddy, and he and his wife are expecting a little girl to the late summer.
Chris is going to be helping me with a lot of the more tedious work but it's good to have him to help with the project.

Well everyone I hope to have some pictures of the progress by the end of the week. Until next time, have a great day and see you soon.

It's really starting to take shape...and your task is monumental...but l'm sure you will make it, love for history, passion, patience and craziness are what drives us to make those tiny ships...
Keep on doing this outstanding job

Hey David,
I know the photo you are referring to, I have it already downloaded and it's ready to be used once I get to the UTAH AG-16, But thank you for letting me know.

Good afternoon everyone, I just wanted to let y'all know that I am going to be making some BIG progress on the diorama, I have some more 5.2mm laminate to get the land and water differences and I have made some pier castings for the shipyard area, basically the 1010 dock and the bravo piers, can't remember the actual numbers for the piers. I'm sure someone will let me know, I do have them written down but not in my face at the moment.
Anyway, I got the first order from Shapeways and I must say I was a bit disappointed that the details are not good, but it's not a complete loss, I'm just going to have to modify them and get rid of the huge thick mast and cranes and scratch build them for the best details I can.
Today I received:
USS DOBBINS AD-3
USS UTAH AG-16
USS VESTEL AR-4
USS DOLPHIN SS-169
USS YO-43 Fuel Barge

The first three are the challenge for me but I can handle the modifications that are needed for a more detailed product. The latter two are going to be good for just upgrading them with some nice PE sets I have, there's not a dedicated PE set for them that I'm aware of but I do have plenty of general detail sets that I have massed over the past few years.
Well I'm going to get to work and I'll post an update very soon.
Take care everyone and have a great time at your work bench.

Yes sir I have played this one GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!
Well I'm happy to report that I have been making a little bit of progress on the diorama, I'm currently working out the layout of the train rail system and the basic layout of the roads, this is the most aggravating part of the diorama but it is a very necessary part, I have figured out I have that I have to go ahead and add another 2' x 4' table to get the right layout and then double check the measurement for the infrastructure. Something is throwing me off and I am positive it's the 1010 pier, it's scaled out correctly but it's not looking right, I think I have it too short, at least it looks like it to me. But I will get it right, after all with this project I have to, because the rivet counters will definitely lose their mind if I am 1/64th's of a nats butt off.

LOL! You are a wise man!

A lot of stuff you have to buy...and organize...
Can't wait to see the first pictures

Great to see this project again.

For some info on USS Zane, DMS14 go look at my USS Caine project in scratch builds. Zane was the ship Herman Wouk served aboard and about which he wrote the Caine Mutiny.

Cheers: Tom

Well good evening everyone, I hope you're doing well and I thank everyone for following this journey. Not a lot of progress on the diorama this week but I have been doing a good bit of ordering kits for the project. I still have quite a few more ships to get but my stash is growing every month. My next phase for the diorama is to lay out the railroad around the shipyard area. I have ordered a few PE sets from AMW and they should be here Sometime next week or so.
But I have several of the auxiliary ship's and harbor craft Ordered and I think the first order will be here next week as well.
But like I said not much as far as the construction of the diorama but there's been a lot behind the scenes and everyone knows that a project of this scope and scale has a massive amount of work done that is never truly noticable until the final reveal.

But until next time best of luck with your projects.

WISE WORDS

It's always a compromise with our wives on this subject. Failure to negotiate would be followed by an affair worse than Pearl Harbor.

Thank you Pascal and Greg for your support and for following this journey, Pascal I'd like to make it a 350 scale but I'm 99.99% positive my wife would kill me it's taken me a long time (nearly 32 years) to convince her to let me do Pearl Harbor.

Greg, my plan is to represent it just before the attack but it's not out of the possibility of adding IJN aircraft lined up and the attack. Just never know how or what might happen and I will admit I have been tossing the idea around to add them to my project. But for now I'm going to stick with it being just before the first wave.
Your comment about the chair, drinks and snacks made me laugh.

Wow Jim
That is an OUTSTANDING project in that scale it will absolutely monumental...
I can't wait to see how you will do it...
Will it be during the attack or moments before??
Have a nice day
Ps
Chair is pulled, snacks and drinks are ready to follow your build

Small scale, but a giant's work!

Well Good morning fellow ship builders, I trust that everyone has had a great weekend and I hope y'all had a productive weekend with your various projects. Well I can say that I am excited to get back to work on my project and I have made a big leap forward with my diorama task, I have been working on plotting out the basic layout of the shipyard area and I have started it with (2) 4' x 2" tables and did so simply due to the size of my work area and it is going to be a little easier to move forward with with the process of the layout, as well as being more manageable than working on a full 8' x 4' sheet. I did however make a little mistake in the layout but I think it is a easy fix, I just have to do a minor correction on one of the finger piers/launch slipway, I drew it out correctly but I'm not sure if it is as correct as it should be, in other words, one reference depicted it while another does not, so more researching is going to be done today and I will correct it or leave it as is.