The Ship Model Forum

Good afternoon gents,

Long time lurker, not a regular poster...but I suspect that may be changing.

I recently purchased a partially complete model of the HMCS Bonaventure from a local gent that 'rescued' it. He is a professional builder, but usually of smaller scale ships and aircraft...this is a bit bigger than he normally does, so he was willing to sell it to me.

It has been, well, a while, since I built anything RC. I have an old 1/144 Graf Spee in the attic of my garage, and a 1/125 WW2 German Destroyer (Z-36) that I worked on a long time ago, but not much recently.

As 'inherited', the ship comes with props, shafts, hull mostly complete, superstructure somewhat complete, flight deck painted but not marked, and one S2 Tracker that came from Shapeways.

I've got the intent to get the ship in the water, with motors spinning and rudder turning before the end of December. Anything after that is detail...however, I realize that the heart of a CV is always its aircraft, so that's where I've started my project.

I've got a 3D printer, and in looking at the model, realize that I can do a lot of the remaining 'fitting out' and 'fiddly bits' with that, but decided to start with the air wing.

For awareness, I'm not planning a 'museum grade' model, I'm planning to finish this as a '10 foot scale' model - where, looking at it from 10 feet away, it looks pretty detailed, and pretty good. I'm not concerned about the 6 inch scale - is the fire-hose station in the right spot or is it an inch out? Does that hatch have 8 dogs, or just 6? Nope. I'm not that picky.

So, getting my 3D printer spooled up, I managed to find an F2 Banshee model on Thingiverse that I could start with, and I printed a couple of 'rough' ones at 0.2mm steps to see how they looked, and am now printing more with 0.05mm steps to get a bit more of a refined finish.

I've also ordered a radio, receiver, and a pile of 'stuff' from All Electronics that's now in the mail to me - when that arrives, I'll get to work on propulsion and steering. In the meantime, I'm wondering if there's a good resource for 3D models of some of the following items that can be suggested:

-doors
-hatches
-upper deck fittings (bollards, etc)
-speakers
-aircraft tugs
-cranes
-Radar dishes

I've ordered a set of flight deck decals from a company here in Canada, and they're getting printed for me and mailed this week, along with a set of decals for the aircraft group - I'm aiming for a mixed group of Sea Kings, Trackers and Banshees.

I'm wondering what sort of smoke generator system I should be considering - I'd like a bit of 'smoke' coming from the stack. Do I get a nautical one, (good source?) or do I get a train one and adapt it?

Also, looking for a solution for raising and lowering the anchor - is there a 'good' winch set that anyone can recommend as a kit or as a complete item? I'd like to have about a meter of anchor chain that I can lower away and 'anchor' the ship in the shallows near my dock in the lake when I'm sailing it.

I realize that I've got a steep curve ahead of me, and a lot of work, but having relatively recently retired from 26.5 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, I think this will be a fun project for me to busy myself with.

Thanks for any insight and input gents,

Brad

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Nice Shop! Is that a ride on Tiger Tank under the table? Should be a worthy project, I think you will find that 3D will be a good fit for fitting out with many detail items in that scale. Many items such as W/T doors etc you would find very easy to design. Hank and I use a free program called design Spark mechanical, which has some limitations for things such as hulls, but otherwise allows design and printing of most shipboard items.

Good luck! Tom

I'm in the Halifax area. I'm aiming early 60's - I realize that there were some important changes to the ship's layout in the various refits, and am trying to figure out what 'version' I have, but in truth, I'm going to take the basis that I've been given, and build what I can from it. I'm not looking for 100% perfect - I'm looking for 10 foot scale, I want aircraft on the deck with maple leaf roundels, I want fighters, bombers and helos, I want a big "22" on the flight deck.

It will be visibly the Bonnie, but I'm not going to nail down a specific "it's the Bonnie from 14 May 1965."

Having done 26 years in the Navy on a series of ships, I realize that the second they left the builder's hands, our Frigates became sisters, not twins. Each one had mission fits, different mods applied, different sensor packages added on different missions, etc.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Nice project.

It's post final refit, the forward 3" gun sponsons are removed. Which means no banshees. Fairly easy to replicate and add the sponsons. Some changes to the masts, and different radars, but since it's not done yet, you shouldn't have much trouble making the correct items.

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Darren (Admiral Hawk)
In the not so tropical climate of the Great White North.

That is a 'ride in' Tiger Tank under the table - that project stalled a few years ago, and is perhaps next on my list after the Bonnie.

I spent this evening putting a layer of clear coat on the flight deck, and some light gray paint inside the hull to tidy things up.

The clear coat is necessary to smooth the finish so that the decals will stick. I've ordered a set of decals for the flight deck markings (and the air det) that will hopefully arrive this week. A couple of coats to hide/blend the grain and things should be much more receptive to decals/transfers. I'll put a couple of layers on top as well to hold them down.

My 'air det' is growing - I have 8x Banshees that have been 3D printed, and have now been primed. A bit of sanding to smooth a couple of rough spots on the wings and then a finish coat of paint on them and I should be good to go to decal them up too.

I printed a Sea King that I got from a file on thingiverse, but it didn't turn out well. It's got a few 'holes' in the file, so I'm going to see what I can do to fix that. I pulled off the tail rotor and the main rotors to print them separately as a 'first step', and then I modded the main rotors so I have 4 blades + one on the hub so I can set them up as 'folded'.

The Tracker files I got are massive - and I'm trying to make them work too. I think they're too detailed actually. That might be the problem.

Oh - of note, I am not too stressed about this 'era/version' of the ship not having Banshees - I printed (and am painting/etc them) because I can - they were the first of the aircraft models that I was able to find that was usable. If they're not right for the ship...so be it.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Well, a quick update. I have been doing a bit of 3D work and have managed to get 8 Banshees printed, and primed.

I'm expecting decals to show up this week, so I've put some work into the flight deck and may need to do some additional paint work to get things ready.

I spent some time today digitizing a 3D printed version of the ship's deck crane. My intent is to build a functioning deck crane - we'll see how that works. It's about 6 inches long in scale, and the base is about 1.5" in diameter. I'm pondering how to do that.

Here's some more photos.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Here's the Banshee collection!

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

I see it. Simple correction since it's not glued down. Thanks!

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

great printwork

I decided to spend some time mucking about in Tinkercad making myself an SPS-12 Radar Dish.

We'll see how this comes out in real life.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Well, Tried a test-print of the Tracker fuselage I got from my CAD guy last night - not very nice looking - a lot of artifacts in it. He's working the problem.

So, in the meantime, I've got a Ship's Crane printing right now, and this morning I designed the Ship's Recovery Truck in TinkerCAD and am reasonably pleased with the outcome.

In an ideal world, the back of the crane housing would be rounded, but if I print thick, and sand, I'll get some of that texture.

We'll see how long this takes to print tonight.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Hello,

I can't believe I have missed this topic. Great looking ship so far. I too plan to build the Bonnie in the next few years but at 1/72. the reason was the aircraft. I have lots of Banshees, Trackers, HO4S and Sea Kings (although Sea Kings would be post Banshee era). I got the plans from the Esquimalt museum along with Magnificent' s. (have the Sea Furys and Avengers all lined up for her too) Don't know if the wife would like having 2 10 foot long carriers at the cottage....

I have been working with designing on the 3d printer as well. (using Fusion 360). Steep learning curve as I was not a tech student in school.... Mostly to finish my Flower Class corvettes (2). My build of HMCS Assiniboine stalled many years ago, but with the 3d printer and the experience I am gaining with the corvettes, I am looking to get back to finishing her as one of the escorts to Bonnie.

I am working on W/T doors based on photos of various St. Laurent class as well and doors based on HMCS Haida (which is down the road 30min away) I have done several cable reals and even made articulated anchor chain (it works at 1/72 scale based on Haida's chain) I am working with a resin printer (Elegoo Mars 2 Mono). there is a model of a 3"/50 Mk 33 twin mount out there. I may use that as a base to build my own, heavily update that one as it seems a little basic. (winter design project) Again many photos from Haida and other sources on the 3" gun. Maybe there should be a place for those to share our stl files if the 3d printing is starting to catch on?

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James W.

Dry docked:
1/72 HMCS Assiniboine DDE 234-1960
1/72 HMCS Ottawa DDE 229-1960
1/72 HMCS St. Catharines-River Class Frigate-1944
On the slipway:
1/72 HMCS Camrose-Flower Class Corvette-1943
1/72 HMCS Trillium-Flower Class Corvette-1942

Hi James,

I've engaged a gent in the UK who's doing some 3D modeling for me of aircraft. He was able to adjust one of his S2 Tracker models to suit my needs in 1/96 scale. Price for the 3D modeling is $50 GBP, I'm quite pleased with the product.

If you're interested in shifting scale to 1/96, I can make the 3D models I have of the tracker and Banshee available to you - he's working on the Sea King for me as well, but that's a couple of weeks out.

I'm printing the Trackers at a super-fine level of detail, 0.05mm steps, so they're taking about 44 hours each to print. My second will be off the printer tonight.

My big 'hiccup' right now is that I have sprayed my flight-deck with incompatible paints, so I've got some massive bubble/cracks in it, so I'm going to have to do some serious sanding to get that sorted out now.

My package of stuff arrived from All Electronics, so I have a bag of servos, extension cables, motors and LEDs to play with and install.

Question - any suggestions on how to build a raising/lowering elevator system?

Brad

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

thank you for the offer but I am going to stick with 1/72 as my planned escort force is at least partially build, Assiniboine, Ottawa and Huron (my son is building a Tribal hull for Haida so I will pull a hull from his plug)

I could send you the doors I have but I have not made the British 3 or 4 scalloped doors yet, on the list for a potential build of HMCS Ontario.

For the elevator what about a servo with a gear to drive a shaft attached to the underside of the elevator. I got the idea from an application by Darren Scannell that he posted on Model Warships Underway (the gear diagram is his, I have modified to show the application for the elevator in the ship). I believe the hanger is on deck 3 so there should be plenty of room under it for the servo and shaft when the elevator is down. Maybe limit switches (I think that is what they are) to stop the elevator at top and bottom of travel. I think the elevator is about 6.8 x 4.3 inches in 1/96 with a plane on it a high torque servo should work. Rotation speed of the servo can be manipulated to move very slow. I have some at 10-15 RPM for radars on the DDE.

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James W.

Dry docked:
1/72 HMCS Assiniboine DDE 234-1960
1/72 HMCS Ottawa DDE 229-1960
1/72 HMCS St. Catharines-River Class Frigate-1944
On the slipway:
1/72 HMCS Camrose-Flower Class Corvette-1943
1/72 HMCS Trillium-Flower Class Corvette-1942

Last evening I decided to get the Rudder done.

Here's the progress - cut from a 3/8" block of brass.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

The rudder got connected to a servo and tested this evening. Life is good.

Unfortunately, I was painting the flight deck too often as I tried to remove get a nice smooth clearcoat. I got greedy...and the result was that the paint below wasn't drying enough, and was causing the top layer to bubble up...and wrinkle/crinkle. So. I had to completely strip down the flight deck to bare wood and start over. I have 2 layers of primer on now. I'll add the green again next.

I 3D printed the crane mentioned above, and am generally pleased with it. It came out about the right size I think.

I've now got a good number of Trackers and Banshees, and have another couple of them in progress. Goal is an air det of 8 Banshee, 8 Tracker and 4 Sea King.



I'm heading to the hobby shop tomorrow to see if they have some connectors for the motors and some shaft couplers as well.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

massive built looking great.

This may be of interest. There is a decal company in Canada with web site abovebelow.ca which produces decals for the Bonaventure in a variety of scales.
Dave

I've already ordered a complete set of decals from them - for both the ship and for my air det.

Over the weekend, I got the rudder functioning, installed a couple of motors, connected the shafts and I could, theoretically, put the boat in the lake tomorrow and see how it runs.

It will probably see water next weekend.

I've also added about 5 pounds of lead shot that I've fiberglassed into place in a few strategic spots along the keel. I know this ship is going to need some ballasting, so it seemed like a good idea to add some strength, and some weight.

I do plan to 'clip the wings' on a few of the aircraft and fold them for storage. One of my 'ideas' is to have a Tracker on the Forward elevator, have the elevator move up/down, and when the elevator gets up, have the wings unfold. I'm pondering how to make that work.

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Some additional progress has been made. I have attached the Island to the flight deck - threaded rods with the tops being hidden in historically inaccurate antenna bases that I spun out on the lathe.

I also spent some time doing up a 3D design for the landing light/lens system. Here's what I came up with. Overall width is 62mm. Paint will follow!

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ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.