The Ship Model Forum

Hello friends,

After a long while here a new build from me. I'm not great in keeping a forum thread updated, but I'll do my best to post some pictures every now and then on this project.

The original
The subject is a 1950's era Dutch 'B-type submarine destroyer'. These ships were a development of the 'A-type' destroyer, the latter being built a bit hastily after WW2, after which the Dutch Royal Navy found itself with a decimated fleet. With the Cold War arising, new ships were needed. Two pre-war laid down cruisers were finished to new standards (the famous De Zeven Provinciën-class cruisers) and two A-type submarine destroyers were built to protect the new cruisers. The latter were quickly succeeded by the improved B-type of which in total 8 were commissioned. They formed the backbone of the Dutch destroyer fleet until the end of the 70's, when the guided missiles frigates took over and destroyers like the B-types were a thing of the past.


[Source: Koninklijke Marine]

The Model
This is a resin model and it's from Naval Models and is one of their earlier models. They offer a separate railing PE set as well which I also bought. The model is basically OK. The hull suffers from air bubbles, but nothing that can't be filled. The keel would needed a lot of rework but I'm building a waterline model so I leave that aside. All superstructure looks OK in basic, but some filling will be required. All smaller parts such as armament can use an upgrade, but more on that later.

(For the fans: a few weeks ago, Naval models has announced a A-type destroyer as well!)

I 'started' this built in 2018; but I only sanded a lot of parts from their castings. (This is something I like to do when on vacation. When I don't have all my hobby tools, but time to spare and all that is needed is a sanding paper and a model ). When I got back home I made a detour in building some 1/144 aircraft, but now I'm back into ships and I recently got back to the project.

3D prints
It turned out in upgrading the smaller parts, I really got into 3D printing. This was not something I deliberately desired, but it happened a bit in the process. The problem with a Dutch ship as the B-destroyer, is that there are almost no upgrade parts for sale anywhere. To improve you have to do a lot of work yourself. A bought a 3D printer about 18 months ago to improve my hobby skills. After quite some initial fails, I am now really starting to get into it. I can make objects far better 3D printed than I can ever make by hand. I will show some of the progress for anyone who might be interested.

Signalling light
I also plan to incorporate a small signalling LED on the bridge. This was a side project, I already programmed a Raspberry Pico in a way so I can send a message to it from my mobile phone. The LED will spell it out in morse code every now and then to draw some attention More on this to follow.

Some of the work on this project is already done in the past 5 years. The various jobs are a bit scattered over time... I'll try to make it more logic and post about different sub assemblies. After that I will pick up where I am now, after all this project is still ongoing and most of the work has yet to be done.

So, let's get building.

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

Starting with the hull, and the work I did in 2018. In the previous post I mentioned some issues with the hull. The point where the two halves meet each other at the keel is very rough and has quite an edge. This however will disappear under water so I left it as it was.





Next I sanded some of the superstructure out of its castings. The hull does provide in large mounting areas but the underside of all superstructure must be cleaned a bit. Here the forward part:


And the after part, with its mounting area:



The after part was warped and didn't fit. I used the regular method of warming and 'de-warping'.


The forecastle needs a deck to be mounted. This deck however was way too thick. I sanded this to the right shape:




And here a quick dry-fit to give some impression of the model:

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

And now a fast forward from 2018 to the end of 2022. Although I didn't pick a model yet, I decided I'm building a '70's variant (after an overhaul). After this overhaul the two forward 40mm Bofors guns and their directors on the bridge wings were removed, some antennas were added and two Corvus chaff launchers were installed in the middle. More on this to follow, in this post I'm going to talk about the two funnels.

The forward funnel cap had a big drop of resin in it (sorry, I didn't took a picture of this). In restoring this I damaged the cap so I had to renew it. In the latter process, I discovered that the cap was in fact wrong (there should be a divider over the long ax in the middle). I draw and 3D printed a new variant. This furthermore enabled me hollowing the funnel; so that you don't look into a solid closed 'thing'. I used a dremel to hollow it.



I draw the cap including a casting which I sanded away later. I made two, I always make more than I need in case some of the prints fail:



And the end product. I still need to paint the inner part of the funnel black.



Since I was into the funnels, I also checked the second and after funnel. This cap was wrong as well. Furthermore it is lacking some assets, and an antenna support platform which was added after the overhaul. Earlier I tried to make this of plastic sheet, but I wasn't happy with it. Since I had to rework the entire funnel, I all incorporated this in a new design.

Note that what I'm displaying here is a quick summary of the process. The first funnel didn't work out, it had some cloaking of resin at the top which didn't look good. Therefore I separated the design into two parts; the funnel body and the cap. This worked out better.






End the final assembly, with ladders and piping. The cap will be installed when all is painted.


That's it for now, I'm still getting caught up to the point where I am now. In the next post more about the 120mm and 40mm guns.

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

The 40mm L70 Bofors guns were a development of the famous WW2 Bofors guns. The L70 variant had double the fire rate and therefore needed only one barrel. The gun mount differed as well. The kit's part are OK, but very basic. The gun itself are just to pieces of pipe, this can be better. I first thought of buying brass barrels, at that point I still wasn't aware of the potential of making your own 3D prints. But I gave it a try, and it came out really good.

The kit's part to start with:


Then I made a new gun, with the idea to place this in the existing mount. I found a Bofors schematic sideview on the Internet, which I just traced and scaled to the right proportions.


Still wet and cloacked with drops of resin:


And a first try:


I was happy with the gun, but now I thought the mount should be better as well. When studying, I found the shields had a complex shape. The back had ammunition storage racks, with railings in between.

[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/]


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/]

I'll just post the end product here, but this was worth a week of drawing. Now the shields may look over scaled, and yes they are. But remember this part is very small! The shields are in fact 0.3mm thick. I am afraid thinner will be too flimsy. Furthermore it looks okay to the naked eye. I did use 0.2mm for the ammunition racks, this went well so I guess I could go a little thinner.


The railing was something I added later. My initial thought was that it couldn't be printed (the stanchions are only 0.2mm in diameter). But then I saw a review on ModelWarships from Black Cat models. They did print a railing so I thought, 'why can't I?' I gave it a try and to my own surprise, it worked

I kept the barrel as a separate assembly. This cannot be printed in a solid piece. But here's an impression of what it will look like:


So, here is the final product:


And next to the kit's counterpart, the improvement can be seen:


Concluding, drawing all this was a bit beyond my limits but it worked. The nice thing is that after drawing one piece, I can make as many as I like. For now I only need 4, but I plan to build the Zeven Provincieën class cruisers in the future. This cruiser used the same guns and mounts and I can make a new print without going through all the trouble again.

The 120mm main guns (2xtwin gun mount) were much easier. The kit's turret is very good, the barrels are just solid resin sticks which I replaced. Again I considered using brass barrels, but I could not find a suitable replacement. I draw and printed a set of barrels which did the thing. I also added a sort of ring which the 120mm guns had, which I think is for tapping exhaust gasses and feeding them to the receiver or so.




Here the one from HNLMS Gelderland, which is now on display on the Dutch Navy Museum in Den Helder (one of my own pictures):


That's it for now. At the moment I'm in the process of drawing and printing, not so much in ship building. But I'm getting there, these destroyers do not have that much small fittings. In the near future with a smaller parts ready I will switch back to priming, painting and assembling.

The next post I will show the reworked 40mm gun directors.

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

Great work Bas! Those home-designed 3D-prints look like a big improvement over the kit parts.

Hi, Bas,

Having built the Naval Model "B-jager" (as the Hr. Ms. Rotterdam) and the "De Ruyter" myself (both kits are in the Gallery), your 3D parts certainly look better. I will follow your construction report and your improvements with interest!

Cheers, Walter

The 40mm gun directors were difficult to construct. I found foreign literature about the Dutch destroyers who referred to it as Mk57 directors. But the installation was not a Mk57 director. The radar might be perhaps. But the whole mount and assembly of pedestal, stabilized mount, radar and optical rangefinder seem to be a typical Dutch product. In Dutch they are called KA-01 directors. Finding pictures was difficult as well. They are out there. The Dutch historical military archives (https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/) have a huge database of pictures. But the problem is that you can't find there what you need. The search terms are very basic. Installations and armament are not tagged in the pictures. So you have to enter 'Hr. Ms. Friesland' and go through all pictures. And then it is inconvenient there were many ships who carried the 40mm Bofors with KA-01 directors.

After a long search I found some useful material however.


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/)


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/)


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/)

The kits directors were not useful. They are way too simple and do not have the correct shape. The radar is too big, the optical rangefinder too flashy and the mount too small.


With the pictures, and some sketchy drawing I had in a book about the HNLMS Drenthe (one of the ships of this class) I started drawing. Most of the drawing was done based on sight; e.g. what looks good and fits the model. So my homemade directors may differ a bit from the real thing, but they suit the model I'm building.

The pedestal:



The mount:



And the complete assembly with radar. The binoculars are 0.18mm in diameter. I had to check whether this was still inside my 3D printer resolution; it was... They are almost invisible to the naked eye.



I've printed the pedestal, mount and radar as separate items. I think it can be printed as solid piece, but the bottom gap between the stabilized mount and the pedestal would then probably be filled with unwanted resin. This would make the end product too much of a block. To keep things hanging free, and for a better result I will assemble the items after painting.

I turned the mount 45 degrees on its supports. I'm not sure this was necessary but it came out well.


And the result. The pictures are not great and the items a bit dusty, sorry for that!!



Well, it took some time and most of the work here was the research, but I'm happy with the result And again, I can apply these items for a HNLMS De Ruyter cruiser in the future as well.

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

Very nice work on those guns and directors. Taking notes for a '700 version.

Thanks Pieter! You mean a 1/700 version or a '70s version?

Now for the Corvus chaff launchers. It was a bit of a surprise to me. As said, I have the HNLMS Drenthe book, but it does not mention anything about them. The chaff launcher was just something I noticed in pictures, and being unknown to the installation I was wondering what it was. For those unknown as well: this is a decoy launcher, intended to 'confuse' incoming missiles. An installation carries 8 rocket tubes and each tube contains a rocket which is fired and explodes after a preset time. This creates somewhat of a 'curtain' of aluminum foil, dragging the attention of the missiles fire control radar. The B-destroyers originally didn't carry them, but had two installed amidships on the galley after their big overhaul.

3D constructing this was a bit of a pain. I could not find any good drawing so again, I'm just working on what I see in de pictures I could find. First a quick look at the original:


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/

With some searching I found the rocket diameter being 102mm. I assumed the tube diameter some 250mm, which scales to approx. 0.75mm. (I rounded much of the sizes of my custom components to a practical value, to ease things). I drew the tube as component and reused it 8 times to keep things identical. The lower two sets of three are an identical component as well. The angles in which the sets are placed I assumed to be 35 degrees (45 seemed too much; this results in a 90 degrees angle between the two sets. I don't believe this is right). Aligning the parts was difficult. I think the upper set of two is offset forward in respect to the other sets, but how much? I just guessed a bit until it looked right.





Getting the shields right was even harder due to the lack of references. I believe Corvus sold this with a standard set of shields. But the supporting superstructure is not too wide, would it fit? Apologies for the bad picture, but this was one of the very few where the shield setup could be seen:


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/

This image shows it somewhat better, but this is a later class of destroyers and not what I was after!

[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/

I did have another picture taken from an airplane showing the ship from above, but I can't find it at the moment. Anyway, after some experimenting:




The extra part of 'deck' is a wing which was attached to the superstructure, to allow for room for the launcher as well as personnel to pass. But I'm not sure where the launcher should be. I can imagine the weight had to be supported somehow, so I guess in was standing on the roof of the galley with supports underneath. It would not stand on the wing of deck I suppose. But I'm not sure.

Here are some pictures of the result. Four pieces in a row (I just need two), to the left the shield assembly can be seen:



But now some problems arise. Here's the galley. The extra deck on port side has been installed (this white extension pointing to the rear of the picture). But at the starboard side there is a extension in the way. I don't have a clue if this extension was retained the overhaul, or was the bulkhead flush just as on the port side? The only thing sure is that it my deck wing does not fit at this moment. I also have reason to believe the kits part isn't entirely correct in the placement of the doors. Also the vents on the roof are too big. The square footprint is where a skylight used to be, but this was removed in the overhaul to facilitate in room for the new launchers so I cut it off.

Note: ship's forward is the right part, so we're looking at the starboard side here:


So, at the moment I'm doubting to create a 3D printed version of the galley (rather than making an adjustment to de starboard deck). There are more fittings to place on the roof (some electrical cabinets which I thing go with the launchers). And I get the chance to get the doors and vents right, as well as opening some doors. But I'm not sure yet.

If anybody happen to know more about this or has a clear picture, I'm happy to hear

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

I mean 1/700. I have a Doggy Industries De Ruyter which seems to supply Mk57s rathers than KA01 directors so somewhere in the future I will have to scratchbuild 4 of them.
Doggy's 40mm mounts themselves are very nice though for 1/700.

So, I solved the issue Remember, the problem was the deck 'wing' on the starboard side that did not fit into existing superstructure. Furthermore I had some concerns if the Corvus Chaff Launcher shields would really fit.

To get an impression, I first drew a mock up of the whole structure to see it would fit. This simplified form was extended with the imported component of the Corvus Chaff launcher on the port- and starboard side (forward of the ship is at the bottom of the picture underneath):



Conclusion: I made the shield assembly too big, there is not enough space between them. Now the nice thing about working with components is that you can give a component an update in its 'mother file' and rework that to your drawing. In my case, I had a file containing the galley superstructure and a file containing the Corvus chaff launcher. In the latter I narrowed shields. Then it is a matter of using a drop down menu in the galley file and give the launchers an update. And voila

In this picture there is more room in the middle (there was a weird issue with the poles standing somewhere, I fixed that later):



After this I was wondering if I could make a brand new galley part, including all vents, cabinets, shields and even railing. Especially the railings was a lot of drawing, but it was worth while. The benefit of having a pre-installed railing is that all stanchions can be placed exactly at the corners, something that cannot be done with folded PE railings.



And here the version without the launching tubes, these will added as separate assembly:



I've printed the first 'prototype' flat on the printer head with a skate underneath (so with the whole assembly horizontal). This didn't work. Somehow the skate turned out thicker than expected / defined, with the superstructure recessed in the skate. Removing the skate would mean removing the bottom of the structure as well ending in an incorrect height. Also notice the railings; they came out a bit fiddly.

Left the original, just a bit higher than my 3D printed copy. The railings to the right are missing stanchions and are not straight.


I put the next attempt on supports, turned 35 degrees. The bottom will be hollow, to save on resin:



This was better, but I used too much supports. There was to say a 'forest' of beams underneath the hollow structure. This denied the resin in these hollow parts to flow away, causing troubles in the after process. Every print must be cured (after cleaning) for a longer time under an UV light. You don't want any still liquid uncured resin still wondering about somewhere on your print. Normally I cure the entire print and remove it from its casting/skate/supports later. But now all supports had to be cut away, to give room for the resin to leave the hollow containers. With the resin print still a bit soft this was no good either. So I made another version, now with less but stronger supports. And I tilted the structure further to 45 degrees to relieve the torque on the supports further away.

I intend to make two identical versions, the only difference is one having the railings and the other not. I have no idea how the railings will come out the 3D printer with the print tilted. With the 40mm guns it worked well, but the vertical length of railing between the stanchions was much shorter here.



Here's a picture of the fresh print. I turned the printer head 90 degrees to allow all the liquid resin to slowly drip down.


Ready for cutting / sanding:


And the end result, on the model:


It was a process of learning and adapting, but it all came out really well. Especially the railings surprised me. So, this is it for now. The only thing I'm concerned about, is this assembly might being too complete. I'm not sure if I can paint everything with all fittings already present on the deck. Time will tell. I also kept the printed version without railings, and of course I can always print another version with separate fittings.

In the next episode some more about the illumination rocket launcher, the last piece to complete the galley superstructure.

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

Next I worked on the Bofors illumination rocket launcher. This fitting was put on top of the galley near the smokestack. It again is a bit of a relic from the past, where large searchlights placed around the funnel were used to guide fire control at night. The rocket launcher was used to launch a projectile that would typically explode behind its intended target. In this way a silhouette presented itself to the fire control, where a minimum of light would highlight the destroyer itself. These destroyers already had radar guided fire control, so this was more of a backup system.

Here's the original thing:


[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/]

This is wat the kit will give you, a PE base and a resin part to represent the actual launching tube. Mine had the after part broken, but I would not have used it anyway.


So I started drawing a replacement. I had some doubts about the sizes of the kits PE part and no further references. So again I mostly draw on 'sight' and compared to other sizes that I did now. I made two separate components; the base and the tube. The large gear wheel is actually part of the base (where in real life this part was mounted to the tube). But I used it as a placement support for the tube. It means that I can only glue the tube at an elevation angle of 0 degrees, but that is fine by me.



I also imported the launcher to my earlier drawing of the galley to compare and see if it would fit:


And here the setup with supports, ready for sending to the printer:


And the result. This is not the best print, the pictures show the wires being a bit fiddly. That is not too visible, but I printed 4 pieces (where one was needed), the other three turned out to be better.



And the last picture, the launcher dryfitted to its location on the ship:


And that completes the galley superstructure! This is it for now, next I will discuss the aft mast.

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

If you're working at this level of detail you might at well open one of those galley doors and show wednesdays' 'blauwe hap' being prepared -:)
I really like what you are doing here.

A very rare, but interesting subject!
Beautiful work

_________________
The merchant shipyard

Thanks the both of you

I agree Pieter. Maybe I should add the smell coming out of the kitchen as well

For this episode I thought I will show you some more in-depth 'how its made'. Until now, all drawings made by me are here only stated as finished. But for anyone who might be interested in how to construct such a drawing and make an actual 3D print, here's a quick guide. My subject is the aft mast platform. This is a simple shape that does not require much steps to make and therefore is best suited to use as an example here.

First the platform we're aiming at. It's the aft platform, housing the big LW-02 or 'Air warning' radar. As the name implies, this radar was used to detect incoming aircraft plus allocating heading data to fire control. This radar was made by Holland Signaal and was a common feature on Dutch ships of the era.

[Source: Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie, https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/]

The radar itself is a PE part of the kit and is pretty good. The platform can be chosen from either resin or PE (with railings), but neither were very satisfactory so I made a replacement part.

The process of 3D printing basically contains 4 steps:
1. 3D drawing
2. Pre processing the drawing and converting into a sliced file
3. 3D printing
4. Post processing the actual print

So, first step 1, let's get drawing.

Software and a quick introduction
So, a very brief word about CAD drawing software. For those of you unfamiliar with this, there are many (free) products one could use. Google Sketchup for example is a well-known option. Autodesk has something called 'TinkerCAD'. There are many titles out there and reviews have been written by people much more educated on the subject than me, so I'll leave you with my choice: I use Autodesk Fusion 360. This is free to use for hobby purposes with a few limitations in respect to the paid version.

Step 1: making the base
After starting Fusion, I start with an empty sheet, make a component with a sketch. A sketch is a 2D drawing which will form the basis of what one wants to create. This sketch is just a redraw of the kits PE platform which measures 8x6.5mm. The rounded edge diameter was a bit of a gamble bit I think I'm pretty close to what it should be. The hole in the middle is for the radar itself. Its diameter is just a little bit bigger than the LW-02 radar assembly so it will fit nicely.


Step 2: extrusion
After finishing the sketch, I extrude the flat face. This means converting the 2D object into a 3D component by pulling it up. I estimate the thickness just based on pictures of the original, in my case 2mm.


Step 3: adding the curves
Both the end and forward part have a rounded edge at the bottom side. For this I create a new sketch, and draw some curves on what I think is right. (It would be a whole lot easier to have a drawing of the original ship, but I don't ) What you see here is the sketch, or a side view of the platform. Notice that by doing it this way, I made the platform upside down.


Step 4: cutting the curves in the base
This again is an extrusion, but now as a cut over the base body. Simply select the faces you want to use and draw them over the body you want to cut.


Step 5: hollowing
The original platform was hollow underneath, the thick edge was just for extra strength. Fusion simply has a 'hollow' function (called shell) in which one can select the thickness. Here we're deviating a bit; to keep the platform strong the thickness is way too big and over scale. But this is just the underside, it will not be very visible so I'll leave it with that.


Step 6: reconstruction the forward part
Here I made an error in the order of steps. I should have hollowed first and than make the base cuts. But I didn't and I lost the forward edge. No problem, I can reconstruct it by making a new extrusion of the side view of step 4. This extrusion joins the base platform, restoring all the edges.


Step 7: adding the railing
The platform is now complete but it still lacking railing and the yardarm supports. No real difference in what I create first, I decided to do the railing first. From this point on, I changed the view of the platform to the top part.
This is where thing become a little bit more complex. The railing is drawn as a sketch. This means the handrails are lines which have no thickness in real life. By using the 'pipe' command, Fusion miraculously creates a round body around the drawn line. This means, that if the railing would be drawn at the very edge of the platform, half of the diameter of the railing would 'hang over' the side of the platform. We don't want that.
To solve this, I make a sketch with an 'offset' of the outer form of the platform (which is exactly the same shape, but scaled with a given distance to the original). In this case, the offset is just 0.1mm. This is half of the diameter of the railing, which will be 0.2mm. In doing it this way the railing stanchions will all completely stand on the platform. So that is way you see a black line just inside the platform top face.


Now I create a new sketch on top of the offset plane. This sketch is a '3D' sketch which enables us to draw over multiple axes and draw the railing stanchions pointing upwards. The stanchions do not refer to the real thing but just on what is convenient, where I place one at least on every edge.


Step 8: construction / mirror plane
Now you may have noticed I'm only doing half of the railing. I will mirror everything when it's done to save on time and keep things symmetrical. But I do need to tell Fusion where the mirror should be once I'm at that point. So the last thing in this step is creating a construction plane, which is the orange plane in the middle. This will act as mirror later in the process.


Step 9: creating the yardarm supports
A new sketch with a new side view of the platform. Again, I'm just drawing what I see or think is right.


Step 10: extruding the yardarm support
Again this individual sketch needs to be converted from 2D to 3D. I used 1mm thickness. This is too thick to scale, but it will need some strength for the rigging later.


Step 11: mirroring the yardarm support
This is why we needed the mirror plane. Here the support is copied to the other side of the platform. The middle plane which was orange has now turned blue to indicate this is the mirror I want to use. Hence a identical support pops up on the other side of the platform.


Step 12: Creating the railing
Making the railing is simply a matter of using the 'pipe' command and selecting the lines you want to convert. All railing lines are already there, so with a few clicks you'll get this:


Step 13: Mirroring the railing
This is a repeat of step 11, but now with the railing selected. This also concludes the first step of the whole 3D printing process.


And we're done! Next the 3D drawing is exported into a STL file, which I can preprocess to a 3D print file. But more on that in the upcoming episode.

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

And now step 2, converting to a sliced file. For those of you unknown with 3D printing; the drawn platform must now be adapted to a file which contains all layers. The printer has a reservoir with UV-harding resin. This reservoir has a transparent bottom. Underneath the bottom is a LCD screen that only can display UV light. Every layer is displayed for a brief period (2 seconds), in which the layer will harden. After that the printer head moves up and the next layer is displayed / hardened, and so on until the whole object has been printed.

Several constrains has to be kept in mind. Vital is that the object must be always firmly attached to the printer head. Otherwise it will fall off during printing and the print fails. I'm not going to discuss this here, Youtube is full of tutorials who can explain these aspects far better than I can.

But what I will show is how to get my platform out of the printer in one piece.

So, the drawing has been exported to STL. I open this in software called 'Chitubox', which is free to use. My Anycubic printer also comes with this kind of software, but I learned that with Chitubox one can do slightly more.

Starting Chitubox and importing my design, I get the screen below. The large rectangle is the total surface of the printer head (so I cannot go outside these boundaries).


Keep in mind that the software is in no way of any help in what can be printed and what can not. There are some auto-functions, but one must always be at his toes if all layers can be printed. First a GIF picture of how it will go if I don't change anything:


Well, that is not going to work. The platform does not have a good attachment point to the head, only by the railing. This would break and this is not an option.

What if we would turn the platform around and attach it with the bottom to the printer head? That ain't gonna work either, because of the platform being hollow. The raised edge would only be slightly distorted, but the recessed flat surface would not go well.



The solution is to print under an angle. Here a side view; this will work:



But now the platform is still loose. So we add so called supports. Each support that Chitubox adds has a base plate which has a strong attachment to the printer had. The support itself is a conic rod that ends at the object that is printed. We place one at the very corner of the print; e.g. the first layer to print. The green pole is the support.


Now it is important to walk through all layers to check if everything remains to the printer head. Sometimes individual parts are printed that grow together after several layers. Before they are togeter, they must be held on to the printer head. This sounds a bit dry, what I mean is this:


So the pipe in which the radar will later be glued, suddenly appears. From the start this is not stuck to anything and would float away. So this must be fixed with a support:



Technically this is all that is needed to print the entire platform. However, the mass of the platform might be too large for only two supports, so several more are added to decrease the weight and stress per support:


And finally a GIF picture of the end result, this is how it will be printed:


And that completes step 2! The file is saved as sliced file, stored on an USB flash drive which can be plugged in the printer. Then one can choose which file to print, and the printer does the rest.

In the next and final episode of this tutorial I'll show some of the printing and after process.

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

Hi Bas,

I just noticed you're doing this 'upgrade' to the Friesland class ship, and what you're doing is superb! You noticed correctly this kit is one of the earliest from Naval Models, and 3D was not even in sight for us back in 2005. Your new parts will make a lot of difference in the end result, I'm sure!

Kind regards,
Maarten

_________________
"I've heard there's a wicked war a-blazing, and the taste of war I know so very well
Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising, their guns on fire as we sail into hell"
Roger Whittaker +9/13/2023

Thanks Maarten Yes I can understand that very well I think you and the other guys from Navalmodels are doing a great job getting these kind of kits on a I suppose limited market. I'm having much fun with this build and the few submarines I built earlier. I have more in my stash but if only I had more time...

So, to complete my 'tutorial', I'll briefly show the steps here to complete the print. Do I need to say this is not a complete guide? It's only a shallow 'look-in' for those of you interested and might consider to 3D print yourself. But basically, 3D printing is covered in three steps:
1. Printing
2. Cleaning
3. Hardening

I got to the point where I got a sliced file and stored it to an USB flash drive. I plugged in in the printer and started printing. I make two copies just in case one is messed up. Here's a view of my 3D printer, an Anycubic Photon Mono SE. At the top the printer head, already in the up position after printing job is done. The platform is ready which is hanging in the middle. If this photo would have been taken prior to printing, no object would be hanging on the head and the head would move down into the resin bath which is at the bottom. Under the reservoir, invisible here, is a transparent bottom with an UV LCD screen below. This screen displays every layer that must be printed, until all layers are done.


The very first thing I do after printing is complete is to rotate the had to allow all liquid resin that still covers the printer head, to flow away by gravity into the reservoir below.


After 20 minutes or so, I remove the head from the printer. Now I can do a first cleaning. UV resin is thinned by isopropyl alcohol, so with a a spray can I dilute the worst parts and swipe them away with a paper tissue. Note that UV resin is extremely bad for your skin, so I make sure I wear gloves all times and a mask to prevent me from inhaling the mist of alcholol.



Now with the most resin cleaned, I put it into a cleaner. This is just a big jar of isopropyl alcohol with a rotor in the bottom. By starting the machine, the rotor will spin creating a flow of alcohol flowing around the print. This thinnes and cleanes any excess resin still on the printed object. I let it spin for 20 minutes or so. This is done by the Anycubic Wash&cure machine.


Now the platforms are clean and can be removed from the printer head. I do a last cleaning in a clean jar of alcohol to remove any floating resin particles that might have gotten onto when cleaning earlier.

The very last step to take is to extra harden the platforms. I can do this in the wash&cure machine, which has strong UV LEDS and can be set to a preset time, depending on the size and thickness of the object. Skipping this step would leave the print too soft and sticky, not suitable for modelling. A hardened half an hour.


Now the platforms are done. Last thing to do, is to do some actual ship modelling The platform has a big mast or antenna in the back, I added this with some copper wire. I believe the antenne is too long, I realise that now that I'm writing this, so I think I'll cut of some length at a later point.
Also the yardarm needs to be placed. The kit's instructions advise to glue a 0.3mm wire behind the yardarm to make it more stiff for rigging.



And the very last picture, with the radar in place. Here's a combination of kit PE and homemade 3D print. (Note; sorry for the mess on my desk. I really need to clean up...)


So, that's how I made the platform. That is it for now. Time to move forward in the ship, I still have to make a few items but I'm getting close to the point where I can start painting and assembling.

- Bas

_________________
In progress:
1/350 HNLMS Friesland D-812
1/350 USS San Francisco CA-38 1944 diorama

Finished:
My gallery

Quite an upgrade and intensive build. Great and rare subject

_________________
The merchant shipyard

You are really taking the Naval Models kit to a next level. Great work!

_________________
"I've heard there's a wicked war a-blazing, and the taste of war I know so very well
Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising, their guns on fire as we sail into hell"
Roger Whittaker +9/13/2023