The Ship Model Forum

So... getting started with my next build... with the near completion of JMSDF project ( a couple more ships to build ) and an IJN A/C ... it is now another first for me... my FIRST EVER resin kit!!!

I was asked to build .... USS GALVESTON CLG-3 .... by a 'shipmate' that I never met!

I was asked if I build ships and if I could build a ship for this girl's Dad who served onboard 'Giant Killer' during the Vietnam War, I told her "I would accept and be Proud to build her!"

So, here we go..... just a quick review of this Niko resin kit looks Very Good!! At 10.5 inches (~26.5cm) and being a waterline version with several zip-bagged small pieces, wires (?? ) and a Nice PE set for this ship, time-line late 60's ( which is perfect for who this build will be for ). Only thing no decal sheet, not even numbers.....Good News I have a Ships & Co decal sheet with Lots of names, numbers, assrt' lines, refuel/deck markings, only thing is it seems the signal pennants seem quite large (350 scale??).














She looks good! Excited to do this build for somebody else than me..... a Navy Vietnam Veteran and Enlisted sailor!!


M

Moving Forward...and Starting forward on the foc'sle (sp?)...... ( boy its been a Long time writing that word down!! ).

The six (6) inch turrets are good, but their blast bags were damaged a bit, with two of the six broken off. So, no big deal I just used a bit of putty. The biggest challenge is going to be the radio masts!! After doing a couple of kits with modern radio lines and signal flag lines (which will be done later), I hope to do this well!!

After looking at some pictures of "GK" just before she was decomm in Long Beach, CA (...funny that's where I live! ) and there is a radio mast on top of #2 turret ( the top-most turret ), that doesn't show up in the instructions because This "GK" is a bit more modern than the Vietnam version.



So I included the ammo cranes on top of the turrets, by using a set of A/C tows and just separating them slightly.



On the better turret (with fewer blast bags missing) I added a 'small box' for the radio mast.



As for the main radio mast that is on the foredeck....I like calling it the X-mas tree.... the kit has three (3) different sizes of wire. There are: one (1) pretty thick brass wire, one what looks and feels like a guitar string...very hard to bend and get straight, and use wire cutters, and one Al-wire.... easily bendable. Getting a little anxious for there are So Many 'tree limbs'.... well see!!





I will be using MIG lines for the 'stringing of the tree'.... I just hope it works better for me this time....I need to do a GOOD Job!!

M

Nice start with those antennae. After looking through pictures of the original ship I do wonder how she sailed in a gale with the wind on the aft quarter . Looks like an awful lot of topweight and wind catching surfaces in the wrong place.

Hi, 'Pieter'.... thanks for the comment about Real ships. This is a problem that ship designers do have and that the ship has to kinda have to go thru during ship trials, if possible. This is why it takes So Long for a ship to be part of 'The Fleet' after she gets built...all ships have to go thru "Sea Trials" to test out components w/in the ship and externally!! If something is not 'right' the engineers that helped build the ship...and yes they will sail with the ship as well as reg. Navy crews...they go back and 'fix' what the problem is or redesign it before making more of this class.

As far as this ship.....don't know what it would be like....my SHIPS that I sailed on when I was in the USN, were All FF/FFGs. Maybe when I present this 'gift'/model to the person who rode GALVESTON, I would like to ask him that and a few other questions.

On 'MY' ships, I can tell you a few times, not often, but the SPS-49 radar that we had on one ship, an FFG, had to be secured due to 'squeaking noises' enamatting from the radar as it revolved, That one time I truly remember, because we saw it, when we sailors, were secured onto the deck. If I 'kinda remember', I believed that we had her secured for about two (2) days, until the storm we were in subsided and we were a day or two from port.

I Always wondered how those cruisers like ALBANY-/LONG BEACH-class or for That matter those IJN ships with the Huge pagoda masts sailed??

But...as far as my build.... I have a few other masts that I have to build up.....looking forward to it, because I have Great confidence on building w/PE!!

Look forward to you comments....what are you building???

M

Nice start so far. Looking forward to following this build

_________________
Just finished:
1/350 USS Santee 1944

Current projects:
1/700 USS Catamount 1960
1/350 USS Columbia 1945
1/350 USS San Francisco 1944

AARRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!


I was working on 'Giant Killer' radio mast because I noticed that the rigging on it was incorrect.

Lacking another set of clamps, I made an ad-hoc set....things were moving pretty smoothly when I moved the mast around .... And.......... (WE HAVE A Go for Launch!!!) {NNOOOOOOOOOOOO}



Before...



A little bit after....

Then after letting it set for overnight, decided to cut da lines...no worries there.... but was gluing on some new lines.....When.......






When should you leave some work alone and not play around with it??!! Has this happened to any of you, I don't think I have heard of anybody complaining about it.

The kinda good news.... I do have spare PE from a GMM 'New Jersey -1/700' that has the same NTDS antenna on the foredeck.

I hope I don't "kill somebody" knocking on the door to hand in a sandwich to me...

M

We may not always talk about it but I think it happens to all of us. You break something, drop something, assemble something incorrectly, etc. I just stop and take a break. I have gotten so frustrated that I took a couple month break lol. Just relax and go back at it when you are ready

_________________
Just finished:
1/350 USS Santee 1944

Current projects:
1/700 USS Catamount 1960
1/350 USS Columbia 1945
1/350 USS San Francisco 1944

'medicmike' ..... Thanks for the message. I did take a break after this 'set back', most of the time I wouldn't give a Rats-behind, but this is for a "customer" and a 'shipmate'.... a Veteran that I don't know, but want to make an impression!!

I made some chicken kabobs and grilled them with bell peppers and onions & grilled some corn cobs With the leaves on. I enjoyed the meal and my wife also enjoyed it...Heck even my daughter, "...is there more chicken?" [that's a first]. After the meal, watched UCLA Mbasketball win over Michigan!! So, Not a Total Loss!!!

Got back to it this afternoon....and.....

Before



and AFTER....





The 'antenna' is Not fixed let, but it looks good next to those 'turned barrels'!!! And after looking at some more detailed look at it .... there is a ladder within that antenna!

M

Hey 'Pieter'.... after I answered your question... it got me wondering more about GALVESTON.

It seems that I missed out on A LOT of information about her and other CL of WWII ... I posting a link, about the model in particular, that I'm glad I found!! On this 'Review' of the model, they like to "Inform" the modeler about the kit that they are building, quite helpful, in this case VERY!!!

http://www.steelnavy.net/NikoGalvestonCLG3.html

If you take a look at the first 3 - 5 paragraphs, it give a VERY Detail account on why, what type of vessels, and what problems that laid ahead.

Hope this finds you and hope your build 'give you No probs'.

M.

Well, this type of setbacks are part of the process... for every modeller, I think.
Not the most fun part, but luckily nothing that can't be handled. I feel getting over the mental resistance to fixing it is the hardest part, as I usually end up surprised that the fix was easier and faster than I anticipated.
So just clean of the glue, and fix it in place again. You did it once, so you're capable of doing it again.

Maybe one tip: I do try to minimise the risk to these accidents by keeping the fragile bits for the end of the build. I would for example not attach this kind of masts before painting, and certainly not this early in the build.

BTW, do you plan on painting the rigging together with the rest of the model? I usually rig after painting, as rigging is fragile, and paint tends to thicken it. But of course we all have our preferred ways of working...

Yeah, 'marijn van gils', I just got a bit upset that such an important piece 'flew away' like that..and I have hardwood floor, making it quite easy for me to find 'stuff' that falls to the ground......No Carpet monster @ my workstation. But when it flew, I think it flew thru my opened closet where Many of my old shoes are found. I Bet that when I put on a pair of shoes....I'll probably get STABBED by that antenna complex!!

But I was able to "replace it" with a couple of different sets of PE and was able to make do!

But onward with the build after taking a short day break after that calamity ... most of the build is pretty easy going, for being my first resin kit, I Very Impressed with the way the PE is taking shape for the rest of the GALVESTON! As for the kit itself, well, the instructions are just a bit vague, ran into a bit of trouble trying to place the first mast (foremost mast) onto the piece where it needs to go. Doesn't fit quite well and instead of a "line drawing" like in many instruction sheets, Niko used picts of where such PE goes, a little hard discerning placement.....and the photos of such ship are quite dated B/W low-res images. AND GALVESTON seems to be one-of-a-kind type of vessel in a sense of gun arrangements, towers and armament (missiles), I was looking at other ships of this class and ....

But Niko PE is Quite impressive....it seems very strong, thicken and Very strudy ( unlike some PE I dealt with from my JMSDF DDH builds ). AND Very detailed!! Looking at the masts they seem almost "3D" for a 2D piece of sheet metal.

Pictures will follow of my very upper decks and foremast soon.

OH....I almost forgot....about the comment that you made regarding painting the "NTDS" antenna.... I usually paint that by hand then glue it down onto the model. Although I will eventually string up some sig flag lines ... Those will be nearly the last thing I do After I paint the entire ship.........Painting the resin ship............... I hope THAT goes well!!

M

Here is what has been done so far with GALVESTON... I installed the last of the 'turned barrels' on both 6"/47 turrets and 5"/38, they look quite something, never used 'turned barrels' on a ship before, although, I do have some 'turned barrels' for my 350 scale ships that (I Hope) to do in the summer!!



As for the rest, its slow, but progressing... I Very Pleased with the amount of detail for a resin kit!! Each time I see a pic of CLG-3 with doors/hatches, I'll look for their placement on the kit...and They are ALREADY There!! That is Quite pleasant to me.

I trying to see if there are any details of What is inside the bridge windows.... looking for images of within the smaller upper-level 'bridge' and the lower main bridge-wings. (This is why there is not a closure of the upper level one just let) As for color, I'm just thinking to be a standard interior white just as I remember onboard USS IOWA where I work(ed) on before. Also will be adding some small details, railing mostly, and ladders for around the gun directors.





I also added a couple of flag bags towards the end of Level 05, but when I tried to afix the foremast.... she didn't dry-fit!! Had to snip off some splinter shielding back there to actually fit the mast there ( and almost had to get rid of those PE flag bags...but everything fitted well after the cut!! ).





As for the foremast...it is a bit detailed with some very well developed imprinted detail on the mast...yardarms and supports are Quite sturdy ( that Great news for me .... when placing lines ).





More to come this week... I might even be able to do a test spray, primer to see if she 'sticks' onto this kit....I hope THAT goes well!!

M

Finishing the mast, but noticed Like ALL masts, that there are railings around there. Niko does provide 2-/3-bar railings, but no where does it show its placement, I'm kinda relying on the amount of rails that some should be placed on the upper superstructure, masts, a little around gun directors, etc. Strangely, there are these pretty large sized boxes for the ECM platforms, but no ECM equipment, going to look at my 'Skywave' Naval equipment and see if I could get some.

In the meantime, here is the foremast (of two (2) masts plus a platform that need to be built). Again, nothing 'glued on' yet..... just test-fitting.







M

From my last posting, I was working on the foremast and ever since my first ship...I always felt that the mast seem So Naked without railings around those platforms and yardarms!!



Its A Lot of work, but in the end the results look SOOO B*****IN!! And with my skills improving on setting up sig flag lines they look Top-Peg!!







As I mentioned before....and I'm going to mention it again.... but Niko PE is Very Good: Solid, Detailed, Malleable, if there is Any problem, the railing spacing tends to twist as you bend the rails...so I'm thinking of reinforcing some areas of railing with additional 'posts'!!

I'll post some More Detailed work on GALVESTON in the coming week!!

M

Looking very good

_________________
Just finished:
1/350 USS Santee 1944

Current projects:
1/700 USS Catamount 1960
1/350 USS Columbia 1945
1/350 USS San Francisco 1944

Falling a bit behind, but still on schedule!!

Thanks 'medicmike'... working with resin is a Little bit tricky... for one there are NO pins or holes to place parts down like on plastic models, you Have to rely on pictures of the past to Hopefully get things right!! Two, resin is quite brittle!!! I haven't broken any parts LET ( GEEZ, I hope I didn't Jink myself!! ). BUT Sadly, I launched my 2nd part .... I Can't believe it ...... ...Usually I Am able to find such small items on my wooden floor from 700 A/C wheels, PE landing gear, small thread, canopies for A/C, weapons, etc. But with this build... I lost the NTDS anteanna, so I had to rebuild one from Other PE sheets (that worked), but now a small radar director back aft!!!

But the foremast came out pretty Nice!!! Let me share this ...... for the Archives, in case something Else goes missing!!!







Is it Me..... or do you guys like to 'pretend' the radar(s) are moving about??? I Like having the radars in different positions around the mast(s), but I it seems to me, that many modelers like their radars facing forward...

Moving back aft of GALVESTON and finishing the sub-assemblies for the .... " PAINT " (Da Da DAAAAA!!!) ... weather is a bit hot in SoCal, but then rain (? next week?? ). Going to work on getting the railings & ladders done at least on the superstructures!

M

Resin does take a bit more time and effort. I haven't build anything from Niko models yet (I have their Helena in my stash) but I have done several ISW kits. Lots of sanding, scratch building, and other things needed but I really like the kits overall. The effort is well worth it

_________________
Just finished:
1/350 USS Santee 1944

Current projects:
1/700 USS Catamount 1960
1/350 USS Columbia 1945
1/350 USS San Francisco 1944

Still working on GALVESTON... thou I had to give myself a bit of a break to get motivated... Still on Time for completion, but On-Top-of-THAT.... IF you heard of the gas leak that was in the city of Downey, CA on 22 Apr.... well... I was near-by that.... within 350 FEET of this "exciting event"!! Had to evac due to the smell....and possible danger. No worries, but was 'different' in evac with a dog... ( I just can't imagine those of Real Natural Disasters...wildfires here in SoCal!! )

Moving on with the masts the foremast, I would say is about 95% complete, just waiting for some good weather to paint, and after placing the railings around platforms...I decided on placing railings on top of ECM boxes and platforms. ( IT Just seemed 'antithetically pleasing' {especially if you were an EW or ET checking on equipment on a moving ship} )



Then after More research on GALVESTON-class realized that the smaller radar set on the foremast was SPS-10 radar...so I need to replace it, I'll do it soon

Worked/ing on mainmast ... a bit more tricky because of extensive metal work and leveling needed for platforms. But also added railing on these platforms.









The topmost platform 'snapped' off slightly... will re-align tonight.

M

'medicmike' ... just to let you know that Niko kits are Highly detailed... one detail that I like adding to ships are hatches and doors, and as I look throughout the kit and photo references, they're all there!! But I think their detail of the PE is Extra-ordinary!!!!

Their PE looks like it is double-layered ... if that makes any sense.... it allows, for example, to get their "raised detail" on their masts ( at least ). It allows areas to be bent as it is indented for ease of bending of PE (except for rails). There metal can be bent and re-bent (if you make a mistake ), also there is enough space between 'tree' and connection of part to allow PE nippers to fit and Not bend, accidentally, the part you want... . But as for their gun barrels, I would probably buy turned barrels for your ship.

M

The detail work on the mast assembly is awesome! I have been looking through my Helena kit and I really like what I am seeing in there. I am excited to get started on that one in a few months. The barrels do need replaced with turned brass like you said lol. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to seeing your progress

_________________
Just finished:
1/350 USS Santee 1944

Current projects:
1/700 USS Catamount 1960
1/350 USS Columbia 1945
1/350 USS San Francisco 1944