The Ship Model Forum

Hey 44,

Yeah I was reading through it last night, and plan to finish reading it tonight, I find that the HMS WARSPITE is a fascinating subject and it is on my wish list, I want to build it in 1/350 and go all out on it as your doing. Your work is really nice and the way your talking it is inspiring. I look forward to more updates for you on your build.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Many thanks for that - its been a big learning curve for me as I have never done anything with so much detail, its facinating doing all the research on it, as I am building her as she was during her last action - Dunkirk, but not quite as weathered - as if she had been cleaned up a bit in dry dock.

1944

Alright as in a couple of post ago Warspite1944 asked was I going to include any Royal Naval vessels in the diorama, of course I am as well as so many others. I actually went through my list of ships and classes of ships planned for the diorama and I truly must say that in the beginning of my build log I had planned for a little over 300 ships but after new kits hit the market and re-releases of other kits I found myself adding to the list and the stash, I massed a few hundred kits in no time at all, (Not hard to do). Then I forced myself to learn how to resin cast and make molds which opened up a whole other world to me as far as making ships and submarines.
I have just now reviewed my build list of naval vessels for the US Navy fleet, Russian, British, and JMSDF fleets as well, guys I must say I am in some MAJOR TROUBLE. My original build list went from a little over 300+ ships to well over 1000 ships. Now, you guys know why I had to redesign the diorama, if I do everything I want to do and have planned for it had to be done. Now I am going to list the classes of ships by nationality and total number of vessels in each class and what I have on hand (built or unbuilt) guys this is a list from hell and there has been a many a dollar spent on this project, not to mention what is yet to be purchased.

To understand the list, first is the Name of class or ship, Number of how many are in the class (first number), Number of kits I have on hand (built or unbuilt), and number of vessels for the class to buy or make.

This is a list of the United States Naval Fleet for the diorama as of 9-16-16
1. NIMITZ CLASS CVN 10, 10, 0
2. ENTERPRISE CLASS CVN 1, 1, 0
3. FORRESTAL CLASS CV 4, 4, 0 (SARATOGA is to be replaced as she hit the floor and was heavily damaged)
4. KITTY HAWK CLASS CV 3, 3, 0
5. JOHN F. KENNEDY CLASS CV 1, 1, 0
6. MIDWAY CLASS CV 3, 2, 0- USS F. D. ROOSEVELT will not be added to the diorama.
7. TARAWA CLASS LHA 5, 5, 0
8. WASP CLASS LHD 8, 5, 3 to go
9. SAN ANTONIO CLASS LPD 11, 11, 0
10. WHIDBEY ISLAND CLASS LSD 8, 4, 4 to go
11. ARLEIGH BURKE CLASS DDG 73, 38, 35 to go
12. BLUE RIDGE CLASS LCC 2, 1, 1 (Mount Whitney LCC-20 was heavily damaged when it hit the floor, will be replaced.)
13. SACRAMENTO CLASS AOE 8, 8, 0
14. PEGASUS CLASS PMH 6, 6, 0 (24+ Extras which will be modified to other vessels of WHAT-IF's)
15. CHARLES F. ADAMS CLASS DDG 23, 10, 13 to go
16. FREEDOM CLASS LCS Type I 12, 10, 2 to go
17. INDEPENDENCE CLASS LCS Type II 12, 11, 1 to go
18. LOS ANGELES CLASS SSN 62, 62, 0 (1 Extra on hand)
19. LONG BEACH CLASS CGN 1, 1, 0
20. CALIFORNIA CLASS CGN 2, 1, 1 to go (Hard to find this kit now)
21. VIRGINIA CLASS CGN 4, 4, 0
22. OLIVER HAZARD PERRY FFG 51, 19, 32 to go (Hard to find these kits now)
23. SPRUANCE CLASS DD 31, 31, 0
24. KIDD CLASS DD 4, 4, 0
25. OHIO CLASS SSBN 18, 18, 0
26. GEORGE WASHINGTON CLASS SSBN 5, 5, 0
27. SKIPJACK CLASS SSN 6, 6, 0
28. THRESHER/PERMIT CLASS SSN 14, 14, 0
29. SEAWOLF CLASS SSN 3, 3, 0
30. VIRGINIA CLASS SSN 33, 33, 0
31. TICONDEROGA CLASS CG 27, 27, 0 (2 Extra kits on hand)
32. IOWA CLASS BB 4, 4, 0
33. STURGEON CLASS SSN 37, 37, 0
34. ZUMWALT CLASS DDG 3, 3, 0
35. NEWPORT CLASS LST 20, 5, 15 to go
36. CHARLESTON CLASS LKA 5, 1, 4 to go
37. WICHITA CLASS AOR 7, 1, 6 to go
38. KILAUEA CLASS AE 4, 0, 4 to go
39. IWO JIMA CLASS LPH 7, 2, 5 to go
40. USN LCAC 91, 24, 67 to go

Ships that are being included but not as a class are: USS ALBANY CG-10, USS CHICAGO CG-11, USS COLUMBUS CG-12, USS VULCAN AR-5, USS FULTON AS-11.

USCG Vessels, USCG vessel list is not complete.
1. HAMILTON CLASS 12, 2, 10 to go

This list is totaled up to 718 vessels (so far) with 450 on hand and another 296 vessels to buy or make.

JMSDF NAVAL FLEET

1. HAYABUSA CLASS PG 6, 6, 0
2. GO CLASS PG 3, 2, 1 to go
3. SORYU CLASS SS 12, 0, 12 to go (These will be resin cast to complete class)
4. OYASHIO CLASS SS 10, 0, 10 to go (These will be resin cast to complete class)
5. YUSHIO CLASS SS 10, 10, 0
6. HARUSHIO CLASS SS 7, 0, 7 to go (These will be resin cast to complete class)
7. IZUMO CLASS DDH 2, 0, 2 to go
8. HYUGA CLASS DDH 2, 0, 2 to go
9. SHIRANE CLASS DDH 2, 2, 0
10. OSUMI CLASS LST 3, 2, 1 to go
11. ATSUMI CLASS LST 3, 1, 2 to go
12. ATAGO CLASS DDG 2, 0, 2 to go
13. KONGO CLASS DDG 4, 3, 1 to go
14. HATAKAZE CLASS DDG 2, 0, 2 to go
15. AKIZUKI CLASS DD 4, 4, 0
16. TAKANAMI CLASS DD 5, 1, 4 to go
17. MURASAME CLASS DD 9, 3, 6 to go
18. ASAGIRI CLASS DD 8, 0, 8 to go
19. HATSUYUKI CLASS DD 12, 4, 8 to go
20. YAMAGUMO CLASS DD 6, 2, 4 to go
21. ABUKUMA CLASS DE 6, 2, 4 to go
22. CHIKUGO CLASS DE 11, 0, 11 to go
23. HATSUSHIMA CLASS MSC 23, 3, 20 to go ( These are going to be resin cast)
24. SUGASHIMA CLASS MSC 12, 1, 11 to go (These are going to be resin cast)
25. TAKAMI CLASS MSC 19, 1, 18 to go (These are going to be resin cast)
26. TOWANDA CLASS AOE 3, 2, 1 to go
27. TACHIKAZE CLASS DDG 3, 3, 0
SPECIALITY SHIPS
These are individual ships, and not as a class of ships to be completed.
28. JMSDF KURIHAMA ASE-6101 on hand
29. JMSDF CHIHAYA ASR-403 on hand
30. JMSDF TAKAMI TV-3508 on hand

This list for the JMSDF Naval Force totals up to 186 vessels. I currently have to the best of my knowledge 55 vessels on hand. With another 75 vessels to resin cast. I have another 59 kits to buy after I make the 75 resin cast vessels.

BRITISH ROYAL NAVAL FLEET
My list of British Royal Navy Vessels is actually the smallest list I have so far, I have not added to this list since the inception of this major project, I know there are more kits on the market and I need to get on line and find them, but I do have the major classes of ships for the Royal Navy.

1. HMS INVENSIBLE R05 on hand
2. HMS ILLUSTRIOUS R06 on hand
3. HMS ARK ROYAL R07 on hand
4. HMS OCEAN L12 on hand
5. TYPE 42 Destroyers 14, 13, 1 to go
6. TYPE 45 Destroyers 6, 3, 3 to go
7. RESOLUTION CLASS SSBN 4, 1, 3 to go (These will be resin cast)
8. ASTUTE CLASS SSN 7, 1, 6 to go (These will be resin cast)
9. TRAFALGAR CLASS SSN 7, 7, 0

My Royal Navy Fleet list consist of 41 vessels I currently have 28 kits on hand with another 9 vessels to resin cast.

I will add the Russian fleet list in another post as I just realized I am missing some items on my list. But I do know there is 127 vessels on the list, I have 45 kits on hand with another 27 kits already built.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

FANTASTIC

I have a built 1/700 scale type 42 wide beamed batch 3 HMS Edinburgh (Fortress of the Seas) its the Dragon kit, wonder if it might be of use (dont know how I would get It there though) ????


1944

This one -

1944

1944

Actually I have enough of the batch 3 ships, I actually am in need of a batch 1 for the HMS CONVENTRY D118, I wasn't at first going to include the SHEFIELD D80 and the CONVENTRY D118 since they were lost in the Faulkland Islands war, but I decided that they too deserved a place in the diorama as well as a few other ships and submarines that have been lost over the years for other classes of ships I have planned to add.

Although I am NOT opposed to donations being made for this project, which I have had a few donations made over the past couple of years of kits others wanted to donate due to the fact of leaving the scale or just not enough time to build what they have.

I am talking with my LHS owner about using one of his buildings on the property to set the diorama up in since the local model RR club use's the entire second floor of the HS for their HO Scale trains layout, (which it is HUGE) it is actually the largest I have ever seen personally. He is undecided at the moment but is considering it, he had asked to see pictures of what I want to do and what I have done in the past and he was surprised at how much is involved in the project, I told him since he's the only shop in town that it might bring in more business and visitors as well. I was asked if it was for personal profit or what my plan was for visitors to come in and see it. I told him it would be something like the model RR club does, on a donation type system, but my donations would go directly to the Wounded Warrior Foundation and not into the project. The model RR club takes donations and puts them into maintaining the club and train layout, which is fine for them but my project has a bigger goal in mind.

1. Introduce people to our hobby - scale ship building
2. Show what can be accomplished with a dream.
3. Benefit local service members through the Wounded Warrior Foundation.
4. Having a place to put everything until my shop is built, hopefully by 2018. (The shop is going to be very HUGE)

His response was I will think about it and decide in a few months, I think he wants to check into the legal side of the donations. As well as if he wants to allow me to utilize a building that is empty and will fall down without some use being made of it.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

No problem Jim, HMS Edy was unique as she was the only bat 3 type 42 to be modernised to the last faze, and had her front bow bulkhead built up(none of the others had this) I had to do this my self from plastic card as the normal Dragon kits are generic.

What you are planning to do sounds Brilliant and I wish I was your side of the wet stuff, I would hav epaid a visit.


1944

Good evening everyone,

Well as usual I was not able to get done what I wanted to get done this weekend on my builds but I did manage to get another batch of submarines built for the JMSDF 6 of them to be exact, they are all from the YUSHIO CLASS, I had two of these built and displayed on the old diorama, so I decided to build the rest of them that I had here at the house, I thought I built the balance of the class but I found another set buried under a few other kits, so I will get those done tomorrow afternoon.

I was busy working on some minor vessels and decided that I would get a batch of harbor craft done as well, I went through a few old SKYWAVE kits and started building (4) LCM's, (4) LCI's, (4) LCT's, & (4) LCTR's these are of WW2 era but you can still find them around naval bases these days being utilized for other purposes. Plus, they just look pretty damn cool in a diorama setting. I also have a bunch of harbor craft kits I need to get done, so, as a break from the larger kits I am planning on cranking these out as fast as I can.

My CnC aka (the Wife) has come up with a great idea, she said I should set up a time table of different things to work on so I don't get burned out like I did before. I think this is a great Idea, like one week build ships, the next week build aircraft, the next build buildings, ect ect ect.....you get the idea.

Also, I did go back through my list for my Russian Naval Fleet, I have updated it somewhat and I am pretty certain I am going to be doing a large amount of resin casting in the future. If I build everything on the list it will be an additional 667 ships and submarines. I am not sure I will build all of them but a very large amount will be done.

I also went back out on NAVSOURCE and found another 4 ARLEIGH BURKE Class destroyers and added them to my list for that class of ships, which leaves me 38 more to buy. All I know is I might have bitten off more then I realized...............Nope, nothing I can't handle.

Well everyone have a good night and we'll see what I can get done this up coming week.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Jim I feel your build needs as mutch help as it can get - Its a credit to you what you are doing, and frankly things like this should geta as much advertising as possible, a similar thing is the HMS Warspite build I get my reference from - this is a gentlemen who was in the British Army as a Ranking Command, he runs the Hough Battery in The Uk, where His build of Warspite is kept.

I am in full respect for what you are doing only wish I could help.

Warm regards.

1944

A.

Good evening everyone,

I just finished up working in the slipway tonight, over the last two days I seem to have found my mojo for rapid building once again. I have completed 16 small amphibious craft that breaks down to (4) LCM's, (4) LCT's, (4) LCI's, & (4) LCI-R's. These are all built and ready for primer and paint, but due to the tropical weather front in my area there is way to much rain to do any paint work. I also have began to build (2) WW2 era LST's which are going to be utilized in the mothballed fleet, I have another one already built from a year or two ago, so I figured adding these to the mothballed fleet would be just fine. I also have several other ships that will be utilized in this fashion, mostly FLETCHER Class destroyers. I have seen some really awesome pictures of these types of ships and vessels all neatly lined up and stack altogether.

The biggest reason for adding some of these older vessels is simply to show how ships where and how they are in the more modern era. I think everyone will mostly agree with this idea, the blending of some old with the new. The two WW2 LST's I am slightly modifying, the areas where the Orliken's where mounted I've removed the molded placement points and cleaned them up, but I left the gun tubs in place. I am going for the stripped down look of a mothballed ship as I have seen many in my day's at PNSY.

I am looking to get all these vessels that I've built yesterday and today as well as what I get done this week primed and painted this weekend, weather permitting. If so I will get all of them photographed and posted. I know everyone wants to see some real progress not just the planned work ahead of me.

I hope everyone is enjoying what's taking place now with the diorama and the direction in which it is heading.
I have some 30 ships, vessels, to get finished up this week so I will be busy and have some good stuff to post this weekend.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Keep the pace and the building going Jim - it is a Facinating Build you are doing

1944

Great to see that you're making progress on the diorama

_________________
Completed:
1/426 USS Arizona (BB-39)
1/535 USS Missouri (BB-63)
1/700 USS Lake Erie (CG-70)

1944, Tj,

Hey guys thanks for the comments, I promise I am making some pretty decent progress. Well at least I'm making progress on the ships. Well it's still raining here and will be the remaining of the week. I just can't justify priming ships and things when we've had a couple inches of rain over the last 3 day, with more on the way. I could airbrush primer in the house but I seem to have lost my airbrush primer supply.

The good news is I have 28 ships awaiting primer, and 5 ships in final detail paint, these 5 will be completed tomorrow as I did get most of the ships finished with the exception of paint the fire stations and life rings. I am actually looking forward to getting to the decals tomorrow, for some reason that is my favorite part. I use to hate doing decals until all my trial and era's I learned my very own method.

Once I get the 5 ships finished tomorrow I am going to get everything cleaned up and get ready to start another batch of ships. I am probably going to build 5 more and keep doing things that way until things dry up around here. I am kind of leaning to build the remainder of my JMSDF LST's and AOE's since these are the largest kits I have left to build. (for the JMSDF that is)
I get to have the whole day to myself tomorrow so I am going to be getting a ton of stuff done.

I've already built one AOE, so that's not going to be as big of a deal to build, the two LST's on the other hand I've never built either of these two kits before so I will kind of take my time building these. We'll just see what happens. Well it is getting late and I'm pretty tired so everyone have a great night, day, or whatever time zone your in, I'll keep building, y'all keep reading

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Great stuff Jim - shame you cant make us all envious with some pictures


Kind Regards

1944

Hi there everyone,

Well yesterday proved to be a very productive yet aggravating day, I managed to get the detail paint work completed on 5 more ships and now I have added those to the completed stash. The ships that I have for the JMSDF fleet that are now completed are as follows:

HAYABUSA PG-824, UMITAKA PG-828, ATSUMI LST-4101, SHIRANE DDH-143, MURASAME DD-101, HATSUYUKI DD-122, ABUKUMA DE-229, TACHIKAZE DD-168, KURIHAMA ASE-6101, CHIHAYA ASR-403, HAMANA AOE-424.

I also have the following built and primed, yes finally was able to get things primed as well yesterday:

YUSHIO SS-573, MOCHISHIO SS-574, SETOSHIO SS-575, OKISHIO SS-576, NADASHIO SS-577, HAMASHIO SS-578, AKISHIO SS-579,
TAKESHIO SS-580, YUKISHIO SS-581, SACHISHIO SS-582. These are awaiting final paint and decals which I will get these done over the weekend as we have more rain for the day. I did manage to get the small vessels I was building completed and primed as well, I will probably work on detail paint work today as I am doing it all by a brush. I have some 26 ships & submarines to get finished over the weekend and I feel like I can do it without any setbacks.

I have also another 5 ships to finish building and they are as follows:
OSHIMA MSC-654 50%, OHSUMI LST-4001 35%, SHIMOKITA LST-4002 0%, AKIZUKI DD-115 50%, JINTSU DE-230 45%
These are all in various stages of construction but should be completed over the weekend or at the latest early next week. I have taken pictures of what is completed and everything else I have built but I want to get more stuff done and do a nice picture post tonight.

1944 and everyone else I will POST PICTURES ASAP, I have to resize them so I can post them. On some of the completed ships, I do have some very minor details to finish adding but all those had to wait till all paint work was completed and then all that is going to be left is to spray them with clear flat coat to seal everything up. Once I get them clear coated I will do some basic weathering to them and reseal once more. I find that if I seal everything before I weather them it is easier to change up the weathering because it just wipes off and start fresh if I don't like what I am doing. Benefits of weathering with pastels.

Everyone stay tuned in and remember PIC POST TONIGHT!!!!!

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Hi guys,

It is my said duty to notify everyone that I will not be able to post pictures tonight due to my camera was not charged and my card is missing. I took some with my camera on my phone but I can't get the size small enough for the site, I have my camera charging and I got another photo card, I will take some tomorrow and download them to my computer and resize them for the sight.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Can't wait to see those pics and your progress Jim!

_________________
Doug

Currently building:
Tamiya 1/350 CVN-65 USS Enterprise 2001
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=120496

http://modelshipgallery.com/gallery/use ... index.html

Hi there everyone,

Well things did not go as planned for the weekend, I have been a bit under the weather, but I have managed to finish building another JMSDF DD-115 ASAGUMO and was able to get it primed as well. I also started to work on detail paint work on the LCI's, LCM's, LCT's, & LCT-R's. I also was working on the JMSDF DE-230 JINTSU, unfortunately I have discovered that there is a major part missing from the kit and I am plotting how to correct this issue. I am hopeful to have a solution early this week.

I also decided to go ahead and build a couple of submarines, (1) Soviet Sierra Class SSN, (to be used as master for resin casting mold) (6) submarines to resin cast, and I also built (1) USS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SSBN-640, which is also going to be used as a master for resin casting the LAFAYETTE & BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SSBN Classes (30) submarines to complete both classes, as they are the same submarine on the exterior. Which is something I actually figured out tonight while I was doing research of some other ships. So, I am going to get my rubber mold materials out of storage and get the molds made that I need to make (which is several molds) and get casting.

I have also been doing some research on a few classes of ships for some scratch building, I am going to be scratch building the CYCLONE Class Special Warfare Vessels which there is 14 of these to make. I'll probably build one and cast the rest, not sure yet. I am also going to be scratch building the SPEARHEAD Class Expeditionary Fast Transport Vessels (CATAMARAN) there are 10 of the vessels on active duty with another 2 being built. This class is operated by the USNS Maritime Forces. These are pretty straight forward builds, and if they turn out the way I think they will, then they are going to be a great addition to the diorama.

I know I am supposed to have a bunch of pictures to post but for some reason I can not get my damn camera to work, I turn it on and it turns it's self right back off, I think it's sick or something. YES, it is fully charged but still doing it,

I promise guys I am going to get some pictures to post once I figure out the issues with the camera. I also had to start making another note book for the diorama, I accidentally spilled coffee all over my other note book. The note book I made has all the notes for my measurements, kits that are available, kits on hand, kits built and what ever else I have to keep up with. I just need to print everything out from the computer for my hard copy, yes guys I keep a hard copy of everything so if and when my computer crashes again I am not SOL and have to figure out everything all over again. I also keep reference photos in a 3-ring binder so I can get all the ships as close as I can to being right. Again though, all the kits are pretty much OOB builds with the exception of the resin castings I make, also except the kits that have PE with them. I am really looking forward to getting these molds & resin castings made, I actually enjoy doing these.
Makes me feel like a real model maker,

I still have a lot of things in the works and seems like there is even more added all the time. Which is my own fault, I see something I like, and I want to add it to this ordeal. I guess it's just wanting to add so much detail and have something different to look at all the time. Like the title of this topic says, it a "LIFETIME" build. I have totally given up on the 5 year mark, seems like it will be forever to finish. At this rate that I'm going it probably will be a lifetime.

Well I will proceed with the work at hand and I'll keep everyone posted on what's taking place with this project. Y'all have a good night and take care.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Jim I feel your pain with the spilled drink situation, I have been through so many episodes with the Old lady - she was this close to being binned in the trash but the wife said no - keep at it.

Like I said to you what you are doing is Unique and possibly the only like it in the World, so well worth plugging at it and weathering the storm, one day you will be famous due to your Massive endevour, and everone including there wife will want to see it.

Im behind you all the way with this my friend


1944

Jim, How big is this base gonna be? You must have a shed to put all that together!