1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942

[taskforce48]

Hey all,

After seeing what Vlad did with Steve Larsen's AKA Model Monkey 3D printed parts on a 1/700 Tamiya Indianapolis, I thought I would show what I have done with a 1/350 Academy Indy. I have done a terrible job of documenting what I have done up till this stage, but thought I would post some stuff to try to entice some folks to take the plunge into 3D printed parts.





This image shows just a small... I guess upgrade to the 3D parts? In the picture below you see that these openings have a wire fencing/grill. Needless to say I doubt there is a physically possible way to portray this in scale via any medium. So I opted to use some of Tetra Modelworks Style A mesh PE screen. Picture actually makes it look a lot thicker than it does in person but it gives it some further dimension vs just being left wide open.


Parts so far have been just like working with a good quality resin and possibly bordering thicker styrene. No paint issues on what I have experimented with, disregard the nasty paint job on the forward superstructure. That had nothing to do with the parts and everything to do with my inpatients. I was spraying another project with 5-N and couldn't resist seeing what it looked like painted, needless to say the part did require some smoothing in some spots. CA glue has no problem working with it. Not going to lie and make these sound like direct drop ins, these parts were designed from plans of the actual ship and not for a specific kit. There has been some time invested into planning attack and what to/not to remove but it sure beats total scratchbuild!

Hope you enjoy, questions and comments always welcome!

Matt

[MartinJQuinn]

That is very impressive work, Matt.

[Vlad]

Looks great so far. So familiar, yet so different I'm looking forward to seeing how much detail you manage to cram in given the possibilities of the larger scale. Best of luck!

[ModelMonkey]

[Dan K]

Nice. Love the grill work.

[Heavy Melder]

Matt, what will you be using for PE? I was thinking getting the Pontos set and bastardizing what I could from it. But seeing this makes me wonder if it would be the best way to go now.

[Devin]

That looks great. Is this a 1942 time frame? Portland in '42 has always been one of my grail builds.

[Aop Aur]

Great to see another build with 3D printed stuffs!!! And hey, it's Matt aka taskforce48's project too! You have done an amazing weathering job on the Enterprise! This one must be a very sublime looking model when completed! Please post more pics as soon as you can!


BTW, How is your Enterprise doing? I hope you would still continue on her, right?

Aop

[taskforce48]

That is very impressive work, Matt.

Thanks Martin,

Looks great so far. So familiar, yet so different I'm looking forward to seeing how much detail you manage to cram in given the possibilities of the larger scale. Best of luck!

Thanks, this things been floating around the bench on and off for the last year, your build finally kicked me in the pants to do something.

Nice. Love the grill work.

Thanks, just a simple add to give it a little life

Matt, what will you be using for PE?

I haven't totally figured that one out yet. I did just order a Tom's set for the cranes, probably same or WEM for Radars. I have a GMM Indianapolis set that will give some nice details, but I might save that for an actual Indy build. I may just go with Generic PE rails as a lot of the fitted sets won't work as there are so many outward differences between the two ships and fits.

That looks great. Is this a 1942 time frame?

Sure enough is, the Model Monkey set portrays her from March 42' on up to her eventual refit in early 43'. I am building her as she was on the 12th of November, getting ready to head into the Bar Room Brawl.

Great to see another build with 3D printed stuffs!!! And hey, it's Matt aka taskforce48's project too! You have done an amazing weathering job on the Enterprise! This one must be a very sublime looking model when completed! Please post more pics as soon as you can!


BTW, How is your Enterprise doing? I hope you would still continue on her, right?

Aop

Thanks Aop, I hope to bring her all together. One thing I have learned since focusing Guadalcanal participants, I have to make MS21 interesting and the wear and tear that these ships exhibited helps to achieve this with weathering. The Enterprise was retired after several frustrating pushes to finish her, my local club is hosting a show in September and I am hoping to have her done for that. I have been in a modeling rut lately where I get fired up for a subject but quickly fizzle, but I shall prevail!

I hope to update soon, I am going to try and make this kit a real 3D experience. I just ordered 3D Modelparts 20mm's and 1.1.s for the AA suite.

Thanks again!

Matt

[robertmelvin]

You won't be disappointed by the AA suite. I have ordered both the 20mm and the 1.1 inch from 3D Model Parts and they are truly sublime.

Bob M.

[taskforce48]

Well it's not Friday but it is November 13th. I had a little time today to work on my Sweet Pea.


I wanted to leave one of the hangars open, so I scratch built the uptake housing dividing the hangar sides. You also see that I tried to use the kit part here to close the opening to the aft gun deck.


The kit part sat too high for the 3D parts, so I just used .250 Styrene and made a new bulkhead


That caused me to have to add the structure below this deck


I took this time to also detail the hangar, spare parts and Flyhawk girders


There are several prominent vents out on the boat deck, I used some L' Arsenal vent PE to fill these in from the inside before attaching the deck


Here we see the we see the Hangar and Boat Deck components together


I moved to the forward super structure for a change of pace. Model Monkey parts have the flag bags absent, I looked in a Trumpeter donor kit and noticed that Trumpy doesn't include any either. The Academy ones are incomplete and open on 2 sides. I used some styrene strip to build the box


When I walked away tonight, I have the bulk of the forward structure done. Some rails, Directors, finish the mast and armament then paint.


There was actually a lot to do on the backside of the structure. I used some spare parts for the railings, Academy's 24 inch Searchlights, GMM Mark 3 radar and a Flyhawk 1/700 tapered mast for the foremast. Some L' Arsenal superstructure bits for the various mast supports and Infini US Navy Style ladders.


The rest should be pretty straight forward as the all the major surgery to integrate the 3D parts is done. I will bounce back and forth on this build and the Texas, should be a interesting winter.

Matt

[PetrolGator]

The potential of 3D parts in these sort of custom works is amazing. I love what you're doing here, dude.

[Jeff Sharp]

Hi Matt. This is so cool! I love it! Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming.

[Aop Aur]

The 3D printed parts look awesome! Steve has done a fine job on these! Looking forward to more updates!

Aop

[Vlad]

Great progress! The combination of the open 3D printed parts and your skill with the PE work really brings it to life. One of the main things I find attractive about early war US cruisers is that spacious angular pilot house with the big windows, this is making me feel like I'm on board

[taskforce48]

Thanks for the comments guys!

My previous statement of almost being done with the forward superstructure was greatly exaggerated. After going back to the pictures, I found some missing details which I added today.


Mast is done now, added 20mm mounts, Paperlab 1.1's, Whistle and steam pipe, speaker on face of deckhouse and Ready Service Lockers


Also started one of the 2 Mk28/33 directors. This is modified kit part and old Classic Warships PE. Sweet Pea carried the open top version but photos of her the morning after her torpedo hit show them as having canvas covers which I am trying to simulate. You see these canvas covers again in several images later in both Portland and Indy's carreer in the Wiper Pictorial.





Get the other director done, then I can call it done...... till painting and rigging phase.

More to come soon......hopefully,

Matt

[Heavy Melder]

Matt is paperlab still around somewhere? I thought they had been gone a long time now.....

[taskforce48]

I believe they are still around, just not in the cast metal accessories. I have had these 1.1's rattling around the bench for a few years and thought I would put them to work. I was going to use 3D Modelparts 1.1's but I have somehow misplaced them. I may still default to the 3D ones if I come across them, otherwise the Paper Lab ones are exceptionally well done so they might just stay?

Matt

[MartinJQuinn]

Matt,

Any update to this build? Or did I miss it?

[taskforce48]

Martin,

Unfortunately life has been a pretty big damper on model building, that and all the new Model Monkey stuff that keeps showing up

I did get the images updated for the thread since my host from a .org to a .cc. Here are a couple of updated images,

The bridge with both directors installed and ready. Also installed all the 20mm pedestals.


A few shots of the completed Hangar that will be left open,




The Meshed in Mezzanine was taken from this image and another that I can't find. You will also note that I have 3D printed catapults courtesy of DiStefan and Shapeways.




The only issue I have found yet with any of the Model Monkey parts is the aft gun tub. Here we see it fitted to the hull




But this image would show that it was actually much further aft



Which would produce a look like this


I already informed Steve with my findings, not sure if he has updated it yet or not. Not a huge issue, I should be able to cut the existing part down to size easily.


She still sits actively on my bench, honestly a good push could have her done in a short amount of time. Just gotta work up the motivation and focus. Thanks for interest, maybe it'll be the kick in the pants I need.

Matt