The Ship Model Forum

Since geting back into ship building I've wanted to model a Baltimore class heavy cruiser my all-time favorite class of warship, and for me a 1/350 USS Baltimore is the ultimate!

When I recieved the kit I didn't know what to expect because I've never built a resin model so I read all the resin related threads I could find and have been in contact with other moelers who have built this kit who have given me some great advice and tips from their builds. I was very impressed with the quality of the YMW kit, the castings are crisp with good detail and only minor flash and almost no air holes...the upper hull casting is slightly warped (about 1/8" at both ends) with the lower casting being pretty flat but slightly longer than the upper casting...the assembly instructions for the most part are easy to understand but a few steps here and there are still a little confusing. The two pc. p/e fret is very detailed and seems to have everything although some pcs. seem a little overscale.

Time to get started...I got a box long enough for the hull castings and lined it with plastic ready to give the model a Wesley's "Bleche-wite bath"...I let the castings soak for about 15min. in the tire cleaner then scrubbed them with an old toothbrush rinsing in clean water and placing them on a towel to dry.



Next it was time to tackle the warped upper hull casting...after reading about fixing warped resin hulls I decided to try the oven method...I baked the hull casting at 200 degrees for a 40 min. heat soak, after the casting flattened out I placed it on a smooth piece of scrap cabinet grade plywood and fastened it down with screws.



After the upper hull cooled overnite I removed the screws and the casting was almost perfectly flat the warp was gone!!!...so I started work on the lower hull casting needing to remove enough material to bring the hull into specs. I used my bench top jointer/planer and removed about 0.010" at a time untill the hull's overall dimentions were correct.


The waterline seam is almost perfect.





The last thing to do for now was to drill and counterbore holes in the lower hull for some #10 pan-head screws I'm going to use with a two-part high strength epoxy to fasten the hull halves together.



Dave

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"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."

Coming along nicely Dave.





Bob Pink.

Thanks Bob!!!!!!...but it seems Steve Allen's Canberra WOW! has already set the standard that's going to be hard to match!

Dave

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"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."

Greetings Dave!

I'm very happy to see you wasted no time in getting this build going AND online!! Looks awesome already! I'm really looking forward to seeing your build progress. I hope to learn a lot from watching you!

Daniel "On the Left Coast" Chavez

Hi Dave
i see it didn't take you long to start another build.
Must admit i'm not to familiar with the Baltimores so will be watching this build closely. Cant believe you've never done a resin kit before though, looking at the way you've started so fast. What colour scheme are you doing her in by the way.

I have four 1/350 kits in resin to do over the next year so will have to clear my current builds out of the way soonish, one of them is a monster, well for me anyway.

Roy

Dave,

I see another master in the works! Eagerly waiting for further updates!

Matt

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In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Dave, I'm sure you'll 'hold your own' with this build! Looking forward to more progress pictures. You've done more in those pictures than I've done in the last year!

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Nice use of a planer- another reason to want one!

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--
Sean Hert

Hi all!

Update: joining the hull halves

Now that the hull halves are trued up drilled and tapped it was time to make it a full hull model!...I purchased the screws and a adhesive called "J-B Weld" from a local auto parts store...J-B Weld is a high strength epoxy that comes in two tubes, an epoxy resin and a hardener and when cured has a tensile strength of over 3000psi. I mixed up a batch of the adhesive and "buttered" the upper hull half with epoxy then added the lower half, I then installed the screws and snugged them down just enough to squeeze out a small bit of epoxy along the seam.







Dave

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"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."

Hi Dave

I follow your Wip

Luciano

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Best Regard from Italy
http://www.navymodeling.com/

Hi Dave.

I too will be following your build of CA-68. I really enjoyed viewing your last build. Keep the pictures coming. And you found another use for J-B Weld!

Good luck and enjoy!

Timm

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Timm Smith
Learn something new about the ship or your job every day. Ignorance is not bliss aboard a warship in wartime. Ignorance could cost the life of yourself, a shipmate, or the loss of the ship.
- Personal Information Booklet CV- 38

Dave...just a '44 YKM Baltimore, straight out of the box? You're not converting it into an as launched Pittsburgh or anything?????

**YAWN!**

Just kidding!!!!

Great idea on the planer....I actually just bought a 5/8" fortsner bit to give Ron Smith's method for removing the pour plug a try.

Do they make planer attachments for router tables, I wonder? I might have to visit the local Rockler and look into that.

Can't wait to see her take shape!

Bob

Hi Bob...No this build will be pretty much OOB...I will be needing to do some scratchbuilding to fix some inaccuracies and details that didn't mold to well.

I must have read Ron Smith's article about 1/2 dozen times and purchased a forstner bit also...but the pour plug on my model was so small I thought of my planer and shaved off just what was needed and no sanding!

Dave

_________________
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."

I love the wonderfully simple and creative things you pick up in this forums that always make me say "Why the #@*@!! didn't I think of that???" The plastic sheet insert to wash the hull parts, a planer to remove resin over pour. Again, WHY didn't I think of that?

Looking forward to this build. Already makes me want to get the USS Wichita down off of the shelf.

_________________
We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley

Hi all,

Update: Hull work

After joining the hull halves and letting the adhesive cure for a few hours, I filled in the screw counterbores with more J-B Weld and let the hull cure overnite.



After the hull cured I started sanding the hull seam...I first used my small palm sander with 220 grit paper to remove the molded on armor belt and most of the J-B Weld that oozed out of the seam and the screw counterbores.

After rough sanding the hull seam I started drilling holes for the brass lamp risers...the risers have a fine thread so a 1/4-28 twist tap was used to thread the holes for the risers.









The cured J-B Weld sanded pretty easily by hand after the majority was removed with the sander...next came hours of priming and wet sanding over two days to get the seam smooth...one important lesson I've learned when working with resin is how fast the material can be removed!...I had to build up some places with primer because I sanded low spots in the hull.





Dave

_________________
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."

Lots of work ahead. But for all that the start looks promising. Good Luck!

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www.uschivdr.com

Hi all!

Update: prop shafts and rudder

The kit's Long and Short struts didn't cast that well and I figured cleaning them up would've been as much work as building new ones so that's what I did...I used .095" styrene tubing and .020" sheet to make the struts and .050" brass rod for the shafts. I cut the tubing to the correct size then chucked them up in a drill and formed the tapers useing a sanding stick.



Next came the rudder...the kit rudder casted pretty bad with heavy pitting and thick flash plus the size is wrong compared to my drawing. Unable to find a photo of the ship's rudder, I had to assume the drawing is correct and made one to match.



From the start I planned to make a two pc rudder for a more realistic look when for some reason I decided to try adding a working hinge to the part...I drilled a small hole through both parts and inserted a pc of .020" brass rod for the hinge pin...now my solid resin hull has a functional rudder


A mock up of the shaft locations and the rudder.


Dave

_________________
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."

Great job Dave

Luciano

_________________
Best Regard from Italy
http://www.navymodeling.com/

Hi guys,

Update: The Hull

Now that the shafts and rudder are finished it's time to finish the hull...first I replaced the molded on armor belt with a strip of .020" sheet stock then started removing the molded on details which would've been to difficult to clean up...all deck hatches scraped off and were replaced with P/E...the bitts were made with .050"round rod and sheet stock....010" round rod was used to make the Hanger door tracks...finally I detailed the turret barbetts with .020" and .010" square and round rod and made the prop guards from .020" square rod.


The top photo is from Sean's ModelWarships review of the Baltimore showing how the kit hull looks...the bottom shows my reworked hull.



The detailed barbetts.



The new prop guards and Hanger door tracks.

After all the final painting was done it was time to add the bracing structures to the bow...I used a 1/350 scale pattern from my drawings to layout the placement of the braces which were made from.010" sheet stock.







The finished hull.




Dave

_________________
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."

Beautiful detail work as always Dave.





Bob Pink.