Model Monkey Sneak Peeks

[Mgunns]

Okay, let's see if this works. First time I've tried this.

PennScan1-7-16.jpg

I highly recommend this book. Many photos that I've never seen anywhere else.

- Sean F.

This is a great shot of the main mast and amidship details of the Pennsylvania in 1941. I notice that the antenna separator and the "Triangle" antenna coming off the forward main top is missing whereas it is present on the Arizona. The presence of life rafts between the 5" 25's is noteworthy and compliments the forward view of the Pennsylvania in dry dock with lift rafts present between the guns as well. I have to get this book.

Thanks for posting. Another piece of the puzzle.

[ModelMonkey]

Here is the design for USS Pennsylvania BB-38 , 1941-42 Cranes at 95% complete.

More detailing to come including a LOT more rivets. Those cranes had tons of them, literally!

[Mgunns]

Looking forward to those Steve:

Take your time, no rush.

[ArizonaBB39]

[gjholmes77]

ModelMonkey: That crane looks pretty incredible! You have me seriously considering a Pennsylvania now!

Keep up the great work!

~Greg

[scratchshipbuilder]

Glad I don't have time to build mine for awhile yet. Two Dragon Arizonas. Bot with 3Dmodelarts fighting tops, one with all ModelMonkey Arizona parts except turrets, one with all ModelMonkey Pennsylvania parts except turrets. They should be accurate and nice now, who knows with all the Accurizing detail parts to come.

[Brian K.]

Do you think Pennsylvania cranes might be the same type as Nevada and Oklahoma, check out Friedman's US Battleships design history pages 185 and 202 they look real close to me. Now how about those aft AA tubs for PA and some B and C turrets for Nevada and Oklahoma!

[ModelMonkey]

Thanks, guys!

Hi Brian!
No, Nevada and Oklahoma had similar cranes but they aren't the same, even between ships. The king post has different structures on them.

The girders from the tops of the king posts to the booms are not connected by diagonal L-shaped members, rather they are joined laterally by a continuous plate on top and bottom. Those plates have oval lightening openings and can be seen when viewed from above or below in photos. The girders extend outward and upward (Pennsy's extend horizontally) and meet the booms at different locations. On Nevada, the girders rise at an angle to meet the booms at the knee. On Oklahoma, they rise to meet the booms below the knee.

Perhaps the Navy was never entirely satisfied with the design of these cranes since there seems to be a unique crane design for each ship, all "variations on a theme". Unfortunately, for 3D printing purposes, this means that an entirely new design must be made for each ship. The Pennsylvania design, with incredibly detailed high-res photos in hand, has taken over 100 hours to produce and it's not quite done yet. Today, I hope.

Regarding the Nevada twin 14" turrets, I do receive requests for those from time-to-time. After some reconsideration, they are now in the queue, but have to come after some other designs that are likely to sell better in order to keep the business growing. What's selling best right now are more accurate parts for existing plastic kits. Once the business is mature enough (hopefully later this year), I intend to design a superstructure in 1/700, 1/426 and 1/350 for a pre-war Oklahoma. Very good 2D drawings are in hand for that project. It will be available in 1/200 scale as well to compliment a large card model of the ship in that scale. Perhaps the Oklahoma design can be easily modified to produce a Nevada superstructure, too.

Good 2D drawings are in hand for projects for this year. They include:
- replacement bridge parts with open windows for Merit's 1/350 Intrepid CV-11 and other parts to build Yorktown, Lexington, Hornet, etc.
- torpedo tubes for PT boats (think 1/72 Revell, and others)
- Sara and Lex funnels
- large scale quintuple and quadruple torpedo mounts for DDs (not 1/700 as 3DModelparts has those) - "Blue Devil Destroyer" fans will certainly be happy
- large scale Bofors and Oerlikons (1/200 and larger)
- islands for Yorktown CV-5 class (e.g. convert your Merit Enterprise or Yorktown to Hornet, or accurize your Revell "Midway Carrier" and 1/700 kits)
- modernized islands for Essex CV-9 class (convert your straight deck Essex kits to their 1955-ish appearance - keep the straight deck)
- hangar deck goodies for Essex class kits (overheads, detailed bulkheads, etc.)
- and more

[Brian K.]

Thanks for the crane lesson Steve very informative and that 2nd picture of Nevada at Pearl, I've never seen that one before. I look forward to the PA cranes and thanks for doing the Nevada and Oklahoma twin gun turrets, my 1/700 Blue Ridge 41 Nevada and Oklahoma are DYING for them. Your Arizona turrets work great for the A and D triple mounts, Your Oklahoma superstructure are you going for 1941 or earlier? Also just wanted to say thanks for bringing out so many things I've wanted for a long time, I've bought almost every 1/700 item you've brought out! I Love building 1940-41 era USN and you and 3D Model Parts have made a lot of my dreams come true, now if only someone would do the rest of the Battleline in plastic and some treaty cruisers..

[ModelMonkey]

Thanks, Brian!

Thanks again for the patronage and encouragement!

[MartinJQuinn]

- Sara and Lex funnels

Woo-hoo!

[ModelMonkey]

Thanks, Martin!

Riveting the Pennsy cranes is almost done. Amen.

[MatthewB]

Could you post an image of the base of that, please?

Also, why 3D print the crane arm?

Would not it be easier to use one of the PE BB cranes available, or are they all too different?

MB

[Cliffy B]

Hey Steve, any chance of getting US Navy Mk-68 Gun directors made? I could use a pant load in 1/700 and I'm sure some of the other guys could as well in 1/350. Only 1/700 I know of is in the Dragon/Skywave DDG-2 kit and there's only one. Can't find one in any aftermarket sets at all. Don't know if they'd be too small to print or not though.



BTW, those cranes are looking great! When I get around to my Pennsy build I'll have to add in all of these gems. Hopefully by that point you'll have made everything and I won't be missing anything

[ModelMonkey]

Could you post an image of the base of that, please?

Also, why 3D print the crane arm?

Would not it be easier to use one of the PE BB cranes available, or are they all too different?

MB

Here you go, Matt!

Also, why 3D print the crane arm?

Would not it be easier to use one of the PE BB cranes available, or are they all too different?

MB

Not only are the cranes different between classes (including the boom), they are often different between ships of the same class. And to make matters even more complicated, the portside crane is different from the starboard side crane. Yep, significant parts of them, but not the whole crane, are left-handed and right-handed.

The drawings above are for the starboard crane.

Upon studying Pennsy's cranes closely, it became clear that the king post remained stationary and the boom and turntable (the big round structure midway up the kingpost) rotated around it. The portside crane's kingpost and turntable mirror the starboard side king post and turntable.

But the booms and equipment platforms are identical - they are NOT "handed". That means for this design, there will be major sections the modeler will have to assemble so that the port and starboard kingposts and turntables are correctly "handed" while the booms with their equipment platforms are not.

This is important so the modeler can position the booms to any realistic angle around the clock. That's what I am working out now.

Despite the simplistic look of the crane design, it was actually extremely complicated to research and draw and was a very time-consuming affair. All of those rivets made my hair hurt.

Hey Steve, any chance of getting US Navy Mk-68 Gun directors made? I could use a pant load in 1/700 and I'm sure some of the other guys could as well in 1/350. Only 1/700 I know of is in the Dragon/Skywave DDG-2 kit and there's only one. Can't find one in any aftermarket sets at all. Don't know if they'd be too small to print or not though.

Just need good 2D drawings. I am certain, though, that the supporting structure for the dish is not 3D-printable in 1/700 or 1/350 by Shapeways, unfortunately. 3DModelparts may be able to do it since Carl uses a different technology. I recommend contacting him for 1/700 and 1/350.

[BB62vet]

Steve,

Your PA crane is really looking good! I will be buying a set as well as the PA stack in 1:200 once all are in production and available, etc. You are really doing a commendable job on these parts. Keep up the super work!

Hank

p.s. - I finished the 10th 5" mount for NEW JERSEY last night and will move on to hull modification work next week. The mounts turned out really nice! (all your Shapeways products, of course!)

[scratchshipbuilder]

Sweet. In the last 60 days I acquired a a midship models Nevada to go with my unbuildt Classic Warships Oklahoma. Looks like I'll need a part time job for 3D parts

[ArizonaBB39]

The cranes look great Steve. How well will they turn out in 1/700? I'll need a pair for my conversion.

[biggles2]

May I assume that 1/700 Arizona cranes will be forthcoming? I have a very nice PE set for them, but I'm getting lazy...

[ModelMonkey]

The cranes look great Steve. How well will they turn out in 1/700? I'll need a pair for my conversion.

Thanks, Abram!

The design you see here is now complete for 1/200 and 1/350. The final CAD *.stl file size for two complete cranes is a whopping 588mb. Really! But I regret that what you see here is intended for 1/200 and is not suitable for printing in 1/700. The features are too fine. A slightly different design will be used for 1/700. It will be ready soon.

Here's why: once a design is complete, the design has to be prepared for printing. If the file size is too big for Shapeways, like this one, the design has to broken down into parts (separate files each < 64 mb) that can be 3D printed separately. This is because the maximum file size that can be uploaded to Shapeways is 64 mb, (1 million polygons).

The file size can't be determined until the design is nearly complete. When this one came in at 588 mb, work had to be done to break the model down into sections that are logical for the modeler and printable by the printer. They are then, unfortunately, offered for sale separately. In an ideal world, both cranes would be offered together, fully assembled but still rotatable by the modeler. This one is offered in parts, yet can be fully rotatable if so desired.

When rescaled to 1/350, the file size was significantly smaller but it still required a considerable redesign to make it printable because some of the features were too thin to print in 1/350. The redesign for rescaling to 1/350 took 10 hours.

A further redesign is required for 1/700. I hope to have that done shortly.

I wish that this design could be made once then simply rescaled. Some can, easily. But this is not one of the designs that can, unfortunately. The more features an object has, the more that have to be thickened, one feature at a time, for printing in smaller scales. The rivets made that effort very difficult and pushed the software hard. I have nearly 200 hours into this project (research + design) and it's still not ready for 1/700. Soon, though.

May I assume that 1/700 Arizona cranes will be forthcoming? I have a very nice PE set for them, but I'm getting lazy...

I'm going to pass on Arizona cranes for now. From a business perspective, the Pennsylvania cranes were too labor-intensive and PE already exists for AZ cranes.

Sales for new products tend to drop off after a few weeks so I need to move on to other less-intensive projects now in order to keep the business going.