The Ship Model Forum

100% agree! This am I received an order from Shapeways (Steve's designs) and a small order from His personal web site, the Quality is hands down much better and so is the value in the Items He produces.

Thank you, everyone, for the very positive comments!

Yes, Model Monkey products printed in gray resin are designed and printed by me in my workshop using a "Form2" 3D-printer manufactured by FormLabs.

Model Monkey products printed in metal, white acrylic ("smooth fine detail") plastic and "white versatile" plastic are designed by me but printed by Shapeways in their factories in The Netherlands, or New York, or by Shapeways' third-party partners world-wide.

I do my best to keep prices reasonable despite the high cost of the printer itself, the mechanical alcohol bath, the UV light booth, photosensitive gray resin, and bunch of other consumables necessary to create the models. Hopefully, Model Monkey products help give your older, favorite kits, and less-expensive kits, new life and an accuracy boost, comparable to far more expensive kits.


Some celebrities have offered their support, too, so I thought I'd pass their remarks along to you.

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

Absolutely agree with Jon. The picture of the HORNET island above really was for me. It arrived this morning and I can say without a doubt it is a better product than the Shapeways identical product. I would say your view of the difference between the two suppliers for the same part designed by the same designer will come down to the scale. The striations in the Shapeways part are pretty much always the same size independent of scale. So they will be more annoying the smaller the scale of the part. In 1/350 they were annoying enough to me that sanding and smooting were required, often at the expense of details such as molded-on piping on the part. (Not sure how a sand blaster works all that well since it would seem to remove both high and low striations equally thus not changing anything.) Looking at the new parts which arrived today, there is no doubt in my mind that much, much less prep work will be required. With the caveat that the part is still inside its 'cage', I can say that there is almost no noticeable striation effect on the large, flat surfaces of the island which are visible where there is no cage. It looks like cast styrene in texture and smoothness. In fact, not every plastic part is perfect WRT mold lines or ejector pin marks. In short, at this scale this method of 3D printing is quite a step forward from what we (certainly I) were talking about in glowing terms just two or three years ago.
Well done and thanks, Steve.

_________________
Some people make you happy, then they leave.
Others make you happy when they leave. (apologies to Oscar Wilde if he ever said anything similar, of which there is some doubt . . .)

Thank you, John! Glad the islands and funnel got to you in good shape. They are huge!

For 1/700 scale aircraft carrier fans, here are some Essex class SCB islands in both Korean War-era straight-deck configuration and Vietnam War-era angled-deck configuration. Each island has unique detailing. There are differences.

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

Steve did a kick ass job on my CVA-62 Indy island.

Steve, just out of interest - are you still considering including the New Mexico class superstructures into your portfolio?
Thanks and keep up with the wonderful job!

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- David

Thanks, Mardis and David!

I regret that project has been canceled. As plastic New Mexico class kits have gone out of production, the demand for New Mexico class products evaporated.

Thanks for your patronage and encouragement!

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

And are they really shape/size different than trumpeter ones or is it "just" a better surface treatment (rivets and so on) ?

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! - David Glasgow Farragut

Salut!

Excellentes questions. Oui, les entonnoirs Hood en résine grise sont imprimés à partir du même motif 3D que ceux imprimés par Shapeways. La résine grise a des surfaces plus lisses.

L’entonnoir arrière du kit Trumpeter est légèrement plus petit que l’entonnoir avant. C'est une erreur avec le kit. Le véritable entonnoir arrière avait la même taille que le véritable entonnoir avant. Les entonnoirs imprimés en 3D ont la même taille.

Merci pour votre parrainage!
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Hi!

Great questions. Yes, the gray resin Hood funnels are printed from exactly the same 3D design as those printed by Shapeways. Gray resin has smoother surfaces.

The Trumpeter kit's aft funnel is slightly smaller than the forward funnel. This an error with the kit. The real aft funnel was the same size as the real forward funnel. The 3D-printed funnels are the same size.

Thanks for your patronage!

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

Ok thx !

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! - David Glasgow Farragut

You're very welcome!

For 1/700 scale Essex class fans, here's the island of USS Wasp CV-18 as it appeared from November, 1943 through December, 1944. It was with this configuration that Wasp participated in several Pacific battles including the invasion of Saipan and the Battle of the Philippine Sea, also remembered as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

For those building the Heller or Airfix 1/100 scale HMS Victory, here are 32-pounder and 24-pounder Blomefield long-pattern cannons for the lower two gun decks. They feature King George monograms. Two types of 12-pounders for the upper gun deck and spar deck are also available (images posted previously). The 24 pounders are not smaller 32-pounders. They are very different proportionally and have different reinforcement rings.

The cannons are followed by an Essex class enclosed electric stairway (escalator) in 1/700 scale. It is suitable for "straight-deck" Korean War-era and "angled-deck" Vietnam War-era ships.

Boxart: Scalemates.com

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

Good eye, David!

Lexington has a different venturi configuration, too.

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

Here are 1/700 scale islands for USS Yorktown CV-5 and USS Enterprise CV-6 as they appeared at Midway.

Photos are arranged with paired, similar views of each island to help make comparisons easier.

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

For Lexington class aircraft carrier fans, here are the island and funnel of USS Lexington CV-2 as they appeared in 1941 through very early 1942 (raids on New Guinea), both in 1/700 scale. Lexington featured 8"/55 cal. twin-gun turrets at that time. Battle of the Coral Sea-appearance designs are available separately.

For the modeler who only wants the island, a matching fighting top for the funnel is included.

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby

Nice to see my parts under construction.
I’ve been needing to use my old WEM Brewster Buffaloes.

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Our CO prior to flying to the boomer: “Our goals on this patrol is to shoot missiles and torpedoes.”
Junior Nuke Officer (me) : “Captain, don’t we really want to be like Monty Python and ‘Not be seen’?”
CO “You seem to be missing the big picture”
“Oh”

Lexington seems to have an extra set of flag bags on port also.

_________________
Our CO prior to flying to the boomer: “Our goals on this patrol is to shoot missiles and torpedoes.”
Junior Nuke Officer (me) : “Captain, don’t we really want to be like Monty Python and ‘Not be seen’?”
CO “You seem to be missing the big picture”
“Oh”

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

Complete catalog: - https://www.model-monkey.com/
Follow Model Monkey® on Facebook: - https://www.facebook.com/modelmonkeybookandhobby