1/700 USS Chicago CA-29 at Battle of Savo Island

[maxim]

Really impressive!

[Vladi]

Thank you

[Vladi]

I�VE GOT MAIL TODAY!

Just received 3D printed 1/700 Northampton-class 8in triple mounts from Micro Master. Perfect high detail 3D model together with stunning print quality. Note the bolts on turret sides. Last photo shows the original resin mount for comparison. The 3D print layers are vastly exaggerated in these macro photos, you can barely see them by a naked eye.

[ArizonaBB39]

Vladi, those look fantastic! Do you have a link to the sale page? I would like to purchase some as well.

[Vladi]

Not at this moment, Simon is working to launch his new website soon at https://micromaster.co.nz/. But I�ll send you his e-mail so that you can get in touch sooner if you�re in a hurry

[Vladi]

I have to do some repairs after a mishap last night when I accidentally dropped my build on the side. Fortunately only the foremast was affected and survived quite well losing only the yardarm, upper mast and some tiny parts. Also the fighting top needs some attention, but most of the rest is unaffected.
I am glad that I soldered the tripod so well!

[Vladi]

Spent most of the day today repairing the damage, it turned out to be more extensive than I first thought. I had to remove and redo all of the fighting top and about half of the triangular supports fell of while doing it. But I am now nearly ready to some airbrushing tomorrow, just need to sort out first the situation around the aft quad 1.1in gun tubs as discussed today in the CASF Northampton-class thread.

[ArizonaBB39]

Nooo! It's always frustrating when you work so hard on something and a little mistake damages it. Glad to hear you got it fixed up though, looking forward to the next update.

[taskforce48]

Awesome work so far, sorry to hear about the setback but you will have it back into shape in no time. Just posted a couple of images over in the CASF for ya'.

Matt

[Vladi]

Some more positive news today - I airbrushed the Chicago

I had some discussions with more knowledgeable people (Brett Morrow, Michael Brown, Randy Short and people from the FB Warship Camouflage Research Group) about how should her overall colour look like. Resources are kind of scarce about the colour, usually mentioning "Chicago Blue" that was mixed locally in Australia according to her original colour and used to paint Australian vessels starting from the Guadalcanal campaign to put them more in line with what most US Navy ships carried by then. The good question of course is what was Chicago�s original colour? Most people say 5-N Navy Blue in a rather faded state, as it faded quickly on sea. Another possibility that can�t be ruled out is that she still carried 5-S Sea Blue when she left Pearl Harbour at the end of January 1942, which would again be very faded as 5-S faded even faster than 5-N. Taking into account the war situation in early 1942 it is not much likely that USN ship paint components were being hauled to Australia so very likely even Chicago was painted with a locally mixed paint while in Australia and before leaving for Guadalcanal.

During the discussion I had with Michael Brown he kindly offered to send me a sample of the original Chicago Blue from Garden Island. There apparently was a lot of leftover paint after the war ended as Michael mentioned it was e.g. used to paint some sheds in the neighbourhood. I must say the sample really is a beautiful colour, much bluer than 5-N and even 5-S (compared to WEM Colourcoats). One can argue that this sample indeed corresponds to "Chicago Blue" at the end of WW2 and that it might have changed from the "original Chicago Blue". That may be right, too, but such arguments won�t paint my ship

In the end I decided to use Lifecolor 5-S Sea Blue that matches quite well to the Chicago Blue sample. It is a bit less blue but taking into account some scaling effect and weathering at a later stage I think it�s ok for the start.

I decided to spray the model overall with "Chicago Blue" and then handbrush 20-B Deck Blue where appropriate as masking all of the decks would be a nightmare (and I wanted to prevent further mishaps ). One of the few exceptions are the main triple gun mount and director tops that I sprayed Deck Blue. I will mask them and spray with Chicago Blue later to obtain hopefully a nice demarcation line between the two colours. I also sprayed the gun barrels with dark grey that I will later mask to mimmick the oiled parts where the barrels recoiled.

The detail of the sprayed gun mounts shows the print layers only barely visible even to the macro camera. With the layers of Future and matt varnish in the end I am sure they will disappear totally.

To be continued

[Dan K]

I have to do some repairs after a mishap last night when I accidentally dropped my build on the side.

Been there, done that. My sympathies, but it looks like you were able to effect the repair without issues. She really looks good, V.

[ArizonaBB39]

Beautiful! wow!

[Vladi]

Thank you very much!

I started handbrushing her horizontal surfaces 20-B Deck Blue while waiting for the sprayed coat to cure.

[taskforce48]

Fabulous work! Really puts my 1/350 to shame and it�s half the scale

Looking forward to seeing more!

Matt

[maxim]

Yes, really impressive!

[MartinJQuinn]

I started handbrushing her horizontal surfaces 20-B Deck Blue while waiting for the sprayed coat to cure.

She's a great looking ship and you are doing her proud. I love those turrets! If I ever get around to working on these kits (I have both Chicago and Houston in the stash), I'll have to pick those up.

[Vladi]

Thank you, Matt, Lars and Martin, for your support!

I had not much time to take photos today, but at least one of the 8in triple mounts now sprayed 5-S on their sides. The demarcation lines between 5-S and 20-B will need some touch-up, but the 3D printed mounts from Micro Master simply look great!

[ArizonaBB39]

Fantastic!

[Vladi]

Hi all,

thanks for your support as well as patience, hope you are all doing well. I have been quite busy in these coronavirus times but finally here are some little steps forward. I decided to try to do hull plating by pencil this time. I aimed not to overdo it, it looks quite good to me, but the question is what will remain after weathering. Let�s see.

I also worked on the 20mm Oerlikon cannons. These come from the brand new Shelf Oddity set, they are a real marvel, I never saw something similar in 1/700, actually I think this level of detail would stand out event in 1/350. Each of them consists of 5 parts, 2 of them are 3D printed and the rest is PE. I really love them!

I will continue on preparing the remaining small parts (incl. more Shelf Oddity stuff) so that I can spray them and move on to the weathering phase!

[maxim]

Interesting idea to depict the plating!

Each Oerlikon consists of 5 parts? Fortunately, Chicago had not that much at that time! They really look impressive!