The Ship Model Forum

Wanted to support my local hobby shop during Covid and needed a project I could get in and out of quickly and easily during online meetings that run long, etc.. Cruisers aren't generally my thing, but Salem's a fine looking ship. So, here we go....

Lots of tiny parts cut off and cleaned up during meetings - starting this one the opposite of how I usually do:



Engineering is generally executed well - note that there are two deck pieces, but that the joint is covered by one of the 3"/50 gun tubs (port side versus starboard)



So far my only complaint is regarding the two bridge level windows, which are molded in regular plastic. These would have been much better done in clear:



As it is I'm going to rebuild these from scratch.

Mk 37 and Mk 56 directors on order from Black Cat; the ones in the kit aren't bad but these are prominent enough I wanted to kick it up a notch.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Tracy,

Awesome to see your build coming along!

Keep the updates coming,

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

Tracy,

How do the twin 3-in/50 RFG mounts for this kit look?

They look decent. Not super detailed but not too plain. There's a picture I shot when I started that I forgot to add in my initial post - there's some big knocking pings on the bottom of the platform that gave me some work with a saw blade and sanding stick:



Maybe flush cutters would have been faster, but this was during a long meeting.....

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Little bit of an update after a local model club zoom hang out:



The stack is three pieces. Initially positive about the break down, I found the splitter vanes to be fiddly to get positioned correctly. Needed a bit of sanding and test fitting and sanding and test fitting and sanding and test fitting.....

The end result looks good though:



Just sanded and played with it until for and aft edges could fit more or less in between the two stack halves and I could close the two without needing to clamp or press. Once it's painted black any imperfections should be fairly hard to see.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Looks like a nice kit. Is the flag bridge molded as one piece?

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- Greg

The platforms are a single piece, including splinter/wind shields. The superstructure in between each level are each two halves. The front wind screens on each level are separate pieces. Fit has been pretty good, although the superstructure pieces on mine had a slight warp that needed to be worked around (i.e. glue the aft bulkhead first so it's true and then wait for it to dry before gluing the forward bulkhead). Fit has been tight and might be tight enough where paint could cause interference (planning on testing that this weekend).

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Nice! Look forward to seeing more progress. Then you can go back and finish (insert ship name here).

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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

Hopefully the LST.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Well, as things start to turn up I'm attending less video conferences that I am merely listening in, so I'm getting less done. That said, I had a good couple of sessions over the last week.

While the raised hull strake lines are better than the Trumpeter/Merit CV-5 Yorktown/CV-6 Enterprise strake pattern, I still wasn't happy with them and have been working to replace them. Simple enough, draw along the raised lines a couple of times with an XActo to make a recessed line, and then sand everything raised down (I'm leaving the armor belt(s) ). The goal is subtlety.

Doing so revealed one area on the stern where there was a touch of a depression. I've filled it in with black Mr. Surfacer here just to make it more apparent:



You can see faintly the lines that are left (and filled with sanding dust). I've got the hull about 80% done, just need to finish the starboard stern section aft of the armor belt.

I prefer to have something to drill into to mount the models firmly (plus they just feel a touch "better" with some heft) so yesterday I put in about 5-6mm of resin.... just enough to not have to worry about the prop shaft strut mounting holes:



I need to find a good piece of wood to mount it to before I drill the holes - going to try some places if I get out this week, otherwise I'll finish up the hull and start working on the midships AA tubs. I have some detail parts from Black Cat Models in the mail to wait for as well....

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Here's kind of "a" state of things. Bridge levels are off to ModelMonkey so that Steve can make some replacement bridge wind screens. Looking at the main deck and 3" gun tubs to plan things out for construction and painting:



Given the tolerances in today's kits my gut tells me that the tight fit of the inboard edges of the tub platforms to the superstructure when held in place indicates that paint will cause issues. Yet, if I clue everything first and then try and mask the deck for multi-colored planking there's going to be a lot of work in difficult masking and even paint application. Still thinking through options.

Also would like to point out that there are slight depressions (sink marks) on both sides of the super structure around where the cross-braces visible in the photo are. If you look closely you can see a bit of Mr. Surfacer there - one coating was enough. There is also a sink mark on the forward starboard funnel where there is an alignment pin. Also a single layer of Mr. Surfacer thick and easy to take care of the same time one is filling the seam between the two halves. These five plus the hull one mentioned above are the only I can remember seeing in all of the kit off the top of my head.

The 3" gun tubs are largely one piece, but there is a separate bulkhead piece for each underneath the tub itself. There were knocking pins on the backs of these on all cases that needed to be sanded down for a tight fit and two of the tub pieces had a small raised knocking pin on the underside that interfered very slightly with placement. All were pretty easy to fix - the two that had the obstruction on the bottom of the tub were too tight to work in a sanding stick or file, so I merely sanded the top joining surface at an angle so the front was the same height, but the hidden back had more clearance.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Dropping links to a couple of image galleries of the ship here for others as a reference:

ModellMarine.de Salem Gallery 1
ModellMarine.de Salem Gallery 2

*Edit* Updated URLs as per Maxim.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Nice repair on the bulkhead sinkholes, sir. I have quite a few of those to fix on my Hasegawa Hyuga (I'll be using Mr Dissolved Putty). What grit sanding medium are you using on those repairs for a final finish prior to painting? (I always worry about the scratches showing through the paint coating.)

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- Greg

Probably a 400 grit worn down to maybe 600 - once the primer and paint is on I'm not too worried that it's going to show.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Here's the sum total of sanding implements I've used on this build. Fairly standard tools I imagine. The files have only been used for clean up of the details like the Ml 37 and Mk 56 directors. The "heavy lifters" for the majority of the work has been the two larger pink sticks on the bottom. They all were from my local hobby shop, which has a plastic holder of these things from Stevens International in various grits. These are the ones I use most, which I think is 400-600. The coarser grits are more reserved for big shaping projects, such as the Merit CV-5 (plated) hull or any of the badly fitting Trumpeter hulls that need a ton of filler and re-shaping. For something like this I'm more likely to stick to medium grits or higher.

*EDIT* Don't forget the picture, dork!

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Small update - things ground to a halt last week as my drill bit set went missing and more importantly, when I went up to a friend to use the drill press I'm loaning him ti drill the wood base I FORGOT IT.

So, return trip this weekend - drill bits are still on an Escape & Evasion evolution but I was able to borrow his and I have one drilled ship and one drilled wood base:



Model Monkey has the bridge pieces to measure and make some replacement pieces, so it's not a bad time to have a slow down.

_________________
Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Any progress is still progress!

_________________
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

More progress - Search and Rescue was able to make contact and extract my drill bits from the garage so I was able to start in on the AA guns. My eye is critical towards things that don't line up, so quad 40mm mounts or galleries of 20mms with guns at different angles make me itch. My solution has been to build jigs for the different guns so that they all come out the same. Generally just some thick styrene with a hole drilled for the mount and then a vertical piece that I move around until it looks "right" for what I want.



The angle piece is both to stabilize but also for a convenient grabber for the tweezers for while I'm moving it around. The raised flat on the opposite side of the hole was a flat piece I pushed up against the mount base and glued in place so that all of the mounts are at the same angle and square.

In use:



One can use a saw blade or triangle file to make some grooves on the top for the barrels to rest but generally I've found I can position them well enough to not have to go this far.

_________________
Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Very nice Tracy!

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-Abram

smart.