The Ship Model Forum

Reigels,

I draw a horizontal line (porthole height) on the sanded and primed part with a draftsman's circle compass, the pivot point is extended to ride on the top of the deck house or hull. Vertical marks then show location of the portholes. For most holes I use a cheap drill press (<50$ Harbor freight). A square is clamped to the table and then the part is clamped to the square. The square is adjusted for the drill point to line up with the horizontal line). The part is then moved to get the hole locations. I get some deviation from runout (the drill rotates off center - use the shortest possible extension from the chuck) and wood grain, but better than I can do with eyeball and a pin vise (which is necessary for hull ends - the drilled surface is not perpendicular to the clamped face).

Cadman,

I have no choice, the ship is a mess of details. My problem is that I have to make all of them!

Jim

Plugging away.................slowly,

Jim

Done...........more or less.

Jim

Outside vs inside......I like inside.

There is an "incongruity" for anyone with a good eye.

Jim

Hi Guys,
Jim,
Even if you don't like Ms32-6a, I must say two things:
1) You are a very skilled modeler.
2) You get things done in short order.
Good.....no.....Great Job!
Tony

You Sir are a MASTER.

Wonderful work Jim

Thanks to all for the appreciation.

Tony, you understate my position. The port side of 32-6a makes me ill! The first time I saw a picture of Franklin's port side (page 15 of Essex Class Carriers in Action - referencing this book is becoming almost an admission of vile behavior), my reaction was a violent yuck!! Check out the Sara's camo, wild but interesting and a ship that has more "history" (age) and looks more like a CVN (at least the starboard side below the flight deck).

Jim

Bery impressive build. Great .

Jim,

an outstanding work! Great job. I hope we will see some detailshots in the gallery soon.

Regards
Torben

Absolutely great Work! Turning some wooden chumps into a sharp Model is a modeling class of its own.
Excellent Sir! Gratulations!

Really outstanding.

Really impressive builds. Great Work!

Time for some "K"s, specifically K-75 Cassiopeia and K-117 Zaurak. Both ships were present at Leyte Gulf. These ships were in the USN Crater class of cargo ships and have been built from the Trumpeter 1/350 Jeremiah O'Brien with Tom's PE. It was fun to do some plastic kits with minor modifications after two "involved" projects.

Cassiopeia entered the Navy in the winter of 1942 and according to a history written by crew member David Friedrich was repainted "gray" in the South Pacific. I tried to portray the "trampiness" of a liberty ship that was in the Pacific for almost two years.

Zaurak entered service in the spring of 1944 and the goal here was to be clean and 100% NAVY.

Jim

I like comparisons and the T-3 has not yet been put away. I thought some shots of both types would be interesting. Most of the T-2, C-2 and C-3 hulls that I will do in the future are between these ships in size.

Type..............LOA...............Beam..............Displacement.............Speed

EC2-S-C1........442...............57..................11,570......................12

T3-S2-A1........553...............75..................24,800......................18

Jim

The next project is a conversion of the Dragon 1/350 DD-484 to DMS-22. I started off on the wrong foot, purchased the 1942 Buchanan when it came out. Some months later Dragon released the 1945 Buchanan, which will yield a much easier modification. If anyone is interested in a list of modifications required, I have posted one on Calling all ships/Destroyers/Benson-Gleaves/page 25. Link is here..
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=24483&start=360

The first few photos show the mods roughed out.

Jim

The DMS is done. This was one of those builds that just seemed a little off kilter..why is a puzzle.

Jim

The Gleaves conversion joins the flushdeck DMS's already done.

When I did the flushdeck DMS's I fell in love with the ships and took the APD out of the stash and completed it.

Some of the pre-invasion "slow element", OBB, DE, DMS and APD.

Jim

You Sir are a great builder.

Jim, in that third photo in your last post. Is the BB under the MS21 NM class on the right hand side Maryland? Did you use the ISW pre-ww2 Maryland kit and convert it? I'm interested in doing Colorado and would like to know more about how you did it.