ARL 12 USS Poseidon

[BB62vet]

Tom,

It appears that nothing is constant or static when building a ship model with few resources to go by - always turns out that there is "something more" than is found or needed to be added after the fact. However, this is one of the main reasons I like this hobby - research & development!!!

Hank

[Fliger747]

Hank:

The 3D methods allow more refinement of the bits and pieces. Also as our technique improves it allows upgrade though replacement of hand made items that took weeks to produce comes with an angst. I had recently run low of my favorite "Rapid Black" resin and ordered some more which arrived quite "rapidly". So when I got down to the limits in the vat I opened the package and looking down into the bottle, it looked like milk? The sent me the "model gray" which greatly lacks the sharpness of the RB. I though, well I used this stuff before so ran a print of the aft cable reel I recently mentioned and some triple blocks. The reel is OK and useable but not as sharp as I am now expecting but the blocks, which print with RB with holes at the top one can feed a fine thread through are all run together.

Harrumph! I am sure that this is probably better for some items that are expected to be smooth, perhaps better for railings? As to lifelines, painting pipe rails gray as with the superstructure. Other lifelines I am experimenting with gray stanchions and black cable. An interesting effect as the black cabling tends to disappear which is very much the visual effect desired. I have the main deck lifelines strung as the fwd end of the Gravity Davits. Past there there are several sets of supports for O1 level platforms that need to be constructed first. These break the lifelines into short sections, which for my individual stanchions and sprue cable method make things easier. Short bits of sprue are easier to handle than long ones. I will need to rig the fwd cargo booms as well before adding lifelines as working thread through all the blocks and whatnot would destroy any lifelines in place.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Current status stern area ARL 12.

[Fliger747]

Progress is in miniature bites! I added a set of deck binoculars and a pelorus to each bridge wing, rigged the winches for the A Frame derrick plus a few small deck vents. Getting time to construct and emplace the various supports for the deck overhangs. Yet another things to procrastinate on. Working stern to bow, which seems an adequate plan.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

The current experiment is using the stencil cutter to produce the various deck platform supports. Looks good so far using a heavy Strathmore paper which I have used before and has held up well for at least 6 decades. So far so good and easy enough to change if minor alterations are necessary.

Tom

[Fliger747]

Today progress. Added the supports for the O1 deck overhanging platforms. These were drafted in my 3D program as 2D .DXF files and cut out only stencil cutter from Strathmore heavy cardstock. I have seen one gentleman using a Circuit to cut styrene, but that's a little pricy for the sometimes several evolutions I go through, as well as being locally unobtainable. Well coated and sealed with CA or paint materials it is quite a good material with a long life.

The starboard LCVP is also hung if not secured. A lot of small winch and guying rigging also completed.

Tom

[Fliger747]

Snowmagedon appears to be starting finally, talk about a white Christmas! We are forecast to get maybe 3' or more of snow in the next few days. At some point in every project we get sidetracked, yesterday's deviation was design and print of a 3" 50 cal Mk20-23, complicated piece even compared to the Bofors. This is a side track as Poseidon never carried this piece, though some of the early ARL's and ARB's did, much in the way of early LST's. HNSA does have the manual for this weapon available on line, a great help in ferreting out what is what.

To my great irritation Amazon sent me Model Gray rather than my favored Rapid Black which holds much finer detail so I'll try again with an order, maybe after Jeff gets back from St Bart's. The MG does yield a smoother surface and is a little less brittle, can be sliced with a sharp blade and so forth.

With other irrelevancies, my stencil cutter will take 2D files from my 3D program, exported as .DXF files, but won't read .DXF files exported from some considerably more sophisticated professional CAD tools. The idea was to cut templates for a hull on the adhesive backed vinyl for the stations. Perhaps an idea to be followed up at a later date.

Ah paint mixing! Need to mix up some deck gray and still not remembering what went into it, there are a lot of blues to choose from. My previous effort form a number of years ago was a dead match for the Floquil Deck Blue and the S&S paint chip. Can one be lucky twice? Any suggestions on the secret ingredients in the Deck Grey are welcome.

Merry Christmas! Tom

[Fliger747]

3" 50 as used on many auxiliaries and smaller ships.

[BB62vet]

Tom,

Those look really good! I'll be doing a print run this afternoon, so we'll see how they turn out in R.B. resin @ 1/144 scale. Only substituted one bottom base ring from the version I had started after scaling down from 120.

Hank

[Fliger747]

Hank:

Good luck, as always with complex shapes, the supports are critical. Reduced to 1:144 the brackets holding the sights for pointer and trainer may be a little thin, but then you are using a different (better?) resin. Check out the HNSA manual for the 20 series mounts, I followed that pretty closely. Perhaps the seats need to be a little wider. With the RB resin they should print with the perforations as the ones on the Bofors did quite well.

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

This, as well as the previous scratch projects, have virtually no commercial model ship parts. To be extra stubborn I mix my own paints and ran out of Deck Blue, finally! If you remember those little trays of watercolors that one would use to mix colors, I experimented with much the same process with my selection of acrylics. I think I have a close match with a black base, about 25% white and 5% Phtalo Blue. This gives me enough information to start mixing a batch. Think (Bubble bubble toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble). Perhaps the real secret ingredients eye of newt and toe of frog? Make an existing swatch and next to it, on the same material paint on an area of the trial material, let it DRY. Compare under several types illumination. Measure reflectance with a spot meter and adjust the blue for color. The current experiment gave me a a basic idea of the proportions and whether these ingredients could "get there".

Tom

[dhenning]

Tom,
Fantastic work! Have enjoyed all of the posts and information that you have been sharing. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dave

[Fliger747]

Dave. If you do get going on your ARL project I�ll furnish whatever info I can. Best wishes for a better year for all! Tom

[mikegr]

Doing great, wish happy new year to all

[Fliger747]

Something that would have been know in any household with a nine year old present.... My computer was locking up when I would try to sweep an extended surface such as a racked fire hose. So, by iteration I found out that if you went just a ways, saved and then extended some more, you could do the whole thing! Dang grandkids, where are they when you need them!

Happy new year! Tom

[dhenning]

Thanks Tom! I don't have a 3D printer, but may ask for a few of your CAD drawings for some of the details. This build is in the back of the que for awhile for me. My dad passed away back in August, so I have decided to build some of the aircraft and missiles from his career in the Air Force and some of his cars while the memories are still fresh in my mind. Working on the old Revell/Renewal 1/32 Mace missile and Teracruzer right now. We have quite a family history with the Mace. My father went to Okinawa after my oldest sister was born, and when he returned our family all went to Lowry AFB for his Mace training and then to Orlando AFB for field training on the Mace (where my brother was born). After completing school, he went to Sembach AB W. Germany for service in the 38th Tactical Missile Wing. That's when I came into the picture!

Still enjoying your build and will be printing out a lot of these posts for future reference when I do get around to the Achilles.

Happy New Year!
Dave

[Fliger747]

Dave:

Sorry to hear of your Dad's passing, eventually most of us become orphans. My dad is limping along at (he'll be 97 in April). His mom lived to be 100. But his best quote is "Easy to get old, hard to be old".

Weather here is pretty boring compared to those places that have hurricanes and tornadoes, but we are having a bit of a snow storm. To get out and back had to navigate quite a bit of axel deep snow to get to the main road, which wasn't very good. Still snowing!

On the ship I placed a couple of small vents, painted up some racked fire hoses and am printing the tall vents on either side of the pilothouse. Not sure what they are for? They are right above the engine room and could be intakes or exhausts? Sphinx did not have these so no info on the drawings.

Best regards: Tom

[Fliger747]

A few small additions, the twin tall vents abeam the bridge and new sky lookouts. Not sure about the tall vents, engine exhaust? The sky lookouts based on the ones on USS Slater on her bridge wings. Binoculars look like std navy 7 x 50's.

Tom

[Fliger747]

Thank you David. On my Sphinx drawing they are vanishingly faint! One wouldn't know they were there except for the caption displayed in front of the flying bridge!

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Mine are the very large and mostly clear 1:96 ones from TFD.

Oh well!