The Ship Model Forum

Small progress today, added a six speaker "Boom Box" to the front of the04 level, same unit as used on the Island of WWII carriers. Again repairing rigging aft , standing and running that I destroyed in replacing some 20 mm ready boxes. Printed a few items, some MK 52 directors in 1:192 for Alaska currently printing some jumbo four sheave pulleys for the aft 50 ton boom.

Otherwise: All quiet on the western front....

Perhaps Pascal is a bad influence on me with his three projects going at once. So I am going back and adjusting some things on Alaska and Missouri, both in 1:192. For Alaska I printed the fore and aft MK52 tubs and directors and replaced the one's that I had. Added deck binoculars, sky lookouts and 12" searchlights as appropriate. Missouri got both new Mk 141 Harpoon launchers and armored box launchers and some inclined ladders that I was short of.

I printed a set of sheaves for the APA Jumbo boom, but they need one more sheave in there!

It's not unusual for me to overhaul items over the building life of a model. Real ships get new equipment, why not models. Missouri was originally built by me about 58 years ago in WWII configuration to a lesser standard. Perhaps 30 years ago I decided to completely rebuild it into it's current configuration. I mistakenly though without the clutter of light AA thins would be a clean and easy project...

You guys know better than that!

Cheers: Tom

It's never too late to improve old models, the motivation is more complicated to find.

The APA project is perhaps an extreme makeover. I originally built this as a motorized model in the early-mid 60's of an AKA. It sat in my parents attic for over 40 years. I eventually mailed the hulk to Alaska where it sat in my workshop for another year. I considered various projects for it, one being a CVE. However I finally decided on USS Randall APA224. I measured the dimensions to determine the scale (which I had forgotten) and found it was accurately scaled at 1:120, however for Randall it was too short! Talk about a decisive moment, placing the hull on the bandsaw and sawing the model in half so as to insert a plug. What surprised me about this ship was how accurately everything had to be located, if one was off even a small amount in placement, then there wouldn't be room somewhere else, the deck being so crowded. I believe the expression was "not enough room to swing a cat".

So I will be serious about finishing these if I ever build bases and cases!

Cheers: Tom

Small piddly progress! Doing various antennas, ECM, TBS and an anemometer amongst others. Mostly replacing some director tubs on Alaska (1:192) at the moment.

Haze gray and underway on my workshop floor. Many parts to add and rebuild. The fun is in the building!

Tom,

This is a very nice model - excellent work.

I see what you mean about there not being much free deck space!

Phil

Thanks Phil!

Imagine where the stuffed a Battalion of Marines and another six boats! There really wasn't' room for the "passengers" to stroll the decks much!

Cheers: Tom

Nice picture and Job! Tom.

You have to buy a blue carpet..

Fliger747 wrote:
Haze gray and underway on my workshop floor. Many parts to add and rebuild. The fun is in the building!

This is part of my 1:192 Alaska where I am in the process of going around and replacing items that I was not happy with, adding new light AA directors, some tubs and some rail on the upper levels of the fire control tower. In printing rail that snakes around corners etc, sort of fun.

So giving me some experimental satisfaction going through and replacing some parts in a "shipyard overhaul"

Tom

Pascal: It's the "Red Sea"...

Speaking of molten lava, my floor top computer that has my design app, photoshop and lots of other useful stuff completely melted down and can't even boot into Win 10. So that will slow me down a bit. I have a Win7 floor top that I am trying to set the 3D drafting software on, but not working so far.

After all, it IS (Clintonian emphasis) 2020.

Cheers: Tom

All�luia IMac!

I would never go back.

There is the Time machine for back up, very usefull, on Mac.

My Imac had a SSD hard drive. It's just used for the system, i had NAS Synology for the datas, 2 mirrored hard disks, very safe. Datas are the most important.

I have been developing Windows programs and installing PCs all my life for my company, I would never go back to Windows. I just kept a PC in a corner with W7 ( The best of the worth ) with everything I had done, a museum backup, it's turned off now.

Sorry for the off-topic Tom..

No worries gents! I am writing this on a Mac Book pro which is my go to laptop. I used to build all my floor tops but that's been a while. There are things that piss me off about the Win's, I liked seven the best. For a number of years I programmed the flight dynamics for MSFS virtual aircraft. I had an advantage in that I had actually flown a number of them. Photography is another lifelong pursuit and my large format Epson printer has much better drivers for windows than the MAC drivers which give much less control of the printing output. Apple has always pissed me off by their marketing and yes they are also vulnerable for viruses. On my Win 7 machine I had the last non lease Photoshop, which I lost when it finally crashed.

Enjoy the rest of 2020! Tom

Aft superstructure of Alaska, CB1 1:192. The current modification are the three director tubs and all the pipe rails, light AA directors, sky lookouts, deck binoculars, some vertical ladders and SG radar at the top of the mast. The basic structure is 1/16" plexiglas, the stack a plexiglas box sanded to shape. 26' motor whale boats carved from basswood.
For Alain who is doing his own APA in 1:350, showing the bulge on the bridge deck for the CIC and the extended walkway. Also note that the tubs around the 20 mm are open to the rest of the deck area.

Since this is a tertiary source (my model) I don't claim it to necessarily be accurate for the ship you are building!

Good luck! Tom

In the photo above one can compare two styles of pipe railing construction. The rail snaking around the bridge and CIC are is printed, note the corners. The deck below is constructed in a more traditional manner, brass wire inserted in holes in the deck (1/16" plexiglass) with a wire top rail and variously thread or fine piano wire for the intermediate rails. They look OK, but the issue is with the corners which can be difficult. Where printing shines is such items as circular rails on radar platforms etc.

Cheers: Tom

Ever since Wednesday my floor top computer has been dead, the operating system died, I think due to a power surge, though the hardware survived OK. Finally I was able to re-install last night and have my 3D program running again. "Frodoshop" still resides in the elfin world so still have to reload that. What does that have to do with modeling? Transmission and receipt of information, info being a one of the great advancements in modeling, fully enabling the field of rivet counting. In the "Got gammel dags" Out working on the hull with a plane and sandpaper, electricity was useful for lighting, but there were workarounds. Many years ago I did a model of DE Whitehurst in a small scale using no tools but an exacto knife, and a few bits of wire, sheet styrene, maybe an awl and a paintbrush. For rigging and lifelines I used a few strands of long hair from a girlfriend. A true minimalists model, no commercial parts. It's actually a sweet little vessel residing at the top of the display case in the hall.

Sometimes less is more.

I am enjoying exploring the world of 3D printing. It's not a total panacea but useful for many small repetitive parts. Previously I made a master and cast the buggers. Examples on the APA are the plethora of Carley Floats. I actually tried doing one via 3D printing, but some how they lack the life of the hand made and cast ones. I've made enough 20 mm Orlikons to be satisfied to use my 3D ones in the future. The 40 mm's on the APA, I'm happy enough with those, but perhaps I'll try 3D printing them for my next project. On Alaska I did replace some items such as Mk 51 directors and some director tubs. The odd shapes of some of those made them candidates for replacement. However I was surprised at how good many of the old school items were. An example, the complex dual 5" 38 practice loader, it's still pretty nice. The ability to add small items from 3D such as sky lookouts, deck binoculars, 12" searchlights. Even stokes litters printed surprisingly well in 1:192.

Cheers! Tom

Again off topic... I re did the Mk 37 directors for Alaska, which from a commercial purveyor were about 10% oversize. Not the final product I will install on Alaska, but getting there. Hank Strubb generously offered me the radars left over form hid NJ project. Mine here lacking the height finders so far, and perhaps more detail can be filled in on the framework.

Tom,

Looking good, my friend!! You're really getting the hang of this 3D design/printing.

Hank