The Ship Model Forum

I�ve wanted to build a 1/350 scale model of the HMAS Canberra LHD-02 for some time now but have been sorely disappointed at the lack of commercially available kits, I�ve only found the 1/700 scale one by Orange Hobbies, so have decided to scratch build my own. I�m currently in the research and design stage as I try to pull together enough information to make a relatively accurate model and thought that other modellers would like to share the experience and follow my journey. My apologies that this is going to be a slow journey to begin with as it will be competing with my HMAS Melbourne build and me having to go to work to fund my hobby, and pay the mortgage, but I hope you will enjoy the initial journey through the design development.

In order to develop the shape of the frames I have imported a couple of images from the internet into Autocad, scaled them to the overall dimensions of the ship and drawing the basic features from that. This has given me three deck plans, the hull elevation, and the hull cross-section at midships to work with. Looking at photos and videos of the inside of the ship have highlighted some differences between as built and what is on the three deck floor plans so I have had to modified as best I can to reflect reality. In the end I should have a set of drawings that I can share with anyone else who wishes to build the ship. I hope you enjoy.

Source information.

CAD model.

Progress so far on the frame profiles. Still some work to do getting the bow end shaped properly. Much of this is going to be guess work.

I hate the bow of this ship .

The previous image looked so much better but unfortunately the actual LHD bow doesn't have those nice curves. It's pretty much slab sided everywhere above the waterline. The images I used to get the generate the deck plan profiles from don't match the hull profile at the deck elevation that the plans represent. For example the plan which appears to represent the floor of the well deck (just below waterline), a level at which when a line is extended to the bow should end in a nice vee, actually ends with a profile of the bow bulb which is much further below the waterline.

I suppose the upside is that the rest of the hull in cross-section is very simple .

It's official!
The keel has been laid

Well the longitudinal stiffener under the hanger deck at least anyway

I figure I can probably slowly chip away at Canberra when I'm waiting for things to dry on Melbourne

This may be a very slow build.............

Certainly a "Carrier" can well be constructed upside down due to the "Flat deck", in this case minus the bow ski jump. Every scale has it's benefits and challenges. 1:350 isn't as popular for scratch building though I think with the small items that can be produced by 3D printing it might become more so.

Enjoy your new project! Best regards: Tom

Thanks for the encouragement Tom

Dave, the deck is 1mm high impact poly styrene.

I was thinking of still using the 0.5mm Evergreen for the hull sides.

Even if it is laid over a balsa substrate? This is what I have done on the Melbourne and the hull is very sturdy. It's the damn decks where there wasn't as much support that have proved to be the problem (more from my building techniques than anything else!). And the galleries where the 0.5mm styrene has nothing behind as support. The one thing I have observed, and this is true for my Latina Artisan HMS Endeavor (wood) as much as it is for the Melbourne, is that at this scale with the bulkheads so far apart the hull planking/skin and decking don't have enough support to retain their shape. So with Melbourne I filled in the spaces in between the bulkheads with balsa and then covered with 0.5mm styrene sheet for the hull skin and that has worked fine. I'm thinking of doing the same with HMS Endeavor, that is to remove the hull planking, fill in all the voids between bulkheads with balsa or something, and then re-plank.

So I have been experimenting with 3D printing. I created solid images in CAD, exported to 3D slicing software, and then printing using HIPS filament. Dimensional accuracy is not the best but could be suitable as a base but lost of filling and sanding will be needed. The best part about using HIPS is that I can glue styrene sheet to it using the usual modelling glue. I may continue to try and build the rest of the ship using the same method or maybe 3D print frames only and then skin the ship in styrene sheet. Though I am leaning towards a full 3D print build just for the hell of it.