Steve's Models

[Otto Fuhrmann]

Those are absolutely fantastic. I bow to your skill with the brush.
I spent about an hour going through the entire thread looking at your photos and it was time well spent!

[Sailor Steve]

I thank you both for your kind comments.

[Sailor Steve]

Next project is another Austro-Hungarian Hansa Brandenburg C.I, this one representing the problem of the Austrians also not being able to synchronize the Schwarzlose gun. Their answer, like the Allies, was to mount it on the top wing.

[Sailor Steve]

It's been almost two weeks since I posted here, and it's been almost two weeks since I did any work on the new Hansa. I got the fuselage together, cut away part of the nose and grafted on a new one, and got the lower port wing sanded and the halves glued together, and then got busy with research for the '100 Years' thread, and haven't gotten back to it.

Then a friend turned me on to a site I had never heard of - War Times Journal, which is of course dedicated to all things World War 1. They used to make pewter ships in 1/3000 scale, which was smaller than I'm interested in. Now they are making ships in several scales, including 1/2400, which is the scale of all the ships I already have. The thing is that they are using a 3D printer and doing what they call Rapid Plastic Prototyping, which I gather means they don't even make the models until somebody orders them. This stuff is amazing! Better even than GHQ's metal models, and at 1/3 the price. Also there is no assembly required, because the printing process allows for undercut body parts and gun barrels. They even have the intake funnels I was talking about earlier.
http://www.wtj.com/store/

I ordered a pair of American Atlanta class cruisers from 1887, because two was all there were, and a pair of models of the ugly French turret ship Hoche, because it was rebuilt later and looked much different, and one model of the British cruiser Apollo, of which there were eight but I can't afford them yet. All are beautiful, highly detailed, accurate and yes, I'm excited.

Here are the models in clear plastic, as delivered...


...and primered and ready to add the masts. No other work is needed.

[Jimbuna]

Awesome considering the small scale

[Sailor Steve]

First up are the two American ships, the Atlanta class of 1887.


Boston is finished as she originally appeared when new - black hull, yellow ochre upperworks, full masts. I started to rig them, but got tired and wanted to get them done. What rigging is there is my hair.


Atlanta represents the ships as they looked near the end of their service lives - white overall with yellow ochre funnels and masts, the latter only being enough to carry wireless aerials. Also clear are how the two main 8" guns were offset, allowing one of the 6" guns to fire directly forward as well as to the side.

Starboard side view of both. I printed out a whole sheet of period flags I downloaded and resized. Unfortunately the white part prints as clear, so I may need to get some white decal paper and redo them.

[Jimbuna]

Amazing and at such a small scale

Gold Star for the innovative use of rigging material

Speak later on today mate

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

This stuff is amazing! Better even than GHQ's metal models, and at 1/3 the price. Also there is no assembly required, because the printing process allows for undercut body parts and gun barrels. They even have the intake funnels I was talking about earlier.
http://www.wtj.com/store/

I could almost afford some of those!

[Sailor Steve]

The 1890 French armored Turret/Barbette ship Hoche. I posted a photograph of this ship earlier to show how ugly some of these early French designs were. The models are one piece, with no assembly required. The gun barrels are a part of the ship, which is impossible to do with any standard molding techiques. I added the mast extensions and yards from .008 guitar string, the finest wire you can buy in short, workable lengths.


Hoche carried a pair 340mm (13.4") guns in single turrets fore and aft, and two 274mm (10.") guns in single open barbettes high on the sides. As a secondary battery she carried eighteen 138.6mm (5.5") guns in single mounts along the sides, plus an anti-torpedo boat battery of ten 47mm guns in casemates and open mounts, and another ten 37mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon. Further, she had a torpedo tube in the bow and two on each side.


Needless to say, Hoche was slow and top-heavy, and recieved a complete rebuild in 1898.


Starboard-side view.


And to show just how finely molded these models are (well, I suppose they're not molded at all, but printed)...

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

The 1890 French armored Turret/Barbette ship Hoche.

Here's another guy that does some interesting era ships or ships that never were http://www.shapeways.com/designer/squint181 mostly in 1/1800, but some in 1/2400 too.

[Sailor Steve]

Cool! Sometimes I like to say "I'm only interested in what was, not what might have been!" But in cases like the Lexington class battlecruisers or the Montana class battleships it's fun to find out how a fight might have gone with the Admiral (Hood) class battleships if all four had been finished, or the German 'H' class.

This looks like the same process with the same sort of detail. Thanks for the link.

[Sailor Steve]

Well, after more than a month off doing things like building ship models, research, reading, typing but mostly honing my musical skills, I finally got back to the Hansa. I had the fuselage together back then, but never took a picture. Now, after several days of sanding and filling, the lower wings are finally on.

[Sailor Steve]

Another two weeks have gone by, and I've been splitting my time between doing research for the '100 Years' thread and working on music. I finally sat down a couple of days ago and started sanding the tailplanes for the Hansa. The first two I did show some gap between the two halves of each piece, so I tried to avoid that this time. The easiest thing would have been to trace the outlines onto thing sheet plastic, mark the ribs and sand them down, which does give a very thin piece indeed. I wanted to see if I could get this one a little better so I spent a lot of time sanding the halves very thin, being as careful as I could not to overdo it and grind through them, which would have left me going to the alternate plan.

The tailplanes are finally on.

[Sailor Steve]

And after another week's delay the landing gear are mounted.

[Sailor Steve]

First primer coat, some more putty and sanding.