USS Buchanan WIP updated 4-16-09

satisfaction wrote:

And finally a few pictures of the bow area, can't believe there is something like 16 parts on that bow area.

Be glad it's only 16 (so far) <G>

Chain and chain stoppers for the ground tackle.  The marker bouys for the anchors.  Som stray tool boxes for spare shackles and the like.  Lots of things wind up forward.

Speaking of, you seem to be missing the bullnose--unless it is molded to hull and not the decking.  (Bullnose is the term for the round chock right at the immediate fore end of the ship, it is round and on the centerline and aligned fore-and-aft).  The bullnose is where, often, the jackstaff is mounted.  But, you only need the jackstaff when moored, so it can be folded, or removed and stowed up forward with the rest of the gear (and become the exact sort of top hamper to go astray in a sea and vex the junior officer in charge of the Deck division).

Looks good so far.

satisfaction wrote:

Shots of semi finished superstructure parts.  I drilled out the portholes and left a few hatches open for some variety and "life".

Some construction comments

The thing which jumped to my eye was, in your second picture, the hatch on the open doorway looks to be applied crookedly.  This was even before expanding the photo for a closer look.

Then when I did that I saw the seam around the aft part of the deckhouse, and the drilled portholes which are mis-aligned.  

It really helps to pay attention to construction details.    You may want to tack the brass into place with white glue (Aleene's Tacky Glue from the craft store is great).   It allows you to reposition & refine the parts position before it dries.   Mistakes clean up with water.   When you're satisfied commit to CA.  

Address your seams before the brass is applied.   Some gap-filling CA will work here.  Not too much & sand as soon as it hardens. 

Use a pair of draftsman's dividers to establish the same vertical offset along a horizontal row, then run a piece of Dymo label tape as a straight-edge guide for drilling.

Some thoughts on your progress so far

Thanks for great tips.  Never thought of using white glue for brass, works for me!  The hatch is a little off and I'm correcting it.  The drilled porthole had two problems, both involving drill slipping.  Changed to hand drill and all others worked very well.  Your right on the seams, need to tackle those now.  Wasn't sure if they were actual weld lines or not.  Guess they are like the fuesalage top seam on planes; got to take em out.  Well based on these comments I'm off for some touch ups, sanding and porthole filling and redrilling.  Thanks again.

I'm very happy to see a WIP on this subject.  I can't wait to see more.

Also thought ships needed a WIP, hope this lives up to the billing.  Now a question.  Is there a good way to make "clear" windows for the portholes?  I'm thinking filling with white glue, or would this come out poorly?  Maybe future if I could get it to hold the surface tension.  Any ideas for this?

One of the disadvantages of such a huge scale - in 1/700 I just drill my portholes out with a No. 75 bit . On a serious note, I've used Testors Clear Parts cement with good success to make small windows of various shapes and sizes. I don't think Future would work because it's too thin - the Testors (or Microscale Krystal Klear) tends to stay where you put it.

Krystal Klear works the best for me. You can apply it to the inside egde of one porthole and it will stretch across the hole br dragging with your applicator, Whether it be a pin, toothpik or fine wire. 

satisfaction wrote:

Alright I'm building my first ship.  Based on feedback from these forums and other places I started with the Dragon 1/350 Buchanan. Shots of semi finished superstructure parts.  I drilled out the portholes and left a few hatches open for some variety and "life".

 

You picked a good kit to start with. But then I might be a bit biased. 

One thing that stands out to me is the bridge doors are mounted on the wrong sides. As a general rule ships doors are hinged on the bow side. This is done to keep waves from forcing them open and flooding the interior. 

Hey satisfaction , now see what you,ve done ! The pics now have necessitated a trip to my lhs for my own .. Now let,s see ,where did I put that map of austin ?? Did I say local hobby shop ? Oh , well it looks like mail order day again .  tankerbuilder

Good point on the doors.  Funny thing is they won't fit if they open towards the bow!  I actually test fit that to see, as my pictures had them opening the correct way.  There seems to be a fit issue with those particular pieces, might be me though.  Figuring my first ship, I'm not ready to go too far out on my own yet....I'm letting the plastic guide me.  Now for an update:  got those three parts fixed up a little and painted them in the modified 12 scheme (think that is right).  Looked really good........until I realized the colors were wrong.  My wife thought they were great, but I knew they were incorrect and couldn't stand doing the whole thing in incorrect colors.  The middle color (the darker greyish one) was too blue.  The blue will be perefect for the darker color, but it would be way too dark for the middle one.  So I'm in the process of stripping off the blue (windex, used acrylic paints) and repainting.  I'll get pictures up when it's done and done right.

Alright time for some more pics!  I've got part of the superstructure together and painted (correctly, or close to it).  My brush painting skills are still a little lacking (on my planes I'm all about the airbrush but just not practical for this scheme in this scale) so I got it on a little thick.  Also not real pleased with my early ship building skills, but I'm chalking it up to lessons learned for the rest of the build.  Biggest lesson so far:  In this scale you can't hide a damn thing!.  All sanding must be perfect, seams perfectly filled (or in many cases for me left as the seam looks better than my fill job) and minimal glue used.  Also watch the drill bit on portholes.  Anyway I'm planning on doing some weathering early on as each individual sub assembly seems much easier to handle, if I drop the nearly finished ship i'll jump off my balcony.  You'll see a few other smaller assemblies in the pics, unpainted.  Hopefully I'll apply some lessons when painting those.  Biggest one will be try several thin coats with the brush for the camo, just like i would with an airbrush.  One coat just makes it uneven and covers over detail.  And one question, what was the interior color of USN destroyer at this time Aug '42?  I'll paint the inside of the open hatches this color.

 Also turns out I got the pieces to fit the right way, so the hatches could have opened forward.....ohh well too late for any more surgery in that area.

satisfaction wrote:

And one question, what was the interior color of USN destroyer at this time Aug '42?  I'll paint the inside of the open hatches this color.

Before you get too wrapped around the axle,  the interior surfaces of hatches were painted such that they would blend with the surrounding surfaces when opened.   They were not painted interior white or mint green lest that be a glaring bright spot on an otherwise camouflaged ship.

See the two open hatches on the bridge of the Charles Ausburne in the photo below

US Naval History & Heritage Command via Hyperwar

Got mine after xmas with the full PE set, was going to wait till I got the 1/350 Enterprise done but i'm thinking otherwise after seeing your progress.

Check into the Tamiya crew set, though not as pretty as th dragon crew there are only a few dragon crew members to go around. Those hatches and compartments look nice when there are crew members at their stations :-)

Thanks for info on inside colors, should be easy enough now...just a little touch up.  Good idea on the figures, would help cover up areas that I want to obscure!!!

It IS a very good kit, and you arfe doing a very good job!  'Endeavour to persevere...'

...looking good...how much did you thin the paint for brushing...did you spray the base coat?

Im kinda new 2 ships so i was wondering how to make water for a diorama???

...well, first you drink a LOT of beer........

Check out acrylic Gel Medium

Also:
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38284
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37641
http://steelnavy.com/water.htm
http://steelnavy.com/WavePatterns.htm
http://steelnavy.com/Whitewater.htm

 

 

Thanks for your help.