Aircraft Carrier GB 2016

Still here too.  I just had a hard time with getting the flight deck to fit on the Enterprise. Had a misalignment that really gave me heck.  Funny, I built the Tamiya Hornet many years ago and it just fell together, but this Enterprise is a whole different animal.  It has me questioning Tamiya's recent quality.  But its on, now I can start working on this island. I am still amazed on how fine the detail is on this 3D printed part.  

An update,

I started painting the 3D printed island.  Although I polished the part per the instructions with a soft bristled brush, and used acrylics, the finish did not look good, so I stripped it, gave it a coat of latex primer, letting it set for 24 hours, and trying it again.  

That is the one problem with 3D printing, the materials are thermal sets so there is a lot of outgassing, so its hard to get paint to adhere without special preparation. 

Something I didn't know, scott.  Hope you get good results.

Here is the primed Island.  I removed the observation tower to make it easier to clean up the printing dross, then applied the primer.  It looks better so far.  I will let it set over night to allow the CA I used to attach to tower to outgas.  Its still grainy but I really do not want to push it any more without causing more harm.  Maybe next time I can do a better job now I am getting the hang of working in this type of medium.  

Looking very good!  I used some 3-D printed weapons on Yorktown and noticed little ridge-lines running through them.  The parts were small enough, I didn't bother to clean them up, so the grain isn't noticeable.

Is that a sprue sticking up right in the middle of the funnel?

Also have been putting on all the railings and details on the hull and around the flight deck.  I tried putting railings on then painting and kept having to go back many times to touch up, so now I pre-painted all the PE. The problem is now the PE practically dissapears into the colors of the hull.  Even with the light and magnification, this is a challange of my sanity.  I also do not know if I have the forward LSO platform in the correct location, both my instructions and reference books are pretty vague.  For now, everything is tacked on, then once dry, I will go back with the tweezers and magnifier to start aligning the really fine parts.

checkmateking02

Looking very good!  I used some 3-D printed weapons on Yorktown and noticed little ridge-lines running through them.  The parts were small enough, I didn't bother to clean them up, so the grain isn't noticeable.

Is that a sprue sticking up right in the middle of the funnel?

 

Yup, works great.  Steve Larson, who I understand did the design, has followed the actual pattern of the exhaust trunks that are to the plan of the actual ship.  I did cut out one of the trunks that started at a 45 degree angle so my sprue stand would fit nice and secure while I sand, paint, and add the details to the island.  

Well, it's a nice looking island, and appears to be far more accurate than the one that comes with the kit.  It's going to look good in place.

Excellent! Looking forward to it. I still need to add more clearcoat to my deck before I decal it. Gonna try that this week.

I little update.  I repainted the island early yesterday morning with the final topcoat and then stuck it under a UV light and it seemed to cure a little better.  Then I re-read the suggestions on the Shapeways site and found that it instructed that the part should have been UV cured prior to painting,  oops! so I may have resin outgassing for the life of the part.  Oh well, I'm letting it sit for a few days to see if there will be any lifting or bubbling of the paint, and then lets hope it takes the adhesive when I put on the PE railings. If it doesn't seem to accept the paint, I will have to order a new island and start over. If it does, then I think I can carefully detail it out with the PE.  

Geez, now I know why I quite building 1/700 scale ships. 

I haven't had a UV light since the days of black-light wall posters in the '80's! 

Maybe it's just Shapeways products.  I had 20mm's and life rafts from Free Time Hobbies in 3-D that I used on Yorktown, and the packaging didn't say anything about using UV light on them.

Hope it works out!

I had a band rerhersal last night but did look in on my part this morning and it looks like it will be fine.

For having to do a UV cure, it depends on the process in which the part was printed.   Shapeways uses a really fine SLA process that is much more then what we do with off the shelf 3D printers. The island was made using a film desolve so that they don't have to use support rafting, which gets really messy and a pain to remove, and then for the fine detail, they use a thermal wax resin as filler so you get really good definition.  The resin is what needs to be cured.  They do cure it after the part has been made but sometimes it will require an extra cure.  They say put it in sunlight for a few hours. You also need to give the parts a good cleaning with something like Simple Green to remove the wax and any agents from the film desolve.  Once all that is done, then painting should not be a problem.

But typical me, I bypassed taking the time to read the fine print on prepping the part for painting.  DUH!

Thanks for the education, scott.  I had no idea how the process works.  More involved than I would have ever thought.

I am also working on the Enterprise today. Got about all the deck PE on and wil be starting the detail the island.  I find that PhotoBucket is all screwed up again, so I cannot post pics.  I find I end up spending modeling time messing with PB and its not worth it.  Maybe get some pics up in a week.

Scott

Worked on the railings on the island until late last night.  A lot of compound curves.  I felt like I was doing bypass surgery.  Woke up this morning and my eyes are still bugging me.  Also to find a number of railings are still not strait.  The problem is that the Tom's Modelworks PE is silver, so it blends right into the blue color of the model, and is a buggar to see, even with a lighted optical magnifyer.  I wish it was brass.   I am thinking of painting my PE a bright yellow and maybe that will help.  

Normally, I would have not painted anything until all the details were installed,  but this was an experiment in putting paint on the new Shapeways island and not trusting that it  was fully cured or how the brand of paint I was using would react to the resin, and didn't want to risk having to strip paint with all the details installed.  

I feel your pain Scott. One of the reasons I don't do P/E railings. I just build OOB.

I started the deck decals on my Russian carrier but then realized that I don't have a particular yellow stripe painted. I gotta get that done before I can move on.

Stay tuned, pics forthcoming.

I hear ya Duke, I keep saying the next 1/700 ship I build is going to be OOB.  

I'm on the home stretch with the island and am about to start the radars.  Also applied the flight deck decals over the weekend, all those little yellow dashes, without much problem.  I was afraid of silvering against the blue stained deck, but with a few light coats of Future and lots of decal setting solution, they went on with very little evidence showing that these are decals.

I hope to get pictures added of this progress.  

Sounds good. I started the decals on my Baku as well. Man, they didn't give me any long runs of decals; everything is broken up into smaller parts! Not only that but I had to stop and paint a yellow strip I'd forgotten to paint before. Slowly making progress.

Pics forthcoming.

I have been out for awhile, had a minor surgury, some teeth pulled, then a bout with the crud, but I'm back working on the Enterprise.  Here are the latest shots of where I am at.  I am now ready to start the radars.  The island is not secured to the hull yet.  

Wow Raider,

Quite a job on that kit. Would love to see more pictures.  

I wish I had some progress, but have been sick and then Spring yard work started taking up my free time.

Scott

Brilliant job and congrats for finishing this. That looks fantastic!

Nice work, raider.  I like the figures on board.  Well done!

Started work on the Enterprise this morning by adding the gun tubs on the deck only to find out, well, remember that this was a Hornet kit that somehow was put into an Enterprise box, so there is no gun tub aft of the island in the kit.  So, looks like some 1/4 copper tube and a little styrene  is needed to make a tub.

Also found in my stash a plate of 1/700 ships doors and window frames.  Man, these will look great on the island, so more work ahead.  

Still having problems taking and posting pictures.  But hope to add more soon. In fact, I hope to get this project finished soon.  I think it is coming along pretty good.  My eyes and patience is tried with PE in 1/700 scale.  

Scott

I got PB working and here is the update on the island.  I am not happy about the grainy texture of paint finish, but that was a learning curve I paid with trying the resin island.  Its amazing what a picture will tell.  I did not see, even through my magnifyer, how bent out of shape the radar is, so its back under the scope straitening it out and also most of the railings.