I'd probably paint the turret sides hull color. Shading and optical illusion make a diffrence.

For instance

This famous picture of the Scharnhorst. It was never painted in spinter. If you look close you'll see a destroyer moored along side her appearing like she wore splinter camo for a short time.

Steve,

If a Tamiya 1/35 PBR counts as a “ship” and not a boat and it’s still open for a new contributor... then count me in please and thank you.

Steve

Steve, a Chris-Craft will work for the GB. I'll put you down.

modelcrazy

Steve, a Chris-Craft will work for the GB. I'll put you down.

 

Darn, I know should have picked up that Chris-Craft on evilBay! Oh well, I'll do the PBR then... and maybe a Dragon 1/35 LSSC. Maybe.

Thanks! 

Steve

More baby steps... in this case, I corrected the pealed AK paint on the hull, added the water line, and glued the paper thin wooded deck to all three levels. Initially I bought a cheap deck from China, but it would not work with the Eduard PE modifications. I found a company called "Scaledecks". They make a far superior deck for most model ships (but they are not cheap). 

The gel glue was applied to the models surface with a brush to avoid slop on the finished parts and to ensure even coverage without spillage onto the deck. I also found that it is critical to make sure it is entirely flat and with no tension on any angle of the wood deck as it would want to pull up from the adheasive with the slightest pressure. I bought several different adheasives but decided on the "Locktite" brand of supergule gel as it was rated for this kind of work, was completely clear, and had a 5 minute setting time which allowed me to work it into the various tight positions needed and has a 30 minute dry time. I hope it does not pull up, my fingers crossed.

Overall, I really like the realism of this deck compared to the cheaper styles. Most of them look like one grain of wood with veins crossing into each of the laser cuts. Also the laser cuts on the cheap ones are way out of scale. This product is paper thin with a very thin felt backing (it had no self stick adheasive like the other brands). Each individual plank of wood in this one is individually colored too which really brings the deck into a new level of realism (IMHO).







You can see in the last photo the wash and dry brush to the deck wench and stairs. I will have to dull coat the front chain area as the "Locktite" leaked a little onto it when gluing down. Even though I wiped it off, the shine remained. There are some areas which need touched up but overall I am happy this part is over and looking forward to building her up. 

Ben

She really look excellent Ben

She does indeed!

Thanks GM and Steve...

Here are some pictures of the turrets, less the wear and fade...

Still much more to do on them, but I thought a sneak peak wouldn't hurt.

Ben

Ben that's looking awesome!

 I had the same idea as you - lots of painting to come this weekend. Here's a teaser, 4 gross of figures haha only 2 sailors lost their heads prepping for paint 

i also worked on some rust and weathering 

Awesome work guys. I like the new turrets Ben.

Chris, nice weathering. Yeah, guys. I finally got the IJN guys from Northstar. Half with broken feet . Oh well, with all the pilots I'll need, those guys can go to the middle of the crowd. At least the guys for the NC look good. 

It's ASSEMBLY TIME! Finished up all the little painting and weathering today. Final flat coat is on everything. 
The last thing I decided to do was paint the screwtops. The Trumpy marking are generic so I grabbed a pic and printed it on the silhouette. 

Dark Navy sea blue

and finally flat...barely any room here but this round was successful 

I did breal one small piece off on this one though. Easy to redo but geez this thing is awkward to move around.

Tha Hawkeyes look superb!

Nice work on the deck Ben.  

Mongoose, the Hawkweys do look quite fine.

Me, I'm building a flea scale SK3 Air Search Radar.  

Excellent Scott! Who makes that PE set?

Hi,

Can I join this group build.  I recently bought a 1/350 scale waterline FFG(X) off Shapeways and just started priming it tonight.

I feel a little awkward calling it a "build" since so much of it is all printed as 1 piece, but at least there arre some small details like the main gun barels, some small calibre guns, railings, helicopter and helo nets, and rigging that can be addded (in addition to painting and decals/markings).

Since I'm nt aware of an aftermarket sets for some of these details, I think I may steal some of the parts from a low cost model of Trumpeter's USS Freedom that I bought (which seems to be a bit incorrect i some details for that ship).

With regards to my Shapeways purchase, while its nice that alot of the details came pre-printed onto the mai hull, and look relatively accurate.  But I kind of think it may have been better if some of the details were printed separately, to make it easier for you to clean them up, detail them and work around them in some areas.

Overall the print looks really sharp and the texture of the decks "as-is" looks like a reasonable approximation of "non-skid".  However, I think I might need to play around a little with some of the vertical and sloped surfaces to try an smooth them out a bit. 

Additionally as I was priming the model, it looked to me like it might have started to take on just a little bit of warping, with the bow and stern "rising up" just a bit.  Since the print material is acutally very thin, I'm not sure if this may be due to drying or aging of the material over time, and I wonder if I should have primed the hull sooner.  In the end, since the hull is hollow, I ended up priming both the outside and inside of it with Mr Surfcer 1500.

Pat

Pat that looks pretty unique! Sounds like some miscellaneous PE, like rails and doors and such, is in your future lol. You'll have to take a few close ups so we can see what the details look like. The black primer did kinda make it go into a shadow. I can't add anything to your questions unfortunately as I've never worked on some5ing like that but I'm sure someone will pipe in with some help. Keep the updates coming!

modelcrazy

Excellent Scott! Who makes that PE set?

 

It came with the Acedemy kit.  Its pretty nice, but its like trying to assemble a small spider. 

KUDOS guys!!! 

I missed a lot when I was locked out of the forums and went on vacation/holiday so a big AWESOME WORK all around to make sure I don't miss someone. 

And Bill, great work on the Midway there. Very sharp!!! 

Sure Pat, I'll put you down

TheMongoose

Pat that looks pretty unique! Sounds like some miscellaneous PE, like rails and doors and such, is in your future lol. You'll have to take a few close ups so we can see what the details look like. The black primer did kinda make it go into a shadow. I can't add anything to your questions unfortunately as I've never worked on some5ing like that but I'm sure someone will pipe in with some help. Keep the updates coming!

Mongoose,

Here are some close ups I took after sanding the model a bit.  Here you can see the lower part of the mast, some radomes, a planar radar face, an electronics warfare device, the decoy launchers and some of the surface to surface missile launchers.  You can also see how the sloped surfaces of the ship that go perpendicular across the ship have "steps" in them due to the printing process but interestingly, the sides of the deckhouse and hull as well as the angled part of the deckhouse with the planar radar face on it don't show "steps". 

Since I had lightly sanded the model prior to taking this image you can also kind of make out the relative roughness of the surfaces where the bits of the surface that were a little higher than their surroundings are now a little lighter colored. 

Nex is a picture of the front of the deckhouse, which is smoother than the back of the deckhouse and doesn't show "steps" so much as just a "crease" or two in the surface that I hope to smooth out.

Next is the aft end of the hangar which looks like it will need a bit of cleaning up.  There are noticeable "steps" in the surface and its kind of hard to make out whee the main hangar door ends and the deckhouse surface begins.

Next is an image of the side of the ship just showing a little better the initial relative roughness of surface.

The pictures actually probably make things look a bit more an issue than it may actually be becuase the surfaces actually feel relatively smooth to the touch, and after another coat or two of primer/sealer and a little more sanding I was able to put an initial coat of light grey on that looks pretty smooth overall.

I will post some more pictures once I get a little further along with the "build"

Pat

PS.  I picked up a simple set of add-on lenses for my phone in the discount bin of a local computer store awhile ago and decided to give the macro lens a try.  Below is a close up of the side of the ship in way of the inflatable boat bay.

It surprisingly came out fairly clear 

Pat that's a good walkaround of the model! I agree, nice macro lens too. The kit looks pretty good overall. Definitely interesting to see. Strange how the steps are in 1 area and not another in a similar orientation. Will have to ask my son's buddy about that as he has a pretty fine 3D printer at home that he does D&D figures with. Which manufacture prints it?

Pat: That's cool! I'm really interested in seeing how you deal with the rough 'stepped' surface. 

Ben: Love the look of that wood deck.

Pat: Quite interesting to see a 3D printed ship. Going to have to watch your build closely

Mongoose: Those screwtops look spectacular. Can't wait to see your figures on deck.

Pat. That's pretty awesome. I was wondering how those 3D kits looked. I would imagine they'd have some steps due to the layering process and it doesn't look too bad. I like priming with black for the very reason, it brings out the smallest defects,  plus, once painted, the areas the AB doesn't get to will be shaded anyway. 

Hi,

I've managed to add a couple thin coats of some craft store light grey acrylic paint, and its coming along nicely for now.  

It probably still needs another coat or three, but I want to try and address some of the issues with the "stepping first".

In the past I have tried either smearing a little "balsa filler" over a stepped shape and then coating it with clear airplane dope and let it set before sanding it smooth, or brushing on some Mr Disolved Putty (or some Squadron Putty that I had thinned with either a solvent or maybe clear paint (I can't recall).  As such I may try something similar.  Unfortunately since I'm not sure if I have any Squadron Putty available right now I may try and play around with some Bondo that I have to see if  can thin it enough to brush on.  Usually a coat or two of thinned putty, with sanding in between after it hardens up, has typically done the trick for me, though on some more complex shapes it has sometimes taken more steps.

Anyway, here is an additional image of the FFG(X) long side some other similar ships from my stash.  From top to bottom they are a Royal Navy Type 23 Frigate, a Chinese Navy Type 054A Frigate, the FFG(X) and a Royal Navy Type 45 Air Warfare Destroyer.

It kind of amazed me that the FFG(X) appears to be vcloser in size (in terms of length and beam) to the destroyer than the frigates, though the Type 45 appears to have a deeper hull than the FFG(X).

Pat

I wonder what the size comparison is to the Perry?

The putty sounds like a good idea. Please keep on keeping us informed of how it goes. 

Tonight i got all the bridge windows done. Started some detail on the hull that I've been thinking about since April. way back then I tried drilling out the vents on the hull. Tons of work on this extremely thick plastic- about 1/8". Bagged that idea and ordered a ultra fine mesh sieve used for flour. Turned out it took the long way around the world and i just got it last week lol. Tried it out tonight. How does this look in terms of scale?

Mongoose: I love the work your doing on the aircraft. I also think the wire mesh inserted into the space for the screens looks perfect, nice idea! I did something like that on both a 1/24 Harrier and a SCUD missile launcher with what I thought was good effect, so my opinion may be biased. 

Ben

PFJN: That is one serious chunk of 3D molding. I looked at a few different 3D printed ships but was turned off on the work needed to fix the stepped walls. Seemed like you did some good work here... keep it up.

Ben