reklein

'U' class Submarine heading up the Tay to HMS Ambrose Dundee's Submarine Base
W/C 13” X 10”
Jim

Minesweeper HMS Halcyon and  Liberty Ship (take your pic for a name!) in ice off the Kola Inlet 
Watercolour 12” X 7”
Jim

Running for Home 
w/c 13”X 9”
Jim

Inferno 
A torpedoed Tanker sinking by the bows with a corvette standing by to pickup survivors ………perhaps!
W/C 13” X 8”
 

I was watching a video of a car show from a couple of years ago, where Ford had a machine that was 3D printing a plastic 1:1 T-Bucket body and another robotic one that was sanding the finished bodies.

Maybe if you had a $30,000 printer or at least one with a large  enough bed to print a half a hull it would be practical. I mean after all if a concrete house can be printed whats a little tug boat. the model has turned out really nice though. You should be proud.
 

Maybe if you had a $30,000 printer or at least one with a large  enough bed to print a half a hull it would be practical. I mean after all if a concrete house can be printed whats a little tug boat. the model has turned out really nice though. You should be proud.
 

Good lookin project there Floyd. Has all sorts of possibilitys. I might've tried using foam,fiberglas,and styrene for thr superstructure. But I can't argue with your results.

Good lookin project there Floyd. Has all sorts of possibilitys. I might've tried using foam,fiberglas,and styrene for thr superstructure. But I can't argue with your results.

Good lookin project there Floyd. Has all sorts of possibilitys. I might've tried using foam,fiberglas,and styrene for thr superstructure. But I can't argue with your results.

Thanks, Nic, for the kind suggestion... unfortunately (!) we are among the few cranky folks still alive that don't use Facebook.  
 
Since joining this fine group, I've done little except ask questions (such as this one)... I haven't started a thing!  Just as I was getting excited about resuming model-building, my wife (of fifty eight years) began having debilitating back problems.  After months of ineffectual treatment, we finally wised up and sought out a very fine neurosurgeon, who successfully operated on her back.  While the surgery was specific and 'fixed' a specific problem (pain), she still has a seventy-eight year old spine.  Regaining stamina and balance has been an uphill fight for her, and me, too, as I care for her.
 
Sorry for the boring story... Linda has progressed to the point where I can once again start agonizing over which model to tackle... I have been reading about the Portland for a couple of months now, and have pretty much decided it will be the one.
 
Again, thank you for your kind reply... I hope to be in the boat-building-business soon!
 
Rob

Shipmodel - now that I have done it. I would not recommend 3D printing for such a large project. Too much material and too much time. This project would have been much easier if I had just done it in wood.

Ah, project creep and no remuneration creep to accompany it....

I should also mention that like any other project we had a bit of scope creep. When they asked if the model could have Navigation lighting. I said sure no problem. Since I had experience with lots of sailboats and power boats. I figured a light in the cabin, at the masthead, and red & green. no sweat. That is when I was invited to attend a 2 hr. class on the phone about Coast Guard regulations. In the end we will have 16 different circuits of LEDs with several colors. It was also agreed that I would create scale model oil containment booms to go along with the tug and barge.
 
With reluctant help from the Admiral we purchased International Orange cloth and are manufacturing scale model containment booms.
 
I should mention that no one was able to come up with plans for the barge. So work on that model had been significantly delayed. Finally in January we received detail design information for a barge that was twice as big as the one described in the contract. Dr. Per has been slaving away on this part of the project. And will likely complete the design review in the next couple of weeks.
 
Meanwhile Floyd has been experiencing a very steep learning curve on 3D printing and slicing software. I would estimate that for every hull section successfully printed there are 2 failures. And did I mention how long it takes to do a 3D print? The hull consists of 15 sections due to the maximum size we can print a part. These Hull sections can take from 15 hours to 5 days to print.

What Roger said except I don't generally let it sit on, I wipe on, clean dry cloth wipe off. Repeat as necessary. Although it looks like it penetrates deeply, it generally does not, and therefore another nice thing about dyes is that if you screw up and don't like the color, grab a piece of sandpaper and it's gone very shortly and you can try again.
 
Get some mason jars. When you mix a color, you'll never use it all and there's no reason to throw it away, put it in a mason jar, label it, and use it again later. I always mix up enough to fill up a small mason jar, doing that you rapidly build up a library of stain colors and the cost is just a bit of denatured alcohol.
 
This is just a plain old piece of maple, see how dyes enhance the grain rather than obscure it:

Boxwood is always a good choice in any font...

Love it! So obvious it's funny!

Heard this stupid riddle on Mythbusters a couple weeks ago. Whats red and smells like blue paint?                       Red paint. 

Heard this stupid riddle on Mythbusters a couple weeks ago. Whats red and smells like blue paint?                       Red paint. 

There are some types of MDF and resin impregnated materials designed for laser cutting. I see there use in kits from time to time. It might involve different building techniques but the pieces seem sturdy and accurate. You'll have to google the sources,I'd probably start with materials suitible for laser cutting.

Heard this stupid riddle on Mythbusters a couple weeks ago. Whats red and smells like blue paint?                       Red paint. 

Heard this stupid riddle on Mythbusters a couple weeks ago. Whats red and smells like blue paint?                       Red paint. 

Heard this stupid riddle on Mythbusters a couple weeks ago. Whats red and smells like blue paint?                       Red paint. 

Heard this stupid riddle on Mythbusters a couple weeks ago. Whats red and smells like blue paint?                       Red paint. 

There are some types of MDF and resin impregnated materials designed for laser cutting. I see there use in kits from time to time. It might involve different building techniques but the pieces seem sturdy and accurate. You'll have to google the sources,I'd probably start with materials suitible for laser cutting.