Haze Gray

Oh yes, plenty of PLA+, photo of the partial bridge attached.....

Hi Folks, I know it's been a while since I update the progress of the USS Panay - so adding some photos here for those that are interested. I still have a far amount of work to do but I'll get there eventually!

Hello all - just an update with some photos - the hull is just about - Haze Gray

currently I use PLA+ which is not at susceptible to heat as regular PLA but for ships that would be painted black for authenticity I would choose ABS or ASA, but if they are painted white they tend to do pretty well. I've tested some hull sections made in white PLA+ by putting them out in the sun and left them outside over two years and they were fine. However one of the hull I painted in green and exposed it to the sun during summer warped pretty bad withing an hour. small thin detailed parts that are not painted white or light brown for instance should be abs or ASA otherwise they will warp or deform. I don't use PetG as it's more difficult to sand out the layer lines and the region I live in usually doesn't have alot of sun and heat. if you live in arazona pet G, asa, or abs would be necessary

Hi Yves, technically the hull is assembled but it's not permanent at the moment - I use heat-set inserts and machine screws to join the sections and to ensure things line up right - once everything looks good I'll spread a thin layer of epoxy one the faces of the hull sections and screw everything together permanently. Below are some pictures of the hull sections - Haze Gray

As you can see I've been working on the hull alot and figured out a way to drive the three rudders at the same time using a single servo since there's not much space in the aft section of the ship - Haze Gray

Hello ddp, yes I have the same drawings - French ships are a bit of a passion for me so I grabbed as many as I could find! Messena is one that I've already started but put it on the back burner for now.... the "Hoch" is about 60% done and I'm going to make an attempt at Carnot when I get more time.

Yes - actually I'm doing it at 1/35 too!

Well Nathan, your hull is going to turn out much better than mine did!! The USS Maine was the first model I designed having never touched a cad program before - will be interested in following your progress on your Maine for sure! kind regards, Haze Gray

Hi Nathan, yeah Bows can be very frustrating - sometimes you have to put in some rails for guides. do you have any pictures of the design you're working on that you can share?

Hummm okay so now I see what I did wrong - I have a spreadsheet that auto-calculates the dimensions and based on the scale I'm planning to use.... except looking at the table it's clear I accidentally selected 1/35 instead of 1/72 ! LOL !!!! lessoned learned... 😃

Things are moving along but running into a few areas that I will need to rework - will probably take a bit of a rest over the thanksgiving break........ By the way, at 1/35 scale the Panay is still a very large model (about 5 1/2 feet long!)

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has seen and enjoyed the movie "Sand Pebbles" - I remember watching it on a tube TV back when I was a kid and was completely captivated by it. And although the USS Panay was not the ship from the movie the Panay still has similar design ques and has an interesting history.....While the design of the hull was difficult and less than perfect, I've started working up the ship and will enjoy building it out!

The Georgios Averof is one of the ships that took me a long time to find enough data to actually model and even then, this will be a tough go of it. It's also going to be the largest 3D printed ship I've ever done - at 1/72 scale it's about 6ft long compared to the USS NewYork which is 5.3 ft long. Here's some details from wikipedia: Georgios Averof is a modified Pisa-class armored cruiser built in Italy for the Royal Hellenic Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship served as the Greek flagship during most of the first half of the century. Although popularly known as a battleship in Greek, she is in fact an armored cruiser and is the only ship of this type still in existence. The ship was initially ordered by the Italian Regia Marina, but budgetary constraints led Italy to offer it for sale to international customers. With the bequest of the wealthy benefactor George Averoff as down payment, Greece acquired the ship in 1909. Launched in 1910, Averof arrived in Greece in September 1911. The most modern warship in the Aegean at the time, she served as the flagship of admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis in the First Balkan War, and played a major role in the establishment of Greek predominance over the Ottoman Navy and the incorporation of many Aegean islands to Greece. The ship continued to serve in World War I, the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and the interwar period, receiving a modernization in France in 1925 to 1927. Following the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, Averof participated in the exodus of the Greek fleet to Egypt. Hopelessly obsolete and prone to mechanical breakdowns, she nevertheless spent the next three years as a convoy escort and guard ship in the Indian Ocean and at the Suez Canal. In October 1944, she carried the Greek government in exile back to liberated Athens, after the withdrawal of the German army. In 1952, she was decommissioned, before being moved to Poros, where she was berthed from 1956 to 1983. From 1984 until today, she has been reinstated on active duty as a museum ship in the Naval Tradition Park in Faliro, Athens. After maintenance in late 2017, she achieved seaworthiness state once again, allowing the ship to sail (towed) accompanied by Greek frigate Kountouriotis (F-462) to Thessaloniki Greece where she received more than 130,000 visitors over her 53-day stay.

At 1/72 it's not going to be a small ship. Time to start making space in the workshop!

Painted the bottom of the French Ram Belier - so thought I would share a pic

Started working on the Messena today - one of my most favorites and looks do-able...

Hello GreaverBlade - I do get inquiries from time to time about the 3D/STL files but at this time I don't have plans to make them available (maybe some time after I finish the ship!) I will say that the major sections of the hull are fairly large, the stearn section is 375mm in height and maybe 290mm at it's widest....so typical printers like Ender 2/3 are not going to work. However, for those of you that are interested in building some of the ships I design I usually print a 1st draft to prove out everything fits, etc. I do sometimes make those drafts available to interested modelers provided they cover whatever the cost of the filament & shipping of the components would be. I have this ship that I've been tinkering with but it's been slightly challenging.

Love the work you’re doing on this ship - I especially found how you float tested it to be a great idea - most of the boats I build are too big for the bathtub !!!! by the way how long is your ship end to end?

Outstanding work Valeriy! You are very much an inspiration to us here on this site! Bravo! I have learned a lot from you work on varyag and hope to apply much of that on my next project.

Are you using design spark mechanical? I just recently downloaded it - need time to figure it out.

Just an update - painted the hull back in October. lots of parts not shown.... they are all stuffed inside the hull while I wait for warmer weather to paint more.