NavyShooter

And...having read a few of the 3D design threads...here's what I started on this evening:

Here's my 2nd try at this...first time I tried on my own and it wasn't very pretty. This is HMCS Bonaventure's hull plan. Aiming for 1/96 scale.

Welcome aboard!

Here's short video of the Sea King spooling up on the flight deck. Lots left to do, but it's on the way!

The arrestor spools printed quite well!

On the actual ships, they used pistons and chain hoists - one on each corner of the lift. I have an image of it somewhere that I'll dig up. The pistons were horizontally arranged.

It was pointed out to me by a Sea King pilot that I had the blades rotating the wrong way...so I had to rectify that. New blades have been printed, and are now on the way to paint. Including for the static aircraft. In other news, I saw an update from Bob Griffin (who's in the UK and is building a model of the HMS Victorious) showing his new aircraft lift. I reached out to him to find the source of the scissor lift, and have now ordered a pair of similar ones for myself. My project has been slightly stalled on this aspect, as I have to figure out the elevators before doing a bunch of other stuff. -I can't re-print the hangar deck until I figure out the elevators -I can't fit the electronics and other hardware until I figure out the hangar deck -I can't cut the access holes in the flight deck until I fit the hangar deck There are a bunch of 'to do' items that have been pending this step, and these mini scissor lifts are exactly what I've been looking for I think.

Today I got a bit more 3D design work done. Problem #1 that I had to solve was the rotor blades on the Sea King actually spin the opposite direction to that shown in the pictures I've posted...so I've redone the file, and will print some new blades when I get home tonight. With that fixed, I have to ponder whether or not I'm going to fix the 3D file for the folded version of the rotor blades...I might just leave them. After that, I still had a bit of time to play with, so I finished the design on the arresting wire spools. Bonnie has 7 wires - and only a few of them are 'the same'. So, some calipers and some sketch time later, here's what we have. I'm going to print 2 of each of them I think. One that will be 'no wire' for display only. The other set I'll do with elastic 'wire' between them. They are on 6mm pins, so they'll be able to be switched out if I'm going to have the aft elevator in use or anything like that.

Here are the ammo crates with detailed photos of the Hedgehog projectiles themselves.

Additional photos of the launcher.

Goodday, I paid a visit to HMCS Sackville this morning, and took some detailed photos of the ship's hedgehog launcher for a gent on another forum. I thought that this forum might appreciate the detailed pictures as well as a reference guide in case it's needed. Here are some useful dimensions: Overall length is 88.75 inches Overall Width is 53.3 inches Height of rear shield is 42.5 inches Width of rear shield is 54.5 inches Projectile length is 37 inches Length of Projectile stabilizing fin is 4 inches Diameter of projectile appears to be 7.5 inches

After a short hiatus due to life things going on, I got back to doing some work on the Bonnie. Last night I did some work on the motorized Sea King. This is a draft print of the aircraft, with some shimmed in bits to fit the motor inside and it seems to work OK. Intent is to have the aircraft on deck, with the helo starting power cables going to the edge of the flight deck where I'll plug it in. Rotors will spin at about 30 rpm, which is about right for a starting helo.

I feel your pain...I joined the Navy in 1992 with a couple of ships on the slipways in my parent's basement....and they never did end up finished. I moved to Halifax, and after a 26+ year career have now slid into the Public Service and am no longer spending months away from home....so I'm stepping back into the model building world. I'm bringing a 3D printer with me though, so my projects have been focused on that basis. (3D Printed Liberty Ship, and an HMCS Bonaventure model that I'm bringing to completion and fitting out with 3D printed bits. Welcome back!

That is amazing work! I wish I could do half that good!

Spent a bit of time on the weekend getting the aft catwalk sorted out. Version 3 was close, but I'm happier with Version 4. With V4, I printed the smoke cannisters separately and am painting them independently before I glue them back in place.

Also had to re-print the LW-02 RADAR dish, as it was a bit too large for scale. Now to work on rotation.

It's been a bit since the last update. A bit of work on the hangar, but I've been working on other details and pondering the elevator mechanism. Here's the Quarter-deck area (Aft Cable Deck?)

Here we go. This is, apparently, the proper layout for the aircraft in Bonnie's Hangar. Hangar A, with 5x Trackers facing Stbd, noses to the Stbd Bulkhead. Hangar B, with up to 6x Sea King (showing 4 here plus an H04S) noses to noses in 2x rows of 3. (Note, the Hangar Control office is in the center of the hangar, along with a fire curtain that could be drawn across the width of the Hangar.) Hangar C (not shown, but aft of the Aft Elevator) would be for the H04S that the crew called "Pedro". This being the Plane Guard aircraft, it was always in a state of readiness. Any aircraft more than the above were kept on the uppers in a Deck Park. I'll note that I've seen photos with as many as 12 Trackers onboard the Bonnie. It's really neat to get info like this right from the guys who were onboard.

Well, after a concerted effort, reaching out to a museum, visiting a museum, reaching out to veterans groups and scouring the internet, I found...6 hangar photos...none of which show my much detail, so I'm going to go with what I've got. I finished printing Version 1 of the Hangar Bay, and am generally pleased with it. There's some bits that didn't print well, and when I finished the print, and test-fitted it to the hull, I discovered that it was about 8% oversize. So I went back to the plans, and figure I must have made an error in scaling things somehow...or something like that. So, long story long, I'll be re-printing the hangar deck. I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to add some stiffeners into it, and a lip around the top edge as well. I'm going to use this test model to figure out how I'm going to mechanize the elevators as well. I've been pondering that for a while. We'll see what I can come up with. Of note, some of the veterans pointed out to me that the hangar ended up being divided by air types, and the explained how the aircraft were stored. Hangar A (forward end of the main bay) - Trackers only, usually 5. Aircraft aligned athwartships - noses pointed to Stbd. Hangar B (aft end of the main bay) - Sea Kings - up to 6 of them, two rows of 3, aligned fore/aft, with the forward row pointed astern, and the stern row pointed forwards. Hangar C (aft bay behind the rear elevator) reserved for "Pedro" - the HO4S helos. I was able to fit about 15 aircraft into the Hangar, and was informed that they never had that many below decks - normally it was 5 trackers in A-Hangar, plus 6 Sea Kings in Hangar B, plus Pedros in Hangar C, so 12-ish aircraft. History is a good thing! I'm glad to have connected with the guys who actually sailed on her!

That looks amazing. I am in awe of the skill that you have. This ship is going to be magnificent!

For awareness, the BensWorx Castle Class Corvette 3D files includes a number of crew members. I've stepped back from my Castle class build - I bought the prints, printed the parts, but at 1/96, it wasn't thick enough to work for me in the RC role - I had hoped it would be a bit more resilient like the Liberty Ship I built. I'm concerned with how thin the hull is that it will shatter or crack if I hit anything in the lake. I love your display case. Well done on the entire process and thank-you for documenting it so well!

Before the USMC did it, Canada had it done....the CL-84 Dynavert. They even tested a gunship version of it with 7.62 miniguns in pods. Canadair CL-84 Dynavert - Wikipedia Cool project!

OK, new island has been printed - Version 7 now. Also, started printing the Hangar bay...here's a sneak peek of section 1 (Aft most section - technically called "Hangar C" on the ship.)

Also of note...the Air Det is officially complete. 8 Trackers 8 Banshees 6 Sea King 4 Horse All done. Now I need a storage box for them while I tear into the hull to get it redone....because of course, I'm not happy with the prop shafts, so I'm redoing them completely. Recall, I got the hull as a 'work in progress' from another modeler, so it's not my hull from scratch...and the guy who built it did some odd things...the shafts are completely unsupported outside the hull, so a bit of balance problem with a prop leads to a lot of vibration, which will lead to damage to the hull eventually. Suffice to say, last evening was painful to do....tearing parts out of the inside with a pair of pliers and chopping away with a drywall saw.... Yeah...there's pictures of that which will follow too. In the meantime, enjoy the air det photos! One thing that's notable is how busy this flight deck gets with this many aircraft onboard! 26 aircraft takes up a lot of space!

I had a friend over today (the gent who sold me the hull actually) and we had a good conversation about how things look, and what the next steps are going to be. He's very pleased with what I've done with it. I have a list of 'stuff' that I need to get working on designing and building. In detail, that list includes: - Print new island (in progress now - 52 hours print time remaining) - Tweak GDO (gun Directors) and re-print - LSO Platform details - design and print - Stbd Fwd radio mast - design and print - Small Radar Dish - design and print - Aft catwalk on flight deck -design and print - Aircraft Elevator - adjust - Small Boat Launch system - Arrestor Cable deck spools - design and print - Rocket elevator - design and print At no point on that list is there an entry for DESIGN AND PRINT THE WHOLE HANGAR DECK... is there? So....anyhow....someone posted a picture of an Ark Royal with a hangar deck...so this evening, I got a bit jealous, and spent some time...and I have the beginnings of a hangar deck designed. I really should not be spending my time on this...but here I am...spending my time on it.