NavyShooter

I'm planning on a 'full' air department, though flexible. 10-12 fixed wing at a time, and 4-6 rotary wing. At various points in her career, Bonnie had 4 types of aircraft - H04S Helicopter, F2 Banshee, S2 Tracker, and Sea King. I have found 3D printable models of all of these, and am working towards having a few of each available to put on the deck. That said - the Banshees and Sea Kings never actually 'shared a deck' on the Bonnie - the Banshees were retired before the SK's came into service in Canada. I have decals for 8 Banshees, 8 Trackers and 4 Sea Kings, and I will be getting decals for the H04S printed up. Referencing the pictures I've found - the ship never seems to have operated more than about 10 fixed wing and 4-6 rotary wing aircraft at the same time. Chatting with some of the former crew, they indicated that the ship, while having a 'listed' max aircraft of 28, seldom had even 20 onboard, even with hangar storage. So, my plan is to have a 'rotating' air det when I sail the ship. Banshees and H04S plus maybe a Tracker or two to represent her 'early' Air Det. Sea King and Trackers to represent her later Air Det. I found a picture the other day of the Fly-past of the Trackers for the Bonnie's Decommissioning - there were 13 in the picture, plus the 14th being the aircraft that took the picture. At no point have I found more than 12 Trackers in a picture of the ship, and it's usually 8 - often 6 parked on the bow in the deck park, and 2 in the 'work area' of the flight deck. Having recognized that most aircraft on aircraft carriers had their wings folded at every moment except when at the catapult for launch, or landing...while I had 8x Banshees printed and ready to decal...I had to print 7 more with wings folded. So now I have 15 Banshees...but decals going on 8 of them. I also had about 8 or 10 Trackers printed, then I found a better 3D model of it, and so I'm printing 8 more of the new version. The old ones were - marginal...good from afar, but far from good due to flaws in the original files, so I threw most of them out. I have 1 Sea King printed - and was ready to hammer out a few more until my printer had a hiccup last week - parts are on the way and should arrive tomorrow. The H04S 'demo' print was when the printer had it's problems - so I don't have any of them done yet. It's a work in progress...each airplane takes about 24-30 hours to print at fine resolution on the printer. Good think I'm not in a rush!

There are 25 decals per Banshee.... I have applied 139 so far on 8 aircraft. 2 are complete! 6 to go. 61 decals left to apply...

I went to a production line system for the roundels....there's a lot of decals to go...

Another 'detail' is the ship's boats. I have an idea about making them functional RC Boats...but my skills with tiny RC stuff is currently non-existant. That said, this boat will be printed at about 95mm long...which is right on the cusp of being do-able. This is not even version 1 - this is version 0 - I got the 3D model from another person on Thingiverse who had it for his USS Wasp model, and have scaled it, and started modifying to look a bit more like one of Bonnie's boats. Lots of work left to do, and I'm working in Tinkercad on this one because it uploaded there better than it did in DSM. I just paid the Fedex bill for my printer parts - the import fees weren't too bad. They are due to arrive tuesday. In the meantime...my printer is awful quiet.

A suitably impressive build! I've been working on some basic 3D modeling for details going on my HMCS Bonaventure model in 1/96, and I am far from having the level of skill that you display here. I'm also working with a filament printer not a resin one, so our build processes are slightly different. I think I might have to mock up a 1/96 scale engine and cart for my Banshees and Trackers!

I had her out for a sail again last evening - ended up going for about a half hour around the lake and decided that it's pretty relaxing to stand at the dock and sail a ship around the lake. I also decided that I'm going to make a slightly larger rudder for her - this one works, but gives very poor handling when going astern. I'm thinking that a longer rudder might give me better control. That said, the ship is about 25 pounds, so there's a lot of inertia to deal with. I'm still pondering FPV - not in a rush but it would be neat to have a camera on the ship to see what it sees. At this point though, I'm looking for a 'plug and play' system rather than a kit or anything that I have to figure out.

Looks like I made an error with creating a print file a couple of days ago and accidentally set it to "PETG" instead of PLA. The PETG prints at a much higher temp than the PLA, and so it appears that it let the PLA 'goop' and leak around the filament guide tube in the hot end, and leak up on top of the heating block, puddling, and creating drips that would then drop onto the work-piece at random times during printing. Less of a 'blow out' and more of a 'drip out' I guess. I tried pulling the hot end apart last night to clean it...and the puddle of goop is preventing disassembly. So. New hot end ordered, with a spare...arrives on Tuesday. So in the meantime, last night I took my Liberty Ship for a cruise on the lake, and spent a couple of hours working on decals.

OK, my 3D printer seems to have had a blowout in the hot end. Parts have been ordered (with backups!) and will be here in about 3 days. So in the meantime, I decided to get working on the Air Det that I've already got complete. Tonight...I applied decals for the first time in probably 30 years. A bit of a learning curve, but I'm generally pleased with how Banshee #1 looks. OK...it's Banshee # 434...but whatever... There's still a few more decals to add, but this was a good start.

I've been working on the Air Department for the ship in the background...basically since I started. Last night I was able to find a 3D model of the HOS4 helicopter that was operated on the Bonnie early in her career...and after a couple of hours of work tidying up the model, I think I have something that I can actually try printing. The thing is, there are a lot of 3D models out there that are available for sale for use in computer game design. This one was for '3D printing' but...it needed a bunch of work to get it to this point. Scaling it, and then adjusting elements in the tail, tail rotor, main rotor hub and landing gear so that they are thick enough to actually print is the key. Sadly, that impacts the 'pure scale' factor of it, but in terms of the 'it looks like a HOS-4 - I think I've got that.

Ahoy DeHammer! Welcome aboard, and I wish you all the best with your build!

Looking at your 3D model - the forward cabin would be the Captain's - there should probably be an interior door to enter it from the base of the ladder just aft. Looks like a great design!

So, here's a little pictorial view of where I started, and where I'm at with the 3D printed Bridge. I posted the picture above showing Version 2 coming off the printer....this is a significant improvement over where the first 'snapshot' was. I'm now working on Version 5 - the level of detail has increased considerably, and so has the accuracy. I'm going to continue to plug away with the model and see what else needs to be added, but I'm pleased with the progress so far.

That looks like a fascinating project! Bringing something from the movies into real life! I observe that you appear to be using DesignSpark Mechanical as your build tool. That's the program I'm now starting to work from as well. I started in TinkerCAD (online) but have shifted to DSM due to the increased capability and flexibility of the program. That said, chopping up big parts of items to fit onto the 3D printer's platter area is something I'm still actually using TinkerCAD for. Well done on your model so far! As to what's in the interior - well, normally in the area immediately below or behind the bridge, you'll find the Captain's Cabin (proximity for emergency response) meaning that there will also be a Heads (washroom) nearby as well. You may have a Chart-room and a Radio room nearby as well, but that depends on the size of the ship. The Galley is usually lower, and aft. Or at least, that's my experience from my time in the Navy. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Lou! The foc'sle footage didn't turn out like I hoped - the camera shut itself off on me while out to 'sea.' The lake is beautiful...but remember...a nice waterfront property normally comes with a much less nice mortgage...

Actually, I have! Here's the video:

I've been asked about final details and such on the ship - to be honest, I think I'm just about complete with this model. It is not, and will not be museum grade...it's a ship that's to be sailed. I plan to add a flag pole, and a Canadian flag at her stern. I may add a smoke machine to add 'steam' to the ship. Other than that, she's got enough detail that you can appreciate it, but not so much that everything will break if you touch it (though, if you look closely, you'll see one of the 20mm barrels missing already...) adding more fragile detail is not in my plans. This is a model that I'm not afraid to take out on the lake and run. I'm not afraid to let one of my kids run it either. I won't cry if it runs up on a rock, that's expected/normal wear and tear for this ship.

It was about this time that I switched over to building the Liberty Ship in my other build thread...and you can have a look at that if you'd like. There are a few other minor updates that I'll add, but this brings us mostly up to date on the Bonnie. I have a complete set of decals for 8 Trackers, 8 Banshees and 4 Sea Kings from a company in Canada called Above and Below graphics. They scaled up to 1/96 and printed them for me. I have, just yesterday, received the decal setting solutions that I need to install them in conjunction with the instructions. Progress on this build thread will now be mostly in real time...there's another post I'll add soon about the Island...suffice to say, my forays mentioned above and in the Liberty Ship build thread in terms of 3D design have given me the confidence and inspiration to work on replacing the bass wood and balsa-wood island that came with the model with a new one...

It was while watching some flight deck operation videos that I realized that I'd screwed up with my Banshees - I had printed them, I had painted them, I had gloss-coat sealed them...but...there was a problem. Watching the videos...the only time a Banshee has its wings unfolded is when it's at the catapult to launch...in the air...or on the angled deck having just landed.... The minute the arresting wire is released after landing, they bring up the hook, and engage the wing folding mechanism so that they can move to the forward end of the flight deck into the parking area and shut down. So....that means that I need all but maybe one of my Banshees to have folded wings. That's not hard...right? Here's some pics of the Banshees: And here's a picture of the one that I clipped the wings on...I wasn't terribly happy with the look/feel of this... Something I had not planned for was the very visible roughness of the lower surface of the wings. You can see the steps quite clearly from the 3D printing process, and while I'd spent a bunch of time sanding the upper surfaces...I did not have the forethought to sand the lower wing surfaces as much...I figured it'd be mostly invisible...and so....back to the drawing board. If I'm going to have 8 Banshees...I need to have 6-7 of them with folded wings. Back to the 3D software, and back to the printer...this time with 0.05mm steps to improve resolution....and 2 weeks of printing later, I have 7 folded wing Banshees, and a total of 15 Banshees now...so back to painting, and so forth.

My next 3D printed parts were the Crash Barrier....and for this, I switched away from TinkerCad to a program called "Designspark Mechanical". It is less intuitive, but much more powerful. It's a free download program that you can install on your computer, and it's a pretty good tool...and I am still learning how to use it. I started with reference information - from the plans, drawings, photos, and screenshots from videos: From those drawings and pictures, this is what I produced in 3D: And here you can see them in place on the flight deck:

I installed some basic running gear (pretty rough) to test her out. She has sailed...in a friend's 22 foot swimming pool. That was interesting! a 7 foot ship in a 22 foot pool.... This made use of some very old electronics (ESC and battery) that I had lying around. I'll discuss radio solutions elsewhere...but for the swimming pool sea trial, she had an old 27 mHz radio system installed, and a ni-cad battery pack of questionable provenance. Before that, I did a garage check - now...I do live on a lake, so getting the ship to sea is not so much of a problem...except in the winter...when the lake is frozen. So, I took a page from a friend's testing/trials book and built a wooden box in my garage, lined it with plastic, and filled it with water to do float trials: She ballasted down well, and looks OK with a full flight deck!

Here's the rudder post from inside: You can see also some of the lead shot that I fiberglassed into place as weight - this also provided sealing to a number of the compartments. The gentleman who built the hull did an...OK job in his construction. it's rough in places, but functional...except where it leaked. So, I ended up having to put a layer of gelcoat all along the inside of the hull. That may not be a perfect solution, and I may end up having to sand the hull and re-seal it on the outside as well, but it's better than it was when I started. You can see also the small bag of lead shot that I've got as adjustable ballast. When I put the additional layer of gelcoat inside the hull, I decided to add a layer of fiberglass cloth on as much of the inside of the hull as I could access, so I ended up cutting open some bulkheads that the original builder put in like this to gain access and seal things up. I did a float test to confirm that the ballasting was right, and found additional leaking under the keel in this area, which I sealed, and the hole is plugged now. From this view, you can also see how the prop shafts do not have a-frames to support them. I've pondered this a lot, and my solution is going to be a complete replacement of the shafts at some point in the future. They are somewhat functional now, but there's vibration at speed - so keeping the speed down will result in less vibration... I've also ordered new props for her from the Prop Shop in the UK. I'll note that the original Bonnie was found to have some shaft vibration issues with her port shaft, so they ended up putting a 3 bladed prop on her port shaft to resolve that. So, the ship had a mix of a 3 Blade on the port, and a 4 blade on the Stbd shaft. http://www.forposterityssake.ca/Navy/HMCS_BONAVENTURE_CVL22.htm Engineering trivia: Due to size, HMCS Bonaventure's propulsion machinery was divided into two major compartments located fore and aft, each having two boilers and one steam turbine engine. Each was configured with two boilers facing one another on one side of the ship and their associated main engine located on the other. Apparently, during builder's trials, excessive vibration was noted in the starboard shaft even though it was adequately supported with bearings (plummer blocks) throughout its length. The solution was to fit a four-bladed propeller on the shaft to dampen out over-all shaft harmonics. It worked!

Note that I have not spoken much about the running gear - I got the ship with shafts fitted and props on her, but no motor mounts, no engines, no rudder. I started with the rudder...here's the build process for that. I started with a big chunk of brass and a band-saw: Then a brass rod for the rudder post: Took it to the drill press and smashed a hole into it: And then soldered the shaft into place on the rudder: A bit of time on the bench sander later, I have a nicely formed brass rudder that's a nice fit!

One point I'm going to make here is about artistic license, historic accuracy, and my thoughts on this for this ship. At no point did the HMCS Bonaventure ever have S2F Trackers, and F2 Banshees and S3 Sea King helicopters operating from her deck at the same time. Ever. Historically speaking, I'm wrong to put them together. That said, I plan to have these 3 aircraft mixed together in my Air Det. There will be historic perfectionist purists that will criticize me for doing this...to which my response is simple: "Show my on your HMCS Bonaventure model how you made it right." I am not building a museum perfect builder's reference model - that's not what I received when I purchased the hull/deck...I got what I got...and my plan is to make a ship that is representative of Bonnie's service in Canada in my own way. I'm using a lot of reference photos (the Snowie Book, the Shearwater Aviation Museum, and so on) and I am doing my best within my skillset to represent the ship as she sailed in Canadian service...but...I'm going it in my way, to my standards and will judge myself. I'm going to have Banshees on the model. I think it's really cool that the RCN had fighter jets flying from an Aircraft carrier. I'm going to have Sea Kings on the model as well - because every single ship I sailed on in my 26.5 year career in the RCN had a Sea King operate from it, and I want to recognize that aircraft as well. There are going to be inaccuracies...if you have built a model of the Bonnie and can show me how you got it right, and I've got it wrong, feel free to point it out to me. I'll take that. Otherwise....I'll respectfully ask for constructive input rather than criticism.

So...I'll ask that you please forgive me if the telling of this tale jumps around a bit...I got the ship last fall, and have been plugging away at it for over 6 months now...there's a lot to do, and the bare bones have slowly been filling out as I move along. I don't have an 'integrated' plan for how she'll look in the end, and in reality, I suspect that this ship will always be a work in progress. In the background, you've seen pictures of other detail bits that I've worked on, so here's some shots of those...fire lockers, hose reels, air stations, etc: Here's a view of the hose stations from Don Linton's model in /144: You can also see the landing light system I made. Here's how that started....with a tape measure. Then I went into Tinkercad and did some basic work...then I cut the item up into 3 parts to print it. The reflector lens, the light bar, and the base: And here they are assembled:

One of those 'additional details' is the ship's crane truck (see the crane theme going on here?) as seen in this picture from 1960, the RCN's 50th anniversary: Apparently, Bonnie had a couple of different crane trucks over the years, and apparently according to tales from the crew, one of them had to be replaced because the crane operator forgot to set his brakes and no-one chocked it...and the crane truck rolled off the deck into the ocean in high seas at one point. OOPS!!! So....I also referenced Don Linton's build in 1/144 scale that has ended up in the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa...he built the above crane truck as well in his version of the Bonnie: So. Off I went to make my version of this...and here's my result, version 2: You can see that I didn't get the rounded edges figured out....so....I went back to the drawing board, and we now have Version 3: Version 3 actually has adjustable support legs that swing out, the crane boom can be elevated and lowered, and the rollers actually roll. In the background, you can also see the deck tractors that I designed - again - a multiple version process that has seen improvements. Here's the 'final' version: And these are the images I based them on: