NavyShooter

Thank-you! I'm hoping this public visibility brings some interest, and maybe new folks in the door to some of our meetings.

Well, those who have been following me may be aware that my 'building slip' has been filled up with a 1/100 scale model of the RMS Titanic, and the 1/48 scale HMCS St Thomas - which, as of yesterday, have both been launched, and are no longer occupying dry-dock space in my garage. So, that means I can now do a bit of tidying up, and hopefully get back to working on the Bonnie again!! NS

RMS Titanic surfaces again at Halifax Public Gardens | CBC News We got on the CBC as well!!

Some additional photos from the launch!

She is now in the pond! Pics of the launch day! She went in along with the old model of Sackville, and our new model of the Titanic! A great time!

Here are some of the photos I got from today's launch! As you can see, we got the St Thomas in the pond as well, along with the old model they had of the Sackville. I ended up sending the tug out for a quick spin, it was a great day!

And here's the full article: Titanic model returning to Halifax Public Gardens | CTV News

Local media posted this up today: https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/photo-galleries/3d-model-of-the-rms-titanic-1.6936136?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

Absolutely! Should be going live Friday we hope!

Saturday's launch is approaching! Last night I did the 'stuff the hull with foam' part of the build. This morning, I met with a local reporter for a short interview about the build and the launch. I forwarded her the link to this build thread, and she's read through it with some intent to steal (with permission) some of the pictures and details. Turns out these threads can be useful!

We've got a confirmed date and time for the launch! Saturday the 22nd of June at 3 PM at the Halifax Public Gardens! If you're interested, drop on by to watch! NS

Currently installing FreeCAD...

One of the key things that 3D printing and CAD bring to the table is the ability to generate what is effectively a 'kit' from a set of plans for a ship that no company will ever produce a model of for you to build. Usually we call that scratch-building. The thing about doing it with 3D CAD though is that you can generate a model...and another model, and another...just by clicking print again. So, you can build yourself a fleet - or you can offer the model for others to build so they can have a model of your favorite ship as well. I have a plan in mind to help the local museum - I am working to do a 3D design of a ship they have in their collection, and I'm hoping to get the design workable for print in a couple of variations. First as a highly detailed model that is a great replica of the ship that I can produce in a suitable scale for floating in a pond myself as RC. Second, as a lower detail model, smaller in size, that can be fairly easily assembled by students doing a summer camp or March break program at the museum. My hope is to have that 'March break camp' something that the model club can contribute to, and do a presentation with the campers about 3D design, and then have each of them design an 'accessory' for their ship - something like a bollard, an anchor, a funnel, or whatever, using TinkerCAD, and we then print that item for them by the end of the week for them to assemble it onto their individual model boat. That's my concept. I'll see how that works out.

I've used TinkerCAD for simple projects - I started with firefighting lockers, then deck landing lights, flight deck tractors, then a crane truck. When I wanted to move up to designing a new island for the Bonnie, I moved to a program called Design Spark Mechanical (DSM) which has a free version as well. I've had some success with it, and for 'straight line' items like a hangar deck, a radar mast, that kind of thing, it seems to work well. Trying to loft a ships hull in it has been challenging, and not very successful for me (so far.) I'm interested in the DELFT Ship Free program, and will look into that. I'll note, all the aircraft are downloaded files, everything else here (hull and deck excluded) are my own designs in TinkerCAD and DSM. If you're just starting out, I'll suggest going with something simply like TinkerCAD, and start with a simple project like making bollards or lockers. Once you get the basics of the design, you have to consider how it will be printed. Understanding printing mechanics (how many wall layers will there be, is a single 0.4mm line better than a pair of 0.2mm lines...etc) and how you slice and support things is important as well. I am 6 years deep into 3D printing, and it's fun, and challenging. Getting good quality results off your printer requires a good design, a good model that's designed to be printed, a good printer, and good post-printing finishing.

That looks bloody amazing!!!!

Well, New modules printed over the weekend, last night I finished cutting out the old modules and installing the new ones. A good time to have a nice sharp, fine razor saw! Almost a perfect fit.

I ran across a pair of these at a Naval Base in Norway 25 years ago. They were in *rough* shape back then when the NATO fleet dropped in for a visit. I wonder if they've done anything with them since then. It was up near Bergen. Neat build!

The movie:

Hangar elevator modules #2 finished printing this morning....as I left for work I started printing the accommodation ladders - we'll see how that looks when I get home tonight.

As I wait for the hangar modules to print, I'm getting in some 3D design time. I was originally going to have a folding articulated accommodation ladder, but realize that this will exceed the limits of what I can do with my FDM printer, so I went back to basics, got some dimensions, and produced a swappable folded, or setup accommodation ladder. When the Elevators are done printing, and the anchor module, I'll be able to kick a couple of these out to test them out.

As I await the printer before I do anything further with the flight deck, I decided to have a look at the anchor system. Here's the 'anchor module' that I've designed. This will be about a 9 hour print. You can see at the top the 'ears' which will hold a 3mm brass rod that'll act as a spool for the chain to run across. Below that is the winch deck, and below that at the bottom is the cable well, and there's a solid 'bar' in the cable well to tie the end of the anchor cable around so that it isn't lost by running out all the way. We'll see how version 1 works...

Here's the problem....

Some careful measuring, scribing, and cutting this afternoon, and I've got the hangar deck cut-out done, and the hangar deck insert fits almost perfectly. That said, I realized that the design I made originally was factored around the 6mm thick wooden flight deck, so the top of each of the elevators actually projects 6mm up above the white 'pad' around it. That is....less than desirable. It means that I have to either do cut-outs around the elevators, or, re-print the elevator modules. So. I'm about to start re-printing the forward and after elevator modules. Again. Version 5 now...?

And...there's how she looks at the end of the day! Trimmed to fit, sanded, ready to think about cutting out the inserts tomorrow maybe.

It's not done yet....and I am still vaguely concerned about how many fingers I'm actually going to end up with at the end of it.