yvesvidal

Excellent subject. I will follow as I like that kit.

This kit is also available in 3D printing technology, but it is a lot more fun (and more realistic) to build it with wood.

Yves

Another virtual 3D printed kit that turned into a beautiful model. Congratulations.

Yves

2 minutes ago, Kevin said:

i am using valjello paints in the airbrush, i am struggling to get any consistency, but apparanty so do others, so i am just going for it, the primer was very patchy, and did not flake off, but had a  couple of runs, but sanded well

Vallejo is not allowed in my house !!! I know that may come as a big surprise (and insult to some), but their paints are very difficult to properly spray. Their primer is okay on plastic but will peel on PE and other metals parts. I am sticking to TAMIYA acrylic paints and mixing when the color is not available.

I feel for you Kevin.... with that shiny hull. It will be fine in the Monaco harbor at five o'clock for the tea !! 🙂

Yves

32 minutes ago, CDW said:

I have enjoyed following this build so much. Your finished model is superb, Yves. 

Thank you Craig and many thanks to all the people who have supported me, encouraged me and helped me with technical information. You all are the fuel that gets me going when times are difficult and when the motivation suffers....

As I have indicated, there will be another Virtual Kit in the future..... I am in the process of printing parts and gauging the feasibility of that behemoth on my small printer. It will be most unusual and not something that has ever been covered on this forum.

In the meantime, I am back on the Bellona.

Yves

Very nice workshop.

Yves

We never tire of watching a Mikasa being built.

Yves

You are doing good. It is nice to see that unusual boat on the forum.

Yves

That is fantastic work and this carving is gorgeous. You are a true artist.

The adjustable model bench/vise that you are using seems great. Where did you procure that tool?

Yves

Thank you for building one of my favorite vessels: Le Chebec. I will follow your log with a lot of interest.

Yves

You truly are building a museum piece. Precise, clean and heavily researched.

Yves

I was just weighing the Corvette model and it came at 3.163 Kgrs.

Knowing that each spool of PLA is 1 Kgr and that I had to use 3 spools, the amount of PLA seems right.

The excess weight are the stanchions, wood parts, propeller (brass 60 mm diameter) and paint.

Yves

Don,

This may not be the best forum for planes, but anything is welcomed. To get you started, you are in the right section, just hit the Start a New Topic box. 

Type your text and drag pictures into the lower section of the window.

When inserting a picture, place your cursor where you want that picture to display, go to the bottom, select the picture you want and hit insert.

At the end, just Save and it will be published. Very easy to use and one of the best engines for forums.

Yves

Superb racer and apparently very efficient on the water.

Yves

Very interesting and unusual boat. Exquisitely completed.

Yves

Fantastic job on that great kit.

Yves

Final photo shoot, the 1/48th scale fleet: 

Corvette and U-Boot: 

And a trip in time back to the XVIII century: 

Comparing these vessels is quite interesting.... the 74 guns period ships were just monstrous !!

I hope you enjoyed the Virtual kit building and my wish is that more models and kits will slowly become available. It is definitely a technology that deserves a lot of attention.

Yves

Well, it is also time to conclude on the building of this virtual kit. Overall, it has been a fantastic journey and it has given me an opportunity to learn a lot of new technologies and become familiar with 3D printing.

The kit in itself may seem crude but it provides a wonderful platform for an infinite amount of details and variants of these legendary vessels. It is not exactly inexpensive, but compares very favorably with the vast majority of 1/350 or 1/200 plastic scale models with their PE pimping kits.

Let's do a quick recap of the cost: 

• License with hundreds of parts: $ 50
• 3 spools and a half of PLA filament: $ 67
• 2 cans of automotive primer for the hull: $ 20
• Tamiya: Five large bottles of Flat White, one  bottle of Matte black, two bottles of dark grey and a couple of various colors.
• Lots of glue for plastic and CA glue.
• About $30 of wood strips and dowels
• 100 Caldercraft stanchions - 10 bags at $9 each - By far the most expensive item....
• Amati propeller in bronze $12
• Hundreds of printing hours and assembly....but that is part of the fun.

The kit can be made with basically three spools of PLA if you are very careful and do not waste any. PLA is very affordable and is actually the cheapest material in this kit. It also offers the characteristics to bio-degrade if you ever bury your model in the dirt: after 50 years, not much will be left. This can be important when compared with Polystyrene kits and models that will not disappear unless they are recycled and turned into bumpers, plastic bottles or other consumer parts.

The BENSWORX virtual kit comes with an excellent assembly guide and offers a plethora of parts, with a few minor exceptions. Most of the parts can be printed on a PLA printer. I would recommend fine and detailed parts to be printed in a resin printer, for better surfacing. Although it was not my objective, I really enjoyed pimping up this kit and trying to improve it in some simple ways. It offers a great foundation for modelers willing to recreate mini action scenes and large dioramas at 1/48th scale. More than anything else, it provides a terrific platform for Radio Control and navigation on a lake or pond. For rivets counters, procuring some parts (at great expense) from Shapeways or other printing shop may be a great way to sink your bank account and turn this virtual kit into a museum piece.

From Spools to model: 

I am going to stop at this stage, even though more hours could be dedicated to this model. I may add the smoke floats that were kindly provided by the two Kevin's from England, at a later time.

Will there be another Virtual kit presented on this forum? You bet there will and parts are already printing.... It will be another crazy and very unusual project. But in the meantime, I'd like to go back to HMS Bellona and make some progress on it.

Yves

Thank you Kevin for the drawings of the smoke float and Kevin-the-lubber for this great 3D rendering of the devices. I have made some progress with Meshmixer and know how to move, rotate, resize and cut planes. I will get to these devices to finalize the Corvette.

Yves

Great use of the tub !!! 🙂 The boat is doing well and seems to be correctly ballasted.

Yves

Beautiful model. Congratulations.

Yves

Thank you Kevin. Yes, I wished these would be available in the kit.

I am no expert with 3D modelling (actually completely ignorant...) and thus I would have to procure these Smoke Floats from another source.

Yves

Superb results. Your work is amazing.

Yves

17 minutes ago, aydingocer said:

BUILD DAY 37 / 2 hr / (TOTAL: 98 hrs)

The decals on carriage and head ends are ready, now finally it is time to assemble the carriage walls on the structure. A very delicate work where you use CA glue on a rather long structure and get the positioning right at first try. I dry tested and tested and tested and finally got the courage to do it. The idea of laying it on its side on a soft sponge helped get it done more easily.

That must be nerve wracking....  Have you thought about using Acrylic glue such as Gator Glue? It gives you plenty of time to position the parts. You can always re-enforce with CA glue later on.

Yves

2 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

 

Would this help:

 

Not really. Sackville is a completely different beast and much more modern vessel. I have studied the pictures of Sackville and I have to say that I am really impressed by how the Canadian museum association have restored that vessel.

In retrospect, building the Sackville instead of the Snowberry would have been a lot easier. However, the virtual kit does not have a lot of parts that can be found on the Sackville.

Yves

We are getting very close to the end of this project as far as we can ever finish a ship model, especially when using a large scale such as 1/48th.

The Module #6 (the rear deck) is almost complete, with its depth charges, chutes and ejectors: 

I understand that for some modelers, this rear deck seems a little bit empty and I completely agree with that opinion. I wish the kit provided the famous "Smoke Float Canisters" which are usually sitting on top of the depth charge chutes. I tried to study a few pictures of the stern of Snowberry, but could not get much in term of details or equipment. Most of the pictures I have seen are crowded with sailors, making it difficult to see what is installed on the deck. I should definitely place some ropes, laying on the deck....

A view of the rudder: 

The flag is made with silk paper printed on a color laser printer. This technique has been described by Chuck, a few times and provides a nice rendering  of a "floating in the wind" ensign.

I will try to post more overall pictures of the model, to conclude this build log.

Yves