yvesvidal

It is really nice to see a more prototypical Nautilus being built, than the completely romanticized Disney Nautilus. When looking at the Gustave Dore drawings, the original Nautilus was very sleek and very similar to the model you are building.
 
Yves

It is really nice to see a more prototypical Nautilus being built, than the completely romanticized Disney Nautilus. When looking at the Gustave Dore drawings, the original Nautilus was very sleek and very similar to the model you are building.
 
Yves

Done so far, phew. I have to continue to paint the figures and to clean up my bench, which I guess will take longer than the build itself .



















Cheers Rob

Final steps ahead, luckily. The huge airframe and the delicate details make working on the big bat more and more difficult. The issues fixed to parts torn loose ratio turns worse .

I assembled the elevators and the rudder and added steering cables for the rudder. the fittings were made from split brass rod to add some more detail.



Finally, I reassembled the guns, the worst part of the build and installed them into the gun mounts onto the gun rings.





There will be a lot of final touch ups and then the big bat is finished.

Cheers Rob

Thanks to everyone for looking in and laughing at my lame Barbie joke.  Hope I at least brought a smile to a few faces.
 
I've now pretty much completed the chassis as supplied by the kit with the addition of the spark plug wires.  I hope to add a few more wires and hoses around the engine based on pictures of the real thing, just to make it look a bit more realistic and a bit busier.  The one remaining part of what I'll call the chassis is a sort of shelf unit in the back.  The mufflers hang off of the underside of that shelf and then there are additional exhaust pipes to connect the headers to the muffler and then pipes out the back of the car.   The kit also has a fully detailed compartment under the front bonnet, including spare tire, and that is next.
 

Thanks guys...There are a lot of things I could work on next but I am eager to get the decks planked.   So next up I will make all the coaming and gratings down the center line so I can plank around them.   Once that is done I will add the waterway and start on the fun bits.   It should come together rather quickly once I plank the decks.  A quick look at sheet 5 still being tweaked which has all of those details.   
 
 

2 First up are the sources for drawings. 
 
I went to the Smithsonian catalogue and ordered the McManus design for both Oriole and Elizabeth Howard as prepared by Howard Chapelle.    Note this is actually very easy to do once you have hold of their catalogue.  It is unfortunate that it is not on line….[I think].
1.    Here are the hull plans they shipped. They are basically at 1:32 scale just off a hair.    
Before we get to the hull let’s gather all the other info we plan to use. There are no surviving drawings of the on-deck configuration nor sail plans, but artistic license should warrant a “close enough: / generic finishing above deck. So let’s find some photos.  Here is before bowsprit and racing with a bowsprit.
2.  this view is one of two images I am after….note there is no bowsprit in the image. This shows the working vessel.   
3    here we are racing in all her glory….the likely choice.       The other option having no deck plans could have been to use the great hull drawings and do all the in between framing and show it in the yard under construction.      I chose not to follow that approach for the "White Ghost" of Maine.  I think it is the sailing image of such a short lived thoroughbred racer to be the better way to go, so off we go.
To complete my outreach at this point for the above deck, I will use two photo documents and will annotate them.   Once again, I have taken a broadside photo and embedded it in cad and scaled it. I found it strange with the subtle roll to starboard of the hull in this image, the masts are absolutely plum.  I will add a bit of a rake as can be seen above.
4   .                          here is screen shot.  
5    by example of the next steps, here is the spar plan.    
6    here is the first sail plan. I will later do one for each sail. Where like this mainsail where they are larger than tabloid 11”x17” my printer limits, I have added coordinates to lay out the pattern manually.   Smaller sails will simply be printed. To place furniture on deck I will use the 1919 photo of her in the water swamped to give running on deck dimensions for the cabins that are visible.   There are also a few online images for Bulwarks etc.   
7    Here is the partially annotated photo of on deck.    
8    here is sample of online deck views .  Yes that is Columbia with I assume Captain Ben Pine ahead of us.
I will then use Gertrude Theobald and Columbia plans that I have rolled up somewhere [ the once upon a time to build list] for added guidance.  More on that when we get there.
Cheers 
 

1 part b the oops revisited.  
 
Thank you all for your interest.  the short answer is Allan once again is right on. I add this reply to the first post.
 
I am  happy that I will be able to answer the query as to what is in the photo of the January 1919 accident.  Fortunately, there are a few more views that I share here.  As the story goes, three years after her launch she was sailing by on her way to Boston and decided to come into the yard of her birth for a pit stop.  The crew at the time were most likely not local Mainers, Boothbay at any rate. When they anchored, they were over a ledge, and unfortunately, they all went ashore for a break.  Town is about two miles or so away and out of view. As the tide went out, over she went.   See these two added photos.
4.    looking East across the Damariscotta River  5    Looking west toward east Boothbay.  That is the Hodgdon Brothers yard in the view.  I took the image I shared before and annotated if for the record.  In this view of interest, one can also see all three of the 1919 active yards of East Boothbay.    One can then see the derrick barge beyond the hull.  Presumably this photo is after they had pumped and rolled her back a bit. If one looks clearly ,as Allan did, the lighter colored bow is there.   
 
6    here we see the annotations. In these early days she sailed as designed with no bow sprit.  That appendage came later when racing.
 
Just for fun I share a more recent photo of other sailors “ from away” coming into Boothbay and anchoring over a ledge….oops.  
7.     sailors “ from Away” fortunately, this event ended well as reportedly the crew had a nice evening in town and then about midnight, at high tide,  Sea Tow got them away.
Cheers 
 

1 The beginning   
 
This part of a build tends to take the longest time.  I have been mulling over modeling this schooner for at least 5 years.  Where to begin?   My introduction to her was seeing two pictures at our local Boothbay Region Historical Society. One view was of her launch and a second of an accident later in the same home harbor. 
 
 
 
1      launch day  
2    oops inexperienced crew perhaps better said " from away" anchored over a ledge, and we have 10-foot tide.    
 
The story and other images are in our local newspaper as a history article.   It was January 1919, and she was full of fish.  They pumped her out, took her to town, unloaded the fish, and raised her on the railway.   All was well so then back to work. She was more of a hauler of mackerel than a fisherman in those days. 
 
 
Having recently completed my big Bluenose I moved onto other builds.   Then a few years later I learned about her racing history….wow and from Maine too!
3.     great view as she completed the Lipton Cup race in 1923 with Ben Pine at the wheel. this image came from Facebook site for the Fisherman Festival in Gloucester  
I then fell into an article from NRJ vol 46 starting on page 12.    A member, Daniel Turner, did yeoman’s work to uncover the story of her mysterious length.   Unfortunately, there are no surviving records from the Adams Shipyard here in Boothbay.  Paul Adams, a grandson to the last builder is past 95.   Sharp as a tack, he came to my talk a few years back on the history of the Boothbay Shipyards and sat in the front row.  He corrected a spelling in one of my slides but alas when talking after he had nothing to do with the yards.  As a matter of record, they had closed by 1921.
Back to the story of why this build.   I am trying to build things for each of our yards.  The Adams family shipbuilding started about 1810 and ended 110 years later.   Pinky schooners first and then many schooners, a few brigs, a ship, and other vessels ending with some tugboats and a motor yacht in 1920.  Their last sailing vessel was the 3-masted schooner, Priscilla Alden. launched in 1918.  I started to build a model of that schooner a few years back, but the records here showed a discrepancy in length of the Priscilla Alden, that I documented there and had to make a choice of who to follow. I chose to defer and build another schooner, the Ada Cliff built across town. 
 
Having recently built two steel hulled vessels I felt it time to go back in time a bit and take on another Schooner. I have about 5 of them on my to-build list and the White Ghost looks like a fun place to start.   I highly recommend any schooner lovers out there, especially any Mainers or Bluenose people to chase down the NRJ article The Schooner Elizabeth Howard and enjoyed it. Ten years ago, I built a big Bluenose [ 1:24 scale]. I went to Lunenburg twice over that build and fell in love with the saga of the Fisherman’s Cup Races.
 
In several books they talk about the challenger, but some focus was given to the field of contenders. More so when like the Starling Burgess designed Schooner Mayflower owners tried to enter. What they had built was truly a racing machine that only looked like a fisherman. She was kept out of the races due primarily to the small volume below decks set up to race and not to collect fish. It is interesting to note that one of the schooner Elizabeth Howard’s options was to be sold to the schooner Mayflower owners to use as a match boat if Mayflower ever would be qualified for the Fisherman Cup.
There is a bit of fate to this story too.   The Schooner Elizabeth Howard was bult in 1916 and was quickly followed by her 126-foot sister the Louise Howard in 1917.   To satisfy her owner, Thomas McManus took is 1908 design for the schooner Oriole and extended her bow.   As said above…she had to be fast!  In her early years she was known for speedy long runs full of fish that she typically bought in Nova Scotia to race south. She was reported to do 16 knots in a good blow.  When the Fisherman Cup races became popular in 1920, her owner wanted to get involved.
 
The problem she had at first was that she was not associated with the Gloucester in-crowd.  With a New York owner, and having been built in Maine, she was not accepted to enter the races.   After the 1921 loss to Bluenose the Americans were scrambling for the next year rematch.   The top two schooners to contend amongst four were Henry Ford and Puritan.  The Puritan, designed by Starling Burgess, was launched in March 1922.  As part of her prequalification, she was off to the grand banks to fish.   Disaster struck and she was lost in her first summer. Ben Pine [ future Columbia and Gertrude Theobald skipper] was preparing to race her so now he was looking for help. After Elizabeth made a reported amazing fast sailing return trip to Boston from the banks and the schooner Puritan was lost, Ben Pine, made arrangement to get Elizabeth qualified. He then took her on and in 1922.   In the best 2 of 3 series, she raced but broke a topmast on the first day and was beaten by the schooner Henry Ford in light air on the second day.  The Schooner Henry Ford competed for the Fisherman’s Cup but lost to Bluenose. 
 
Elizabeth won the Lipton Cup races  in 1923 but after that win, Ben Pine moved on to the new Starling Burgess designed Columbia.   There is a large collection of photo images of these races on the Boston Library website.  Elizabeth’s distinct white hull surely makes an impression, and it is easy to see how she got her name…the White Ghost. The unfortunate end of her story connects her fate to the schooner Puritan. It was later in the fall of 1923 when just like Puritan, she was lost off the coast of Nova Scotia. 
 
What was her length?
 
Let’s look at her lines for a moment.   Daniel’s NRJ article touches on the racing and then proposes a solution to the length mystery saga of the Elizabeth Howard.  She was designed by the renown Thomas F. McManus.  Howard Chapelle includes the lines of Elizabeth Howard shown annotated over the lines of an earlier 1908 schooner Oriole.   The schooner Oriole was 127 feet at the rail.  The only change was to push the bow forward [ in scale] 6.5 feet.    The only reason to do this would be for speed. she started as a knockabout [ no bowsprit]. The confusion comes from a note on the Chapelle document stating the length at the rail being 148.  
 
The short version of Daniels work is a follows.
•    A Fisherman Cup racing vessel must be less than 150 feet.
•    The reported bowsprit added to Elizabeth was 14 feet long.
•    If one scaled the Chapelle drawing showing the extension one gets 133’6”
•    Add the bowsprit and you are under 150 at the recorded 148 feet.
Go with the 133’6”.     I think that is more than good enough and it is what I will try to build.  
 
 All for now
 

Life finds a way (to get in the way) but some progress has been made, the keel and rabbet is assembled and I have sanded a first approximation of the head taper.
The scale of the model hit home in a different way when the keel was laid. Its quite large, in a good way. Having it occupying the desk is different from the theory of it will be 32"  :).


 
 
I'm not sure whether the taper should be continued down towards the waterline or stop roughly as it does now. Also unsure if it should be taken further towards the stern. For the figure to sit without any tension I should reduce the width a bit more, fractions of a millimetre, but I'm starting to eat into the thinner knee (correct part name? the fancy piece with notches). Perhaps that's as it should be?

 
Chuck, thanks for the advice on sanding parts while in the sheet!
When sanding the head I had to remove to much material around the box joint, I think I did a bad job when clamping the pieces during gluing so they were not perfectly in plane. I didn't really notice how much I removed at the time but it became obvious when mating the head to the keel. Next I plan to sand the keel around the box joint in the problem area to get a nice transition from head to keel. It will be a bit thinner that it should be but it is what it is. After that I will finish sanding the surface with high grit and apply some surface protection before mounting the aprons.


 
The kit came with enough spare parts for one additional complete head and keel assembly so I'm toying with the idea of assembling that and comparing the results. Possibly using poly for one and shellac on the other, for science as it were.

I'm greatly enjoying the project so far, it delivers on creating a sense of building the model, rather than assembling it, which is what I was hoping for.

That looks very good.  You will always have various lips and small areas to be sanded like that.  
 
Also a Tip…sand both sides of the sheet before you remove the parts in order to clean the laser char spots.  
 
 

After some delays due to Easter I collected my Speedwell kit yesterday and was able to get started today.

New to the forum, I noted that Chuck would like to see buildlogs and figured why not, I can use all the help I can get. This is definitely a deep end type project for me and I expect that I will be building quite slowly. Happily I seem to have gotten a generous amount of spare parts.

Started with the stem, not sure if I did something wrong but I ended up with a bit of a ledge along the curved inboard surface. Attempted to remove the ledge by sanding along the joint marked in red, which seems to have worked out ok.



 

 
This is where I'm at with a loose dry-fit, will sleep on it and try to refine the joint a bit more before glueing.

I have completed the rabbet strip and the false keel. Looking good so far and goes together easily.
 

Getting the fourth truncated cone to conform to the previous required a few clothespins 

Wind of change 
USS Bunker Hill by Arii

After my trip in Malaysia I came back pretty loaded to continue my task

 

Fish Hold Modifications Pt 1
 
My purpose for modifying the fish hold depth was to add interesting detail to the model.  
 
I began the fish hold modifications by using a height gage to mark positions for fish net platform supports.  Because I didn’t have a sense of the model’s rigidity and etc. at this point, I didn’t want to alter bulkhead (BH) 6 or the false keel to the point where I would  potentially compromise the hull form or structural integrity of the kit. 
 

 

 
My decision on the heights of the net platform supports was a balance of getting a net to fit in the hold, hide the false keel and BH 6, and yet also be able to position the net so portions of the hold depth and etc. are visible.  These platform supports largely won’t be visible, esp. along the false keel, once netting is added to the hold.
 
I then laid the fish hold frame (part 22) on top of the subdeck that in turn was laid over part 19 (it’s kind of sub-subdeck).  The purpose here was to mark where I would make my initial cut outs in part 19 to deepen the fish hold.
 

 

 
I then marked positions for lower supports onto BHs 5, 6, and 7.  The purpose for these lower supports is hold bracing inserts that should help compensate for the weakening of part 19 due to its cutouts.  The bracing inserts will also serve as platforms onto which stanchions will be glued.
 

 
I also traced the outlines of BHs 5 and 7 onto basswood and then cut out those traced BHs.  These BH cutouts were then glued to BHs 5 and 7 so that the fore and aft sides of the fish hold aligned with the fish hold subdeck cutout.
 

 
Cheers,
Jay
 

Build Adaptations
 
I mentioned in my comparison of the RMG and Beale “True Vine” models above that my intent was not to be critical of either build; indeed, I have no room to throw stones at either model since my model will also deviate from Oke and Marsh’s Vine plans.
 
To see how much I could adapt the Vine to Eleanor, I 1st prepared the below quick-and-dirty overlay of the Vine’s key features onto Elanor’s deck plan.  This was relatively painless using a pair of proportional dividers because the Vine’s scale is 1:32 (3/8” to the foot) and Eleanor’s scale is 1:64 (3/16” to the foot) and thus works out to a straightforward 1:2 ratio.
 

 
A feature of the Vine that I went back and forth over during my research is her poop deck.  Ultimately what persuaded me to not include it were a passage from Marsh, contemporary photos, and finally what was esthetically appealing to my eye.
 
When Oke took off the Vine’s lines in 1936, she had already had undergone considerable alterations to include having been fitted with a motor (Marsh, “Drifters” 271).  Marsh infers the poop deck may have been fitted onto the Vine after she had a wheelhouse fitted, along with other major alterations, when her motor was installed well after she was built in 1905 (“Drifters” 271).  Although a poop deck / deck superstructure is a common feature of Zulus, I found no similar examples on any Fifies during my research.  Indeed, the Vine’s poop deck is strikingly similar to the circa 1905 Zulu that Marsh discusses on page 265 and also provides a photo of (“Drifters” plate 173).
 
After reaching my decision about Vine’s poop deck, I then created a series of drawing layers (an old school version of Photoshop…LOL) using the kit’s plain subdeck  .
 
The purpose of the 1st layer drawing was to get a sense of where the Vine’s deck fittings were in relationship to Eleanor’s fittings and to also get a sense for how additional modifications that I want to make will align with respect to Eleanor’s keel and bulkhead framing.  In case someone’s reading this, I inked in the wrong lines of the fore room hatch on this layer, so it’s proportions are a wee bit off…. 
 

 
The purpose of the 2nd layer was to see were and how changes I’ll make will impact part 19 in the kit, which I’ll go into when I start building.
 

 
The purpose of the 3rd layer was to get an idea of where the Vine’s deck fittings will land with respect to the boat’s deck planking.  Essentially I want to avoid having splinters for deck planks because of deck fittings placement.  While I won’t 100% know how the deck planking will work in relation to deck fittings until I actually start planking the deck, I did make few slight placement changes at this stage to align with my deck plank sizes and approximately where they’ll land on the deck.  Also I fixed the proportions of the fore room deck hatch on this layer. 
 

 
The keen observer will notice the deck outline on the 3rd layer slightly differs from the deck outline on the 1st layer….  I used the printed maple deck to draw the outlines on the 1st and 3rd layers.  However, because the printed deck really curls upward, I flipped this deck over to its unprinted side to compensate for its curl.  When I inked deck outline on the 1st layer, I didn’t notice I had reversed the bow and stern ends of the printed deck when I flipped it over.  Although my goof didn’t impact deck fittings positions, it did give me a laugh when I caught the mistake when I started working on the 3rd layer drawing.
 
After I finished the 3rd layer drawing, I then transferred that layer’s deck fitting positions onto the kit’s subdeck.  The green lines on the subdeck mark deck beam positions taken from the kit’s printed maple deck, and I’ll use these lines as rough guides when it comes time to figure out the deck’s butt shifts.
 

 
Cheers,
Jay
 
 

“True Vine” Models
 
Although I may sound critical with my assessment that follows of the RMG and Beale “True Vine” models, that’s absolutely not my intent.  My intent here was only to describe how each model significantly differs from the Vine’s plans.
 
The Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) model of the “True Vine” in its collection and Tom Beale’s model (see Will Taylor reference entry) of her can hopefully give one a sense of her Oke and Marsh plans.
 
Of the 2 models, Beale’s version is closer to Oke and Marsh’s plans than is the RMG version.  However, the RMG lists no information about when its model was built or who its builder was, so it’s possible the RMG model was built off different plans than Oke and Marsh’s.
 
The thwarts just aft of the midships on the RMG version are not in Oke and Marsh’s plans; also, this model version appears to not have a warp room hatch.  I will discuss later in my log the nets on model’s port side. 
 

Source:  RMG, www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-68796.
 
Beale’s worm drive mechanism at the stern of his model doesn’t align with the Vine’s plans.  I’ll go into more detail about the Vine’s worm drive when I reach that point in my build.  Also while the knees on the starboard side of the tabernacle on Beale’s model are not in Oke and Marsh’s plans, I think their addition by Beale was a misinterpretation of Marsh. 
 
In “Sailing Drifters” page 271, Marsh describes the Vine’s foremast as being stepped into a tabernacle with “side bridges.”  Earlier on page 249, Marsh discusses the “Gratitude” and describes how its foremast is also stepped into a tabernacle with “bridges.”  However in addition to his description, Marsh also includes a drawing of the foremast tabernacle (figure 64) that is without knees and then further directs the reader to plate 152, which is a photograph of the forward end of the “Gratitude” and clearly shows the vessel’s tabernacle which does not have knees.
 
Until I read page 249 and studied the accompanying figure and plate, I was also thrown by Marsh’s term “side bridges” and thought he may have meant knees but was confused because there aren’t any tabernacle knees depicted in the Vine plans.  After I read page 249, and then looked back again at Vine’s plans, it became clear to me that Marsh’s “side bridges” term referred to a tabernacle’s framing versus being his term for tabernacle knee braces.
 
Beale’s choice to depict the Vine with sails set and nets draped from the mainmast while in drydock is interesting but likely was a stylistic choice—no stone throwing there  because I’m going to include a few stylistic embellishments in my build, too.
 

 
Cheers,
Jay
 

Kit Overview
 
Since there are currently 10 other “Lady Eleanor” logs on MSW (of which 7 are completed) that depict and describe the kit, I figured I would just post an obligatory kit-box shot and not go into detail with additional kit photos and content descriptions because that information is already available. 
 
Though with the above said, I do want to say that the 70% completion stat for Eleanors speaks volumes about the skill, hard work, and both attention to detail and attention to quality Chris has put into designing kits that beginners can succeed at building. 
 
Absolutely brilliant! 
 
Cheers,
Jay
 

It's coming together! (Thanks for all the likes and comments)
 
Yesterday I added decals to the hull and conning tower, using "Tamiya Mark Fit'. Tricky because of the debth decal sizes but I am very pleased as they look great.

 
The next job was to nervously start the weathering. I mixed two rust colours using a combination of Vallejo German Orange, Artesania Latina Hull Red, Royal Blue and Deep Yellow. The colours are ok, but I think I want to add a black, grey or brown wash to give an overall aging appearance and play down the possibly excessive weathering on the port side air tanks.

 
A Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color (of 1/1 Black/Grey) also added a little extra but is not very noticeable. I think the straight black would be too dark.


 
Cheers, Peter
 
 
 

A bit more progress on Echo. I took some time over the weekend and studied the framing tables supplied by Admiralty for the cross-section, sorted through wood, made copies of the frame patterns and started work on the deadflat frame. I also made the framing square jig, the pattern for which is also included with the other documentation for this build - it is suggested to use heavy card for this, but having an ample supply of 1/16" basswood strip, I decided to use that. 
 
For the deadflat frame, I first cut out templates of the individual frame elements, but realised that cutting and refining the chocks and cross chocks might be done more precisely and efficiently if I made billets for this purpose. The chocks and crosschocks are made from different thicknesses of boxwood depending on their location - 10.5", 10" and 8.25". The cross chocks for the forward frames are all 10". So I made 4 billets - 1 10.5" x 5/8" x 3 1/4", 1 10" x 5/8" x 3 1/4", 1 8.25" x 5/8" x 2 1/4" and for the cross chocks 10" x 1 3/4" x 2 1/2". I cut these billets over long for the number of chocks required so I could use the excess as a handle to refine the angled portions of the chocks on my disc sander. The straight edge will be cut using a chisel and refined by hand.
 
I have yet to refine the futtocks so the images below show them as I rough cut them on the bandsaw.
 
Enjoy and bye for now!
hamilton
 

Next the forward superstructure. Assembly is quite similar to the rear control deck:
 

 

 
Lastly is the hangar deck:
 
Straight forward assembly:
 

 
Then add it to the hull:
 

 
Ready to go on its stand:
 

 
Still a swarm of small parts and detail painting to go before its finished, but its a bit closer.

Then onto the rear control deck. Assembly of the parts is quite straight forward, but there is a reasonable amount of detail parts to be added:
 

 

 

 
And finally I can add it to the hull:
 

 
 

Basically, the model is done in four parts.
 
Hull Rear control superstructure Hangar Deck superstructure Forward control Superstructure  
The hull is assembled after a bit of adjustment  and some sanding and reinforcing steel bar added to the keel for support, I finally have a hull ready to go.
 
Cross members and deck supports  added to hull.
 

 
First touch of paint is for the waterline stripe. Just a touch of black covering at least the required area:
 

 
Then a careful application of masking for the waterline:
 

 
Then a shot of red anti-foul:
 

 
Mask of the red, don't need to be very careful here as I just masked onto the previous black masking.
 

 
First gray tone:
 

 
Then mask the bits I want to keep:
 

 
Second gray tone:
 

 
Then mask the bits of that I want to keep:
 

 
Finally shoot the last gray tone:
 

 
Then finally I can unmask it and see what I have:
 

 
Glue in the first deck plate:
 

 
Then the second piece and so on until they are all in place:
 

 

No great objections. So it begins..
 
I have published the build files for this project here.
 
I have worked on and off 1/200 scale models of Bismarck and Tirpitz over the last 30 years. I have completed a 1/200 Hatchette Bismarck, a Scratchbuilt 1/200 RC Tirpitz in MDF and Cardboard (Yes...MDF), and am currently working on this 3D printed version.
 
I started this model based only on FDM printing, but after some time realised that I could not get the level of detail required with FDM alone so started shifting parts to SLA resin printing. This model is therefore, a hybrid SLA FDM 3D printed model.
 
Equipment used is, but not limited to,2 Prusa MK3S printers, both Bears modified and one with the extended Z Axis height, a Protech RPE1 Resin printer and an Creality Wash and Cure station for Resin printing. I also have an assortment of cutters, sanding medium, Air brushes and Dremel tools along with various other bits of hobby grade tools and equipment. Nothing too fancy (apart from possibly waaay too many 3D printers, you could probably get by with just 1 FDM printer)
 
I have access to Laser cutters, CNC routers and lathes and a full custom PCB Lab with photo etch facilities and an SMD pick and place robot, but these are a bit excessive and will not be used with this model. I think.. maybe the Photo Etch facility, but I will try not too.