Flower-Class Corvette by Yves Vidal - FINISHED - 1/48 - Bensworx Virtual Kit - 3D printed

[Tim Moore]

Awesome production Yves. So crisp and clean. 

[yvesvidal]

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

Edited February 4, 2022 by yvesvidal

[AON]

convincingly life like

BZ

[realworkingsailor]

12 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

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....

 

Would this help:

 

 

(HMCS Sackville for those who are curious)

 

There's a closeup photo in this article

 

Andy

[Ian_Grant]

Super super model! I still think it would make a magnificent RC model.

 

Pardon my ignorance on corvettes, but I'd have thought they'd carry as many depth charges as possible. The visible count seems low to me. Were more reloads stored below deck?

 

EDIT Out of curiosity I googled it 🙄 the flower class carried 70. I guess some were below.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Ian_Grant

[lmagna]

8 minutes ago, Ian_Grant said:

The visible count seems low to me. Were more reloads stored below deck?

If you looks at walkthroughs of HMCS Sackville you will see that they are slowly placing additional DCs in all kinds of places along companionways at each "upgrade" in her restoration. I suspect that this was the case in WWII as well and when the ship left port it would have them stuffed into any nook and cranny that worked, I think this is a work in progress.

 

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by lmagna

[yvesvidal]

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

Edited February 4, 2022 by yvesvidal

[realworkingsailor]

Sackville is only a year newer😜

 

I was more trying to help with the smoke cans on the stern, which are visible on her. Was there some drastic change in equipment?

 

Andy

[Landlubber Mike]

Yves, great job!  For the stern area, have you looked at the instruction manual for the kits that are out there?  They might be of some help.  I have the 1/72 and 1/144 Revell kits if you need any of that info.

 

Someone on Shapeways has a number of Flower Class Corvette detail items too if you're interested.

[Kevin]

[Kevin]

[yvesvidal]

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

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I'm easily distracted.... and a bit bored with what I'm doing today 🙂. You should be able to print these in FDM, probably want to put some supports for the side holes. I have no idea what these look like in the flesh so did one with a bottom, one without, and the F360 file is there too in case you have someone to tweak it.

smoke float.zip

[yvesvidal]

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

[yvesvidal]

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

Edited February 7, 2022 by yvesvidal

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Meshmixer... you're doing better than me, that programme is still a dark art to me. But apparently very very good when you know how to use it. These were a very simple and quick job in F360, it honestly only took about 10 or 15 minutes, so if Meshmixer doesn't give you what you want I'll happily modify at this end. Just post a sketch or message me.

[yvesvidal]

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

[Kevin]

very well done, lol wats next?

[lmagna]

You have certainly created an inspiring model Yves. I have no idea how you resisted the temptation to RC it and the ability to see it operate in it's proper element now and then. But all that aside the achievement and the talent it took to obtain it is nothing short of amazing.

 

I bought my grandson a 3D printer for Christmas and we put it together a few weeks ago. Your build makes me want to sneak into the other room and take it over for my own nefarious ends!

 

Can't wait to see what you print up and build next.

[king derelict]

Absolutely beautiful Yves. You took the base kit to a whole new level of detail and finesse. Having worked with the PLA plastic I can really applaud your finished model. It is difficult stuff to work with.

I need to continue along the road with my more pedestrian effort. I use your build log constantly for inspiration.

The virtual kit is a great concept and I would like to see more development in the field. 

Alan

[Landlubber Mike]

Great job Yves!  Thanks for sharing the adventure with us - it demystified a lot of this 3D printing stuff for me.  Looks great next to the sub!

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by Landlubber Mike

[ccoyle]

Super end result!

[mtaylor]

Wow... that made a great model and as for the fleet.... I'm speechless.

[bdgiantman2]

I enjoyed following this build, the Snowberry turned out great. You did a great job mixing the wood decking and metal (plastic) decking. Congrats on completing this ship model. 

[AJohnson]

Great looking model! 👏

[G.L.]

Beautiful work , Yves!

[clearway]

[yvesvidal]

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

Edited February 8, 2022 by yvesvidal

[Canute]

You've turned out a beauty, Yves. Well done. 👍

[CDW]

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