TEV Wahine by Richard Dunn - Radio - scale 1:35 - 1965

[Richard Dunn]

I will look at those, but the deck is a rubber/cork compound and is smooth but it ages really quickly.

I have done a lot of plastic kits in my life and am familiar with dry brushing and hand painting weathering techniques but this is on a scale that has large areas of deck I need to cover and in the video below you can see the effect, I am thinking sponges and subtle changes in value.

I am using automotive paint but deck can be different as it's being done off ship.

The decks however are still primed with single pack acrylic primer
at the time of her foundering she was almost due for her 2 year survey as a guide to amount of weathering.

Here is a model at 17:10 , the best weathering job I have ever seen and the way the decks are done is SUPERB I want to know how to do this. go to 17: 10  

I have soo many images I could show but cant for copyright reasons but this sad shot does show the decking in its worn state.

 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

Another question

Lights, in particular these light on sides of superstructure.

I have small led bulbs for these and I will make the actual fitting from a resin printed model, the lens being clear resin, but in regard to the wiring you will notice they are connected with 25mm conduit, should I fake those only and wire through the back or could I use .8mm copper wire to make conduit and use that to wire lights?
Would the wire get hot? and ruin white paint.

This ship has a LOT of these lights, I think 250 all up over several decks of course and not all on same circuit, I reckon maybe 20 per circuit

Advice?
 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Jim Lad]

I'm no electrician, Richard, but I think I'd be inclined to make dummy conduits along the bulkheads and wire from inside.  That way you eliminate any possible risks to your paintwork from working wires.

 

John

[mtaylor]

I'd go for the hidden method.   The reason is one wire with DC and multiple LED's will create a problem as the further down the line of lites, the dimmer they will be due to the voltage drop of the LEDs. The catch is, that I know it happens with light bulbs but not sure about LED's as it depends on voltage, current draw, and amount of resistance in each LED.  I'd test it first and make sure it'll work.  If you see dimming at the far end of the line, maybe you can use double strand but I doubt there's any thin enough.

[Richard Dunn]

I found this pdf online here by Gary Roberts and thought I would share it as it is very handy.
LEDLightingForModelShips.pdf

 

 

[lmagna]

I have done this in the past.

 

I run the lights in parallel so I can run as many lights as needed. (LED) I run one wire externally making it look like conduit by gluing it directly to the bulkhead. The other wire with the resisters runs inside parallel to the string of lights. this is very easy to install and maintain and I have used wire as small as 80 microns for six running lights on a WWII warship, and have not generated any heat in years of off and on running. There is no need to use insulated wire when run like this. If you ran surface mount resisters they could possibly be run externally as well and hidden behind the light fixtures, but to be honest I see little value in that. Dollhouse ribbon self adhesive wiring strips also work quite well but of course have to be installed internally or painted over externally and still don't look quite right.

[Richard Dunn]

This is giving me some things to think about... darn it I don't like thinking after I have finished work.

The main thing is I need to design a system so I can bore the holes in the shell to allow it all to be hooked up and at the same time be able to change an LED bulb if it goes.
the other thing to is I need to be able to dim the lights, not with a knob or anything but to the right level to match the ship.
Just so you guys can see what the lighting is going to be and how insane  actually am.

So we have decklights on walls, flouro tubes under decks  and halogen spotlights on funnel.

Here we see 3 types

Type 3 there is only 6 of on whole ship but the brightest by far (halogens).

Type 2 are only over lifeboats and can be left as leds are by default

Type 1 is the most common
Type 4 is the flouros in mounts under decks, and yes all that framing is going in under see decks.

putting this up as well in case it interests anyone, but this shows how much data I have, very rare case indeed.

Arrangement of lighting circuits, A deck, captain's, navigation bridge and wheelhouse top.TIF

Arrangement of lighting circuits, A deck, captain's, navigation bridge and wheelhouse top.TIF

Edited May 12, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

I would like to know what people think of these main windows, compared to photo, keep in mind there are 180 of these  to make and they are only 11 x 16mm

Getting some collapse of the vertical walls, I don't want to go any thicker though so might need to play with resin settings,

[Richard Dunn]

OK so I have done a test and I am underexposed quite a bit

[Dr PR]

I would definitely run all the wiring internally. This protects it from being damaged, as might happen with the external wires. Just run dummy wires externally, and if one gets damaged it will be MUCH easier to replace than a wire that is part of the electrical circuit!

 

There are two ways to dim the LEDs. One is to pick the right resistor value to get the brightness you want with the voltage you are using. Larger resistor values = lower current = lower light output.  The other is to change the voltage output of the power supply. You can do this by placing one power resistor (large enough to handle the total current flowing in the circuit (power in Watts = current times voltage).

 

Do not forget to take into account the heat all of these LEDs and their power supply will generate. Just assume that all the power will come out as thermal energy inside your model.  Some power is actually lost as light, but assuming all will be heat gives you a safety margin. You may want to have a small ventilation fan to force airflow through the model.

[Jim Lad]

Those window frames look pretty good, Richard.

 

John

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Richard, I’m guessing that your walls are about 0.3 to 0.5? It looks too like you’re printing straight off the plate. I’ve found with small, delicate pieces like these that it’s best to angle them and use thin supports. However, anything this thin will be inherently fragile unless you’re going to put strength back with the glazing. It’s also worth trying different resins and religiously using their recommended settings as the base, paying attention to things like lift speed. I’ve just started learning that these can make the difference between ‘perfect’ and ‘fail’.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Ps. I’ve also found that adding some meat to frames where that is hidden can make a lot of difference i.e. do a flange around the back and recess it into the bulwark if necessary.

[Richard Dunn]

I have done some tweaks to the exposure times and got a pretty descent print on the Phrozen test, tomorrow I will try some more windows.

Not the best shot, Wife is getting a new macro lens next week so that will be good

[Richard Dunn]

These frames get glued onto 2mm clear so plenty of support and need to keep the back flat and smooth, that's why I chose to build on plate

[Richard Dunn]

2 hours ago, Dr PR said:

Do not forget to take into account the heat all of these LEDs

Dr PR does a single led create much heat? like if I make resin printed light fitting for them would it melt the resin?

[Richard Dunn]

1 hour ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

It’s also worth trying different resins and religiously using their recommended settings as the base, paying attention to things like lift speed. I’ve just started learning that these can make the difference between ‘perfect’ and ‘fail’

Yeah Kevin I got the latest recommendations for the resin I use which is Phrozen aqua 4k grey and it had changed from the default resin profile, so after I updated it the result is the test above, that text is insane fine and its properly formed.
am considering a harder resin but this resin is supposed to be the best for fine detail and yes you are spot on .3mm is the wall thickness

Edited May 14, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Kevin-the-lubber]

1 hour ago, Richard Dunn said:

that text is insane fine and its properly formed.

That looks more like it. The resolution capability of these printers is, as you say, outstanding. I haven't tried the phrozen resin. I find elegoo abs very good, but unrestrained objects can warp a little over a few days post-curing; and I've been using syratech fast for when I want more strength or rigidity, but at a slight loss of detail. I'm going to splash out on one bottle of syratech blue shortly, just to see whether it really is the bees knees, as I have some very, very small load bearing things that I'd hate to have to replace if they break along the way. I'd reiterate that it's worth paying close attention to the detailed settings, usually available on the manufacturers website, and not just altering the exposure time. Slowing down the lift speed has been a game changer for me on a few objects.

 

On a completely different topic, Richard, I'm going to try my first hull shortly - only a tiddler, a simple little jolly boat, but I'll be going back through your video for all the tips and tricks.

[Kevin-the-lubber]

7 hours ago, Richard Dunn said:

These frames get glued onto 2mm clear so plenty of support and need to keep the back flat and smooth, that's why I chose to build on plate

That should made them pretty solid. While I'd like to print on the plate more often, I don't like the elephants foot effect, especially if the part has to fit to another, so in these instances I use supports and, contrary to logic, put them on the facing side, so I still get a reliable mating surface. Most of the time it's fairly quick to polish up the face

[Richard Dunn]

6 hours ago, Kevin-the-lubber said:

I don't like the elephants foot effect

If I understand correctly that is caused by the longer exposure time of the 6 base layers, I might try reducing that as the recommended is 25-35 and I maxed it to 35, as long is it stays on the plate I might try 30 next, its not like there Is any weight in the part.
Let me know if you need any help with hull.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

Fast running out of patience with printing, when tests work well and prints fail despite the model being fine.

[Jim Lad]

Hang in there mate!!

 

John

[Richard Dunn]

I have found something interesting.
when I ran the ctb from lychee on the printer the slices on the display were not complete even though they were in Lychee and no holes where present.
I switched to Chitubox and ran same file, it displayed on printer screen correctly and guess what! it printed properly to.
Its curing in the uv now

[Richard Dunn]

Lychee

Same file in Chitubox

Edited May 15, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Kevin-the-lubber]

Are all the settings identical? That looks like something is slightly different in Lychee. I use both lychee and chitubox, generally prefer the latter as I hate having to wait for the ads to finish in lychee, but I do like being able to mirror supports. One thing I have learned with resin is that changing the exposure by just a small amount I.e. half a second, can make the difference. But it can be hugely frustrating. One other thought - Brisbane can get damn hot, and temp plays a part, though in your case I’d have thought it should be needing slightly shorter exposures.

[Richard Dunn]

Well I can print but only one window in the middle of the build platform at a time, that tells me he calibration is off but as far as I can tell its not, so I have to decide, the whole point was too save time but I can make a window from styrene and assemble it faster than print.
Also tried to print some .5mm bolt heads and round rivet heads,, no go as too small for res of screen... not sure how they make the commercial ones but not with one of these.

[Richard Dunn]

air con is on at 24 degrees and yes same settings for both.
Now I expect they will curl up and be useless anyway.

Edited May 15, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

With the styrene technique I cut the frames on the cnc and I also machine an aluminium tools which is nothing more than a 2mm ali plate with hole same as frame, i put the tool over the frame and bend in the upstand to the frame until its forced in and holds itself in, then just run polycement around the corner and then pop it out, done.
i have to point out that I have 180 of those windows to assemble and its a tedious job, about 5-10 mins per window but the result is finer and crisper than printing and I can glue the frame onto the acrylic with thtin tamiya cement which does not ooze out onto glass due to capillary action so might just do it manually and keep printer for bollards, anchors and large stuff

Edited May 15, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Richard Dunn]

So this is the process

I make the frames on CNC as well as the edge strip incorporating the rigols as per ship.
this is very thin styrene to .13mm 9009 evergreen.
I also want to point out the width of those frames across the narrow lower part is only .67mm wide! and cutter 1mm dia

The tool here was trailed in ply and is why this failed as window stuck to it and could not be removed.
The slot is for a key piece to locate the join as the edge is forced in.

and although screwed you can see it looks good and works, if you can get it out of jig, hence aluminium in future.

 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Richard Dunn

[Kevin-the-lubber]

4 hours ago, Richard Dunn said:

Now I expect they will curl up and be useless anyway.

To be honest, if I had your CNC machine I'd probably be using that instead of printing a lot of the time, I at least always know where I stand when working with wood or metal. However, printing has it's place. Only being able to print one at a time: I'd check my FEP tension, you can do this with various apps that measure the wavelength or something, but I just look for it to have a tinny pitch when I tap it with something. But be careful, it dents easily and if you get any pinholes it's a right PITA.

 

Regarding curling etc, you can just heat the part in a cup of hot water and bring it back into shape, handy if, like these window frames, they're going to be glued to something substantial. I noticed on the spec for that CNC machine that it had the option for a filament printer head, have you done any of that? The scope, scale-wise, is huge, way bigger than the desktop printers. Some people pooh-pooh filament as not able to give anything like an acceptable finish for scale modelling and unable to do micro detail, but in my view that's exaggerated. I'd expect to just about get away with those window frames.

 

While writing, would you mind me sharing your library of Cutty Sark photos with another guy who's looking for detail pics? I wouldn't want to do so unless you were okay with it.