USS ENGLAND (DE-635) by ccoyle - FINISHED - HMV - 1/250 - CARD

[Egilman]

1 hour ago, ccoyle said:

As far as I can find, though, no one makes a 3D printed 1.1" quad mount,

Try this one, you can ask if he can print it at 1-/250... as it is 1/240 won't show much difference... (he does do a 1/350 1.1 mount so it shouldn't be an issue...

[ccoyle]

Oop, yeah -- forgot about that one. That's the same guy that does the 3"/50s. I may have to email him and see if I can arrange something. My wallet might object. 😬

[Dr PR]

Here is a link to a 1.1" quad 3D print project:

 

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=374129

 

Hank might send you the files or print them for you if you ask nicely.

[Dion Dunn]

Now that I’ve update my own build, it’s nice to see your progress Chris.  Keep up the solid work!

[Ras Ambrioso]

Found your new build and will follow. You are a great teacher. 

 

[ccoyle]

So, I ordered the 3"/50s and quad 1" AA from a vendor on Shapeways, and they arrived today. My first impression, made without my visor at hand -- just a lot of squinting, is that the 3"/50 mounts are good, but that the quad 1" mount is less so. The latter comes in multiple pieces and appears to have some excess material that may need to be removed. The barrels are also less than perfectly round. But I will postpone a final judgment until I have had a chance to look at things under magnification and assemble and paint them. When might that be? Don't know at this point, but at least I will be able to move forward with this project once I can get back to my bench.

[ccoyle]

Okay, so I have made a tiny amount of progress on this build. As you know, I have a now five-month-old puppy on my hands, which is like having a toddler in the house. To make matters worse, my wife had to travel to California for a month, so I've been taking care of the toddler, er, puppy all by myself during that time. Needless to say, modeling time has been precious scarce.

 

Regarding the 3D parts we last spoke about, my initial impressions have been more or less borne out. The 3"/50s are indeed nice. Do they look like the real thing or even like the kit guns? I can't say for certain -- they're just too small for me to tell easily. At the very least, they are satisfyingly lumpy and bumpy, and I think anyone will be hard pressed to notice if they are faithful reproductions or not at stand-off viewing distances.

 

The 1.1" mount, despite the poor barrel shapes, does have some astonishingly fine details molded into it, although at the small scale a viewer may wonder whether they're details or imperfections in the print. I ran into a couple of difficulties with the mount. First, it proved impossible to replace the unsatisfactory barrels with the much better barrels that came with the earlier set of parts I received from Darius. The good barrels won't fit into the mount. So my choices were either use the bad barrels or build the mount from kit parts to use with the good barrels. I chose the first option. The 3D mount had separate parts for the trainers' seats. One seat had a footrest, but the other's footrest had broken off and was nowhere to be found. No problem there, though -- while trying to glue the bits together, the first seat's footrest likewise broke off (the plastic is very brittle), and my tweezers subsequently flung the tiny, tiny footrest off into that Dimension of Lost Parts. So now neither seat has footrests.

 

I went ahead and glued the aft 3"/50 and 1.1" mounts into their tubs. There's no rigging in that vicinity, so they should be safe from getting knocked around.

 

 

Cheers!

 

[ccoyle]

Okay, USS England is back on the bench full-time once again. Work proceeds with finishing off the armament. As mentioned before, the 3"/50 and 20 mm mounts are 3D-printed. Both types have laser-cut training and elevation wheels, and the 20 mm guns have card splinter shields.

 

 

[ccoyle]

Amidships gangways and railings.

 

[Egilman]

Sometimes multi-media is the way....

 

Well done brother...

[ccoyle]

Well, the flag lockers are now on the model (not shown), so a decision had to be made about whether or not to rig signal halyards. I decided to at least give them a try. I further decided to at least partially attach them while the mast is not yet glued in. Once the mast goes in, I will belay the lower ends of the halyards.

 

 

You may notice that there is so far only one line per halyard. On the real thing, the uphaul and downhaul for each halyard are very close together; EZ Line carries a slight static charge, which means that lines too close together will want to stick to each other (I've had the same issue on airplane rigging). After I get the mast in, I will attempt to rig a complete uphaul/downhaul pair and see how it goes. If it turns out to be too much hassle, I'll just stick with the single lines and call it "interpretive license".

[Keith Black]

Chris, that's amazing especially considering it's paper. 

[LegoKing5522]

I did not realize this was a paper model, it looks way to real for paper. just makes be even more amazed! 

[ccoyle]

Well, as usual, working with EZ Line has proven to be anything but easy. After managing to secure one -- repeat: one -- halyard, the second one resisted all efforts to secure it -- and there were many efforts. First of all, despite all my care in trying to not trim the halyard lines too short before gluing them, I nevertheless trimmed the second one too short, which meant that the tag end of the stupid stretched line simply refused to be glued, even with fast-cure CA, which, despite the name, is not necessarily 'fast'. So, in defeat, I removed that halyard entirely and made a new one. I'm now waiting for its first glued end to dry completely before making the effort to secure it.

 

Despite the results it produces, I detest working with EZ Line. 😡

[ccoyle]

The first eight lines are done. Based on how much 'fun' I had attaching these lines, I'd estimate the chance of the other eight getting done at somewhere between 0% and hell freezing over. 😑😑😑

 

[Keith Black]

6 hours ago, ccoyle said:

somewhere between 0% and hell freezing over.

 But they look so nice. 

[ccoyle]

3 hours ago, Keith Black said:

But they look so nice. 

 

Thank you, Keith. With that encouragement, I have adjusted the upper limit of the odds to 0.0005%. 😉

[GrandpaPhil]

For small lines like that, I have used sewing thread treated with beeswax, or with thinned down PVA glue added after installation.

 

For small lines that don’t have attachment points and you don’t want tension on, I have prestretched sewing thread on a building board and treated it with thinned down PVA glue, before cutting to length and installing.

 

Both methods have worked well for me in the past.

Edited August 30, 2023 by GrandpaPhil

[amateur]

In the east-european forums nickle-silver thread is often used. Thin, rigid, but bendable.

 

On the orher hand: it is about suggestion. It is better to have a (near)perfect suggestion, than a clumsy, over scale, version depicting reality.

 

In this case: better to leave it at the downhoal (or uphaul, can’t make out which one you left out) , than messing up in including the other part. The eye is better in seeing what isn’t there than leaving put what should not have been there.

 

Jan

[ccoyle]

19 minutes ago, amateur said:

On the orher hand: it is about suggestion.

 

I agree! In this medium, at this scale, and with my current skill set, it's about creating the impression of the real thing. I will leave the duplication in miniature of every last detail to those who are much better at it then I am. I just want to relax and build models! 😊

[Dave_E]

Well said Sir! 👍😀

[ccoyle]

All bridge railings and mast stays have been added.

 

[Keith Black]

 Stays look great.

[ccoyle]

I continue to have more "fun" with EZ-Line. While working with one of the various lines, one of the stays popped off -- stuff like that is aggravating in the extreme, because each line is a pain in itself, and access to the interior lines becomes increasingly problematic as more exterior lines are added. In addition, I discovered I had attached three lines to the wrong points on the mast and have had to remove them and start over. All of this means that two hours worth of work has essentially gone down the toilet. 😑  Right now I'm taking a break before I completely blow a gasket. I hope to have some progress photos later today.

[bwross11]

Feel your pain Chris!  Did something similar on a large scale model of the USS San Francisco CA-38; walk away lasted about 2 months.

 

Just keep telling yourself its a hobby and you're having fun.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  😉

[ccoyle]

Okay, I finished the rigging, and my gaskets are intact. This is not all the rigging that was on the original, but it is as much as I could decipher from the various sources, and it is as much as I am willing to attempt. The rigging that is included consists of:

• forestays
• backstays
• yard braces
• signal halyards
• flag halyard
• lanyards for the two thingies at the front of the stack, one of which I assume is the ship's whistle
• the two lines between the masthead and aft gun director tub -- I assume these were aerials.

The superstructure railings are all done as well. Not too much left to do -- boat, davits, main deck railings, anchors and chain, jackstaff, plus anything else I might have forgotten. Case is ready, too, and brass nameplate has been ordered. The finish line is in sight!

 

[clearway]

 well done- can't beat that end is near feeling.

 

keith

[CDW]

Oh man, what a beauty this has turned out to be. Great model Chris.

[mtaylor]

Sweet work on the rigging.  E-zee line and the model scale would drive me nut also.   With do-overs, I just tell myself the first time was "practice", take a deep sigh, and go outside and kick something. 

[ccoyle]

I have finished the launch and its davits, but not installed them yet. Remembering what Egilman said way back in this log about everything being painted blue on the ship, I thought I should double-check whether this also applied to the launch below its waterline; in the kit, this is printed as a typical anti-fouling red. In the accompanying photo, though, you can see that the launch's hull below the waterline is very dark -- I suspect it may even be black. Any confirmation on this would be appreciated.

 

 

And in case anyone is wondering, no, I will not be adding all of the tackle seen in this image, nor the gripes, either. I do plan to try adding a prop to the launch, since the kit didn't include one, and it seems like the launch ought to have one.