HMCS Bonaventure by NavyShooter - 1/96 scale - an RCN fitting out

[NavyShooter]

I'm planning on a 'full' air department, though flexible. 10-12 fixed wing at a time, and 4-6 rotary wing.

 

At various points in her career, Bonnie had 4 types of aircraft - H04S Helicopter, F2 Banshee, S2 Tracker, and Sea King.

 

I have found 3D printable models of all of these, and am working towards having a few of each available to put on the deck.

 

That said - the Banshees and Sea Kings never actually 'shared a deck' on the Bonnie - the Banshees were retired before the SK's came into service in Canada.

 

I have decals for 8 Banshees, 8 Trackers and 4 Sea Kings, and I will be getting decals for the H04S printed up.

 

Referencing the pictures I've found - the ship never seems to have operated more than about 10 fixed wing and 4-6 rotary wing aircraft at the same time. Chatting with some of the former crew, they indicated that the ship, while having a 'listed' max aircraft of 28, seldom had even 20 onboard, even with hangar storage.

 

So, my plan is to have a 'rotating' air det when I sail the ship. Banshees and H04S plus maybe a Tracker or two to represent her 'early' Air Det. Sea King and Trackers to represent her later Air Det.

 

I found a picture the other day of the Fly-past of the Trackers for the Bonnie's Decommissioning - there were 13 in the picture, plus the 14th being the aircraft that took the picture. At no point have I found more than 12 Trackers in a picture of the ship, and it's usually 8 - often 6 parked on the bow in the deck park, and 2 in the 'work area' of the flight deck.

 

Having recognized that most aircraft on aircraft carriers had their wings folded at every moment except when at the catapult for launch, or landing...while I had 8x Banshees printed and ready to decal...I had to print 7 more with wings folded. So now I have 15 Banshees...but decals going on 8 of them.

 

I also had about 8 or 10 Trackers printed, then I found a better 3D model of it, and so I'm printing 8 more of the new version. The old ones were - marginal...good from afar, but far from good due to flaws in the original files, so I threw most of them out.

 

I have 1 Sea King printed - and was ready to hammer out a few more until my printer had a hiccup last week - parts are on the way and should arrive tomorrow.

 

The H04S 'demo' print was when the printer had it's problems - so I don't have any of them done yet.

 

It's a work in progress...each airplane takes about 24-30 hours to print at fine resolution on the printer. Good think I'm not in a rush!

[NavyShooter]

Here's an example of the failed print of the HO4S helicopter - the problem was with a leak in the hot end of the printer, so I was getting a pool/puddle of hot liquid filament on top of the heater block...which would randomly drop onto the model while printing, resulting in the poor results see on the left with the helo.

 

I also found a 3D model of the Bonnie (complete) that I tried printing.  She's a bit small (see the #8 screw head for size comparison) but you get the idea.

[lmagna]

You can set the deck up with a crashed HO4S using your "failed" print.  

 

The smaller model printed out nicely. Now all you need  to do is install all of the RC gear in it!  

[yvesvidal]

Thanks to the modern technology (3D printer and associated software), you are turning this otherwise unfinished model, into a very nice and realistic model.

 

Congratulations.

 

Yves

[NavyShooter]

Parts arrived for the printer - 3 hours of fiddling about to figure out how to rebuild and more importantly re-align everything, and we're printing again.  I'll wake up in the morning to a HOS4....

[NavyShooter]

I woke up...and here's what we have:

 

 

That looks a lot better!

I started another print as I headed out to work this morning, so I'll get home and find another one waiting.  

 

I've reached out to order some decals for them now as well.

 

Progress!

 

I've also created myself a 'print queue' for what I've got to print, and it's looking pretty busy:

 

2x HO4S

2x Tracker

1x Larger scale Bonnie Hull (I can fit about 1/680 scale onto my print bed!)

4x Sea King

2x - Mystery Plane

1x Tool Holder for my Hex keys and snippers

 

 

[NavyShooter]

Decals on the Banshees are done.  At last!

 

[NavyShooter]

Not sure why the Banshee pic in the post above isn't showing up...so here it is again.  Also, here's the 3D printed Landing Light platform that I put together.  Damn near perfectly flush with the flight deck!

[NavyShooter]

I spent a couple of hours out in the shop this evening - I spent most of my time working on tidying up and building a new rudder for my Liberty Ship - and I put up the shelf that I'm planning to have the Lib Ship hang out on - but then in order to get work-space on benches sorted out, I put the Bonnie up there.

 

There will be a larger, lower shelf for the Bonnie.  

[NavyShooter]

I'm also now onto Version 5 of my 3D printed Island.  It'll be finished up about this time tomorrow evening!

[NavyShooter]

Having the work bench partially cleared let me lay out the Trackers.  I've got a full squadron of 8 printed, and they're ready for assembly. 

 

The sharp eyed might note the small, copper jacketed, lead cored weight that I'm planning to install in the nose of each of the fuselages.  A bit of drilling, a bit of glue to secure it, and I'll have a nice (mostly) lead weight holding the nose down as the Tracker models are all notoriously tail heavy!

 

 

[ccoyle]

10 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

small, copper jacketed, lead cored weight

😆

 

Since these will be incorporated into a ship model, I assume they are boattails?

[NavyShooter]

So, in one of those 'glad for another set of eyes...disappointed that I missed it myself' moments, I gave a scaled down version of the 3D printed bridge to another modeler for his 1/350 scale model of the Bonnie, and he was able to give me some constructive feedback indicating that I'd screwed up some dimensions.

In 1/96 scale, it was 29mm short...

 

So...I did some mucking about with scaling, and ended up increasing it's size to 111% tonight.  And then I spent some time adding some additional detail bits (see all those bracing struts?) and tweaked a couple of minor errors in the model based on the latest print.

 

This also made it too big to print in the large pieces I've been using...so it's now cut apart into two halves, and a top and bottom.  I have another 50 hours of printing ahead of me I guess!  Version 6, here we come!

 

[lmagna]

On 6/21/2022 at 7:20 PM, NavyShooter said:

I'll have a nice (mostly) lead weight holding the nose down as the Tracker models are all notoriously tail heavy!

Have you considered installing Neodymium Magnets in the plane for weight and then also installing a matching magnet(s) in the deck where you would like the planes to set? Could kill several birds with one stone. Transporting planes separately, changing the types of aircraft on deck. Holding them down without locking them into place and possibly other advantages. 

[AON]

You might avoid some scale problems by assembling your piecing in the 3D program and seeing the fit before you print.

I admit sometimes the file size can be large, but the parts can be "shrink wrapped" so they are just one block/shell placed on another block/shell to reduce the size of the overall assembly file.

On the other side of that coin, this did offer you an opportunity to tweak it up some!

[NavyShooter]

Lou, I've thought magnets, but am not sure how well that would work with the magnets in the fuselage.  I'm thinking maybe putting the aircraft on a small clear plastic sheet with a magnetic element on it and putting magnets under the flight deck for when the ship will be sailed.  When the ship is static - I can put the aircraft wherever and however I want.

 

I've got the trackers assembled - each one took about 15 grams of lead/copper in the nose and wheel wells to get them to return to flat when tipped up on their tails.

 

 

[lmagna]

Must have had a senior attack Brad. I forgot that the landing gear would hold the fuselage off of the deck making it harder to hold onto the aircraft, (Especially if you run hard aground at full speed from 1/3rd mile away!  Would be a Court Martial this time)

 

Possibly just using thin steel or tin plates glued under the wheels that contact the deck imbedded magnets would be strong enough. (?) It would be nice to be able to equip the deck with the proper mixture of aircraft to match the era of the day!

[NavyShooter]

This evening, I got the wall mount up for the Bonnie - here's her 'wall' home:

[NavyShooter]

And... a couple of hours of work with some sand paper, putty, glue, and a layer of primer...and we have 8x Trackers painted.

 

[lmagna]

Your storage arrangements are way too organized Brad!

[NavyShooter]

It only LOOKS organized because the pictures are staged.

 

🙂

Here's how the new version of the Bridge looks.  It's the partially blue one in the middle.  I ran out of Gray filament, so I had to switch colour.  (No, it doesn't impact the size...but that leaves me to note that I've used all of the 11 spools of gray filament I bought 2 months ago now...)

 

It's out in the garage right now having been given a fresh coat of gray paint....we'll see how it looks tomorrow.

 

I've got a request out for colour pictures of the inside of the bridge and the Flyco compartment - I'm guessing similar to what we have inside our ships now with white walls and a dark grey deck (we called it "waterway gray" in the Navy.)

 

[lmagna]

Looks like it is going to make a very nice superstructure.

[NavyShooter]

I decided to do some painting this evening. Then I decided I liked how things looked, so I dug out some aircraft and accessories, and staged them for a picture.

 

Enjoy!

 

(Still more painting to do inside the Bridge and Flyco - the chairs will get painted, the chart table and the status board and so on - and the deck needs another layer of waterway gray to touch it up a bit.)

[lmagna]

I didn't realize you were detailing out parts of the interior as well Brad. Looking nice.

[NavyShooter]

I now have 4x Sea Kings printed...(one is already in the paint booth!)

 

In the background, you see some of the TAPV armoured vehicles that I'm printing for a friend who's unit uses them...she wants 19 of them printed so she can do sand-table work with the troops from her unit showing exactly where they're supposed to be!

 

[NavyShooter]

Doesn't look like much, but here are 4x Sea Kings having been successfully given a layer of primer.  I did a bit of sanding and added another layer of paint to them tonight.  

 

 

[NavyShooter]

Continuing background work...I took a few minutes today to visit the memorial in Point Pleasant Park in Halifax to the military personnel lost during the 'Cold War' years since World War 2.  

 

 

It is a very fitting tribute, a fouled anchor, with the chain leading off into the sea...

 

 

After paying my respects to the fallen (including one of my shipmates who we lost in February 2005 north of Poland) I then focused on taking some measurements... because this is one of HMCS Bonaventure's anchors.  And now I've got some chain and a new anchor ordered....

 

 

[NavyShooter]

Looks like the Anchor Pics don't show up properly in the previous post...here they are again.

[NavyShooter]

A couple of quick updates - I've got 5 of the 8 trackers filled, sanded and primed (again) after there were still some gaps after the first layer of putty. 

 

I've done a bunch more 3D printing - you can see some of the TAPV's that I'm busy painting up for a friend who's a Company Commander and wants them for their sand-table training use with the Army.  Also visible are some of the Sea King bits that are in progress - and the island.

 

 

[NavyShooter]

I also paid a visit to one of the local aviation museums yesterday with my son, and we puttered about looking at some of the aircraft, and their model of the Bonnie in 1/200.  Also some detailed views of a Tracker - alas, not in Bonnie Era paint scheme though.  

 

Got some good detail pictures of the torpedo dolly, however, it seems not to be one that would have been used on the Bonnie - rather, used with the Trackers later in life when they were shore based (hence the green colour.)