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

[NavyShooter]

So, I've been busy with the 3D printer, and have built some additional aircraft options for my ship's air det.

 

You can see the Banshee and Tracker at the front....who can ID all the rest of the aircraft?  There's one more type that I'm working to find a good model of that I can print next.

[lmagna]

CF-105 Arrow, F-35, Sikorsky H-19, CH-124 Sea King, CF-100 Canuck 

 

Looks like you are creating the entire Canadian aircraft arsenal! Well except for the F-35.

Edited July 23, 2022 by lmagna

[Canute]

Needs a CF-18, too.

[NavyShooter]

Good point!  I'll see if I can find one of those...that means at least 2 more aircraft types are coming still...lots of options for my air det!

 

Got some sanding and priming done tonight.  Starting to look better!  The Trackers had their landing gear painted last evening - and that went well up to the point that I knocked over the paint bottle.  Silver paint all over the bench.  Yah!

 

The Sea Kings and the F-35's need some more filling and sanding, but at this point, I have the following aircraft printed:

Banshee - 8

Tracker - 8

Sea King - 4 (of 6)

HOS4 - 4

 

Bonus types:

F-35 - 4

CF-100 - 4

CF-105 - 4

 

Still to come:

A-4 Skyhawk - 4

CF-18 - 4

 

Any other possible aircraft that might fit with my fanciful RCN Air Det?

 

[NavyShooter]

The F-18's are on the printer right now....the Skyhawks are done and primed.

 

Here's how the Trackers look right now:

 

 

[NavyShooter]

All 44 aircraft are now printed, it's now just a matter of completing them.

 

I posted a picture in one of the HMCS Bonaventure groups showing the CF-100's, and there was some indignation about that aircraft having never been on the Bonnie....just wait 'til they have an aneurism over seeing the Arrows and F-35's.  🙂

 

I'll get kicked out of the group for the heresy I'm sure.

 

I'll feel better about this massive pile of aircraft once I finally get a few more of them finished.  The Trackers are about ready for decals next. 

 

That said, now I'm pondering printing up a couple of 20mm CIWS to stick on to be able to use instead of the 3"50 guns when I mix up the air det...I'm sure folks will disapprove of that too!
 

In other news, my anchor winches and anchor chain arrived...so I've got other stuff to muck about with as well.

 

 

[NavyShooter]

I spent a bit of time today working on the 3D design for the 'hockey stick' style folding radio masts.

 

This is version 1...I'll print it, test, and repeat until I get the version I like...

 

 

[NavyShooter]

And....while I'm waiting for the current print job to finish up (a test module for my Anchor system) I decided to do up the decals on one of the Trackers.

Here's Tracker 530 with her full plumage!

 

There will be a couple of layers of clearkote applied over top to seal and protect everything!

I'm rather happy with how it turned out.  

 

 

[lmagna]

The old Bonney is going to look impressive with all the details you are printing. Too bad you could not use a thin wire or something hard to see and have an aircraft taking off or landing.

[NavyShooter]

Lou - I've pondered the idea of putting in a catapult and using it to launch failed 3D prints of the aircraft...

[NavyShooter]

Additional antenna designed - with base, and some additional stiffening braces added to the hockey stick radio mast.

The draft version of the hockey stick mast came out OK - with the additional detail braces put in, I'm going to see how it turns out with no supports being printed.

 

The other 'simple' antenna is a 30 footer, but there appear to be a mixture of 20 and 30 footers on the ship, so I'll just print all at 30 and snip the ends off to get the 20's.  From the pictures I have, it appears that the bases are identical.

[NavyShooter]

Here is the printed version of the 'hockey stick' mast.  

 

[NavyShooter]

The new version of the antenna looks good.  

 

Bases for both antennas need some work.

 

[NavyShooter]

New bases are on the printer now...we'll see how it goes.

 

I've also spent an hour or so doing up the design for this antenna (circled in red)

 

I took the base for the 'hockey stick' antenna, squished it down by about 15% in height, then built the 'funky' diamond bit based on a couple of other drawings I found.

 

 

Had my Liberty Ship out on the lake for a bit this afternoon as well - problem with taking it out on nice days on the weekend...folks in big boats are out having fun too...and my little bateau doesn't have enough freeboard to last well in waves that big!

 

 

[NavyShooter]

So...more progress...we have 2 Trackers with decals complete now.  It's taking about an hour and a half per aircraft to do the decals.  There's about 25 per plane to apply.  It's...challenging...but rewarding when they're done.

 

I got a layer of paint on the hockey sticks and the HF/DF antenna last evening, and retreated into the A/C for the night.

 

Today, I had some time so I got some 3D work done on the RADAR mast on top of the island.  I had previously attempted to use DSM to create the main mast, and that attempt failed rather miserably.  So...today...I tried the 'simple' Tinkercad program and had some good success.

 

Here's the plan view I worked from, and the 3D result ready to head to my printer tonight.

 

We'll see how it goes. 

 

[NavyShooter]

Here's the first two completed Trackers!

 

[Ian_Grant]

6 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

<snip.snip> I had previously attempted to use DSM to create the main mast, and that attempt failed rather miserably.  So...today...I tried the 'simple' Tinkercad program and had some good success.  <snip.snip>

 

Nothing wrong with TinkerCAD. 😄

[NavyShooter]

Printed 2 versions of the Radar Mast last night - still not quite right, so I've 'chopped up' the mast into parts, and will try to print the pieces to glue together.

 

We'll see how it goes.

 

I can probably clean up Version 2 and use it.  Version 1 is already in the garbage.

 

 

[lmagna]

I'm  pretty certain that you persistence will pay off Brad. Looking forward to the next installment.

[NavyShooter]

OK, so version 2 doesn't look very good even with a layer of paint on it...so we're on to version 3.

 

For this one, I sliced the model up so that it could be printed and assembled.  

 

I'm much more pleased with the results.  No cleaning off parts, no whisps of plastic, no support material to remove.

 

It's got a layer of paint on it...more pictures another day!

 

 

 

 

 

[lmagna]

That is a definite improvement Brad. Congratulations

[NavyShooter]

Antennas...just about done.

 

 

They fold down as well.

 

[NavyShooter]

QTY 4 of 8 Trackers complete with decals.

 

It's about 45 minutes per plane.  

 

[NavyShooter]

5 Trackers done....and I got a test module printed for my Anchor system.  We'll see how that works later this week. 

[NavyShooter]

6 Trackers complete.

[Canute]

Nice elephant walk. Your Trackers look very good, Brad.

[NavyShooter]

All 8 Trackers complete!

 

[NavyShooter]

And now....the hard part.  Cutting some of the wings off to 'fold' them.

 

This hurt to do tonight:

 

[NavyShooter]

As a slow-time background activity, I've been puttering away at the 3D design of the main mast.  

 

It's most definitely still a work in progress, but I'm adding bits of detail slowly.  Here's what it looks like right now.  (Of note, at this point, I'm planning to chop off the top 3 sections and replace with the piece on the left that will simply glue straight on top.)  There' still a bunch of work to do and add detail at the lower levels, but it's getting there.

 

On the right we have the 'solid frame' that will be glued together.  The small platform is for the SPS-10 Radar and sits at Level 6, and the large frame section in the middle goes between the main mast and the funnel, attached to the rear of the mast. 

 

I think I have to print this and assemble it to see what detail gets added next. 

 

[NavyShooter]

Trackers are 100% complete.