USS Baltimore CA-3 1890 by Jsk - Heinkel Models - Scale 1/200 - CARD

[Jsk]

Here we go again...

 

One of the great benefits of card models is that, in their un-built state, they can literally occupy zero space. Nada. No storage concerns, whatsoever. Perhaps the wise builder invests a little storage space in getting professionally printed kits with all the bells and whistles, laser cut formers, etc. I've never been accused of wisdom.

 

There's a model designer whose work I have frequently admired. Company name of Heinkel. I believe the designer is Fernando Perez Yuste. He's designed a lot of American Civil War ships and has expanded into the pre-Dreadnought era. When I saw the USS Baltimore show up on Wargame Vault I decided to splurge and add it to my virtual stash. (I say splurge but let's face it, card modelers seldom really spurge--Shipyard models excepted. The Baltimore cost me $15.25US. And I had credit on WV so in reality it cost me nought.) A couple of weeks later WAK published the Baltimore for a princely sum of $12.82US and they can provide laser cut parts and gun barrels, etc for additional funds. (Oh my, just noticed WAK's on-line shop is closed due to the floods in Europe. Here's hoping for a quick return to normal life for everyone!)

 

So a little about the USS Baltimore. The US Navy was caught in the financial doldrums for twenty years after the Civil War. In the 1880s and 1890s the Navy reinvented itself by designing, purchasing and building new, high-tech steel hulled ships. The Baltimore was one of the first generation of new armored cruisers of the new navy. Built to a British design, she was launched in 1890.

 

The following pictures are from John D. Alden's "American Steel Navy":

I won't detail the history of the ship here. She's pretty well documented on Wikipedia and there are many photos at Navsource.org. But, like the more famous Spanish American ship USS Oregon, the Baltimore fought in the Spanish-American War, served as a mine layer in WWI and was present (though as a hulk) at Pearl Harbor in WWII. A last poignant picture from Navsource.org, 1944, just before being scrapped:

The Model

This is my first Heinkel model. There is a bare minimum of written directions but the pictorial instructions should be enough. It's also the first test of my laser printer. I will state, however, the design is for A4 paper. North American builders should be aware that if you print at 100% on letter size paper you will most likely lose the top and bottom edges of the model parts sheets. You can print on legal size paper without issues. Also be aware that the finished model is a full 51cm long (20+ inches). So not really a small model.

Now, I've been planning on this build for a while. Consequently, I've been stocking up on that cool European 1mm card supplied by Seahorse as I've worked my through the Revenue Cutter. I've printed out most of the interior parts and used a glued stick to laminate most of them to card.

Cutting will probably begin tomorrow.

[ccoyle]

Really looking forward to watching this one come together -- love the subject, and of course I love the build medium as well. I always enjoy seeing kits by designers who are unfamiliar to me -- it's kind of like letting you be the guinea pig instead of me!

 

Best of luck!

[Jsk]

13 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

it's kind of like letting you be the guinea pig instead of me!

Gee, thanks. I think.

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking forward to this build!

[Canute]

Interesting subject. I'll follow, too.

[Jsk]

Thanks for the likes and comments. They do keep one motivated.

 

Here are some progress shots of the framework construction from this past weekend. I actually like this phase. Once you get through most of the cutting the assembly goes quickly for really satisfying results. The only 'oh-no-he's-gone-rogue' activity was to add two pieces of plastic tubing to the keel piece. I want to mount the model on a stand with posts rather than a cradle and the tubing will be the sockets for the posts.

 

I found that a box cutter is better for me to use on the 1mm card rather than a scalpel. My cuts are more vertical. Though I do wonder if the notched pieces provide that much advantage. It would be less cutting to just slice the bulkheads in half (taking care for the thickness of the longitudinal pieces and glue the full edge. I guess you'd have to take greater care to ensure everything lines up correctly and is at right angles. Hmmm.... I might have to try it on my next project. I had all the notches cut in this one when I got to thinking about it.

 

I also found the easiest way to glue this was to simply dry-fit everything together and then run CA along the joints with a fine tip applicator. Again, making sure everything was positioned correctly but that's second nature at this point.

 

I've got two sub-deck pieces to add to the frame work and a little bit of fairing and shimming. Then comes skinning the lower hull. We'll see how that goes. I've got a feeling I won't be very happy with it. I think I may have to do some puttying, sanding and painting to get what I want.

 

[Jsk]

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Skinning commences.

 

After figuring out how to adjust the colors I reprinted the under-the-waterline hull sections. They look much more pink in the pictures than in reality. Took me a little bit of time to develop a good technique so, unfortunately, the good 'ol Baltimore has a little bit of the starving nag look. This is more prominent towards the stern where I was simply applying too much pressure when trying to get the glue set.

 

I had planned on starting at both ends and work towards the center but I ended up simply working stern to bow. It just worked out better that way because of the way the joiner strips were laid out with the hull sections. I learned that using scissors worked better for me on curved lines than using a knife. I colored the cut edges with a red pastel and used a brush to apply the glue. Normally, I glued the skin section to the centerline keel member first and after that dried then I'd work from the keel to the waterline gluing the skin section to the joiner strips. There are a couple of seams that a bit uneven but, all in all, I'm not unhappy with it.

 

I used a length of aluminum tubing to pre-curl the pieces. In the next picture you can see that I'm too cheap to waste 14 inch card stock and printed the bright red version on the back of the earlier printed brown. I could have just hidden the evidence and no one would have been any the wiser!

 

It was at this point that I had my first issue. Not sure why but I ended up with a gap in one of the sections. I simply glued in some shims to support the next section.

 

In the end you couldn't tell there was an issue.

The bow also suffered from a little gap where the pieces no longer fold over the keel but are split into separate port and starboard panels. I did a little bit of tightening up and touching up with paint at this point but I'll leave the final fix until after I've installed the rest of the siding.

And finally a shot with all the lower skin sections in place. Along with the scrap pile.

 

My next step is to apply a thin coat of shellac to the skin and I'll probably do some paint touch ups to blend in the few areas where the toner has chipped away from the card.

[Jsk]

Just a quick update before heading out for a trip to visit the in-laws.

 

Couldn't help myself now that I know I can alter the graphics a bit in Inkscape.

 

On the right is the original deck color. On the left is my preference. Inkscape is not completely accurate when it imports the original *.pdf but it's close enough to work with.

 

 

[Jsk]

Well, what fun. Seven hours in the car, forty hours in Ohio, seven hours back home. I'm getting too old for trips like that!

 

Anyway, over the work week I was able to start decking the Baltimore. Installed the walls for the aft cabins and what I presume are the crew heads in the bow.

That all seemed pretty straight forward. I messed up the wheel pretty badly. My plan was to rough cut the wheels (which are double layered) with the handles intact, coat the whole thing with CA to firm it up and then remove the spaces from between the handles. Turns out, CA dissolves laser ink toner so I ended up with smeared graphics. Then, as I removed the spaces between the handles, the card began to de-laminate. It looked horrible so I cut the handles off. It will do, I suppose, as the wheel is not all that visible under the after deck.

 

At this point the failings of all-picture instructions became apparent. I was trying to figure out how the gangways to the lower decks are modeled. Throughout most of the instructions sub-assemblies are numbered and then the sub-assembly number is referred to in later steps. It took me a day or two to figure out that sub-assembly 4 is what is used for the gangways. But that number "4" does not appear anywhere else in the construction pictures. But the part numbers are! Additionally, each gangway has separate part numbers so it's not blatantly obvious that they are used to create additional sub-assemblies "4". This shot of the instructions (with my annotations in red) shows the issue. I had to use a greatly magnified view of the instructions to make the connection between sub-assembly 4 and the various gangways.

 

 

NOW it makes sense. The gangways are little cubes with stairs on the inside. Fiddly work... but that's card modeling for ya.

 

Here are my steps in assembling a gangway. the next challenge will be to see if they actually fit down in the holes in the deck. Stay tuned for that.