To Constitution and beyond ...

[dafi]

Something strange happened on the way to the shipyard ...



... no, it´s neither England 1940 HMS Wellesley against Luftwaffe nor Okinawa 1945 USS Bunker Hill and japanese kamikaze ...

...

XXXDAn

hms wellesley - Google Search

HMS Wellesley Wikipedia uk

 

[Model Monkey]

Helm, hard a port!

 

[europapete]

Obviously they are in tropical waters. They just got hit by a Typhoon!

 

[europapete]

either that or it's the US Navy's latest aircraft carrier.

 

[dafi]

either that or it's the US Navy's latest aircraft carrier.

Got it

 

[europapete]

yep, that's it! With specially designed wing supports so the Typhoon doesn't get it's wheels wet. They are land plane after all.

 

[dafi]

A while ago I was asked about the swivels in the Constitution's fighting tops. Since I liked the shown contemporary swivel, I programmed it, just to see what the printer would produce.

The result was 3 separate parts: Barrel, fork and holder, the rear support of the fork is 0.2 mm thick.

And you can see that it is actually fully movable, laterally and in height. Here the printing of the resin is no longer the threshold to the event horizon, but actually the pressure on the builder and his breathing to shear the 0.3 mm trunnions into the eyes of the fork.

And with a little color, it looks pretty good. If only I hadn't shot off the front two ones, bluntly glued on is actually always crooked in this scale ...

In the meantime, the swifels have been finished.

Here is a detail of the last pictures ...

... the one with the breathing problem ;-)

For a simpler assembly I have simply rethought. I already detached the trunnions from the barrel of the Constitution guns and printed them on the gun carriage. In this way I was able to represent the flaps at any elevation angle of the barrel and without the classic gap at the top. The tube then had the mount on the underside where the trunnions were: beautiful, practical and invisible

I used the same method here. The trunnions are integrated into the fork, stabalizing it while printing and especially during washing, and the mount was recessed under the tube. Now only 3 rounds of test prints were necessary until the necessary tolerance/clearance under the tube was found so that the mount works easily and yet with good guidance. Painting is done with the fork mounted, otherwise it will no longer fit. The test assembly was then possible without any losses within a few moments and, above all, in a very relaxed manner

And here's the whole kit: the printling in its housing, which ensures that no small parts get stuck to the base plate during printing, as the superstructure "collects" them. It also serves as protection during washing and shipping.
And on the left, the individual parts and the assembled piece. Visually, the assembled parts do not differ from the previous models, but they are much more precisely aligned and thus appear tidier.

Incidentally, I borrowed the large fingers from a Greek Cyclops. They are slightly smaller than the North African ones. But only a little.

Best regards, Daniel

 

[Model Monkey]

Another masterpiece in the making.

Thank you for taking us to school!

 

[dafi]

Dear Steve, as a master in your own right there is much more from you to learn!

XXXDAn

 

[dafi]

Before I get to the current events, here is a brief summary of what else has been happening here.

At the beginning of last year, I started working on the hammock holders and channels. This is how Revell envisions it.

You can't even fit hammocks in there...

...

so I hijacked some of the holders from my Vic.

Still too small. So I drew new etched parts for the holders, and the nice thing is that you can try them out right away in print – and notice during assembly that print is too weak for such parts. But I was able to clarify that the parts really are the right size.

And this is what it looks like when installed. I had rolled lots of virtual hammocks to match, so I could estimate the result.

Here you can see that the mats have been given a good dose of unshipshapeness. This serves to prevent a sterile-looking impression. I had already used the wave effect, where gravity pulls between the holders on the mats, on my hand-rolled mats on the other models, and it made the result look much more realistic. But as perverse as it sounds, it is much easier to make hand-rolled mats look nice and uniform than to give virtually created mats a certain amount of unevenness ;-)
But judge for yourself.

The net is still missing here, as the printed supports are too fragile for it.

The curve at the bow has also been covered with hammocks ...

... and the aft deck as well. Here is a sequence from back to front.

I cannibalised the rigging irons from my Victory. Except for the lower preventer link, all the required lengths were in stock, but there was a lot of waste. But I was able to check the lengths using this test setup. The channel boards were also adapted anew.

Fore mast channels

Main mast channels

Mizzen mast channels

For being just a mere test, it was already an improvement. Enjoy

And then with a years distance of not having time, drawing the real parts and producing, the Christ Child (as it is this one that brings the X-Mess gifts in our area) was in a very good mood before Christmas and delivered the first samples of the channels and hammock holders for my Constitution *jumping for joy*

And finally, I had a little time to tinker with it

So, popcorn and beer at the ready, X-Files in the DVD player, and off to work with joy!

XXXDAn

 

[dafi]

But first, it was time to tidy up. The kit had suffered greatly, having been assembled quickly under time pressure, pushed from one place to another, and generally not treated like a beloved model child. I'm sorry about that. Really. Reall-really …

First, the old copper test had to be removed. The stuff sticks like hell. Unfortunately, it had been primed underneath – something I don't normally do – and even a lot of isopraopanol couldn't prevent the paint from coming off in places. But I was able to smooth it out inconspicuously. But that's part of the demolition process, which fits in with dafi's whole artistic concept ;-)

Then the self-printed hammock crane holder dummies flew through the workroom in a high arc and the lower links of the preventer chains that had been injection moulded onto the hull were scraped off with a scalpel and excess holes were closed with plugs.

For the huge gaps on the gangway in the kit forseen for the kit´s holders, there were matching polystyrene plugs, which were softened with plenty of styrene glue and then pressed into the gap with pliers.

The bitts on the side of the ship for the main tack were also sanded down, sawn with a fretsaw, fitted with a roller and shortened so that it would fit under the new channel boards.

The interior also needed a lot of work. Spray and glue the knees.

Where there are bulkheads, I cut off the arms for simplicity's sake.

Then, as usual, I used some diluted ink to emphasise the corners and screw heads.

And then it looked much more homely.

XXXDAn