Chewbacca
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Posts posted by Chewbacca
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Something a little different, a combination of 3D printed and completely scratch built 1/350 HMS HECLA as she appeared in the South Atlantic "NOSH Box" (Naval Oceangoing Surgical Hospital) in May/June 1982.
Build log here:
For info, I'm the officer of the watch stood with the binoculars on the starboard bridge wing!
I've put some more in maritime RFI here:
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Having just finished a 3D printed 1/350 HMS HECLA which is only just over 1/4 the size of this model, I have to say it looks insane! I take my hat off to you sir and will follow with interest to learn more of your your 3D printing techniques.
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You'll recall that I commented a while ago that the flight deck code was too far apart because I put the "bum line" too far back which meant there wasn't enough space between the circle and the back end of the flight deck. When I fitted the wasp, I realised that actually the bum line is in the right position. The problem I think is that the deck circle - which was taken from the Atlantic Models generic 1/350 Leander class decal set, is actually too large. What made me come to that conclusion was the fact that the Wasp undercarriage is too small for the circle; if it were the right size, all 4 wheels should sit on the circle which they clearly don't. The Wasp is created from a CAD drawing which incorporated a scale drawing of a Wasp so I'm pretty certain that is right, therefore my conclusion is that the circle is too large. There was a choice of 2 and my assumption was that the large one was for the Lynx and the smaller one for the Wasp, but looking at it now, the smaller one is more appropriate for a Lynx.
Completed photos in the gallery - I'll add some more to maritime RFI later on.
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I'm going to declare this finished.
Had a real faff with the decals for the Wasp. Apart from the fact that some were less than 1 mm square, I don't have an ALPS printer so cannot print white, therefore the only way to print the ROYAL NAVY logo and the XT420 (which it is possible to just about read with an Optivisor on!) was to print it on white and print the background. Should be simple, i have done that previously when I built Wilbur in 1/48. But since then I've changed my colour printer and the background blue printed a completely different colour - much lighter. But we got there in the end. The red cross for the nose went pinging off in a beautiful ballistic trajectory across the room but fortunately I had a spare red cross from the boats that was just about the right size. And I must have been mad to attempt to put the UHF aerials on - but got there in the end!
I'll do some better photos tomorrow with a decent camera rather than the phone for the gallery and maritime RFI.
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On 01/08/2022 at 23:05, SallysDad said:
That sounds formidable to me.... off the scale as far as my skill level, Captain.
I didn't think that my skills were up to it either until I took the Dremel to BELFAST's hull to turn her into GLASGOW. You never know if you don't try. That said, a 1/350 Town class that I didn't have to cut about would be nice. The early Towns were much nicer looking (to my eyes) than the stretched BELFAST/EDINBURGH
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So here's the Wasp with a coat of primer. Actually the second wasp but fortunately I printed some spares as I got too close to the first one with the primer and the paint went on so thick that it obliterated all of the detail
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Thanks Charlie. Pleased to report that the Wasp appears to have printed okay so it now just needs some UV to cure and I can start cleaning off the supports and have a proper look.
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So with the extension offered, I thought I would have a go at drawing a 1/350 scale Westland Wasp in CAD. I'll know if it's worked in about 3 hours time when the print run finishes! The £D render of what it should look like is below. Yes, I know I've got to sort the nose out. I couldn't get it to loft correctly between the two shapes but that'll be a tiny swipe of filler. I've drawn the flotation gear clamshells as separate items though realised after I had sent it to print that I forgot to add the flot bottles. That said, in this scale they're about 0.3 mm diameter!
I've also added the gantry near the survey crane, given it a final coat of Future to blend all of the superglue dots in (I can justify a slightly glossy finish as it rained constantly in the South Atlantic! and am now finishing off the trim for the base. With a fair wind the next photo will be in RFI.
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Beautifully done.
I remember ALACRITY stopping on the equator on our way south in '84 for a hands to bathe with the Navigator telling the ship's company that if you jumped in from the foc's'le and swam to the quarterdeck you would have swum across the equator. I was a little hazy when i realised after I jumped in that I couldn't touch the bottom which was about 6,000 feet down! It was the one and only time I ever went in the water for a hands to bathe...
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5 hours ago, thekz said:
It's just that in my city there is no 3D printing from custom files with sufficient quality yet.
Mine are printed on an Elegoo Mars which I think retails for around £200. It's not perfect, certainly nowhere near as good as some of the stuff that people like the designers on Shapeways can create but as I showed in a recent post in
the printing capability is better than my ability to paint them! I think I could improve the quality of the print further if I used a program like Blender which more suited to the complex curves of the human body rather than Fusion 360 which is an engineering CAD toolset. But I take your point about not wanting to work on a computer at home of you're doing it all day for work.
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I think you might be right. I did a little more digging and in Plate 2 of the WW2 signal flags linked from that page above, although the 1940 signal flags show what we now know as Flag Bravo to be the "battleship" flag, the WW1 definition is "taking in or discharging gunpowder or any other form of explosive"
Code Romeo Yankee is very much from the modern signal books and means "keep clear at low speed". It is used in the modern context whenever people are working over the ship's side, in conjunction with Bravo during fuelling alongside or in conjunction with Alpha when divers are down.
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Tom,
Thanks for that. The only question I would ask is whether this person you met in the pub was an expert in WW2 signal flags. As I said in my earlier post, the RN changed their signal flags after WW2 and although the reference I posted shows what the earlier flags look like, they do not give the meaning. I have absolutely no idea whether Flag Bravo in WW2 meant I am carrying, embarking or discharging hazardous goods or not. If anyone has a copy of the 1943 BR 827 it might shed some light.
I can assure you from over 32 years experience in the RN that if this were a modern setting, the RN warship would fly Flag Bravo with no code pennant during refuelling and if she had any reason for ships to stay clear, Code Romeo Yankee.
With regards to the "it's blindingly obvious", it might be. But if there were to be an incident, that is not a defence in a court of law. Whenever we had fuel barges alongside, the barge would fly Flag Bravo as well as us. But I come back to the original point. I have no idea if Flag Bravo in the naval signal code in WW2 had the same meaning as it does today.
Hope that helps
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Absolutely superb. Haven't caught up with this for a few months and the progress is impressive for the amount of conversion work needed.
Those 4 inch turrets are works of art in their own right as are the boats. And as for the figures - I am in awe. I know my limitations - although I know some will say it's cheating I think I will stick to 3D printing mine.
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On 25/07/2022 at 16:51, TonyOD said:
Eminently eligible, @Chewbacca! Glad to have you on board, and modelling an aircraft that you actually flew would be awesome!
I have 3 of those (all Lynx which will at some point be finished in different modification states to represent Jake and Elwood (BOXER Flight 1988) and the FBI (BRAVE flight 1991/2)) plus 4 1/350 Atlantic Models resin kits of ships in which I have served (including one that I commanded for a short while). Decisions decisions.
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This is looking superb. I so wish I had your masking skills!
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12 hours ago, mark.au said:
The White Ensign is where it wanted to be, when I finally had the decal on and more or less symmetrically folded it refused to slide up any further; made more difficult because the line in elastic. I wasn’t brave enough to push my luck with either the line or the mast.
Fair enough - you can't argue with that I suppose! One thing you may wish to consider for future floaty builds is a trick that I learnt on these forums earlier this year. Wrap the decal around the edge of a sheet of very thin foil. When it's dry, cut it from the foil and then not only can you secure it in place exactly where you need it on the halyard using some PVA glue but you have the added advantage that you can fold it more easily so that it looks as though it is flapping in the wind.
12 hours ago, mark.au said:The reaction of the HMS Glamorgan vets is reassuring, thanks for sharing that story. Where can I see it myself?
Here:
Now having commented above about your Ensign, I looked again at the photos in that thread and realised that they were taken before I had even attached an Ensign to GLAMORGAN....
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That is absolutely stunning, even more so if it's your first ship. I wish my PE railings were as good as that now! I also share your fear of rigging. There are many on here who make it look so easy yet it is one of those things can can make or break (literally as it pulls off the yardarms) a ship model.
One small comment if I may. Is there a reason why the White Ensign is at half mast? I would expect it to be close up at the gaff.
As for bringing back memories, a few years ago I built a model of HMS GLAMORGN portrayed the day after she was hit by the Exocet in June 1982 in memory of those who lost their lives, and it always worries me whenever I show it at events where there may be some GLAMORGAN survivors for whom it brings back bad memories. Thus far, it has been seen by at least a dozen who were on board that day and fortunately all have commented positively.
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I can certainly back up that Seawolf salvo shot. I remember being on the bridge as BRAVE (which had 911 trackers) fired a salvo on (I think) the Aberporth range. About 2 seconds delay while the first missile clears.
At least the nice thing about Seawolf was that the efflux didn't completely trash the upperdeck. We did a few Sea Dart firings in BIRMINGHAM and GLASGOW and every time we did it it resulted in major ship's husbandry as the jet wash literally burnt off the paint back to bare metal.
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You are correct about the Union Jack at the jackstaff (actually the only time that technically it should be thus called) and a White Ensign on the ensign staff at the stern. I would not expect a White ensign at the masthead when at anchor - that is reserved for at sea.
What you must bear in mind is that:
a Naval signal flags have different meanings from the international code
b The RN used different signal flags in WW2 to today
Under modern naval signalling rules, a ship fuelling I would expect to fly Flag Bravo (same definition as international code) together with Code Rome Yankee (keep clear at low speed).
However, I have absolutely no idea if that was also true in WW2.
there is a very useful guide to RN WW1 and WW2 signal flags here:
http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s0100000.htm
but unfortunately it is a little light on what each flag meant at the time.
As to the boats, under current regulations RN Ship's boats fly the White Ensign when outside UK territorial waters. there are a lot of images of RN ships' boats on this page (and the pages linked from it) https://ontheslipway.com/royal-navy-ships-boats-of-wwii/ and the only ones that seem to be flying ensigns were those with VIPs on board so I do wonder if the rules were different in those days.
I will make some enquiries for you with some Shipmates in the Royal Naval Association and see if any of them know. The Association has several WW2 veterans amongst its members (my own Branch President who sadly passed away in May was a Normandy veteran) so hopefully one of them might remember.
Hope that helps
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On 25/06/2022 at 08:43, Ex-FAAWAFU said:
Thanks for this, Rob (I’ve been rather absent for a few weeks, so had missed it); really useful. Apart from the Holden (& Starling) I have representatives of all the others & agree with your assessments of the pros & cons.
My challenge is that most of the figures I want are for Ark Royal, and for a very specific moment in her history at that. Bridge, lookouts, weapons crews etc. can all be assembled from what’s available… but I’m going to have 21 Swordfish burning & turning on deck in what are known to have been conditions so rough that they supplemented the normal flight deck crews in order to get the strike ranged. Figures crouching / lying down with chocks, holding onto aircraft wing tips and so on… not to mention the upper chest & head of c.60 aircrew!
Adaptations to modern FD figures are in my future, I think - but it’s a real problem. Chewy has, however, shown us what can be achieved
Hi Crisp,
These are my latest ones for HECLA for the Flt Cdr and his Acmn, only to be added if in the 2 week extension that the GB has been given if can finish drawing and print a fair representation of a Wasp. If not, the ship remains at flying stations and the flight are waiting for the cab to come back! Sadly neither look anything like the Flt Cdr who was singularly responsible for me transferring my allegiance from Hydrography to aviation.
What this macro photo does show is that my painting skills are not as good as my CAD skills! Needs some touch ups I think!
If I can help with doing some bespoke figures for ARK let me know. I can't promise anything but I've got a range of poses now in a variety of kit so it shouldn't be too difficult to do something.
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Where does one start.
Not necessarily in priority order:
1/350 Colony class cruiser
1/350 Southampton class cruiser (with additional parts to build a Gloucester class)
1/350 TIGER/BLAKE with hanger/flight deck
1/350 HMS ARK ROYAL IV, final commission
1/350 Battle class destroyer (yes, I know one is being produced)
1/350 HMS EXMOUTH (post gas turbine trials ship conversion)
1/350 HMCS PRESERVEUR (to go with my Atlantic Models 1/350 Leander class to replicate her coming together with PENELOPE in Vestfjord in 1988)
1/350 OL class tanker
1/350 HMS TRIUMPH in her final maintenance carrier guise
1/350 HMY BRITANNIA
1/350 HMS FURIOUS (WW2 configuration)
1/35 BRNC Picket Boat
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Thanks @TonyOD. Hadn't seen that so signed up.
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Late to the party as usual - only saw this because @TonyOD posted it in maritime. Well since my entire stash either floats on the sea of flew from things that float on the sea, better count me.
Apologies if I missed it, but page 1 suggested things that flew from carriers. What about helicopters that flew from frigates/destroyers?
Now there's no guarantee that I might do one of the many Lynx I have in my stash to represent one of the aircraft that I flew but it is a possibility..
Best rgds
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Thanks both for your very kind comments.
Whip aerials and figures now added though I still have to add a touch of paint to the aerials themselves. I did realise however that since the ship is supposed to be at flying stations, I have missed off the Flag Hotel ("I am operating helicopters") at the stbd outer yardarm. I'll add that tomorrow.
2 hours ago, arfa1983 said:The big white ship with red crosses really paints a picture or tells a story especially because you have it mounted on the sea base.
Trust me, she was not that big. HECLA was only 260 ft long and less than 3,000 tons. Which might seem quite big, but that's 100 ft less than a Leander class frigate and in some of the Force 12s we faced between the Falklands and Montevideo she rolled like a pig and was seriously uncomfortable. On more than one occasion we just had to head into the sea at about 2 kts and ride it out. It was bad enough for the matelots, I hate to think was it like for the patients!
I always mount my ship models on a sea base on the basis that unless the ship is in dry dock (or you're a submariner), you never get to see a ship's underside.
Best rgds
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1/350 HMS HECLA - 3D printed
in Ready for Inspection - Maritime
Posted
This build started here in maritime until someone pointed out that there was a Falklands 40 GB and there were very few maritime subjects being built. So I'd only just started it and was allowed to transfer to the GB.
WIP can be found here:
There are some photos in the GB gallery here:
And here are some more:
I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting in the GB gallery and here, but I have a feeling there aren't as many maritime modellers looking at the GB thread as there are here. I dont think any of the images are duplicated. If I have broken the rules if a Mod could let me know I'll take them down from here.