USS Northampton, 1/1200, SSModel, in progress

[Faraway]

That does look rather good.

Well done.

Jon

[Themistokles]

Its weekend and time to work a little bit on our models, isn't it?!

First, a size comparison after adding some salty crust and rusty dust to the ships coating:

 

[Themistokles]

...and the SSModel in front of Revells hulk of the USS Hornet - I hope, in the future, they will somehow fit to each other:

 

[Themistokles]

Slowly, slowly - step by step... I've done some rigging last weekend. Not without breaking off the main radar antenna. Actually, some of the work was done by my wife. Well, it's my fault to deploy my fleet within the range of her destruction potential. It's all just about a certain amount of patience and work in progress - modelmaking, and being married. Loving both for sure...

 

[Archelaos]

Wow, awesome! I can barely rig a 1/700 ship and consider it the most difficult and frustrating part of ship building... And you rigged 1/1200... Great job!

[olavhome@online,no]

Just received the Pensacola in 1:350 from them.

Solid packed and will bring from thailand to norway to work on late summer.

But-what glue to use? 

Plastic or superglue ? :-)

 

[Themistokles]

45 minutes ago, olavhome@online,no said:

Just received the Pensacola in 1:350 from them.

Solid packed and will bring from thailand to norway to work on late summer.

But-what glue to use? 

Plastic or superglue ? 🙂

 

SSModel in 1/350 - must be a hellish heaven of detals!?

I work with superglue, however it doesn't work too well with the very hard resin my model is made from because the glue doesn't interact with the material in a chemical way. As the parts of my model are very small it's not that kind of a problem. However, I can imagine that larger 1/350 parts won't stick together so easily - a clear disadvantage of resin compared with plastic. With plastic glue on resin I've no experience... Curious about the pictures of your Pensacola - have you already started with a review?

[Themistokles]

3 hours ago, Archelaos said:

Wow, awesome! I can barely rig a 1/700 ship and consider it the most difficult and frustrating part of ship building... And you rigged 1/1200... Great job!

True, it can be verrrrrry frustrating!!! Especially the super thin coiling around rubber threads... However, it has a tremendous effect on the appearance of the model at large, isn't it?

[olavhome@online,no]

11 hours ago, Themistokles said:

SSModel in 1/350 - must be a hellish heaven of detals!?

I work with superglue, however it doesn't work too well with the very hard resin my model is made from because the glue doesn't interact with the material in a chemical way. As the parts of my model are very small it's not that kind of a problem. However, I can imagine that larger 1/350 parts won't stick together so easily - a clear disadvantage of resin compared with plastic. With plastic glue on resin I've no experience... Curious about the pictures of your Pensacola - have you already started with a review?

Not yet, guess be about july/august :-)

 

[Themistokles]

I've done some more detailded work with 0.01 and 0.03mm rigging and the Stars and Strips are hoisted up now - in the case that you can see the flag;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[olavhome@online,no]

What kind of glue did you use for this model ?

Super glue-or?

[Themistokles]

8 hours ago, olavhome@online,no said:

What kind of glue did you use for this model ?

Super glue-or?

Yes, I use a semi-viscose, solvent-free cyanacrylat superglue. However, for larger models I would recommend one with sovent.

[bapowell]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:24 AM, Themistokles said:

Yes, I use a semi-viscose, solvent-free cyanacrylat superglue. However, for larger models I would recommend one with sovent.

I'm in the process of building this kit in 1/700 and, given the challenge at my comparatively spacious scale, I am truly impressed by your efforts.  Question about the CA glues: I too have been having a bit of a challenging time getting the resin the adhere with my CA (I use Bob Smith).  You mention solvent vs solvent-free: can you discuss the difference and why larger models would do better with solvent?

 

Thanks and keep up the amazing work!

[Themistokles]

On 16/04/2024 at 20:57, bapowell said:

I'm in the process of building this kit in 1/700 and, given the challenge at my comparatively spacious scale, I am truly impressed by your efforts.  Question about the CA glues: I too have been having a bit of a challenging time getting the resin the adhere with my CA (I use Bob Smith).  You mention solvent vs solvent-free: can you discuss the difference and why larger models would do better with solvent?

 

Thanks and keep up the amazing work!

Thanks for the appreciation of my work. About the glue, your question actually makes sense - gluing resin solvent has not much of an effect... One thing that can help is to roughen the surface. And you need more patience because, according to my experience, the "instant" doesn't fix resin parts instantly. I use the following one and I'm quite satisfied with its results: https://shop.swiss-composite.ch/pi.php/Klebstoffe/Sekundenkleber/MD-Glue-Xtreme-2-Cyanacrylatkleber-mittelviskos.html

 

I wish a nice weekend - and keep on gluing!

[bapowell]

On 4/11/2024 at 5:57 PM, Themistokles said:

I've done some more detailded work with 0.01 and 0.03mm rigging and the Stars and Strips are hoisted up now - in the case that you can see the flag;)

 

Excellent work on the rigging!  Can I ask where the rigging coming down from the foremast boom attaches? It's impossible to see in any photographs of the real ship, and it's also in the shadow in your photos. Also, what kind of rigging did you use?  Thanks for all the inspiration...your work has been a great help as I build my 1/700.    

Edited April 25 by bapowell

[Themistokles]

On 26/04/2024 at 01:46, bapowell said:

Excellent work on the rigging!  Can I ask where the rigging coming down from the foremast boom attaches? It's impossible to see in any photographs of the real ship, and it's also in the shadow in your photos. Also, what kind of rigging did you use?  Thanks for all the inspiration...your work has been a great help as I build my 1/700.    

Good question - I had to work on that challange for quite a while, because it was impossible to pull down six threads from each side of the foremast and to attach their single ends. I use the following stretch elastic rigging: https://www.uschivdr.com/products-in-detail/rigging/ It's superb, however it's rubber. So, if you pull it down and can't fixate it until the glue is hardened, it will pull back --> if I tried to pin them down in a drop of glue they would finally rather stick with the end of the tweezer (where the glue went too) and not where I wanted them - causing A LOT of cursing! 🤪 

So, I turned things upside down: I fixed the six ends very close to eachother on a 0.1mm-diameter rod (https://www.albionhobbies.com/wp-content/uploads/AA-Precision-Metals-2020.pdf) and fixed that almost invisible thing where the threads should finally end: in the two boxes for ropes at the rear of the bridge (red circle). Then I pulled the threads from there one by one over the formast, where it was much easier to add some glue and to cut them off... Does that answer your question?

 

[bapowell]

3 hours ago, Themistokles said:

Good question - I had to work on that challange for quite a while, because it was impossible to pull down six threads from each side of the foremast and to attach their single ends. I use the following stretch elastic rigging: https://www.uschivdr.com/products-in-detail/rigging/ It's superb, however it's rubber. So, if you pull it down and can't fixate it until the glue is hardened, it will pull back --> if I tried to pin them down in a drop of glue they would finally rather stick with the end of the tweezer (where the glue went too) and not where I wanted them - causing A LOT of cursing! 🤪 

So, I turned things upside down: I fixed the six ends very close to eachother on a 0.1mm-diameter rod (https://www.albionhobbies.com/wp-content/uploads/AA-Precision-Metals-2020.pdf) and fixed that almost invisible thing where the threads should finally end: in the two boxes for ropes at the rear of the bridge (red circle). Then I pulled the threads from there one by one over the formast, where it was much easier to add some glue and to cut them off... Does that answer your question?

 

Awesome, it does answer my question.  Thanks so much.  I did pretty much the same thing on mine, as I ended up using a very similar elastic rigging.  

[Themistokles]

Dear folks,

Time to present the next little step. I was hesitating if I should add the two Curtiss SOC Seagulls to the ship, as there are no airplanes visible on the USS Northampton flaoting next to the USS Hornet (see pictures above). However, then I decided that's because from them have been taken the arial pictures of the two ships - so they can't be on the pictures.

 

Not sure if that's true, but the two added planes make the model for sure more interesting and detailed. And here we go with the little pomace flies:

 

I can hear my old 1:72-models (Me-109, Spitfire, Mustang, ... you name it...) I made as a kid jealously yelling from the shelf: "Damn it, did you see - they even got softener on their decals, weathering, and rigging! We didn't get so much attention back in the days. Arghhh, only snow flakes the youth these days!"

 

And here the two babies fixed to the mother - if you can find them:

 

Take care and see you next time!

[Andy H]

😮 Struts?!!!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 5/10/2024 at 4:24 PM, Themistokles said:

And here the two babies fixed to the mother - if you can find them:

G'day, I certainly can. I've made aircraft in 1/600, but 1/1200? 😲 And with struts, props and radio antennae? 😲😲😲 These are little beauties.

As for whether they were still carried, I think the RN landed a lot of ship-borne aircraft but the USN kept them on board for most if not all of the war. And they certainly enhance the model.

Regards, Jeff.