I don't have a blog, so I'm posting it here so people who are wondering what the heck I'm doing with all this free time can find out I've been working on two main projects: 1/144 IJN Hyuga hull plug, and the 1/96 Yamato turret set. At the end of the day yesterday, I had gotten half of the outline of the main cut out. Very time consuming, but it looks cool. On the secondary plug, I drilled out the gunports, and started hollowing out the interior. The turret walls are 1/4" thick, front is some thicker, plus it has the slope of the armor working for it, should be good to go. The tricky part is getting adequate detail around the sighting hoods between the gunports. And, huzzah, Artwerks-mom came over and dropped off 2 rolls of fiberglass insulation! One got put up late last night, the other will go up sometime soon, but they should make the shop even nicer to work in. Hurray for Artwerks-mom! (My parents are retired and live like 10 miles away. Very cool.) Lest anyone think that Artwerks-dad did not contribute, he's the one who donated the jigsaw, radial arm saw, and circular saw to the shop Today's plan is to get the rest of the main cut out, and put the angle on the front face. It'll look more like a turret, then. The secondary plug will get all the way hollowed out. Anything else is gravy. The frames for Hyuga are cut out, but I need to build the hull-work table so I have room to assemble the plug. That may happen tonite before the insulation goes up. Allright, break's over; Back on your heads
Okay, it's been a few days since I posted. I've been insulating more of the shop, and I got the hull-work bench done. I'm also getting ready for some minor surgery to rearrange my head (I know, I know, it's needed it), so progress hasn't been stupefyingly fast of late. I _did_ manage to find my digital camera, so I have some pics of the Yamato turrets in progress to share! This one is the Yamato main turret plug, with one of Brian K's 1/144 HMS Vanguard main turrets on top of it! Keep in mind that there is still another layer to get laminated on to the Yammer main turret, so it's still a mite shorter than it will be. This is the Yamato secondary/Mogami main turret plug next to the same 1/144 scale BB turret. The funky hump with the rangefinder will be cast separately from the body, and then they will be epoxied together. None of the detail is on this one yet, but I thought I'd share. Heh. This one is for scale. The Yamato main sitting on top of turret Anton of Gneisenau (in the shop for overhaul). Remember, It's not as tall as it will be And, Scharnies have pretty big turrets for 1/144 boats. That's all for today, I will post some pics of progress on the Hyuga hull tomorrow when I am waiting for the final lamination of the main turret to dry. Also, the UPS guy delivered the brass tubing and stainless steel shafts for making driveshafts and stuffing tubes Huzzah! Alas, I will probably not be playing with that till I get done recovering from surgery, but on the up side it gives me something to look forward to!
And for reference purposes, the Yammer's Hammers will look MUCH better than the Vanguard turret. That was one I had sitting around from the very first turret plug we ever made, back in 2005, and it's here just for scale. The new Vanguard turrets will be the cat's pajamas! On a related note: The material the Vanguard turrets are made from is what the Yamato's will be made from, and they've taken 2 years of battling (Against Charley's guns, among others) without cracks and barely a single dent.
Tug- Where's the 1/144th hull wish list that you speak of on the 1/96 board? Just curious, cause I have a few to add!
Today, I'm getting stuff done like mowing the lawn and pool maintenance, that I won't be able to do for a week or so after my surgery tomorrow. But by all means, post some you'd like to see voted on! The proviso is that I have to be able to get good plans for them, and ships that I already have plugs in progress will likely get done first (at least Agano, LST, & Monteccucoli). On Thursday or Friday, I'll be doing computer stuff: The 1/144 list, plans to be sold, etc).
Hi Tugboat, I spoke to Steve Hill of NABS last night. He has hull and turret molds for the Fiji/Uganda/Superb/Swiftsure CA/CL hull. We have 2 examples of that type in the NABS Fleet: CA HMCS Ontario (ex-HMS Uganda) and CL HMS Newfoundland. A nicely done hull. I believe he has a regular 2 piece hull mold but have seen his ingenious 3 part mold that allowed him to mold in partial decks if the buyer wanted that feature. He also has a mold for the London and Dorsetshire Classes of British CAs (2nd and 3rd groups of the 'County Class'; nonbulged follow-ons to the Kent Class). The mold was made from an ~75% complete hull plug I gave to him to complete. Steve made and sold a few of the Fiji/etc. hulls locally and stateside, but made only one CA hull for himself. He has other interests and no intention of making more hulls to sell, so he'll sell the molds if you're interested. I'll have more info when I return from vacation on the 19th. Bob Pottle
Well, the RC Artwerks site is up (partly!)... If you want a look at it, the Plans page and Ship Hulls pages are up, although the convoy page is under construction till later tonite The 404 page is funny, in a whoops! kinda way. I won't be able to work in the shop for a few more days (although I may sneak out tomorrow to play a little), so I'm working feverishly on the site coding. For people not in MWC, I am listing data on the individual ship pages, but I am not as familiar with other rule systems and ship lists. If you see something like a difference in units (like MWC gives one ship 3.0, but IRCWCC gives it 3.5, etc) or in speeds allowed, please let me know, and I'll add a note for your club. For Battlestations and Big Guns, I have attempted to include accurate data on speed, armor belt thickness, guns, etc since those clubs use that for arming & building. But if you see a discrepancy, please let me know. All pricing data is speculative but should be reasonably accurate. No 1/96 pricing, yet, until I know what the materials and time will be. But I promise it'll be reasonable. If you don't like the blue color, eat it bgcolor="#336699" RULES!!!! Address for the site is in my sig line.
Love that tinted picture of the Connecticut. I have seen it in b/w but never color. Is it a period tinting or your own work? A.
It's a period tinting. It is actually a much bigger picture than the one I used, and is available in digital form (public domain, no less at the Naval Historical Center Photo Archive. I can't find the link!! Grrr... Just for you, I've loaded it onto the file manager. Go to my folder, and it's "bow wave color". It's like 2000x1500 pixels. HUGE!
Thanks! I remember reading an anecdote that the photographer's boat being swamped by the wake of the Connecticut as it passed by. Not hard to believe at all. j.
Hey Tuggy, Good to hear that there could be an Agano hull source coming out. Umm, what's a Montecelliolico...err whatever? It sounds French. Maybe Italian.
The Montecuccoli is an Italian light cruiser, one of the Condittieri superclass (4 subclasses). I'm getting a plug for that one this weekend, so I will be prepping it to become a mold. The Agano plug is well along, will probably get it molded shortly after the full Monte The Agano is one of my favorites, too We need more Japanese cruisers! (I have a feeling that the Takao will make an appearance in 1/144 and 1/96 both, eventually
Sweet, and here I was going to have to do up a Furutaka plug/mould/hull and THEN get to work on a jap cruiser. Do you need a planset for Takao? I won one at nats.
awesome page! I really liked the pages that were'nt available... THe ship lined up with the periscope!
I appreciate the offer But I have the Anatomy of the Ship: Takao, plus my friend Haruo in Japan makes the most amazing plans in the world, and I have a set of those, too. Anyway, as an update on work progress... I recovered from surgery enough to play a little in the shop. So, the 1/96 Yamato main turret plug got it's last bit of laminating done, which means... Wednesday I get to start sanding the angles into it!!! Very excited about this, but I am going to be super careful as I don't want to wreck the work thus far. Also, I got to cut foam, filling out the Hyuga plug some. I'd say I've got about a third of it filled in between the frames. The wife was unpacking boxes, & found the Hyuga and SoDak turret plugs I did, so that's nice Thanks for all the positive comments I'm working on the master list of all hulls a bit at a time, and will be finishing the rest of the pages. Side note: You guys who visited the convoy ships page probably noticed the LST listed. I have obtained the shipyard prints and it will be a very nice hull. Did you guys know that LSTs had TWO rudders?
What I REALLY need plans-wise is a set of plans for a small Axis convoy ship, something on a par with the LST. Being Axis, I think that the Allied vermin's dominance of Convoy battle needs to END. Banzai!!! Note to Allied vermin: I will of course be making LSTs and other allied scum transports There would be no joy in an Axis convoy battle victory unless you have a fighting chance Oh, hey, Brandon... I'm going to cast lil tiny Chrysanthemum crests to go on the bows of the IJN warships How's that for a finishing touch?
