I’ve got several ships/subs…so I made the bases for them out of oak…
I started with drilling out the hull…
I’ll epoxy to nuts in the hull, so I can run the bolts in at the end. The brass pieces are compression fittings.
This stuff is tiny!
The 3 big guns were easy enough, just 5 parts(also drilled out the guns)
The guns got a bit fiddly, with 8 pieces each…then those 2 mounts of some sort are 2 PE pieces plus the dinky plastic. Then there’s the other 8 small guns with 9 pieces each! 7 hours in, and I aint even half way through step 1!
Compression Fittings -Who’da thunk ? The box cover looks like D.D.846 U.S.S. Ozbourn , when I first reported aboard in 1959. She was named for a Marine who jumped on a Grenade to protect his buddies !
The parts are fiddly aren’t they ? Fun is , I am doing that ship as the " Ozzie " after FRAM . Same scale too ! T.B.
When I did my first boat, a few years back, I went in to my local hardware store, just looking for “something”. I went to my “go to” guy, explained what I was trying to do and I wanted brass. We just kinda ended up at compression fittings, and I like it!
It’s pretty amazing, really. Look at the tiny guns (8 of em, around the penny)…each gun its a separate piece, as are the mags. It pretty much boggles my mind, that one company can do very fine moldings/castings that are in scale at 1/350…but them you can get clunky, overly thick parts for a 1/32 scale kit (coughTrumpetercough*).
Your PE work is outstanding! (I wish I were as meticulous in putting mine together [:$]).
My WIP for the 1/350 cruiser I’m building will rest on the kit provided plastic stand but when I get around to one of my 1/350 battleships (USS New York BB-34 or the Admiral Graf Spee) I’ll attempt using a hardwood, stained base with brass pedestals since your and many other posters’ builds look so good with that kind of display.
Came in to my airport yesterday at 6pm…plowed snow until 7am this morning…crashed out in the pilots lounge. Got up at noon and back out cleanin the runway off. More snow on the way…I’m on duty until 8 tonight.
Looks like an hour or two of down time…guess what I brought with me!!!
Compression fittings are extensively used in Hydraulic , Hvac , and high pressure water systems as well as air systems . Plus they are also used a lot in D.I.Y. plumbing products like Ice makers etc. T.B.
The bench has been cleared…all other projects finished up…war room cleaned…diving back in!
Step one is done! Woohoo!!!
I have a PE set of radars, rails and some other bits from Toms Modelworks. It’s kind of a “generic” set for US Detroyers. I was able to use parts of that for the MK4 radar, but there was nothing for the little radar (don’t know what its technical name is), so I used some sheet plastic and finely stretched sprue to scratch that one…the solid kit part looked dumb.
I sectioned off some slots, to keep things straight.
Also did some work on the big parts.
Main deck is glued to upper hull, as well as the first level of structures.
Nuts are epoxied in place…
The main deck, upper hull, and lower hull parts do not line up at all. With all three lined up, from stern to mid-deck, the bow sections were going in three different directions…with the main deck being most central. Upper hull veered off to starboard, while the lower hull veered off to port. Like my nautical terms!!! I’m so out of my element here! Anyway, I got the deck and upper hull to cooperate, although they fought the whole way. This is what I’m still up against between the upper/lower hull sections…
With a lot of tape though, things will be just fine…
