Hello Everybody

Good Morning to all you Fine Scale Modelers out there!

My name is Russ Dutnell and I am new to this site. I have been modeling for just over 2 years now, not counting the modeling we all did as kids. My dad has Alzheimer’s and I thought that building ships that he cruised on as a midshipman together might bring up good memories for him. We built the 1/700 scale USS Missouri (BB-63) and USS Essex (CV-9) (He was actually on USS Bennington (CV-20)) kits and it worked. I heard some fascinating stories of his experiences.

One story, about how he and the rest of the football team, were transferred from Missouri to a destroyer inspired me to make a diorama for him. I had already found a great deal on the Tamiya 1/350 scale USS Missouri (BB-63) and was near completing it when he told me the story.

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/bb/bb-63/350-rd/index.htm

He didn’t know what destroyer it was, so I bought and built Trumpeter’s USS England (DE-635)…

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dd/de-635/350-rd/index.htm

…And made a diorama showing a similar scene inn WW2(I liked the dazzle paint scheme)

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/dio/unrep/Transfer-350-rd/index.htm

He tells me often how much he likes it, and that gives me a good feeling.

My next project was a conversion project converting Trumpeter’s 1/350 USS Essex (CV-9) to USS Bennington (CV-20). I started a build log on it but for various reasons the project got put on hold and it remains unfinished.

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=106774

During this time I made a 1/350 scale AC-47, that dad flew in Vietnam, and gave it to him as a birthday present. He really got a kick out of it.

Although you can see that my modeling skills are somewhat lacking, it is a lot of fun and I am happy with the way they look.

Last year, other commitments kept me away from home a lot, and precluded me from working on Bennington. This is when I got into CAD modeling and 3D printing. It’s a long story, but my first 3D printed model was a 1/144 scale model of USS Greenling (SSN-614) that a friend of mine was on. A more detailed version of Greenling has been designed but has not been “printed”. I have a build log ongoing for Greenling, including how I did the CAD work.

http://www.subcommittee.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11272

I am also putting the final touches on another CAD model, a 1/144 scale model of USS Batfish (SS-310), but it will be some time before it is “printed”. I am maintaining a build log for Batfish too.

http://www.subcommittee.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11415

For Christmas this year, I decided to make dad a display of the planes he flew during his 20+ year career in the Air Force. I joined Finescale Modeler to post a build log for it, which I will start shortly.

CHEERS!!!

Welcome to the Forum, Russ! Outstanding model work. No wonder your dad enjoys them. Great to see projects with such a human interest attached to them. Nice job!

Welcome Russ! Great work you’ve done there! Glad to have you on board!

Eagle90

Welcome aboard. Those are some great builds, looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks Guys!

I appreciate the comments. I posted the WIP in the aircraft section. I hope you enjoy it.

Checkmate… the fact that I can build models with the human interest shows that I haven’t been building models very long. :o)

Keep that touch, though. The human element brings so much more to a model. A plane, ship or tank is just a piece of machinery, unless there’s a human story to go along with it.

Again, great work! Very appealing to the eye!

[snWcm] It is possible that modelmakers, poets, painters, and writers are all member of same family of people whose gift it is by nature to take those things which we call commonplace and re-present them to us in such ways that our self-imposed limitations are expanded. Those people in whom this gift is especially pronounced, we call geniuses.

oops

Thanks checkmate! I appreciate it. I certainly hope to keep that personal touch in my modeling. I’m not sure that I would keep modeling without it. I like the physical parts of modeling but it’s the mental parts that I enjoy the most. Working out problems is part of that, but as I am making the model planes, I envision dad a young officer flying his first plane, flying his first twin-engine, instructing I know not how many other budding pilots. I can’t fathom the fear he must have felt flying missions in Vietnam, including routine missions over the infamous Ho Chi Minh trail. When I did the Missouri/England diorama, I could imagine the spray in his face when he and the other members of the Naval Academy football team made the “UNREP”, and as I am (slowly) building the Wisconsin, I can see him watching the movies they watched in the hanger while riding out Hurricane Barbara and running football plays on the flight deck. As I was making Greenling for Travis I reheard the stories he has told me of his experiences while serving on her and the mixed feelings he still has about the experience. Those thoughts and the feelings that accompany them are perhaps the best part of modeling and why I enjoy it so much.

TomZ2 is perhaps correct. I have dabbled with sketching and water color painting throughout my life and enjoy it for many of the same reasons that I enjoy modeling. I don’t know that I have a gift, and I am certainly not a genius, but I sure am having fun.

Thanks Guys!

Welcome to the forums,great work and some great stories shared

Paraphrasing Rod Stewart…

“Every model tells a story don’t it?”

Welcome to the Forums Russ! Glad to have you aboard!

Try using a small pencil type soldering iron to tighten your rigging. I slowly pass the iron a couple of inches below the rigging back and forth. It’s worked for me for years.

Great builds and good photos too. Keep up the good work.

Jim [cptn]

Thanks Jim! I always appreciate tips.

I like the idea of using a tire iron for tightening rigging. I assume that you are talking about the rigging on the Missouri, which was, other than the models dad and I worked on together, my first ship model, and it was the first time I ever tried rigging. I heard that heat did the trick tightening them, and even saw a video of it. I thought it was pretty cool so I thought I would try it, using the only heat source I had available at the time, a BIC lighter. (I’ll bet you can see where this is going.) It worked good, for a while, but I got too close once, and started a small fire and had to redo most of it. Needless to say I was a bit more cautious the next time around. I have since bought a pencil type soldering iron and will definitely try it the next time I do rigging.

Been there and done that. One day we realize that we have learned a lot of tricks while engaged in this hobby of ours. We also realize that we still have a lot to learn as we look at some of the great models posted on these Forums or on the tables at a contest. I can’t count the number of times I have said to myself “I’ll never be able to do what he does”. I’ve been building for 67 of my 73 years and am still learning. I have improved a lot, but still have a long way to go.

Jim [cptn]

I haven’t been modeling that long, but it is kind of like knowledge. The more you know, the more you don’t know. Can there ever be a perfect model? It would seem that the more you learn and the better you get at it the better your models become, but then you also become more judgmental (not meant in a bad way) about them. I think that the thing that amazes me the most so far about modeling is that there are almost as many ways to do things as there are people doing them. Gluing, priming (or not), painting, weathering (or not), etc. That’s cool though, because it allows you to be creative and find the method that works best for you.

Happy modeling and CHEERS!!!

[snWcm]

Thanks Subfixer.

My dad’s display is completed in the nick of time.

To see more pictures of it, go to my WIP:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/157366.aspx

Just finished going through the entire WIP. Outstanding work. [t$t] Let us know how the presentation goes, with pics. I’m sure your work will make him one happy man. Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Jim [cptn]

Thanks Jim! I appreciate the kind words.

And dad liked the display. Mom says he chokes up whenever he looks at it.

I will take pictures of it in its new home when dad decides where he is going to put it.

Happy Holidays Everybody! [t$t]

Now that is a great display and your dad’s face says it all. Nice one.