I enjoy scratchbuilding 1/350 DKM surface vessels and usually the most difficult part is making the hull. My models are all waterline which makes it a bit easier. I use “Balsa-Foam” (available at Dick Blick’s) to shape the hull, then clad it with .025" Evergreen sheet styrene held in place with contact cement. Often one has to use several odd-shaped pieces of plastic to cover everything, and around the stern it gets kinda dicey with the compound curves. Most often, the plastic simply won’t fit tightly around the stern…so, once all the parts are securely attached to the Balsa-Foam I mix up a small batch of Smooth-On 300 two-part liquid plastic (resin) in a cup, let it set up a bit (so it won’t run all over) and then brush the resin over the stern with an old acid brush…the resin adheres to the plastic and foam and is self-leveling. Let the resin cure thoroughly then sand as needed. You may need more than one layer of resin. I usually give the Balsa-Foam several coats of Future (or whatever its called now) to make a firmer base for the contact cement.
Hi,
Thanks for the info. Recently I have been messing around with 3D printing stuff, and the using either a combination of sanding sealer & balsa filler, Mr Dissolved Putty, Bondo and/or Squadron Grey Putty, to help fill, fair and seal the model. Typically it ends up taking me several coats and spot touch ups, alternating with sanding and filing, before I get all the seems, joints, and layering covered up though [:P]
PF
For scratch ships I still use wood and the bread and butter method. For 1:350 scale it takes thin sheets, but these are easily available at hobby shops. With waterline models there is very little carving.
I’ve done one ship in balsa foam it came out well if a little $$$.
I covered it in Bondo.
Again took some work.
Hi;
If I am doing that scale , Scratch and Waterline I always use basswood for the hull . Why ? Well I have the carving tools to do it right. It seals good and I don’t have too much problem with surface blemishes after a coat of Krylon wood primer sprayed on .
Sand down and finish the build .Krylon has a grey Primer that you can use after the wood primer that is a good match for Haze grey .
I use basswood for the same reason, and also the Krylon primer. However, if it is one of my really big builds, like my lakers in 1:192 scale (they come out between three and four feet long) I save some bucks buying aspen or clear pine at my local Menards store. Modern lakers do not require much carving, so the slightly less tight grain is not a bother.
Hi,
On a similar, but slightly different, topic, I just came across a 3D model of a WWI “Landship” (ie Tank) model that I have downloaded. The person that did the model broke it into parts to make it easier to 3D print and build as a kit. It may take me awhile to 3D print all the parts, but I am looking forward to messing around with it to see how it turns out. [:P]
PF
PS. I can’t be fully certain what scale the kit is supposed to be, but the distance between the front and rear “sprockets” seems to equate to about 1/50 - 1/51 or so. For my print, I have tried to rescale it to instead equate to about 1/48 scale or so, so that I can hopefully use existing figures and such with it.