RCN Carrier models

[CougarKing]

I was wondering if anyone here has built a kit or even scratch built a model- any scale- of any aircraft carrier from the old RCN, such as the HMS Warrior (Canadian-crewed), HMCS Magnificent, and HMCS Bonaventure?

The thought occurred to me of buying one of those Waterline series models of HMS Indomitable or HMS Ark Royal (the post-war one) made by Tamiya, Fujimi or Hasegawa, and modifying them, but then I realized none of those British carriers are the right class- there are no kits available from those companies that are of the right class- Colossus class light carriers.

Just wondering...

 

[old medic]

Heller 1/400 scale HMS Colossus
http://www.shipmodels.co.uk/627_1_1976556.html

Scratchbuilt 1/700 scale
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/hms/vengeance/700-jra/vengeance.html

 

[CougarKing]

Thanks for the link, Old Medic, but I started this thread mainly for others to share their previous experiences with building those model carriers, if any. I could have looked up the Colossus models up myself.

 

[NavyShooter]

Here's one in progress:

 

[NavyShooter]

Of note, if anyone is interested, I have a fairly complete set of plans now for the Bonnie as built in 1959. Some very large files, but willing to share if you're genuinely interested.

An observation - whichever scale you choose, the options outside of 1/72 and 1/48 for aircraft are very very very limited for 1960s RCN aircraft.

3D printing has enabled me to solve that.

NS

 

[Halifax Tar]

You 3D printed those planes ? Thats so cool

 

[NavyShooter]

Ayup.

I've had to teach myself a lot about 3D design as well. There's a tale behind the aircraft - even finding the 3D models for RCN Type aircraft is a challenge. I engaged a gent who makes 3D models for computer games in the UK to convert his tracker file to be 3D printable, but that didn't work out after much effort and printing (and some cost) so I did some more looking and found a guy in Argentina who made a file that would work...cost me another $7 to get his file and it worked great.

I'm now at the point that I've done the 3D design of not just the small bits and accessories (I started with the Crane truck, moved on to the flight deck tractors, the ammo and fire lockers, and so on) but now I've got the Island created as a separate file, and the hangar deck too.

I'm not great at it...and if you held me up to the standard of a real 3D designer, I'm very slow, and still figuring things out, but the nice part of 3D printing bits is that you can do up a rapid prototype in a matter of hours, and get new versions made in only a few more.

 

[Halifax Tar]

That is so cool. Ive done a small amount of reading on 3D printing. But it seems like it will be revolutionary.

Did you 3D print the hull and flight deck ?

What are you planning on doing with her when you're finished ?

 

[Remius]

That is really impressive. The sort of thing I’d stare at for hours as a kid.

 

[dapaterson]

That is so cool. Ive done a small amount of reading on 3D printing. But it seems like it will be revolutionary.

Did you 3D print the hull and flight deck ?

What are you planning on doing with her when you're finished ?

In accordance with Canadian tradition, as soon as she's completed he has to scrap her.

 

[FSTO]

In accordance with Canadian tradition, as soon as she's completed he has to scrap her.

That hurts man.....

 

[Halifax Tar]

In accordance with Canadian tradition, as soon as she's completed he has to scrap her.

Sir, well played... Very very well played.

 

[Kat Stevens]

In accordance with Canadian tradition, as soon as she's completed he has to scrap her.

Trade it and all copies of the plans to a modeller in the US for a handful of Bomarc missile models.

 

[NavyShooter]

In accordance with Canadian tradition, as soon as she's completed he has to scrap her.

You, my good man, have won the internet today.

Well played.

----------------

Hull and flight deck are traditional wood frame/fiberglass construction that I got from another modeler as an incomplete project that he wasn't going to finish (he got it from an estate) for a number of reasons...a big part of which was the cost of the 3D printed aircraft he could get. The one company that he was able to order a 3D printed Tracker from charged him $90 for it...so to build an air det of ~25 aircraft would have cost him about $2K, so that was his decision point to sell it to me.

Based on machine time and plastic use, I'm able to 3D print an aircraft in about 18 hours (using the same power as a 40W bulb) and use about $3-4 in plastic. The decals for each aircraft cost more than the model.

The model will be on display at the Halifax Boat Show next weekend - it's not finished yet, but it'll be out from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon.

My plan for her is to get her 'finished' and sail her as an RC Ship. I live on a lake, so getting her launched from the garage is only a 75 foot hike.

Goal is to have a number of active elements that can be controlled on the ship including:
-Anchor raise/let go
-Radar dish rotate
-Elevators raise/lower
-Sea King on flight deck with spinning rotors
-Functional deck crane (rotate, hoist)
-Ship's boats that will lower away from the boat bays
-Lighting
-Smoke from funnel
-Sound kit

Optional ideas:
- functional catapult that will launch failed 3D printed aircraft into the lake (I have a few prints that didn't make the cut)

 

[Spencer100]

You, my good man, have won the internet today.

Well played.

----------------

Hull and flight deck are traditional wood frame/fiberglass construction that I got from another modeler as an incomplete project that he wasn't going to finish (he got it from an estate) for a number of reasons...a big part of which was the cost of the 3D printed aircraft he could get. The one company that he was able to order a 3D printed Tracker from charged him $90 for it...so to build an air det of ~25 aircraft would have cost him about $2K, so that was his decision point to sell it to me.

Based on machine time and plastic use, I'm able to 3D print an aircraft in about 18 hours (using the same power as a 40W bulb) and use about $3-4 in plastic. The decals for each aircraft cost more than the model.

The model will be on display at the Halifax Boat Show next weekend - it's not finished yet, but it'll be out from Thursday evening until Sunday afternoon.

My plan for her is to get her 'finished' and sail her as an RC Ship. I live on a lake, so getting her launched from the garage is only a 75 foot hike.

Goal is to have a number of active elements that can be controlled on the ship including:
-Anchor raise/let go
-Radar dish rotate
-Elevators raise/lower
-Sea King on flight deck with spinning rotors
-Functional deck crane (rotate, hoist)
-Ship's boats that will lower away from the boat bays
-Lighting
-Smoke from funnel
-Sound kit

Optional ideas:
- functional catapult that will launch failed 3D printed aircraft into the lake (I have a few prints that didn't make the cut)

Can't wait to see the video of that.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I also notice your channelling your inner Micheal Wittman, but it seems that project is in hiatus?

 

[NavyShooter]

I also notice your channelling your inner Micheal Wittman, but it seems that project is in hiatus?

Ah yes....that's been a project that's been in hiatus since we moved into the new house....um....9 years ago...? Maybe I should get back to work on that one too.

 

[RangerRay]

Funny thing I have been wanting to get back into model building and was thinking of modding a Magnificent-class carrier or Fiji-class cruiser to build the Bonaventure or Uganda. This despite the fact I was never interested in building naval models back in the day ( I used to build armour vehicle and the odd plane). Now for some reason I want to build Canadian BFS’s.

 

[NavyShooter]

RangerRay,

The hardest part of this project was the aircraft. Took me literally months to find suitable 3D models to print, and to fix up the models that I was able to find to make them print-able. It doesn't show in the images, but the Sea Kings require a lot of putty work on the sliding door area to 'fix' them.

Truthfully, the 'easy' part is the hull. The hard part is the detail, and with a model this big, it's very very very easy to overdo the detail. There is just so MUCH gear on a ship. Lockers, ladders, workbenches, hose reels, barrier brackets, flight deck tractors, fork lifts, crane trucks, guard rails, radar dishes, torpedo dolly, wheel chocks racks, antennas, loudspeakers....the list goes on and on. The question is, what is my 'limit' for detail. With a 3D printer capable of 0.4mm resolution, I can print things that would be just shy of 40mm in size in real life. In short - smaller than 4cm isn't getting made.

I've decided that I will not do photo-etch brass detail work. I'm also mostly decided not to add crew to the ship...but I found some 1/100 scale figures that I posed in the hangar just for looks. Not sure if they'll make it to the final version.

My goal is not a 'museum perfect' model. Having compared the hull and deck to the blueprints, there are already variances that I am accepting, having not built the hull myself. That said, it will certainly be a representative model - one that anyone who looks at will certainly recognize as being the Bonnie. If you dig into the weeds, you'll see that the port gun sponson is off a bit, and that the OAL is out by about 1%, and that the beam is off about 2%, but really, the guys in the HMCS Bonaventure facebook group are really encouraging and have given me some great insight from their memories.

 

[NavyShooter]

Video you say?