I received my first ever order of 3D ships from designer Henry Turner. I first got acquainted with Henry nearly two years ago when he was living in Siberia. He contacted me about the 1/1200 scratch builds I was doing and was interested in trying his own in 1/900 scale as I remember. We corresponded quite a bit as he made two or three ships. At some point he developed an interest in the design aspect for 3D printing. He relocated back to his home in the UK, and now is one of the two best known designers of 3D ships in several scales. Henry recently aquired a new 3D resin printer and has expanded his business to include physical prints of his designs. I chose the 1/700 scale to add to the Warlord Games Black Seas ships I have been working on. Here is a photo of my order:
From left to right:
Majestic (razeed), Courageux, Canada class (Captain), Holsteen, Leda class, Concorde class, Unite (Surprise), Magicienne, two Pandora class, Bounty, Lynx, and above is a xebec.
The post from the UK was quite rough (a 2" hole punctured in one side of the box) and there was some minor damage to four of the ships. The worst was Holsteen and Captain including the loss of railing, lanterns, and catheads, along with some guns snapping off. But nothing I couldn't fix.
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| I used the mesh edging from my 1/1200 ratline material for railing |
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| I used a bit of card to replace the broken off taff railing above the stern galleries |
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| New guns painted black for better visual |
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| For guns I drilled holes and inserted 20lb test fishing line, then snipped it off to match the other guns |
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| For catheads I drilled holes, inserted pins, then glued the new carved catheads onto the pins |
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For lanterns I drilled holes, inserted 20lb test fishing line, snipped it off, built up with successive layers of PVA, shaped a bit with a needle file, painted
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I am about halfway through building HMS Captain right now and when it's done I will be posting the result. Here is the painted hull:
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| Note I added rails just aft of the main channels for later rigging |
Be sure to check out Henry's new kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ageofadmirals/age-of-admirals-nelson-at-st-vincent
14 comments:
Looking great! How is the quality of the 3D printing?
Very detailed Jonathan, almost too much detail. So they are very delicate. I may try dipping the rest in a PVA bath to see if I can strengthe them up. Henry is talking about changing some parameters to thicken the guns from their current true scale. A 24 pounder is as thin as 20lb test monofilament fishing line, so they are easily snapped off. I haven't had anymore break since I received them, but I have brokevsome bulwark trying to drill holes for rigging.
Very informative post. I really do hope and pray this stuff works.Thank you.
Thank you. I am sure they will Plus they will open up a huge range of historical plan accurate ships in various scales for a reasonable price.
That’s a very nice haul of ships there! Should round out the fleet nicely. I haven’t done nearly as much scratch buildings (ok, no scratch builds) or modifying of models as you have, but I’ve always found resin very hard to work with. Maybe the resin is different than it used to be, but I find it to be brittle in all the wrong places.
Good luck with the ships! I’m sure they’ll be great to see completed. 😀
Yep it is still very brittle like you remember Stew. But the detail is amazing. I believe I will stop trying to drill holes for rigging and just add rings, beads, shrink tubing, staple rails and such to tie off to. I have always had to do that kind of stuff with the 1/1200 Navwar hulls so the things I've learned should carry over.
Hi Vol,
I am very interested to see how this build goes being partway into my own conversions and I like the railings idea, very clever and I’ve banked that along with your blocks from PVA.
Cheers
JJ
Thanks JJ, you have given me so many great ideas, I am very happy to return the favor.
Cheers!
Those look like some really great hulls, and I know you will do them justice Vol. It's exciting to think of all the ships we'll be able to find this way, that would never be produced by conventional model companies. And the proportions and detail on these look a great deal better than the Warlord models.
Hello James, thanks for dropping by. Yes I agree, these highly detailed 3D ships are going to really open up the hobby. The Warlord ships are nice and detailed, albeit a bit on the bulky side. But they are all the same. The only variety is in the 3 or 4 possible figureheads and sterns provided. The hull configurations don't change. And as you know me, my historical accuracy OCD steers me more towards hulls that are based on the historical construction plans, of which Henry Turner's and Simon Mann's designs are.
Cheers my friend,
Vol
Lovely looking range of hulls, great looking conversion work and the painted hull is ace!
Best Iain
Thank you Iain, I am nearly finished with Captain and will be posting soon.
Cheers,
Vol
Dang,Vol, those are nice indeed! Is he doing any hulls in 1/1200?
Hello Brian, yes he does his entire line in 1/1200 as well. As a mater of fact this order started out in that scale and I changed it before he got started. His new Kickstarter is including 1/1200, 1/1000 AND 1/700 scales. I just finished Captain so please check out that post.
Regards,
Vol
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