A Batch of British Cruisers

The next batch of ships completed are all British 1/2400 3D prints.

There are nine Dido class light cruisers, one Leander class CL, four Arethusa class CLs, six Town class CLs, six Tribal class destroyers, and two heavy cruisers. One of the heavy cruisers in the photo above, Canarias, was actually a British County class cruiser vessel built in Spain for His Majesty's Spanish Navy. I have it incorrectly labeled in the photo above. Here it is corrected:

Canarias and her sister ship Balearias were an unusual configuration for the County class, having only two funnels. I couldn't find a file for these two ships. I decided to just clip off one funnel from a County class, but when I did, the spacing just didn't look right. I contemplated removing the other two funnels and most of the deck structure, then build it back in the correct configuration. But then I spied my previously built Exeter! Two funnels, spaced about right,...close enough! Forty minutes to print a new Exeter and voila, I had my Canarias!

I am taking a short break from ships now to play around with some 15MM WWII trucks I've been printing over the last week. Steyrs, Fiats, Opels, Isuzus, Macks, Deuce & a halfs, Renaults, and even a few armored cars. All free files too.

British Carriers

 Tonight I finished seven British aircraft carriers: 3 Illustrious class, Ark Royal, and 3 lend lease escorts.

Next will be either British light cruisers or destroyers.

Britsh cruisers in the center shelf

British destroyer classes

WWII Fleet Expansion

I fired up the printer to print a few more 1/2400 WWII ships. I started with some more Japanese files purchased from Ghuhkek Minis on Wargaming3D.com, but then I'm afraid I got a bit carried away. I ended up making several orders over a couple of weeks, buying nearly every British and Japanese file I didn't already have! So in the last few weeks I have printed 220 ships (not including misprints or prints I aborted to go back and reslice with changes). 

I have completed 61 ships: 20 German, 20 Japanese, and 21 British. All but 15 cargo ships have been mounted on bases. Thirteen more British ships are painted and still need the bases finished and labels attached. So, as of today, I have 146 ships left to finish: 2 Italian, 6 French, 6 American, 56 Japanese, 61 British, and 15 cargo ships. When I said a bit carried away, that was an understatement.

Here are the recent completed ships:

British battleships: Revenge, Nelson, Queen Elizabeth, and King George V classes

British cruisers: Leander CL and County CA classes

Japanese: 3 destroyers, 4 battleships, 1 carrier, 5 heavy and 1 light cruiser

Germany: 17 u-boats, 2 auxiliary cruisers, and a light cruiser Emden

And these are all that I have left to do! 

I'm going to need more carry cases!

Hasegawa 1/700 IJN Aircraft Carrier Akagi

This waterline model was a gift from one of my daughters last Christmas and I just got around to building it. It went together pretty quick and I had fun with it.

Dragonsdawn Booknook

 My oldest daughter loved the book nook I made her for Christmas so much that she asked for another one for her birthday, in two days! This time she wanted a theme based on Anne McCaffrey's Pern, another book series she loved growing up. I started it two weeks ago and modeled it after the Dragondawn book cover art by Michael Whelan.

Full painting by Michael Whelan

This was a real challenge for me since I am not an artist or sculptor. I thought about it for some time and decided to go with a 3D flat image effect for the figures. I started by rough cutting out the girl and dragonets. I glued the girl to some 7/16" basswood, then cut the figure out with a xacto knife, and sanded the edges smooth. I painted the exposed edges to match the front. The dragonets were glued to some cerial box cardboard scrap and cut out. The wings, tail, and heads were bent to give more of a 3D impression.

Next I glued up some packing foam scraps to form the cave. I filled in the gaps with watered down vinyl spackle, and sealed the whole thing with Mod Podge.

I used cosclay to make three of the larger tree trunks.

I had to make an attempt at a sort of alien landscape painting for the inside of the box.

My second attempt at the landscape and I called it good.

I worked in the trees, usinf the ones I made and some more made from weeds and wood putty.

The lighting consists of a yellow and two white LED chip lights, a coin battery pack and a secondary pushbutton switch mounted through the front.

I decoupaged three of Michael Whelan's cocept drawings to the outside case.

And an alternate bookcover to the otherside, not wanting to duplicate what is inside.

I hope she likes it!

Back to Ships

I pulled my Kriegsmarine fleet back out, and finished installing the labels. I need three more light cruisers: two Königsberg class, and one Leipzig class. Pluss several U-Boats. I'm saving up a list with more British, Japanese, Italian, and French ships to print, the next time I start up the printer.