syscom3
Pacific Historian
You should take these illustrations and show how all it all works.
1:48 Engine Room #3 Battleship USS New Jersey for Permanent Display on Board.
- Thread starter Builder 2010
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #262
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
After my Cat Scan, I actually got some shop work accomplished. I first intalled one of the perfectly formed entry hatches into a 0.020" piece of styrene that would serve as the entry hall floor, to figure out how to successfully cut the curves. I also needed to figure out just how it was going to install. I also cut away a chunk of I-beam to clear the counterbalance spring. It worked out well, so I traced the piece onto a heavier piece of 0.030". After drilling out the round corners with a drill sharpened with a plastic cutting angle, and getting the hatch to fit nicely, I glued the plastic flooring onto the frame and held it down with some heavy angle blocks till it cured. I then glued in the hatch with the same reinforced medium viscosity CA. The frame will be painted white and the flooring linoleum brown.
There are couple of spots around the perimeter that could use some minor filler.
In this image I'm holding it up where is attaches to the rear bulkhead. The left outer corner is resting on the cross-braces of the large center support column. With all the added stiffness, the flooring will work just fine.
The remaining steam pipes also printed perfectly. One was a replacement for a previous failure, the other was forgotten.
There are couple of spots around the perimeter that could use some minor filler.
In this image I'm holding it up where is attaches to the rear bulkhead. The left outer corner is resting on the cross-braces of the large center support column. With all the added stiffness, the flooring will work just fine.
The remaining steam pipes also printed perfectly. One was a replacement for a previous failure, the other was forgotten.
- Thread starter
- #263
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
AFor my US Based readers, Happy Memorial Day.
On this day, I am declaring the drawing phase of the project complete. I added the lube oil settling tank and the bilge receivers at the hold floor's corners. All that's left is painting everyting and building the model. Now the fun really begins.
I had an idea that using some of SketchUp's features to make an animated walk through of the entire entire room. It would take quite a while to produce, but might be worth it for folks who can't ever visit it in the flesh.
Work on this project got underway in August 2024 and there's still many months to go until it gets delivered.
Before looking at the overall images, here's a view of the telephone booth. It's a semi-soundabsorbing space that permits communication by phone is what-must-be a horrendously noisey environment. This was drawn with the last images Ryan sent to me on Thursday.
I also added the Lube Oil Settling Tank. It doesn't block views and I adapted a mounting so it will "hang" on the subframe.
The first five images are overall views:
This view shows the port-side wall. It's the only wall where there's not much going on and could be backed up to a wall without blocking viewers from seeing the model. The lowest level under the lower mezzanine deck is basically bare in the #3 engine room. This is not the case in rooms #2 & #4. Those rooms contain the degausing magnet generators so other apparatus is in that space. More reason why that wall is okay to butt up against a wall.
This next group are more closeups of areas of interest:
Lastly, here's a few you see when you're descending the entry ladder.
Now onto Phase 2… Painting.
On this day, I am declaring the drawing phase of the project complete. I added the lube oil settling tank and the bilge receivers at the hold floor's corners. All that's left is painting everyting and building the model. Now the fun really begins.
I had an idea that using some of SketchUp's features to make an animated walk through of the entire entire room. It would take quite a while to produce, but might be worth it for folks who can't ever visit it in the flesh.
Work on this project got underway in August 2024 and there's still many months to go until it gets delivered.
Before looking at the overall images, here's a view of the telephone booth. It's a semi-soundabsorbing space that permits communication by phone is what-must-be a horrendously noisey environment. This was drawn with the last images Ryan sent to me on Thursday.
I also added the Lube Oil Settling Tank. It doesn't block views and I adapted a mounting so it will "hang" on the subframe.
The first five images are overall views:
This view shows the port-side wall. It's the only wall where there's not much going on and could be backed up to a wall without blocking viewers from seeing the model. The lowest level under the lower mezzanine deck is basically bare in the #3 engine room. This is not the case in rooms #2 & #4. Those rooms contain the degausing magnet generators so other apparatus is in that space. More reason why that wall is okay to butt up against a wall.
This next group are more closeups of areas of interest:
Lastly, here's a few you see when you're descending the entry ladder.
Now onto Phase 2… Painting.
Last edited:
Vic Balshaw
Major General
One can almost feel the vibrations. 
Great work so far!
- Thread starter
- #267
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Thanks for the support!
I had to do just a couple more punchlist items to complete the printing requirement. I've decided to sit the entire model on simulated concrete blocks a la the ship as it appeared in dry dock. To that end, Ryan sent me the actual dry docking plan showing the placement of all 292 blocks. The blocks are basically cubes 4 feet on a side and place on 8 foot centers longitudinally and five rows athwartship.
In the 1:1 ship, the blocks are kind of rough with varying thickness of shim materials on top to addjust for minor variations.
In my 1:48 world, the blocks are going to be all the same. They are NOT the focal point and shouldn't attract too much attention. I noticed that I put too many lifting holes in my blocks. I haven't printed them yet and can fix them before do.
The re-designed central column is much more rigid and will serve as a better mounting point for the entry hall floor assembly. I ribbed the lower and upper angle plates and that did the trick. I also tapered the bottom fins that run athwartship so they nestle down onto the floor angle peak.
I added lighting under this piece since the catwalk below will be in some shadow. Because the underframe is bare metal, I could not apply the copper foil directly or it would be an immediate short circuit. Instead, I attached some thin ply to the metal using 3M permanent Transfer Tape and then did the circuit work on that. I provided access to the hollow central column to bring those wires down more elegantly.
I also prepared and started applying the 4mm brass tubes that will substitute for the solid resin ones. This serves two purposes; they are dead straight and not warped like some of the resin columns, and one of them serves as the wiring conduit. The lead wires are captivated by my "Bondic Liquid Cable Clamp" method. For small gauge wirng it works great.
The twin mezzanine decks are a bit more complicated since in addition to getting the overall length correct, I have to determine the inter-deck spacing. I'm holding the tubes in place with reinforced CA. I used my plan to determine the overall length.
But the inter-deck spacing will be set with the electrical cabinets height. The deck height is about a half foot or so above the cabinet height. I will shim the cabinets and use them as the spacer.
Both mezzanine decks are floored with linoleum and in the model with 0.020" sheet styrene held with CA. I glued the columns into the upper mezzanine, but I will wait to do the full assembly until later. The brass columns lack the little angle details I included on the resin prints. If I was more insane than I am, I could have cut some brass pieces and soldered them in place, BUT… they're underneath and only kids will see them in normal viewing. I have nothing against kids, but it would be a lot of work for very little return.
Lastly, I got good prints of the last parts including the escape trunk, telephone booth and lube oil settling tank. And yes… there is a complete ladder inside the trunk. The printer printed it perfectly with only a few easily removed supports. The trunk DOES make that hitch, but I'm not sure why, but it was clearly noted on the plans. I have to cut out part of the mezzanine decks to accommadate the trunk. It still impresses me that I can draw and print parts with open doors will all the hinge and latch details.
What's left to print? The keel blocks. On the printer and draining are some last minute additions including bilge receivers, and the support frame for the main air ejector which I forgot to print with the main part.
I had to do just a couple more punchlist items to complete the printing requirement. I've decided to sit the entire model on simulated concrete blocks a la the ship as it appeared in dry dock. To that end, Ryan sent me the actual dry docking plan showing the placement of all 292 blocks. The blocks are basically cubes 4 feet on a side and place on 8 foot centers longitudinally and five rows athwartship.
In the 1:1 ship, the blocks are kind of rough with varying thickness of shim materials on top to addjust for minor variations.
In my 1:48 world, the blocks are going to be all the same. They are NOT the focal point and shouldn't attract too much attention. I noticed that I put too many lifting holes in my blocks. I haven't printed them yet and can fix them before do.
The re-designed central column is much more rigid and will serve as a better mounting point for the entry hall floor assembly. I ribbed the lower and upper angle plates and that did the trick. I also tapered the bottom fins that run athwartship so they nestle down onto the floor angle peak.
I added lighting under this piece since the catwalk below will be in some shadow. Because the underframe is bare metal, I could not apply the copper foil directly or it would be an immediate short circuit. Instead, I attached some thin ply to the metal using 3M permanent Transfer Tape and then did the circuit work on that. I provided access to the hollow central column to bring those wires down more elegantly.
I also prepared and started applying the 4mm brass tubes that will substitute for the solid resin ones. This serves two purposes; they are dead straight and not warped like some of the resin columns, and one of them serves as the wiring conduit. The lead wires are captivated by my "Bondic Liquid Cable Clamp" method. For small gauge wirng it works great.
The twin mezzanine decks are a bit more complicated since in addition to getting the overall length correct, I have to determine the inter-deck spacing. I'm holding the tubes in place with reinforced CA. I used my plan to determine the overall length.
But the inter-deck spacing will be set with the electrical cabinets height. The deck height is about a half foot or so above the cabinet height. I will shim the cabinets and use them as the spacer.
Both mezzanine decks are floored with linoleum and in the model with 0.020" sheet styrene held with CA. I glued the columns into the upper mezzanine, but I will wait to do the full assembly until later. The brass columns lack the little angle details I included on the resin prints. If I was more insane than I am, I could have cut some brass pieces and soldered them in place, BUT… they're underneath and only kids will see them in normal viewing. I have nothing against kids, but it would be a lot of work for very little return.
Lastly, I got good prints of the last parts including the escape trunk, telephone booth and lube oil settling tank. And yes… there is a complete ladder inside the trunk. The printer printed it perfectly with only a few easily removed supports. The trunk DOES make that hitch, but I'm not sure why, but it was clearly noted on the plans. I have to cut out part of the mezzanine decks to accommadate the trunk. It still impresses me that I can draw and print parts with open doors will all the hinge and latch details.
What's left to print? The keel blocks. On the printer and draining are some last minute additions including bilge receivers, and the support frame for the main air ejector which I forgot to print with the main part.
- Thread starter
- #269
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Here's the tele booth print. One of the cables broke on the back wall. Fix it? I think not.
And here's a view of the cleaned up escape trunk. You can see the ladder inside… barely.
And I decided that folks needed to get a better view of the 13 foot bull gear in the main reduction gear, so I marked out and did some surgery. I first hacked into it with a 1/16" carbide routing bit followed up with a small Dremel sanding drum. The end result is what I was looking for and it's going to be very visible looking from the aft end.
The first batch of hull blocks are done and hanging on the printer in the draining position. When I first drew them on the master drawing, I had them at 8 foot centers in both the X and Y directions. After I checked Ryan's drawing I realized that only the fore and aft spacing is at that distance. Athrwartships is almost three times as wide. So instead of needing 40 of them, I only need 25. I'm printing them 13 up on the platen so two runs will do the job. You set up a single part on the slicer and then using the COPY function in ChiTuBox
I did an inventory of all the completed parts and found some piping that still needs printing. I'm going to set them so by early next week, no more parts will need to be printed.
And here's a view of the cleaned up escape trunk. You can see the ladder inside… barely.
And I decided that folks needed to get a better view of the 13 foot bull gear in the main reduction gear, so I marked out and did some surgery. I first hacked into it with a 1/16" carbide routing bit followed up with a small Dremel sanding drum. The end result is what I was looking for and it's going to be very visible looking from the aft end.
The first batch of hull blocks are done and hanging on the printer in the draining position. When I first drew them on the master drawing, I had them at 8 foot centers in both the X and Y directions. After I checked Ryan's drawing I realized that only the fore and aft spacing is at that distance. Athrwartships is almost three times as wide. So instead of needing 40 of them, I only need 25. I'm printing them 13 up on the platen so two runs will do the job. You set up a single part on the slicer and then using the COPY function in ChiTuBox
I did an inventory of all the completed parts and found some piping that still needs printing. I'm going to set them so by early next week, no more parts will need to be printed.
Excellent work so far!
- Thread starter
- #272
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Thanks. I was working on refining the dimensions of the base and acrylic covers today so my shop time was short. I did accomplish some stuff. First of all, all the printing is done. That said, I may have to print parts that break or more flooring panels. But planned work is finished. In total I consumed about 8kg of resin to print the parts. That's about $200 worth of just resin. I'm waiting for some more warm days with low wind to do solvent painting outdoors. All of the paint primer is solvent. The color coats are mostly acrylics which I can do in the house.
I decided to print and add the bilge catch basins. There are four of them at the outer corners of the hold floor. When I first cut the floor and glued two of them in with CA, while they were flush with the deck's edge, they protruded out further down due to the angle of the engine room's sides. I removed them, cut the slots deeper and re-glued. It works better for me. If I really wanted to do it correctly, I'd redraw the parts with the taper installaed and reprint. It's not important enough of the detail to do that. Also, there are bilge pumps and piping associated with these, but I have no data on that feature so I'm not inlcuding it.
This was the first attempt:
The new position:
How they look installed.
I printed 25 hull blocks. Shown here is part of the first tranche. I was able to print 13 at a time. The remainder are draining on the printer.
And the model positioned on them for a test fit. Should work as planned.
I gave my friend Bryant Mitchell, the final measurements for the base. He's gluing it up this weekend. I may mount the model on the base sooner rather than later to give a nice stable building surface.
I also spent time, but didn't finish, adding the newly printed piping on the auxiliary air ejectors. It's a very small pipe system that attaches to BOTH units. This complicates gluing them to the bulkhead to ensure that the piping is nice and straight and isn't putting stress on the piping. Pictures will come on Monday.
i finalized the graphic for the number key. I'm printing two of them on white glossy photo paper. I'm going to glue them together back-to-back so they can be correctly read from both sides of the model.
See y'all on Monday.
I decided to print and add the bilge catch basins. There are four of them at the outer corners of the hold floor. When I first cut the floor and glued two of them in with CA, while they were flush with the deck's edge, they protruded out further down due to the angle of the engine room's sides. I removed them, cut the slots deeper and re-glued. It works better for me. If I really wanted to do it correctly, I'd redraw the parts with the taper installaed and reprint. It's not important enough of the detail to do that. Also, there are bilge pumps and piping associated with these, but I have no data on that feature so I'm not inlcuding it.
This was the first attempt:
The new position:
How they look installed.
I printed 25 hull blocks. Shown here is part of the first tranche. I was able to print 13 at a time. The remainder are draining on the printer.
And the model positioned on them for a test fit. Should work as planned.
I gave my friend Bryant Mitchell, the final measurements for the base. He's gluing it up this weekend. I may mount the model on the base sooner rather than later to give a nice stable building surface.
I also spent time, but didn't finish, adding the newly printed piping on the auxiliary air ejectors. It's a very small pipe system that attaches to BOTH units. This complicates gluing them to the bulkhead to ensure that the piping is nice and straight and isn't putting stress on the piping. Pictures will come on Monday.
i finalized the graphic for the number key. I'm printing two of them on white glossy photo paper. I'm going to glue them together back-to-back so they can be correctly read from both sides of the model.
See y'all on Monday.
Great work so far!
- Thread starter
- #275
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
The weather was perfec today. 80ºF and no wind. I took my compressor outside with the airbrushes and painted the ALLClad Gloss Black Base Coat before painting the bronze metallic top coat on all the seawater handling apparatus. Tomorrow I do the same thing and airbrush the top coat. ALLClad is a hot lacquer paint and I don't paint that indoors. I'd love to have a spray booth so I don't have to wait for ideal weather to use solvent-based paints in the shop. I'm finishing up all the things that I can do before painting really gets underway. I have several more metal frame supports to cut and attach before I can paint.
I spent a lot of time hooking up the very tiny piping on the auxiliary air ejectors. These are now finished and ready for paint. Actually, their drums are also bronze colored, but I'll just spray them without doing the black.
With all the 3D printing done for the engine room, I decided to reprint one of my earliest models: a 1:48 ALCo 251, V16 turbocharged locomotive prime mover. These are also the same engines that are in the emergency generator rooms in the Iowas, and powers the giant crawlers that move rockets at Cape Kennedy Space Port. When I printed it on my original Elegoo Mars Classic, I had to break it into five parts and assemble it after printing. There are tiny details on the model that I drew (fuel lines) that the original prints couldn't produce with enough integrity to sustain themselves. And the origial ChiTuBox slicer didn't allow for supports to be connected to other parts of the model, only from the base raft, this meant that to support tiny features that didn't have support path to the base didn't get any supports. I could fake it by drawing supports in the design phase.
In this case I tried an experiment in addition to printing the five parts. I set it up to print the entire engine as a single part. At least in the printer the entire engine printed perfectly saving the entire assembly operation. Here's the whole lot in the draining clamp on the printer.
Here's a better look at the entire engine.
And if you look closer you can see those tiny fuel lines. They may still not survive the cleaning process, but I'm optimistic. There's a lot of excess resin all over hiding a lot of the beauty that will be exposed after cleaning.
I'm thinking about opening an Etsy shop sell some of my original designed parts. If I can print the engines in one go it really saves me a lot of time.
Here are two views of the engine that I drew.
After I clean them up tomorrow I'll share the results. I suspected that this new printing system was so much better than its predecessors that it could do some wonderful work on some of my older designs. This proves it. I have an entire machine shot of tools that I'm going to reprint when I have some spare time and see jhow much better they come out.
I spent a lot of time hooking up the very tiny piping on the auxiliary air ejectors. These are now finished and ready for paint. Actually, their drums are also bronze colored, but I'll just spray them without doing the black.
With all the 3D printing done for the engine room, I decided to reprint one of my earliest models: a 1:48 ALCo 251, V16 turbocharged locomotive prime mover. These are also the same engines that are in the emergency generator rooms in the Iowas, and powers the giant crawlers that move rockets at Cape Kennedy Space Port. When I printed it on my original Elegoo Mars Classic, I had to break it into five parts and assemble it after printing. There are tiny details on the model that I drew (fuel lines) that the original prints couldn't produce with enough integrity to sustain themselves. And the origial ChiTuBox slicer didn't allow for supports to be connected to other parts of the model, only from the base raft, this meant that to support tiny features that didn't have support path to the base didn't get any supports. I could fake it by drawing supports in the design phase.
In this case I tried an experiment in addition to printing the five parts. I set it up to print the entire engine as a single part. At least in the printer the entire engine printed perfectly saving the entire assembly operation. Here's the whole lot in the draining clamp on the printer.
Here's a better look at the entire engine.
And if you look closer you can see those tiny fuel lines. They may still not survive the cleaning process, but I'm optimistic. There's a lot of excess resin all over hiding a lot of the beauty that will be exposed after cleaning.
I'm thinking about opening an Etsy shop sell some of my original designed parts. If I can print the engines in one go it really saves me a lot of time.
Here are two views of the engine that I drew.
After I clean them up tomorrow I'll share the results. I suspected that this new printing system was so much better than its predecessors that it could do some wonderful work on some of my older designs. This proves it. I have an entire machine shot of tools that I'm going to reprint when I have some spare time and see jhow much better they come out.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
That printer detail is amazing.
Excellent work so far!
- Thread starter
- #279
Builder 2010
Staff Sergeant
Thanks Guys. Printer detail after cleaning remained amazing.
Yesterday I painted the bronze colored parts. I took the compressor outside again and first sprayed ALCLAD Pale Burnt Metal and then overcoated that with Titanium Gold.
When I brought it inside I displayed it will all the other parts. All that's missing on the table are the base blocks.
I then went outside again and rattle-can sprayed Rust-oleum "Camouflage Tan" which is an excellent concrete color. You're only going to be able to see those on the perimeter, but, of course, I painted all of them.
The newly printed corrected mezzanine was now ready to be permanetly fastened to the upper mezzanine. It's a critical joint that shouldn't fail so I added some 1/32" pins to reinforce the joint.
With the catwalk in place, I sprayed the underside with Tamiya White Primer since it would hare to reach after the lower mezzanine was installed. I then installed the lower. I used the electrical cabinets with a piece of corrugated cardboard to space the two and then use thin CA in the joints from below to lock the columns in place.
This subassebly is ready for railings install, grating, and the equipment installation. It will be placed on the model as a complete subassebly. I'm doing an exploded drawing of the entire project to determine what can be assembled off the model and what can't. I spent a few hours today doing final design on the remaining walkways and devising how they're going to be supported in the model. I know that my method is not prototypical. I believe the angle iron was run more or less off-the-cuff when the ship was built. There aren't many details about. The drawings I have show some verticals here and there, but mostly concentrate on the platform locations and heights. That sort of how I'm approaching it.
Yesterday I painted the bronze colored parts. I took the compressor outside again and first sprayed ALCLAD Pale Burnt Metal and then overcoated that with Titanium Gold.
When I brought it inside I displayed it will all the other parts. All that's missing on the table are the base blocks.
I then went outside again and rattle-can sprayed Rust-oleum "Camouflage Tan" which is an excellent concrete color. You're only going to be able to see those on the perimeter, but, of course, I painted all of them.
The newly printed corrected mezzanine was now ready to be permanetly fastened to the upper mezzanine. It's a critical joint that shouldn't fail so I added some 1/32" pins to reinforce the joint.
With the catwalk in place, I sprayed the underside with Tamiya White Primer since it would hare to reach after the lower mezzanine was installed. I then installed the lower. I used the electrical cabinets with a piece of corrugated cardboard to space the two and then use thin CA in the joints from below to lock the columns in place.
This subassebly is ready for railings install, grating, and the equipment installation. It will be placed on the model as a complete subassebly. I'm doing an exploded drawing of the entire project to determine what can be assembled off the model and what can't. I spent a few hours today doing final design on the remaining walkways and devising how they're going to be supported in the model. I know that my method is not prototypical. I believe the angle iron was run more or less off-the-cuff when the ship was built. There aren't many details about. The drawings I have show some verticals here and there, but mostly concentrate on the platform locations and heights. That sort of how I'm approaching it.
Attachments
Vic Balshaw
Major General
All those parts and not a bit of sprue in sight.
