1:48 Engine Room #3 Battleship USS New Jersey for Permanent Display on Board.

Amazing work.

This was yesterday's post, but I don't see it on the forum, so I'm re-posting. Took a day off today. Happy Friday.

Magic… eh? I'm giving Penn & Teller a run for their money. The fact that I'm kind of pulling this off at age 80, probably does qualify as "Magic."

Most of the afternoon was spent creating some customized decals for a model building friend, so I got only about 2 hours in the shop. I continued work on the turbo system and painted some details on the air ejection units. I also replaced some missing valve handles on same.

I got all the other pipes fitted and then repainted them since their coat of white paint was pretty thin. I painted their respective valve wheels yellow and tomorrow they'll be ready to permanently attach. While they were drying, I started applying the grating to this important assembly. The grating application continues to be a pleasing activity.



I'm still not sure how my build ended up with the 2nd level on the port side being about 1' hogher than 2nd level on the starboard side. I looked at my drawings to see how difficult it would be to rectify and I think it's more work than it's worth. In my daily commuication with Ryan I suggested that delivery will be in early November. My modeler friend was wondering if it would be done in time for our big judged model exposition this year. It might be, and I'd really want the local guys to see it, but I'm afraid of something happening to it. It's very anxiety producing moving it from Louisville to the Camden, NJ waterfront. The model is big and it will be heavy.

Excellent work so far!

I dont know about the rest of you guys, but this is a very enjoyable thread.

To all USA folks, Happy Labor Day!

Didn't get into the shop Friday, but I did get some time today. I finished printing all the little pipe fittings that will make the Turbo System's piping attachments much neater and, more importantly, more secure. As my friend Bryant keeps reminding me, the model has to have "Archival Security", i.e., it has to stay together longer than I will. I got them all cleaned up and ready for paint, but ran out of time. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm going to paint them with the bronze finish so they're blend in with the aux conderser main piping.



During the printing of the larger ones, I went back to gratings. I finished the mid-deck grating.



And then finished the TG Decks. I had to make relief cuts so the piping could pass through to below.



The last deck needing gratings in the small one that also holds the lube oil settling tank, the phone booth and the Main Gauge Panel. The tank doesn't sit on the grating. It sits on the framing below. I had to leave space for it when applying the graitng.

I test fit the tank with success.



And with ALL the gratings now applied I actually have some left. Thankfully, two printings were sufficient to do the job.



The turbo deck will be completed on Wednesday when the fittings are fully cured and installed. I'm ready to start placing equipment and marking their mounting pins locations. I may glue the low pressure turbine and main propulsioon frame down now, even though I wanted to wait until the model waas mounted on the base. Reason? Both of these are massive structures that shouldn't be bothered tipping the model over to apply the servo tape to the bottom. As I'm writing that I think I can put the servo tape on now. I just won't be removing the backing laying until the model is to be installed on the base. I want the servo tape installed when I measure the depth of the brass conduit pipes that will go flush to the wooden mounting board surface. The other reason is EVERYTHING is keyed to these to pieces. They have to be secure to ensure placement of everything else. I can also build the lighting circuit board as I did for the other two projects. There will be six lighting circuits each with its own CL2N3 LED driver chip.

Great work so far!

A step forward and another backward...

Forward: Painted the new pipe fittings. First did the gloss black, then got on the exercise bike. Later, airbrushed the metallic bronze mix. Done and ready to install tomorrow.



The I went to finish up the Main Gauge Panel's grating and join it to the evaporator platform so I could match the gratings better. I drilled the two platforms (MGP and Evaporator) for 0.032" pins and in attempts to join them all heck broke loose. The problem is my attempt to print scale-size I-beams. I had eliminated most of them on iteration #2, but left those on the visible edges. Big Mistake! It turns out that the web thickness of the I-beam is a little over 0.010" or .2mm. It's not too bad before curing, but even at a few minutes post-cure time, the resin gets as brittle as glass and cracks with very little provocation. And making matters worse, it's cracking right at the junction of the column sockets.



Just about every junction of the I-beams I got fracturing. Gluing and regluing weren't doing anything. Then I tried to glue on a piece of styrene underneath across the joint, but when it set up, the levels weren't even. Breaking the joint further destroyed the surrounding area. When the column socket itself broke off, it was time for another re-design. This time, I've reinforced all the weak areas including the column sockets which also were way too flexible.



Here's version 3.0. Notice the bracing around the column sockets. Everything is now rectangular cross-section. I-beams are fun, but not when they don't work. The model has to stay together during handling and shipping. I put a lot of beef on the member that has to bind to the evaporator's frame. I also thickened the beams flanking where the lube tank goes. The grating was unsupported in that aread and I didn't like it.



I had to print more floor gratings too, since I used the last of my supply building version 2.0 of this part. All of the parts are in a single print load and will be finished around 8:00 tonight. I'll be able to build the whole thing tomorrow, or Thursday.

Fantastic!

Thank You!

New parts printed perfectly and solve all the problems I've been having. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to attempt to reproduce scale-sized cross-sections. You'd think I'd have learned this by now, but NOOOO.

I primed and painted the new platform and it's ready to receive the newly restocked grating tomorrow.



The added depth and the angular bracing makes plumbing the columns much easier. That joint and the socket was one of the weak links in the previous designs. I have to note that these columns do not exist on the real ship. That side of the platform is tied to the starboard side bulkhead, and the front edge to the forward bulkhead. Since I've removed the bulkheads for better viewing I had to cobble some means to support the outboard ends of all the platforms.



I also applied those pipe fittings I made yesterdy. They're a little clunky, but they ensure a positive connection that I don't have to worry about. I got the starboard side done and will do the port side tomorrow.





Most of these pipes will be hard to see with the main gear box blocking the view from the starboard side. The port side will be a little easier to view. The area below will be illuminated with LEDs, so there will be light.

Excellent work so far!

Got the new Main Gauge Panel floor done and started putting all these floor sections onto the model to get an idea of how everything's going to fit. While it was impressive to see so much of the model sitting there like it was done, I did catch a nasty surprise. I hadn't produced (or drawn even) one last floor system. This is the 3 foot gap in front of the evaporators. Just slipped through the cracks.



Here's a couple of different views of all the stuff being piled in. The discovery of error happened when I was wondering what floor was supporting that part of the guage panel that was hanging out in space. Where was the floor it was supposed to be sitting on? And where was the floor that the cross deck bridge ladder was going to sit on? There wasn't any.



Nothing's at the right level since all the mounting pins are just sitting on top of the hold floor. No mounting holes will be drilled until I'm absolutely certain of the placement.






So here's the floor designed and ready for printing tomorrow. And of course, I will have to print more gratings. Another less fussy error is the torque tube on the LP Turbine is too short to postiion the turbine properly. I'm making another a the new length.



None of these events is a show-stopper. It's just part of the game. The fit of all these components is very, very tight and I don't have much adjustment room. Every move of one piece affect many others, and usually not in a good way.

One can't help being impressed with all of this. An amazing accomplishment.

Imagine designing, drawing, and assembling the actual ship.

Thank you all!. No… I can't imagine designing and constructing the real ship. Thankfully, one person didn't have to do it all. And things like pumps, turbines, heat exchangers ere built by specialty contractors that knew about this stuff. Just for a second think about the talent to design those double reduction gears.

Friday saw the completion of the missing floor platform and the gratings. However, the gratings were the wrong size and needed printing again. I added more thickness on the perimeter of the gratings to prevent some of the breakage that was taking place there. As it was, I added them to another print of a missing steam line from the input to the main condenser pump. I also found another condensate line to the hot well under the main condenser from the main air ejector. I'm going to make that one out of solder wire and the route is very hard to see. So hard that I just found it and have been looking at this drawing for months. I also found another set of flooring that I overlooked. This one lies between the lube oil pumps and the turbogenerators. It also has a little chunk at right angles coming in from the port side. They're interrupted by the massive foundation ribs of the central column.

This one:


And this one:


Instead of printing another two complete floor systems, I'm going to press into use the small module floor frames that I originally printed and held onto. This is such a small section that I shouldn't have any problem using them. We'll see...

What I did accomplish on Friday was build the power distribution board. There will be six, small series LED circuits that will need individual CL2N3 Driver Chips. I've used this method for the other projects that have multiple circuits. There is a common ground bus and common 12 VDC bus. The innput end of each CL2 ties into the bus and each circut attachs to the output. The center lead is a dummy that just supports it on the board. CL2's take in 5–90 VDC and output 20ma. The LED series circuits are limited by the input voltage and the voltage drop across each LED. This drop 3.3 volts each so four in series would be 13.2 volts and I'm using a 12 volt supply. That limits me to 3 LEDs in series. The CL2s don't like parallel circuits so each 3 LED series needs its own driver chip. They are not expensive at about $0.25 each.



Looking at the upper side, notice that the input lead is to the left side of the flat on the CL2's casing. Two projects ago, I got them reversed and wondered why nothing was working. I had to de-solder and replace all of them. Won't make that mistake again. I test each CL2 installed and then again at the barrier strip. All circuits are good.



Just in case you wanted to know, here's the punchlist for completion of the job as I can envision it now. It will be changing.



I also discovered why my turbogen platform is higher than the Evaporator deck on the other side of the main reduction gear. I drew it too high! I did a quick check to see what would change if I lowered it to the "correct" height. Too much was impacted, especialy the main water valve to the condenser input side. It would be split down the middle by the hold floor. All the piping would be now wrong, as well and the catwalk next to the electrical mezzanine deck. In other works it could set me back a month of rework…. and it ain't gonna happen. I can assure you that only you guys and me are the only people that will object to the 2 foot elevation change that needs a couple of ladders that don't exist on the prototype. I don't want to risk wrecking good work to fix this. If more people notice, good for them. It shows they're paying attention.