1:72 Complete Iowa Battleship 16"-50 cal Turret with interior down to the magazine

[Builder 2010]

Calfamity strikes again!!!

In case any of you followers of this adventure get it into your heads that I, somehow, am a master model builder, please dispell that thought immediately.

The base arrived in two days and it is perfect! So perfect that I had to try and test fit the stack on it to double check how well everything fit. The base size is exactly right. But in putting the stack together finally with the shell surrounding it, I see THIS...

What is the devil is that 2" gap between the pan and electric decks??? Quickly, I get the drawing and look at it again.

OMG! The upper barbette shells go completely OVER the lower shells, not abutt to it. What the heck happened? Who did this? Oh...wait... I did it it!

if you remember back a few weeks I was putting the ring gear on top of the lower bulkhead becasue I thought that's where it went, but the brackets wouldbn't work there so I put the brackets on top of the lower bulkhead and thought I had it correctly.

Then you remember recently when the cutaway wasn't exposing what it was supposed to so I hacked it away and enlarged it?

All of these misunderstandings were because I got the geometry wrong in my head.

This is what's supposed to be going on here.

It's also why I had to cut and fiddle with all those 1/4" spaces to attach the two structures. The brackets ARE the attachment devices. They go into the space between the two tapered surfaces. It's also the reason that the upper part is bell shaped and the lower part is conical. They're supposed to nest together with the brackets spacing them apart. AND THE RING GEAR DOES SIT ON THE LOWER BULKHEAD as I thought it was supposed to.

Can it be put right without have to start over making the top section? I think so. I have to separate all those styrene spaces without breaking anything else, and separate the upper and lower parts. I will clean up the junction and see how far the upper will slide down the lower. If it can position closely without having to remove the ring gears and brackets, i will be very happy. Otherwise, I have remove the brackets and ring gear and reposition them. I think I can save it. This could affect the delivery time if I have to redo any of it.

Once I got the geometry wrong in my head, the die was cast to make a big problem. I won't get to this until Monday.

Thanksgiving is upon so eat hearty!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

That's a bit of a bummer, here's hoping you can fix it.

 

[N4521U]

OMG, he's human after all......................!
She'll buff out.

 

[Builder 2010]

Yes I'm and yes she will. Today's post is all text, but talks about the restoration process.

I hope everyone who celebrates had a nice Thanksgiving. We had all our kids and grandkids together and it was great! They're all grown now with the youngest in 9th grade and oldest graduating U of IL and already has a nice job. That's the true and only role parenting (IMHO); To make fully functioning adults that can go out into the world. All the rest of the things we do is just gravy.

I'm reprinting the brackets that support the ring gear, since the spacers I glued to them are no longer needed. They were needed when I was putting them in the wrong place. I also did some fine tuning on the brackets in SketchUp so they'll fit better. In the same job I'm reprinting the pesky extended cradle/spanning tray assembly since another one broke at the junction of the rear and front portions. Printer doesn't care and since the parts are the same height on the printer, it doesn't extend the time. Besides, this is Saturday and I'm not supposed to be in the shop anyway.

I'm pretty sure I will be able to surgically remove the upper barette section without doing undo damage and reinstall it in the correct spot especially with the new brackets. That said, I also non-3D printed out some new patterns to use if I need to remake the upper shells. If I do remake them, I will be able to restore the original cutaway area.

Since I need to take the base to the plexiglass supplier this week, I can stop at the hobby shop and get the large styrene sheet I'll need for the remake. That's plan B. Plan A is removing and repositioning the existing parts and I will not need the additional plastic. To do the cutting of the styrene connecting pieces I'm looking longingly at a little, German-made, sword saw on Micro-Mark. Ths has two reciprocating blades (like an electric knife) that let you cut in places that would be difficult with a hand-held saw.

The trouble is its voltage. It runs on 12VDC, and you need the power supply to go with it, which basically doubles the price. I have 12VDC sources, but they're not adjustable. I also have DC Buck Converters that can adjust a DC voltage output from a DC voltage input, and could be pressed into duty as a speed control. But the Micro-Mark power supply is elegant and can adjust not only voltage, but current output as well.

On another front, my lovely son and daughter in law gave me an early Hanukkah present: the 2021 full CorelDraw Suite for Mac which is the best present ever. I've been trying to use other vector drawing software to replace my non-working CorelDraw17, but to no avail. Nothing works as well. I was immediately able to print out the barbette patterns on US Letter paper in portrait and tile it over three sheets. None of the other packages I was trying could do this. For my model-making requirements, it was an essential feature.

Up to this version Corel was only available for Windows. When I inquired a few years ago, they were adament that there was no intention of porting a native version for Windows. They claimed the volume was too low. This forced me to run VM Fusion (a Windows emulation program) on my Mac which took up 125 GB of hard drive space. The whole deal was clunky, and required constant key stroke changes as I passed from the Mac to the Windows operating systems. Then something changed. It was either a Windows or VM upgrade and suddenly my CorelDraw 17 would no longer boot up. It would start and then abend and stop. Neither company could help me. When Coreldraw finally offered a fully functional product for Mac, I knew what I had to do, but my kids did it for me.

 

[N4521U]

Wow, full version of Corel....................... lucky man.
I have been using C-12 for years. But alas I had to go and get a new laptop with Win10.
Now I need to investigate a new Corel pkg. Many Pesos, and yearly fees? I'll forgo the fees me thinks.

Doing well, hoping your fixes go well and swiftly!

 

[Builder 2010]

If you don't have to export vector files to another type, e.q., Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw Essentials has all the draw functionality. Unfortunately, I needed to export Corel files to Illustrator to run the commercially-sized laser cutters at First Build Makery. FBM is a joint venture between University of Louisville and GE Appliances and was set up as GE's pilot manufacturing plant. They have two sections, the Maker's space with smal scale 3D printers, the laser cutters, work benches, soldering tools and lots of hand tools. You can use the laser cutters for $2.00 per session plus cost of materials (if you don't bring your own). The other part is a massive manufacturing space with full-scale machine tools, water-jet and laser cutters that can cut significant thickness of steel, plasma welders, etc. While open to the public too, you must be certified to work on the machines and the per hour charge is much higher. I'm only using the cutters in the Makery.

I was using Corel since ver. 1.0 in the early 90s, and really didn't want to learn other programs if I didn't have to. I was learning Inkscape, but when it opened imported Corel files, the wall outlines were there, but the "pasted inside" brick lines were missing. Without the bricks, the whole deal wasn't worth doing. I could have redrawn all of them in Inkscape, but really didnt want to. Besides, at 77, I really don't relish learning all new software unless I absolutely have to.

This is what I'm going to cut. It's a hardware store that still operates where we used to live in Newtown, Pennsylvania. It was originally built in 1869 as a hardware store, burned down in 1899, and was rebuilt almost exactly as it was originally. Story has it that burglers tried to blow an old large safe (still in the store) with dynamite and blew up the store instead. I designed the structure for my O'scale railroad using measurements taken from Google Earth, and photos of the building provided to me by the store manager.

I've already 3D printed all the architectural goodies and had the windows and some of the thin veneers laser cut commercially, but want to cut the walls myself. I foreshortened the building about 10 feet to better fit the location on my layout, but the width and all the details are very faithful to the building. I may reprint some of the details. When I did these, I didn't have my higher capacity/resolution Elegoo Mars 3 printer. Some of the cornices are in three parts. I may be able to do them in two parts with the new machine.

 

[Builder 2010]

That's true! I have really great kids! They always have been, even when they were little. And amzingly, the grandkids are pretty cool too. Spoiler alert... I may be a bit biased, but my wife says I'm not.

Important things happened today.

Took the base to the plastics supplier, General Rubber and Plastics, here in Louisville, and ordered the plexiglass. I wanted to measure the case with the salesperson present so I wasn't getting it wrong. Before heading out today I put the stack together with the gun house and elevated gun in place to get an accurate height reading.

They will cut the plexi with a CNC machine so the edges will be accurate and pretty smooth. They don't glue anything together so I will be doing that. I'm generally good at that, but... the solvent's viscosity is very low and goes into the joint by capilary action. And it also has some static electricity problems and can jump to the surfaces before it gets into the joint area. I'd like to know how the professionals do it. Perhaps I'll do a YouTube search and see what's there.

I then went to a trophy/awards vendor and ordered the metal plaque that will be affixed to the base.

I got into the shop about 2:00 p.m. First thing I did was fasten the 3D printed flange underneath that will stabilize the central column. The hole my friend drilled is very tight and the flange could be overkill, but I printed it so I might as well use it.

I then set up the wiring harness and circuit board in the hollowed out base bottom. I will be removing the board to tie in the LED wiring from the different circuits, but I wanted this stuff to all be located before doing the final connections.

I installed a plug between the supply and the board so the power supply could be easily discconected if nessecary. There is no off-on switch. You just unplug it to shut it off, but I may change my mind. The problem is the thickness of the base's material and how I would install said switch. I will think more about it.

Then I attacked the elephant in the room and beat it into submission. I used Admiral Nelson's approach, I went "straight at 'em!" I used the carbide router and sliced the glued-in spacers in half to free the top barbette portion. I also knocked off the 3D printed brackets since they were CA'd to styrene and broke off easily. I then used a Dremel drum sander bit and ground down everything flush finally finishing with a sanding steak. Only one joint broke loose at the edge which is fixable.

The lower bulkhead's upper outer surface got a bit gouged in spots, but it will be buried by the overlapping barbette and won't require any filling. All in all, the surgery was successful... actually exceeding my expectations.

i printed a dozen new brackets with a corrected shape that I started to install. I'm changing my assembly routine by mounting them to the ring gears first and then applying that assemply to the inner bulkhead structure. I will then bring the upper structure into contact until the wider barbette section touches the ring gear. I tested this routine and it brings it all into proper vertical alignement.

Here's the first ring gear with the new brackets. I expanded the number from five to six per shell. The flat segments resulting from SketchUp's way of making curved surfaces by a series of straight lines, worked in my favor as I stepped off the spacing between the brackets.

The last thing I did was to remove the vertical edges of the kit-supplied deck piece. The flanges interfered with the open barbette shells, but I need that piece to tie things together. I'm thinking of laminating actual wood planking to this piece of plastic if I can get thin enough stock to do it. The 1:1 width of the actual teak decking is about 5", which is 0.070" which is awfully small and the thickness would just be 0.014". I would probably double that. I will order some Northeasten Strip Wood and maybe get some stock. There is dark caulking between the planks. One way to simulate this is to use black constuction paper on edge between the planks that are then scape them flush. If I have the time, I'll do this.

To cut the edges I used a steel straight edge and a diamond-coated cut-off wheel and went to town. Actually the real deck is a sandwich of teak over top of the 1.5" Bomb Deck STS steel. So having real wood over the plastic substrate isn't far off albeit a bit thicker than scale. Wooden decks were used over steel to reduce shrapnel from weapons fire.

So once again, I was handed a batch of lemons and I'm opening a lemonade stand. The tear-down and re-build of the outer armor presented an opportunity to fix some things that bugged me, especially the way the brackets interacted with the ring gear. The re-designed brackets are purported to work well.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Just loving this build.

 

[N4521U]

Get some off cuts of plex.
Trey a wet towel behind one panel.
Just spraying with water might work as well.
When I would sign write a Corvette, our and fiber glass I sprayed the back with water.
Same would go for back spray painting acrylic sign faces with lacquer paint.
Light coats then wipe with a damp chamois, then spray the next light coat over and over until it's translucent.
Use a needle bottle like the Revell glue bottles.
TEST first till you get it right.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Builder 2010]

Brilliant idea! I also did view some vids and learned a simple trick. You squeeze the air out of the glue bottle before tipping it over to apply it to the joint, then slowly let the air in thereby eliminating the drops that come out during the tipping operation. I'm going to use both your's and this other technique and get a PERFECT JOB!

 

[syscom3]

Before you button it up, put a tiny "Killroy Was Here" decal on one of the bulkheads. LOL

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far!

 

[Builder 2010]

I glued in the newly assembled ring gear and attempted to fit the upper and lower shells together, but they weren't fitting as I thought they should.

I needed a bunch of clamps to hold this stuff together and used entirely thin and med CA.

Here we go again... I then re-checked my detailed drawing of the interface between the brackets, the two shells and the ring gear, and found that I was wrong again!!! The brackets need to nestle up against the bottom of the barbette shell and then the ring gear butts up against it. If you look closely at the above, you'll see that the ring gear is butting up against the barbette, not the brackets. This put everything out of alignment again.

Because it was all CA'd I was able to break everything loose. I broke two of the brackets, but was able to fix them with, you guessed it, CA. In the act of ripping all this apart, I did detach the entire lower barbette skirt. It was hanging by a thread in one corner.

I again, resorted to using the 1/8" square stock to produce a stronger joint than a 0.040" wide butt joint. I put a slice in each piece enabling them to bend a bit to accommodate the flair that this lower skirt has. I also now know that the brackets don't intermingle with these pieces, which i had just cut off last week since they were interfering with the incorrect installation. This picture was a progress shot as I was moving around the perimeter.

Now, instead of gluing the brackets to the ring gear, I glued the to their correct locations directly on the shell. Again, since this is a styrene/resin joint, CA was used... in this case medium.

The outside of this assembly is pretty ragged and I just went downstairs and added filler which will be sanded tomorrow.

I was again faced with the ring gear not engaging with the brackets. If you remember two failures ago I added spacers to the brackets. This time I wanted to find out what's going on. Somewhere in the design process I changed the ring gear's profile from this...

To this:

I don't know what thought process changed the profile and removed all that stock, but its removal caused the ring gear to not be able to match the bracket's profile. I've redesigned the ring gears and fixed some other errors that I was tolerating and am reprinting them now. They're big and I can only print one at a time. The first will be done sometime in the early morning and the other will be done later in the day. Hopefully, I will finally get this right. It's been a real pain!

I changed the ring gear's position on the build plate to avoid any supports on the exposed ends or rollers.

I also finish painted all three gun slides so they're ready to go, and did the same for the reprinted cradle/spanning tray part. I'll install that tomorrow. Once the shells are correct, things will move ahead. I'm interacting with the curator to nail down a specific delivery day.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks like you have been hard at it, the brain in overdrive I would thing. Your doing great though.

 

[Wurger]

 

[N4521U]

you'll need a good rest when this is done!
Nice work.

 

[Builder 2010]

Sure will. This baby has been working ALL my brain cells. If I could give a course on how to build and rebuild something in your head, it would be a best seller, but frankly, I don't know how it happens.

Very short session. Had to go to daughter's house to let the dog out and let the HVAC tech in. Then I had a nice visit from one of the finest model builders I know, Chris Bowling. Every model Chris builds is a potential show winner. I'm doing a commission job scaling up some 1:48 decals to 1:32 for a commission job he's doing for a museum. He and I have a mutual admiration society going.

But I did get something done. Both new ring gear assemblies printed flawlessly and are finally correct. Here's the comparison of the corrected version to the erroneous original.

Notice how nicely it nestles into the bracket's notch, just as it's supposed to. I also change the location of the gear, but I'm not sure why. It works out either way. I was careful with the supports so none were on the sides facing the audience. All support damage is on the unseen reverse side.

I sanded the filler and glued all the brackets in place. I then sprayed the whole deal with flat white. I'll have to redo the red cutaway cross-sections, but that's not difficult. Tomorrow I will reattach the upper barbette to the lower bulkheads and install the ring gears and we'll be back on schedule. Before painting I masked the gluing faces of the brackets to insure that there's a good gluing surface.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looking good.

 

[N4521U]

looking very good!