Steve's Models

[Sailor Steve]

As some know, I've been working on my own tabletop miniatures naval rules for a couple of decades now. To play we use 1/2400 scale models, though the game scale is much smaller - 1/9000, so 1 inch = 250 yards, or 8 inches is roughly one nautical mile. Unfortunately nobody makes all the models I want, and I can't always afford to buy the ones that are there, so I also print up counters to go with the game.

But as always, this isn't really about the game or the models to play it. I've always loved to build models, and have been doing so since the Revell "box-scale" kits of the 1950s (the models are in a lot of diferrent scales, so the boxes they come in were all the same size). I haven't been able to build anything for several years, what with being homeless and then moving around a bit, but now I'm settled in and am planning to get to work once I get a decent computer desk and stop using my card table for that purpose.

While researching the variety of 1/2400 ship models I became curious about 1/700 models. I've built some in the past, but thought them too big for gaming and too small for display, but began to think they might be perfect for my 'jones' (need) to build. So I was online and found a source for Russian-made models of First World War ships. I thought they would be resin but they're actually plastic, so I tried to order a Majestic class battleship, but they were out. Actually they were out of pretty much everything, but then I spotted the 1894 German Brandenberg class. So I dropped the money and waited. And waited.

It came today, and after opening the shipping box and getting rid of the packing stuff I found a tiny 7 x 4 x 1" (179 x 100 x 25mm) box with a photo of SMS Weissenburg on it, and proceeded to open it thinking "Well, let's see what I got for my fifty bucks".

Once it was opened my thoughts changed to "Wow! I got a bargain! They could probably charge more!" Don't tell them I said that. The model itself is 161mm (6.34") on the waterline and 27mm (1.06") on the beam, and is incredibly detailed! I mean it's gorgeous. Don't take my word for it.

Overview - kit and box


Closer shot of the hull


All the pieces, with the etched-brass parts in the foreground


The bow section of the beautiful hull


The bridge pieces


Captain's steam launch, the largest of the ship's boats


What the pictures don't show is that the model even properly represents the side-firing torpedo tubes, which on most large ship were aimed 90 degrees to the broadside, but on thise early German battleships were aimed 30 degrees fore and aft, respectively.

I won't be starting it for awhile. As I said I need to get a desk for my PC and free up my building table, plus get my tools out of storage and buy some new ones as well. I also have airplanes I want to build, and I want to get their Royal Soveriegn and Majestic battleships as well, and probably others in the future.

But it's a start.

Sweet. Looking forward to pics of the completed model!

[denny927]

wow....get back in time at my 15, 20 yo....I remember build my USS Missouri(tamiya) all night along until 5, 6 am

good old times, sadly with work, wife two childs, a little department, no way to come back for this things...maybe when I grow old

great model man, looking for the progress.....

[denny927]

not my model but almost is the same, in aspect, dimension and colors

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by denny927

looking for the progress.....

Unfortunately the model building table is still doubling as a computer desk. I can't afford to order a new one and I can't even think about buying a used one as I don't own a car to pick it up with.

In the meantime I've purchased two more, the British Royal Sovereign of 1893 and the Majestic of 1895. I'd post pictures but they're just more unbuilt models. The detail is just as good and the Majestic has always been a personal favorite of mine, but there's really nothing to see yet.

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by denny927

not my model but almost is the same, in aspect, dimension and colors

I had all 4 off them
The Iowa class battleship

USS IOWA(BB61)
USS NEW JERSEY(BB62)
USS MISSOURI(BB63)
USS WISCONSIN(BB64)
Every one of them was build in scale 1:350)

Markus

[Sailor Steve]

You didn't build Illinois and Kentucky sitting on their slips half finished?

Lazy!

[nikimcbee]

How you you trim the photo-etched parts w/o mangling them?

[ossoo2020]

wowww...great man

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

How you you trim the photo-etched parts w/o mangling them?

X-Acto knife with a brand new blade. To keep the part from moving or twisting hold it gently to the table with a pencil eraser, still on the pencil so it acts as a holding stick.

[edit] The two British ships came without photo-etched parts, but there are several good sources for WW1-era railings and masts, so I'll be getting those soon.

[Sailor Steve]

Sometime in the 1970s I began to develop a desire to build prototypes. I knew about the P-51D, but what about the P-51A? What about the P-1? I knew there had to be such a thing, so I started collecting books. I found what I wanted, and used the old Monogram P-6E kit as a basis for conversion. I built the XPW-8B, which was the prototype, and then the P-1 and P-1B. The first one is missing and I converted the other two for wargaming. After my friend Rocky died his oldest son donated all of his models to our gaming group. This included a bunch of my stuff which had been at his house. Today I took pictures of them for a friend to see what my hobbies were, and thought I'd post them here. The propellors are broken and they's seen thirty-six years of wear and tear, but they still survive. I didn't even wipe the dust off, but the original work is still holding up.

Curtiss P-1 (1928)




Curtiss P-1B (1929)






Together


The P-1B on its back, so you can see the intricate double-wire rigging

[Gerald]

^what is the material in these models,

[Sailor Steve]

This one is very special to me. In 1935 Boeing entered a competition for a multi-engine bomber for the Army Air Service. They came up with a large four-engine design, the model 299, quite radical for the time. It flew nonstop from Seattle to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio for testing. The control locks were a new design, and the test crew too off with them locked, causing the plane to crash, killing Boeing's pilot and the Army test pilot, Major Ployer P. Hill. The design was accepted in spite of this, and went on to become the legendary B-17 Flying Fortress. In 1940 the new Army Air Base in Utah was named in honor of Major Hill.

Cut to 1990. I always like prototypes, so I started looking for a way to build that original Boeing 299, so I gathered parts from other kits and started looking at photographs. At the same time Rocky and I were asked by one of the museum curators to go up to Hill Field and fix their sadly disorganized model collection. It took us the better part of a week to sort it all out, but we got the job done. I noticed that they had a special model collection called 'Planes Major Hill Flew". They had a model of a WW2 B-17F, which he never saw, and later replaced it with a pre-war B-17C, which he also never flew. When I pointed this out the curator said "There aren't any models available of that plane, and the professional who built these told us it can't be done." I said "Really? It just so happens..."

These pictures were taken on Rocky's dining-room table in June 1990. Twenty-two years later that model is still part of a special display right in the middle of the museum lobby. If I ever get there again I'll take new pictures.

[Gerald]

Nice,

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Vendor

^what is the material in these models,

The wings, struts, wheels etc were from injection-molded kits by Monogram. The bodies were from a vacuum-formed plastic replacement kit by RarePlanes. I had to change each body to match the original. The radiator exhaust scoops under the nose were cut from paper. The rigging (wires) were a very fine monofilament thread I picked up at a fabric shop. It's like a very fine fishing line.