The Union of Scale Model Building, 3D Printing and Art
I liked how this project turned out enough to make the ultimate sacrifice and build a display case for it, and with it my Revell Arizona WWI conversion project is done.
A short post to mention and show the finished rigging work on the Revell Arizona, 1917 Dreadnought Conversion project. Follow the link for more pictures and whining about my biggest regrets…
The last units of my USN German naval recognition style set are complete! It’s kind of funny really, after my year plus slog with the Charles Martel build, I felt the need to work on smaller projects that wouldn’t suck up so much of my time. So what did I do? Committed myself to designing and printing 14 small models that make up one uber project, that… yeah, took me over a year to complete.
That said these two subs were a joy! The models are again, over detailed for such a set but I love that the Saturn could pack as much detail into these tiny 1/500 scale miniatures as it did. Honestly the only hard part was removing the print supports without ruining the tiny structures they supported. There was no assembly required as they are one piece 100% resin prints.
I did make one big gamble with these two models. I believed that the best way to print them would be near vertically and with resin printing vertical alignment means loooong print times, in this case just over 9 hrs, I wanted to get the most out of that time. When printed vertically, these subs have a very small build plate footprint, so I decided to printed 8 each in one go and let it rip overnight. I was a tad anxious to see what would greet me on the build plate this morning, or worse, what would be stuck to the bottom of the resin vat…
But am relieved to show the results below.
While they all look perfect from a distance, I made compromises in the print supports that caused approximately 30% to have tiny missing or warped bits. A few supports to the deck guns or AA barrels failed and a few of the Type VIIs periscopes got warped (I may reduce their height a bit). Most issues are fixable, if I feel like it. Not 100% sure yet but I think I got at least 5 of each without print problems. I’ll no doubt wreck one or two removing the print supports and handling them during cleaning & sanding. Guessing I’ll get at least 4 or 5 usable of each type. At least the printer resin vat is clean 🙂
Now – Time to make a case!
Jaguar is the last surface unite I planned to build for my USN German Naval Recognition Style Set. The last two unites are printing in the shed as I type, They are Type VII & Type IX U-Boats. If all goes well I’ll soon be done printing my set and will start on the case (As soon as I figure out what I want it to look like)
Jaguar was a tricky little build – I’ll definitely be simplifying the way the design is parted up for printing. Getting all the upper deck supports to connect with the main deck was stupid hard (same issues as Maass). But she came out decent and assembled pretty quick finicky parts and all.
Below are the printed pieces and initial assembly pictures. If you look closely you can probably make out the troublesome supports I’m talking about in the Elegoo Saturn’s resin parts pics.
With Maass finished, the major surface units of my faux USN German Naval Recognition set are complete. The relatively small size of Maass, allowed me to print two FDM hulls at once on the Ender 3 Pro and two Sets of the resin detail parts on the Elegoo Saturn. Construction was complicated by the tiny/thin poles supporting the upper decks to the main deck were a pain to free from their print supports and even more miserable to set flush with the main deck – without breaking them…
All in all though, assembly was fairly easy.
The torpedo boat Jaguar is next and should be a similar printing and assembly experience to Maass. Learning from Maass’s issues, I’m going to slightly beef up some of Jaguar’s more fidgety bits, to ease assembly.
Below are pictures of Maass’s printed parts and initial assembly.
If you’ve read a few of my posts or project pages, you’ve likely noticed that my models are often only temporarily complete. Their done-ness being largely determined by how sick I am of working on them and what I need or want to get to next. And hey, there’s always room for improvement right?
When I initially posted my Graf Zeppelin as complete, it was done to the level of the old WW2 Comet recognition sets, which were pretty bare bone. Typically no life boats or auxiliary motor launches were present and no aircraft, even on carriers. I’d been adding extra touches to the units of my faux recognition models that were not in the original Comet USN set, and liked the look. I decided to refit Graf Zeppelin with both her intended light watercraft and aircraft (Yup, she would of had Stukas modified for carrier operations). I think they worked out nicely and if I ever get around to selling these as completed models or kits they can always be optional.
I doubt I’ll add new posts for the other similarly embellished units in the set, maybe just one post with a shot or two of each…
My projects truly are, never really done…
Above are a few pictures of my completed WW2 German light cruiser Köln. Like the other members of my USN German naval recognition style set in 1/500 scale she was printed using an Elegoo Saturn resin printer and Creality Ender 3 Pro FDM printer. Pictures of the printed parts are below.
Koln was a simple build and the last major unit of the set, I’ve only the Destroyer Maass, Torpedo boat Jaguar and two small subs to go. Oh and the hardest part of all – The Case.
My German Light Cruiser Emden is now printed, assembled and painted, it’s now ready to join the rest of the fleet. While printing was painless some of the delicate resin parts of this design were a bit tricky to remove from there print supports and were a tad fidgety to assemble. I still managed to get her done in a day. Like my other 1/500 scale German recognition style models that have no corresponding unit in the actual WW2 set, My Emden Likely has more detail than would have been normal, again not by much though and the spirit of the old recognition models is still evident.
Unlike a few of my recent builds I didn’t forget to take parts pictures before diving into construction.
One more major surface unit to go, the light cruiser Köln. After her, I’m thinking I’ll try and combine the last four smaller unites into one FDM print and one Resin print That will be: DD Maass, Torpedo Boat Jaguar, and the two tiny subs. It’ll feel good to complete the many small builds that have made up this project. Then I’ll need to figure out the case…
Schledwick Holstien wasn’t in the US 1/500 scale German Naval Recognition Set. She was in the 1/1200 scale version, and she was a cool looking pre-dreadnaught, so I wasn’t going to leave her out of my 1/500 scale set. Again I got busy putting her together and forgot to take pictures of the Elegoo Saturn’s resin parts before I broke them up for cleaning and finish curing. I did take a shot of the assembled but unpainted model, the Elegoo Saturn’s resin parts are slightly lighter than the FDM hull printed by the Ender 3 Pro, and you can see how they fit together. There’s also a shot of just the FDM hull and a Blender render.
This Schledwick Holstien was a joy to print and assemble and all went smoothly. Like the Kormoran, she may have a tad more detail then an actual recognition model of Schledwick Holstien in 1/500 would have had, but not by much.
Next up will be the light cruiser Emden, getting slowly closer to a completed set…