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Revell USS Arizona WWI Conversion

Revell Arizona retro 1917 refit - Blender parts

Since I was a teenager I’ve wanted to modify the Revell USS Arizona kit, building it in her original WW1 1916-1918 configuration. With the advent of affordable and capable 3D printers, the time has come to give it a shot!

Above are the Blender renders of the major parts I’m planing to print to pull this off. I want the new parts to blend in with the existing Revell kit, so yeah, I built me some stepped pyramid stairways, and even kept an inaccuracy in the details on the forward superfiring barbette to better match it’s stern Revell counterpart. I’ll likely need to experiment with the thickness on the individual cage mast rods. The Elegoo Saturn can print details at .05mm but I’m pretty sure if I tried printing them at that thickness the result would be a blob on the bottom of the resin vat.

If I end up creating a project page called: WWI Revell Arizona, you’ll know it all worked out! 🙂

Joe

German Admiral Scheer 1/500 scale ww2 recognition replica complete

Right on the heels of completing Scharnhorst, the design, printing, and assembly of my Admiral Scheer Pocket Battleship/Panzerschiff/Heavy Cruiser, WW2 recognition replica, was a piece of cake. Everything just came together and worked the first time.

My next design will be more challenging and diverges from the authentic 1/500 scale WW2 German recognition sets with a subject that I have always wanted to see included in them – the Graf Zeppelin Aircraft Carrier.

German battleship Scharnhorst 1/500 scale ww2 recognition replica complete

Scharnhorst is complete, I’ve been able to take advantage of a relatively warm weather window and print the resin parts for Scharnhorst, Scheer and Graf Zeppelin (GZ is actually still printing, again…). While recreating these recognition replicas has been a blast, I’m finding that without an example in hand, it’s difficult to stick to the original designs as seen from pictures on the web. I inevitably need actual pictures of the real ships to fill in the blanks and when I start designing from them, it’s painful to stop, and retain the often inaccurate design elements of the actual recognition models.

When I get all the ships completed I’ll likely make a project page to contain them all but for now this post is it for Scharnhorst.

Admiral Scheer German 1/500 scale recognition replica, joins my Blender fleet

The Blender work on Admiral Scheer is done, I had a good weather window to print my finished Scharnhorst design but blew it working on Scheer instead. Printing Scharnhorst will have to wait. With some luck I’ll be able to print the resin parts for both if another good day comes along.

Scharnhorst, Joins My WW2 German Fleet of Recognition Replicas in 1/500 Scale

3D Printed WW2 German recognition Fleet Replicas 1/500 Scale

Scharnhorst is almost ready to join my 3D printed WW2 German recognition replica fleet. The blender model still needs some finish work. I need to hollow out the resin parts and clip objects that are partially embedded in other parts but will be printed separately. With any luck I’ll have some warmish days to print the resin parts before the cold sets in for the season.

I don’t have an original Comet model of Scharnhorst, I searched online and used the few halfway decent pictures I could find and diagrams of the actual ship. When printed she will fill a whole in my collection nicely.

I’ll likely have plenty of time this winter to design the rest of the set. I’ll be starting the Blender design of Admiral Scheer next. I don’t have an original model of her either…

3D printed Turpitz 1/500 scale model

October 11, 2023

After completing the Prinz Eugen replica Comet recognition model, it was only natural to follow up with Turpitz.
Again I used the Ender 3 Pro for the “Wooden” hull parts and my Elegoo Saturn for the parts that would have been cast lead on the Comet models.

As with Prinz Eugen, the pictures with two ships show my printed model next to an original. And again like Eugen, this Turpitz is not a perfect replica – minor improvements were made as well as a few mistakes…
My next version should be close to perfect 🙂

This was a small, simple build, so no project page, just this post.