Tag: US Navy

USS Texas BB35 Gets A Digital Diorama

Uss Texas BB35

Feb. 4, 2026

Haven’t done any model building of late but lots of Blender fun. Above is one of my earliest Blender models USS Texas, I thought it would be cool to put the world’s only surviving dreadnought in a digital Diorama and I did enjoy it… Except for all the repair work and texturing needed.

I’m super surprised this model printed as well as it did, I was still using XYZ’s object editor for some parts and man, they are sloppy! Repairs went fast and the texturing of this was fairly simple. Had much fun with the ocean effects.

American Super Dreadnought USS Arizona Digital Diorama

Sep. 25, 2024

I haven’t been inspired to do any digital art for quite a while but felt the Revell Arizona 1917 conversion project deserved an entry in the Digital Diorama forum topic. I really liked the watercolor aesthetic I used on the night time Charles Martel Blender render, so stuck with it for Arizona.

Now if I could only paint this well…

New Project Time?

Imperial German Navy, WWI Torpedo Boat: V69
German Navy, WW2 Schnellboot
US Navey, WWI Destroyer: USS Clemson
Japanese Navy,WW2 Battleship, IJN Yamato
Japanese Navy, WWi & WW2 Destroyer, IJN Minikaze
US Army, M26 Pershing Heavy Tank
German WW2 King Tiger Tank
US Navy, 40mm Quad Botors AA Mount
Collection of WW2 Japanese Air Force planes

I still have the Revell USS Arizona WWI conversion project to finish, it’s been more challenging than expected but once she’s done, I’ve a choice to make.

Over the last few years, mostly while printing, building and recovering from Charles Martel, I’ve kept busy in Blender revisiting some of my earlier, favorite designs, rebuilding them from the ground up to be reprinted on my Elegoo Saturn. This allowed/required me to increase their detail levels to take advantage of the Saturn’s capabilities and also because I’ll be printing some of them in a larger scale. During this time I also completed a couple totally new designs, IJN Yamato and a German Schnellboot, and last and yes least, there’s my tiny Japanese WWII plane collection in 1/450 scale, intended to augment some of my “finished” Japanese ships. They’re fairly simple and were fun Blender designs to create, only taking a day or so each.
I’m almost ready to dive in, but which to start?
Decisions, decisions!

Revell USS Arizona WWI Conversion

Revell Arizona retro 1917 refit - Blender parts
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.

Update: 6/5/2024

After initial difficulties printing the replacement deck, this project is now almost done and has (so far) come out better than I’d hoped. For a ton of pictures and more info click: Revell USS Arizona WWI Conversion project page.

Joe

Update: Sep. 2, 2025

Finally, my Revell Arizona 1917 conversion project is: done, de-done, Done. Rigged, mounted, name plaqued and cased. Click the image link above for more pictures and the complete build story.

Joe

My First Elegoo Saturn Project

Elegoo Saturn 3D print project USS Tigrone
Elegoo Saturn 3D print project USS Tigrone, partial print fail

It was a long time coming but I finally completed my first large, resin only project, using my new Elegoo Saturn 3D printer. Follow the link to USS Tigrone‘s project page for details and lots of print and build pictures.

Update: To see my most ambitious Elegoo Saturn project, check out Charles Martel

American WWII Light Cruiser USS Helena CL 50, LD-002r and Ender 3 Pro 3D printed in 1/450 Scale

8/30/2020 I’ve added a new project page for my latest creation using my LD-002r and Ender 3 Pro 3D printers, the USS Helena CL 50.

Finished: American Battleship USS Texas in 1/450 scale.

5/3/2020 My version of the Worlds Only Surviving WWI Dreadnought USS Texas is complete. Visit her project page to view her updated pictures and see what Creality’s Ender 3 Pro and LD-002r 3D printers can do.

American WW2 Battleship USS Texas 3D printed in 1/450 scale using Creality: Ender 3 Pro and LD-002r printers

Latest Print Examples from My Creality LD-002r LCD Printer – USS Texas Bridge & Towers in 1/450 Scale

Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas tower bridge in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale
Creality LD-002r print example, Battleship USS Texas aft tower in 1/450 scale

Posted: 7/11/2020
I had recently completed and printed the tower bridges for both my USS Texas and IJN Nagato battleships with my Ender 3 Pro when I ordered my Creality LD-002r printer. While I was quite happy with The Ender’s output I had to print the bridge for USS Texas in multiple figgity parts, clean them up, then carefully assemble them. I was hoping the LD-002r could do a better job and do it in one shot, no assembly required. I was correct!

These are the nicest print examples yet from my LD-002r. The main tower bridge piece took 4.5 hrs to print the stern tower a bit over 4. I auto generated the supports (base only) in Chitubox, deleted some supports that looked destructive to the model, then added some back in as needed.

Not one part of these two prints failed or was stuck to the bottom of the resin vat! I printed both back to back without issue. My only gripe is that, again on the backside of the main tower bridge there was a bit of the slag resin buildup I mentioned in my first LD-002r post. not too bad though as I angled the print so no surfaces were parallel to the build plate (as much as I could) but there is still a muddiness noticeable. The backside detail is definitely not as crisp as the front

The hardest part was pruning the multitude of supports away from some of the more delicate structures without breaking them. Once the majority of the supports were gone, cleaning up the tiny nubs where they had attached to the model was also tricky and time consuming. Still the end product is a vast improvement over the Ender 3 Pro’s output, both in level of detail and time needed for post processing.

I had originally planed to replace the towers on my current USS Texas project with the new LD-002r parts. I now want to totally redesign and construct a new USS Texas from scratch, printing as much detail as possible with the LD-002r and using the finest settings on the Ender 3 Pro for the remaining large hull pieces.

We’ll see…

Update: 11/14/2020 – The New USS Texas (TX2)