The Ship Model Forum

With the success of building a complete cutaway of an Iowa class 16" turret complex, now on permanent display at the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial at the Camden, NJ waterfront in the Delaware River, I decided to build a companion model of the 5" secondary battery also cutaway down to the magazine. This too is destined for display in the Big J.

Like the 16" gun, finding dimensioned drawings is a challenge, although a bit easier with the smaller turret. What is more complex is the relationship between the ammo handling spaces and the gun. Unlike the 16" turret where all of this is self-contained in the rotating portion (the magazines themsselves are surrounding the turret and I didn't model them, in the five inch system the magazines are located three decks below and offset by various amounts. To complicate further there 10 turrets (WW2 configuration) are served by 6 magazines. The fore and aft magazines serve two turrets each with the midship magazine serving a single turret. With the 1986 refit, some of the magazines were decommissioned. The intervening decks contain non-weapons-ralated cabins and the blank space between the splinter deck and the one below. The deck space below the splinter deck is only a few feet. Since modeling all of this is complicated and doesn't add much value, I've discussed this with Ryan Syzmanski, the muesum curator and I'm choosing to duplicate this somewhat fanciful version that's widely seen illustration.



This rendering shows the design work I've finished so far.






I was not able to visit the ship yet and have been getting some critical photos and sizes from Ryan. I have pirnted the rear curved wall, the main frame, gun barrels, some of the water-tight doors, gun mounts, trunnion caps and ladder rungs. With 3D printing, I find I have to print 2 to 3X more parts than I need due to the high failure rate I get. I've been at it for 4 years and am still constantly learning more about it.













I will be adding daily journal entries on this project. There is a ton to do. The magaizines are particularly challenging since I don't yet have any wide-angle shots showing just how the ammo racks, cooling coils, etc., are installed. I do have details of the doors though.

Spent a lot of time without much to show for it. Most of it was wrestling with the ladder rung prints, both in trying to separate them from the supports and backing piece, and then drilling out the jig to use when mounting them. They are too darn thin... scale, but thin. Removing them was quite painstaking and a bunch failed that had to be repaired with Bondic. There was another problem. I made some very tiny drawing errors that prevented the part from being structurally sound. One small face on the mounting lug was reversed and therefore, didn't print. This lead to the failure of the bolt head to print that was attached to this now-missing face. Also, the rung mounting point was weak and failed many times.

I stopped messing with it and went back to the drawing board, fixed that reversed face, increased the rung diamter by 30% ]and strengthened the mounting point. It's printing now and I'll get them tomorrow.



I aslo tried the drill jig idea and it worked. Only problem was some of the holes were into that chamfer area. I also changed this part too for the next print. I'm using a #57 drill, but a #56 would be better since I had to push too hard to get the lugs to seat and that leads to distortion and breakage.

I also got successful prints of the two mirror-image side access hatches. Last print failed three-out-of-four times due to insufficient support at the lowest corner. When that support failed, the part distorted in that area. I added more support and the four parts were perfect. Even the grab handle formed perfectly.



With the Fulament spring built plate I'm using, I rarely have adhesion failures, but I do get support failures. It is crucial to put a lot of heavy supports at the lowest (first) edges that form. Not only do you want to have a good, solid start to the print, but the lower supports have to support the ever-increasing weight of the part as it's forming. It's all proportional. A small part may look like this rule doesn't apply. Afteral, how much can it weigh? But it's not just gravity you're fighting. There is also suction created due to the perfectly flat surface created betweenl the FEP when the resin layer is curing. The build plate, through the supports, has to break that seal to lift the part so fresh resin can infill beneath the part. I've printed hundreds of parts in the four years I've been at this, and still have support failures. There are guidelines, but there are no hard-fast rules.

As the part forms you can lighten the supports on the upper reaches since the amount of mass is greatly reduced. I also add light supports to all details where removing the heavier supports would destroy the detail you're trying to print when you remove them.

B2010,

Not sure what kind of printer/resin you're using but I've had similar issues printing parts that "seem" like there would be no problem and end up getting nothing as a result. Usually, the orientation and supports are what will need improving.

In the case of your access panels, I would have printed them upright (perhaps you did, you didn't specify) using Medium supports along the bottom edge in an even pattern. A Light support under the lower corner of your hand grab should have been sufficient for that. I have a tendency to over support items and then end up cutting stuff off that is not a support. Using lighter supports at the top of the part is a good idea also, as you have done.

I came up with a more or less "standard" hand rung design a year or so ago and have used it pretty much on all my newer parts where req'd. You simply scale it to the size you need and if there are issues printing, a very slight increase in diameter usually solves this problem. I am going to attempt 1/200 scale grabs to see if they will print and maybe add a support bar centered on the grab to align the parts and hold them in place for mounting. Your method of making a jig is very much like the PE plates that came with the Pontos Detail Up kit for the MISSOURI - I found them very hard at that size to properly align on the part, esp. the hull. I ended up using clear tape to hold the plate in place. A larger model such as your 1/48 gun mount shouldn't be that difficult to work with except perhaps on curved surfaces. You could draw up the pattern and print on paper which could then be taped in place for drilling your mounting holes.

All in all, an interesting project - good luck with this!

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Good printing tips about supports and of course orientation can be critical. The secondary battery units are called mounts and not turrets.

Nice job on the ring gears!

Cheers. Tom

I never saw that kit. Do you have any more information about it?

I printed the more robust ladder rungs and I'm pleased with the result.



This shot was taken during the removal process. I've found that using the flush cut tweezers thing that MicroMark sells seems to work pretty well in snipping tiny supports. I also used a very sharp #11 blade. The blade only works on parts that ARE NOT post-cured.



And here they all are ready to go under the UV lights for post-curing. In their native state, they were too flexible to be useful. That flexiblility is imparted by the Siraya Tenacious flexible resin in the mix. The extra girth really added survivability to these delicate parts.



I was at the local hobby shop and picked up the scale I-beams and some 5/32 angle stock to build the gun house.

I'm in a highly unusual situation. I am working five projects at the same time. I usually work one at a time, but not now. I have the turret project running concurrently with the Takom 1/35 AH-64D Apache. I thought I'd get the latter completed in time for my modeling club's regional exibition, but probably won't and will enter some of my previously built models instead.

Speaking of the show (in September), I slated to make two 45 minute presentations on the 16" turret project, the title of which is: **"21st Century Modeling: Traditional Skills+3D CAD+3D Printing"** That's project #3.

Project #4 is creating a small n-gauge train layout for the window of the Newtown Hardware House in Newtown, PA. This commission job stems from my creation of an O'scale version of this iconic Newtown building that was a hardware store since its inception in 1869. The store's owner was so impressed with the fidelity of the build that he asked if I could do the RR. I just happened to have built such a small layout with the grandsons 12 years ago and will modify this layout for the store. I'm making an n-gauge version of this model. At that size, I can 3D entire walls in one go, unlike this one where I had to have the walls laser cut.


Project #5 is helping a good friend and fabulous modeler, Chris Bowling, refurbish a 1:15 scale model of the NASA Space Shuttle. I'm tasked with creating the artwork for 1:15 scale vinyl wrap that will have the heat resistant tile design. I met Chris through our modeling club and his work is spectacular. We have sort of a mutual admiration society going. I'm not quite as festidious a modeler as Chris, but I experiment more and push the envelope. I'm sort of the R&D department. The model was originally built by North American Rockwell and will be on permanent display at a new air museum in Bowling Green, KY.

So if tend to drop out from one project or another, don't worry, it's just me doing what I do.

B2010,

Newtown, PA huh? Haven't been there in a while, but used to visit an aunt/uncle (now both deceased) in Doylestown. I've made many trips to Bucks Cty. and have been a passenger on the commuter line from Doylestown to Philly; a fun ride for a day trip. Also, have been on the short run excursion train in New Hope. Small world, right? Is it Otto's German Restaurant on 611 going towards Willow Grove?? Always liked their fare!!

If you mean the Pontos Detail Up kit for the 1/200 Trumpeter MISSOURI kit, it includes many PE sheets which have flat sheets pre drilled for laying out where to drill holes for the PE hand grabs on the hull and various superstructure parts. While helpful, they aren't exactly ideal. I have successfully printed a 1/200 scale conning tower for a NORTH CAROLINA class BB and the rungs all came out - quite surprised, but not unexpected.

Looks like you've got your plate full - just for the hell of it, I did print a run of 1/200 scaled rungs tonight and had a 99.9% success rate on them - so, it can be done and they look better than the flat PE items in these detail sets.

I would think that after curing your rungs should work well with your mount project. Keep up the good work!

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Following because this is a really neat project!

I'm super impressed with what you are all creating.

_________________
ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Having made quite a few 5" twin Mounts for My Missouri and Alaska in 1:192 I found I was able to successfully print the hand grabs right on the mount rather than add later. The danger here is they can be a little fragile in the raw. Like Hank I have printed separate hand grabs and rails for many applications. I am surprised that your grabs are so flexible as to be unusable till curing. With our resin they seem to be satisfactory even before curing, though long thin rails are indeed too noodle like. Even the mount I did in 1:120 was satisfactory with hand grabs integral.

Different scales often need modification of technique. The 1:87 Narrow gauge rolling stock I am working on currently sometimes benefits from details added later as being operating equipment they often require a lot of handling and additional ruggedness is needed. In some cases for this application traditional wire forming is better. Dandy jigs can be made via printing with a hole and groove leading to a groove at the end for easy bending.

Your project look very nice indeed and it's a matter of whatever works! Solving the problems is part of the satisfaction!

Cheers and thanks for sharing! Tom

Nice project!

_________________
Pascal

•Battleship Bretagne 3D: https://vu.fr/FvCY
•SS Delphine 3D: https://vu.fr/NeuO
•SS Nomadic 3D: https://vu.fr/tAyL
•USS Nokomis 3D: https://vu.fr/kntC
•USS Pamanset 3D: https://vu.fr/jXGQ

I got the gun drawing done so it's about as good as I'm going to get it. I had Ryan take a look and he said it would work and was surprised to see it all naked.



With a decent drawing I was able to print it. The barrels are already printed. I had a choice to make of printing the entire gun assembly or print the shield separately. After attempting to install it in my mind, I didn't like how it was going and printed it as a single piece. In actuallity, the shield assembly printed reasonably well. I chose to remove the trunnion pins and will machine them out of aluminum to the .147" diameter on my lathe. I drilled the holes a little deeper to accept them.



Notice the phos-bronze hydraulic lines to the rammer piston. My resin printed ones didn't. It appeared that the pipes were not actually joined to their flanges in the drawing and they failed to form correctly. Better with metal anyway.



The trough that accepts the projectile and cartridge did not form. It was paved over with a resin sheet. Not sure where it was coming from. Drawing that trough was difficult for me, so instead of redrawing and reprinting, I used the Dremel with flexishaft and a spherical diamond-coated burr, and carved the channel back in. These will be partially obscured with a projectile and cartridge load. The back left edge of the curved shield was slightly missing, but was rebuit with Bondic.



Another view of the tail of the gun showing the trough. The trough and the sloped shelf next to it are brass on the rear gun to avoid any sparking.





The real test was how well the gun fit the slide and how well the slide fit the mounts. For the former, I had to open the gun opening much deeper. There was some errant resin growth inside. I tried using an appropriately-sized drill, but it wasn't working well and I was afraid I would break something. I then turned to another diamond burr and ground it out. The diameter of the shield and front of the slide was perfect. The gun was a sliding fit.

As to the fit into the mount, it was perfect!





When painted these will look pretty good. I loved how the gear teeth formed on the elevation gear. Out of the four guns I printed (2 R and 2 L) one pair is good enough to use. I have some more metal works to add. A couple of the handles broke off on the side operating lever. I just thought of using some very thin shim brass to actually line the trough with real metal. I will experiment on one of the reject guns to see if that works.

So folks, WE HAVE GUNS!

I also finally decided to build the model exactly as it is in the ship. With the magazines correctly offset and in the correct deck, it will occupy a display space of about 1' X 1' X 1' and that's really not too big and much smaller than the 16" monster.

Next up will be to design and print the hydraulics and sighting gear that really complicates the turret. Then I'll start working on the Ready Service Room and the projectile/cartridge hoists. I don't have any good references on the structural steel that supports the hanging central column and the hoists attached to it. I did get a properly sized piece of brass tubing that will serve as the central column.

Nice job at what you can do in larger scales. My only experience with printing the open 5" 38 was an open mount for the stern of my APA at 1:120. I printed the breach down with the barrel pointing up at a significant angle off the platen and and had good luck with the "trough" etc. Yours here is a right barrel and base for the twin mount. I expect the shell hoists and some of the similar equipment will be more challenging than the actual mounted rifles. For my open mount the crew positions and related equipment for sight settings were much more challenging.

A great project, people will be much more able to relate to the 3D models you are building!

Cheers: Tom

Thanks for the comments!

Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend!

I machined the metal trunnions along with the seal for the trunnion bearings on the real thing. Simple turning operation. The pin size was .147" and I had to deepen the holes on the gun housings to give more meat in the junction. I made the pin's depth is just about .200". I machined the first set using a collett for the 1/4" aluminum stock. The collett did not have a thru-hole, so I had to cut the stock fairly short so it wouldn't extend too far out of the collett. I machined the trunnion pin diamter first and the inner surface of the seal. I then mounted the pin in a three-jaw chuck and finished the outside of the seal face. He I'm test fitting the gun frame onto the pin. My little Taig Lathe is in need of a new motor. The lathe is at least 30 years olds and the motor's bearing are shot. There is about 1/4" end play and it's vibrating like crazy. It's amazing that it's not destroying the cut quality, since the whole machine is vibrating together so the cutter and the stock are also vibrating together. It's just very annoying. I can get a new motor from them for about $160.00.



I tried the finished part on the gun in the mount.



There are screws around the seals perimeter, but I'm not going that far.

Here are the four trunnion pins/seals. The two with the holes will accept the manual firing mechanism that feeds through the trunnion center so the gun can elevate without disturbing the mechanism. The manual firing mechanism is quite complex due to the interrupt system that prevents firing the gun when it's pointing at any part of the ship. The gun is only firing mechanically when the entire firing system is out of commission. Normally the firing is electrical and remotely activated from the secondary plotting rooms.



I finished the metal hydraulic tubing on the guns. I removed the one I did last week. It was not the accurate and needed replacement. I also finished opening up the bore for insertion of the gun barrels and the cylindrical loading tray. The hand levers are breaking off due to all the pushing and shoving I've had to do to fit the guns. I will replace with metal.



I need to design more parts before I can go further.

Finished up with the guns for a while until painting and assembly. Added or fixed the broken levers and handles. I permanently glued the gun mounts to the frame. It's okay to do that now since it makes a stable assembly for further work on all the ancillary equipment. I also got the rammer hydraulic lines in place and replaced the first long one with a more properly shaped one.





I cut out my gun house patterns, applied a light coat of MicroMark Pressure Sensitive Adhesive and stuck them onto a large piece of 0.040" styrene sheet. This represents about 2" in scale, close to the scale 2.5" armor on the gun house. Instead of using the right and left side gun house templates, I just cut one and used it to trace the other side. I then clamped them together and sanded their edges lightly so they identical. When possible, I used the corners and edges of the sheet for at least one of the sides.



Here's a closer look at the gun house side...



All four of the top pieces had to be exactly the same width and the gun slots had to line up. So I used one of them to trace the other three, even though I had drawn them and they equal in the drawing. This eliminated the slight variations that would crop up depending on which side of the line I was cutting. I got most of them cut out today. I tried the sides onto the 3D printed curved back wall and was rewarded that the corner rabbett that I printed perfectly blended with the styrene sides. I don't have any drawing stuck onto the side piece that I traced, but I will need the location of the side access hatch. For the actual hatch cuts I will trace the real one. I'm also going to located and drill all the holes for the foot rungs while it's all in the flat. I have to do some finish sanding on the edges and the gun slots. I also have to sand bevels on the mating surfaces of the angle pieces so they mate properly. All joints will have 3/16" styrene angle as does the prototype.



Meanwhile, while printing parts for another project a calamity happened. After a major print failure... and I mean "major" in the sense that the only thing that printed on the build plate was the base raft. All the rest was a series of variously shaped blobs stuck to the FEP teflon film at the resin vat's bottom.



I was able to remove the crap on the bottom without destroying the FEP (I hope), then I looked at the LCD protective plate and saw a series of bad cracks propagating across the LCD. I thought it was the tempered glass protective plate that I bought to protect the delicate LCD below. But when I removed the undamaged cover plate, I realized that the cracks were in the LCD itself. I did a light test and it failed miserably. Half the screen was disfunctional. The cracks are quite obvious in this image. I need to understand why the print failure happened in the first place. I've tried printing this part three times with not very good success before the complete mess that this attempt was.



I ordered a new screen from Amazon which will be delivered soon and I'll install it on Monday and hopefully, all my projects will continue uninterrupted. Elegoo has a new machine out that uses a Texas Instruments DLP chip. This device has been around for a long time and since it projects its pixel image though lenses and mirrors to the resin vat and doesn't get any physical pressure from the z-axis lead screw and stepper motor. It was the plate attempting to compress those hardening lumps on the vat's bottom that caused the damage to the LCD screen. I think my next printer is going to that technology. So this summer I've added a new motherboard, new touch screen and now a new LCD screen. Wish me luck. I can continue to build the sheet work without the printer running, but I really need it.

I found out from Ryan today that the splinter deck is only 30" high, made up a massive series of square compartments with manholes separating each of them. I will only be showing a little bit of that detail. It's only function is too isolate the magazines below from any shrapnal that may attempt to get there from action above. I don't believe any of the Iowas saw any action that involved this structure.

B2010,

Just a guess, but it appears to me that when you ran your last print run, the parts that failed (i.e. - dropped off the build platform into the vat) then became a small mass on the bottom of the vat (FEP) and caused the build plate to press into the FEP on the succeeding print cycles thus cracking the LCD screen in the process. On both my older Phrozen printer and now my current AnyCubic printer, the machine makes a very loud & noticeable noise when it runs into an interference such as this event would have provided. I've had this happen when I've NOT cleaned the vat properly from one print run to the next, assuming that everything is clear in the vat when it (in actuality) is not. I now use the plastic scrapper after each print run to clean the FEP of any obstructions that may be there - esp. if there is a part that did not print on the previous run. Of course, draining the vat entirely after each run will also show what's there or not.

Hope this helps,

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

I would agree with Hank about the platen pushing down on some debris in the vat. The usual issue will be a pinhole or a distortion of the FEP. Without the intermediary protective sheet on our original printers, this resulted in a destroyed LED as resin cured to its surface.

As to the thin armor just below the main deck armor, a shell striking but not penetrating can spall fragments off the back side of the armor and this was intended to contain such fragments. The only US Battleship to suffer a considerable number of large caliber shell strikes was SODAK. No penetrations of the main armor was made. As these were at close range no plunging fire was experienced. Later she also took a 500 lb bomb on a forward turret without damage, though Captain Gatch was injured by fragments. I am not sure if SODAK had the same exact armor arrangement though supposedly the Iowa's were modeled safer he pattern.

As to the breech mechanism printing, perhaps orienting them vertically would result in a cleaner loading tray.

Ambitious and high quality project! Thanks fro sharing. Tom

I spent almost my whole day on the drawing board (well... virtual drawing board). I'm working on several fronts at the same time. Today's work centered on figuring just what kind of cutaway will be needed to show the magazine buried three decks down, while showing some of the intervening spaces. It's not easy and construction will also be a challenge. I also scoped out the wooden base and the plexiglass case. The base will require some lead time so I'll have to get that constructed earlier than one might think. My last base was done by a dear old friend who lives in Albuquerque. He was the bass player in my band and an exceptional woodworker. I'm not sure I want to task him to build another. He's in the process of scratch-building a stand up double bass. Just to clamp the skins requires 54 screw clamps which he just started constructing from scratch also. He's just as passionate about what he does as I am. (or obsessed...depending who you ask.)

There will be lighting to illuminate the shadowed areas. There will aslo be compartments under gun ready service room. The main deck will be planked. There will be no furnishings on the intermediate decks. I think it's pretty neat that V-Ray renders materials that are loaded from my older rendering engine, Podium. I renders much faster than Podium for these test runs.



It's one thing to cut openings in a SketchUp drawing. It's quite another to cut them in styrene assemblies. In some cases the former is easier, but in others the latter is.

Before I could start gluing together the turret parts cut yesterday, I had to do a few more design steps. I wanted to cut the opennings for the side access hatches and telescopes while still in the flat. I also want to drill for the foot rungs. I also located the officer's hatch on that small flat roof piece. I was able to cut one hatch opening and clean it up. The printed part fits nicely once I spent some time with needle files to finalize the shape. The hatch drops into the opening and the hinges sit on the surface. If I want to open one of these, I'll have to reprint with a different hinge orientation.

BTW: In handling the hatch, the handhold broke off. I'm going to be replacing a lot of these with 0.020 wire.



Here's a closer look at each.

The left side with the hatch out of the opening.



If I would have planned ahead a bit, I would have included these details in the patterns I used yesterday. 20/20 hindsight. "If my foresight was as good as my hindsight, I'd be better by a damn sight!"

Here's the next pattern with the telescopes for the left side. The left side has two openings: the forward one is for the pointer's position, and the rear for the sight checker. The sight checker uses that telescope mostly for training purposes to evaluate how well the pointer and trainer and managing their positions. I will be 3D printing the hoods for these telescopes. Their flanges go around the perimeter of these openings.



And here's the officer's hatch opening. I'm going to fabricate the counter-balance cylinder out of metal.



There's one more series of parts that's required in gun house construction; There are flat shield on each side of the curved gun shields that seal the curved surface from environmental incursions especially seawater. The curve of the shield covers the curved gun shield. There are two per gun side and then a bottom piece to tie it together. The upper edge is connected to the turret roof.



I used the gun shield in SketchUp in a sectioned drawing to capture both the curve size and position AND the interface with the roof. I can be pretty sure that this works since all the prints were produced from the same drawing. While there's some minor size change in the printing process, it's really insignificant.

Here's an interesting shot of refitting the armor on a 5" turret when refitting the Iowa in the 1980s. Based on this picture, I need to slightly change the lower left corner of the telescope opening. It's not a curve, it's just an angular cut. In this image the guns (without barrels) are fully elevated. Really shows how the gun house fastenes to the main frame. Also good views of how the pointer's machinery is fastened to the frame.

I was in the process of writing a response to the many comments that I neglected to respond to, hit something on my MacBook Pro 16 and "poof" my browser reloaded wiping out what I wrote and all tabs that were open. I neglected to respond because I hadn't checked the box to give me notificatoins of responses and I do command/page down to go the last post and make a reply. I post the identical thread on four other forums, each with a different audience, so I tend to take shortcuts and just copy the first one (Fine Scale Modelers Forum) and paste into the others. FSM's forum is the most onerous requiring me to upload the images into an image service and then link into the post, but the other three let me just cut and paste the entire thread, images and all, into their sites with no extra work. This site, however, also has a unique image handling process, so I paste the text in and then reconnect to images in my files.

A question was asked about part flexibility when coming off the printer. I add 20% Siraya Tenacious to my Elegoo ABS-like gray resin. I was tired of having parts shatter when dropped on the workshop's concrete floor. The Tenacious is a fully flexible resin and really helps. It adds to exposure time. Re: exposure time, I will experiment with shortening the time a bit based on the recommendation.

I had a real challenge deciding on how to situate the gun body in the printer, but I'm not sure that position caused the disfigurement in the loading trough. I think it was drawing errors on my part. The main part of the gun slide was a hodge podge of pieces and there may have been some voids/discontinuities that caused the print problem. I'm going to attempt to actually lay in some brass shim stock into the curve to make it actually metal AND cover up any surface irregularities. We'll see if that worked.

Positioning it vertically may have solve that problem, but could have made others with the gun shield that was integral to the part.

The new LCD arrives tomorrow and I'll install it on Monday. My spouse has imposed specific guidelines on my model work. No work after 5pm and nothing on the weekends. Left up to my own volition, I'd eat and sleep down there. It's a small price to pay to be allowed to build all the cool stuff I do. If you ever saw the movie, "The Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins… He was a motorcycle enthusiast from Austrailia who had this ancient Indian bike that he lovingly made into a racing bike. His dream was to run it at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He had to work onboard a merchant ship to pay his passage, and did indeed break the world record in his bike's class (almost died in the process). I'm relating this because, he lived in the his shop that was a quonset hut. He had his bed there. I envision that an unmarried me would have that kind of existance. It was a true story.

Good luck! It seem with 3D printing it's called 3D as one of the axes only has one side... I finality one arrives at what works, sometimes by iteration. The mount carried no officer, the mount captain was probably a GM 1 (E6). The MK 37 director carried an officer, the scratch forums Dr Phil was one on a cruiser.

I find myself often guided by hindsight, a beauty of 3D printing.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for all the correct terminology. And for the encouragement.

I'm giving Ryan a choice of how to display the innards of the gun house. My first approach would be a cutaway, but while not to difficult to execute, it doesn't show all that much unless you turn it into Swiss Cheese. Ryan just texted me. It will be the cutaway version which follows the theme of the 16" project.



The second approach could mimic yesterday's photo showing the entire armored casing in the air above the open gun house. This would show almost everything, but would have to be suspended above and it would raise the enclosure height. I could use acrylic rods to support. Lighting would require some visible cabling. In order to raise the casing, the guns need to be elevated, as they are in the photo.



The last is the most elegant and also the most challenging: making the forward parts of the gun house out of clear acrylic. I would leave the curved wall as it is. While I have clear resin, optically it wouldn't be very good and not any value. Acrylic is very clear and shows no distortion. Gluing it together so it really clean is the first challenge. The second is cutting out the small parts with true and square edges.



So I'm also asking all of you. Which do you prefer?

I finished cutting out all the casing parts and trued up all the edges. I cut the telescope holes in the right and left sides, the ofc's hatch opening, and the remaining access hatch opening. I clamped both angled face pieces together so I could finish shape the gun slots so they aligned perfectly. I drilled a series of small holes to locate the cutting lines and then used an appropriately-sized drill to create nice rounded corners. I then used the Dremel with router to remove most of the stock and finished with needle files.



Here's all the parts ready to be assembled.



Since I don't know which version Ryan will pick, I did some future planning... While all the casing parts were in the flat, and they're all accurate, I clamped them to a nice piece of 0.080" acrylic that I had laying around and traced all these parts so I'm ready to cut them out if we go that way. If fact, regardless of Ryan's choice I may cut out all those parts and see how well I can finish them. Having it clear would be pretty neat. You can barely see the scribed lines, but they're there. Now that I DO KNOW Ryan's choice, I may cut out these parts anyway since the acrylic is damage in that area due to all my scratch lines.



I also went at the back of the curved wall and removed that lump. I used a cutting disk to remove most of the stock and then my micro-power sander to finish. I may add some filler to hide all the tool marks.



With the acrylic in the wings, I can continue to construct the regular casing. I won't do the cutaway until after it's built if i go that route, so I won't be getting too far out over my skis.

My new LCD panel arrives today and I've already stripped the old one out of the machine in anticipation. I hope it comes with a new under class plate since I cracked it a bit getting it out of it's depression. It too is held with adhesive stirps. Should be running next week. It has to be running next week. It's on the critical path of two major projects.

Y'all have a nice weekend!

It's been a while since I updated this post. I have been working on five projects at once; three of which are commission. This technically is a commission although I'm not charging anything for it. When I last left you, I had to rebuild my 3D printer. I installed a new LCD panel which went well although more trouble than I thought. It's printing well now. I also found out recently, when testing my exposure setting with a new test article (Starship from 3DRS) that I was under-exposing my resin by 20% since I got this machine more than a year and a half ago. When I initially calibrated it I used a simple flat calibration piece and derived 2.5s per layer. With this new part, 2.5s didn't work. I printed a test from 2.1s to 3.1s by twos. 3.1 was it! It explained why I was getting such warpage and support breakage. When exposure is too short, the resin doesn't have enough cure time to develop structural integrity. The warpage is due to the amount of hardening that still needed to take place in post-curing. And the support breakage (a resultant delamination) was due to the resin being too weak to perform.

During all this, I was designing the ventilation system that goes into the gun house. It's a tricky design since the drawing is unscaled and undimensioned.



I had designed the overhead I-beams (wrong, I might add) and then Ryan came through with a passal of images showing the entire ceiling of the gun house (also good views of the ready service room and magazine). I have four beams. There are only two. I also had lateral beams. There are none. I also needed to know how the cross vent passed around the I-beams. They don't pass, they go through. Makes sense since head room is so limited. I drew the assembly and decided to print it all in one go, I-beams included to ensure it all lines up. I did't design the blower system yet as that will be a separate part to glue in.



This was the image that told me what's what.



I placed my assembly into the gun house drawing and kept moving parts of it around until the ducting cleared the guns and nestled into the I-beam.



I scaled it .021, exported as an .STL file and loaded it into the slicer. My first setup used a 100% raft coverage area. The Tall aspect on that little raft started failing about 1/3 through the print. I could see it detaching from the build plate since the plate has risen enough to be clear of the resin level in the vat. I stopped the print knowing it would just be a waste of resin.



I redesigned the arrangement with a more substantial raft. I am having no problem with build plate adhesion and blamed the strange setup for the lost of attachment.



This will off the machine later tonight so I won't know if it's good until tomorrow. Once the ventilation is squared away, I'm going to dig into all the electro-hydraulics in the gun house, and then onto the ready reserve room below. With exposure change, I'm much more confident about fine details and small piping rendering nicely. I may reprint some of the more dubious parts I've produced so far. I haven't glued or painted anything yet so it's just time and some resin.

All that said, today, I decided to look around more in the gun house and found that my downrunning duct was cutting right through the gun.



This was NO GOOD. It took a while to fit it all in since not only did the duct have to clear the gun, but the duct had to enter inside the mounting ring to reach the handling room below. And I'm still not sure how the duct gets down there since Ryan's images didn't answer the question. I took my best shot and re-configured the ducting to clear all the obstacles.

After reconfiguring, it looks like this:





The print just finished and it's in the ultrasonic. I also took the time to draw the blower assembly. Since the printer is running so well I decided to go for it. It may still not be right, but I'm going to live with it. I cleaned it and post-cured it and it looks really nice. All the details around the blower rendered perfectly including the i-beam formed motor base and it's hex-head bolts.



Now I just have to figure out how/when to shoehorn this into the turret assembly. The front vent opening (the one that runs through the beams) looks like it might be where the curved shield seal system it. If I have to modify it on the model, I'll do that. I don't feel like using more resin to make a fourth one. Meanwhile, the new exposure is wonderful. All of the supports were intact and doing their job, even some very fine ones.