Australian coaster Blythe Star - 1973 - 3D print - 1/100

[Iceman 29]

Tks Wefalck!

Final printing of the hull, there will be 3 copies, 1 for me, 1 for my friend Roland, and 1 that will stay in the box with all the parts of the ship, in case someone is interested in building it one day.



Centring the blocks with pieces of plastic card:



I've just glued the 3 sections together. I'm in the process of sanding and reloading the cracks with cyano with accelerator, so that you can't see the junction at all, you have to take your time with this important stage, you have to take care with the work.

Before that, of course, you have to adjust the surfaces with a metal file so that they fit together as well as possible.

I'd forgotten about the brackets on the starboard side of the aft block for this final part, I didn't want to scrap the stern, so I cut off the bulwark and I'm going to reprint what's missing now, it's not the first time I've done this at least for large damaged parts.





Loyds Register (LR) freeboard marks, copied directly from the ship's original freeboard certificate:







The presentation supports:

I glue 2 nuts in their slots, don't forget to do this before gluing the sections!

[Iceman 29]

An exceptional 8mm film has just emerged on Youtube showing the efforts to refloat the ship after emptying its holds.

The 1965 grounding (8 years before it sank) on a beach near the explosives dock. The ship was loaded with 321 tonnes of dynamite (14,000 cases) when it broke its moorings, probably due to the swell.

The seawater-damaged dynamite was later dumped into the sea.

[Iceman 29]

At the same time, my Australian friend Nicholas, who provided me with a lot of photos and documents, thanks to him, received the print file at the speed of light from Sydney, and printed it with his brand new Photon M5s.

You can also see his imposing Titanic in 1/100 scale, which gives you an idea of the size of this little coaster.

It's extremely disturbing to see your work come to life on the other side of the world a few hours after it's been produced.

It's like teleportation!

[Iceman 29]

Printing the poop deck and bridge, I had to review my strategy for separating the parts after some not-so-good printing tests (but I suspected it...), now it's fine. For the poop deck, I printed it in two pieces instead of one. It's coming together nicely.

Nothing is glued yet.

[Iceman 29]

?
The shipyard:

One more sister ship and another to print for friend Roland.�





I've repaired N�1's starboard bulwark.

The piece of "sheet metal", patch, in question.



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[Iceman 29]

Drawing of the windlass and its stoppers. Few images of this device and incomplete. Nicolas sent me a photo of a probable similar model. I therefore relied on these photos.














I've re-arranged my printing plates, it's not totally finished, a fifth plate and maybe a sixth, should be created :

[wefalck]

Out of curiosity: how much resin goes into such 'kit' and how much does that cost?

[Iceman 29]

About 400 ml of resin at the moment for one model, according to the slicing program.

The price of 1000 ml is around 30 euros for a basic resin like I use.

So, for the moment, it costs 12 euros.

Well, I'm not counting tests, prototypes and so on.

But it's still a reasonable price for the consumable.

[Iceman 29]

Work on the forecastle, prototypes of the hatch covers ( can do better ), windlass etc.

[Iceman 29]

Two of the 3 copies ( #1 and #2 ) built by myself.
Inventories of the respective items. :')

The #4 is assembled and printed directly in Australia.

The hull of the third should be printed this week, while the rest of the parts for #3 are already printed.

I've still got the winches for the cargo masts to draw and print, the various pulleys, cargo masts, aft platform with its accessories etc..















Mumm 1904. Merry Christmas all !
Jean-Baptiste Charcot

[Iceman 29]

Printing of load masts and their accessories, gooseneck etc...

Working on reinforcing the masts with piano wire.

Once painted, it won't show.

[wefalck]

Are the spars hollow along their whole length or do they just have bores at their ends ? It is certainly a good idea to reinforace such fragile parts.

I don't have any practical experience (yet) with 3D-printing, but always wondered, whether it would be possible to combine this 'in situ' with traditionally (subtractively) machined parts. I could imagine, that one prints say half of a spar with a groove in the middle, then inserts the steel wire, and continues with printing around the wire. Of course, one could print two separate halves and then glue them together, but this would then require a lot of cleanining up.

[Iceman 29]

Effectively, it's drilled right through whenever possible. Obviously, this is better, as the resin flows more easily, and it's easier to unclog.

Metal can only be added after printing.

[wefalck]

Of course, one can print it with the bore and then ream it out in case it get clogged.

[Iceman 29]

It is sometimes clogged with semi-soft resin, in which case a smaller piano wire must be passed through to unclog it carefuly.

Generally speaking, it's difficult to ream or drill UV resin, as it's very fragile, and you need to be very careful, using a series of drill bits of very similar diameters.

[Iceman 29]

The third hull is printed for Roland.

I've started painting some elements, like this last hull.

I've achieved the very particular color, a very slightly grayish blue, and I'm happy with the mix.

I painted the deck (teak style) and the hatch covers, in darker wood. It's a long process.

I reprinted the 3 decks from a different angle, and it looks much better.

I've drawn the winches for the cargo masts, and I still have one to draw, the one for the cargo mast topping lift, which is a manual winch. It's to the left of the other one in the photo, also in green.

[Iceman 29]

Some progress on masking and painting. I also put the second coat of blue on one of the hulls, and the first on the other.

[wefalck]

This project progresses at disgusting speed and good quality

[Iceman 29]

Tks !

It's fun to assemble and paint, lots of colors.

Nothing's glued yet. Just for your viewing pleasure this evening.

[Iceman 29]

Painting the hull is nearing completion.

Masking was tricky because of the different colours, 4 in total.