1/144 Scale USS STODDARD (DD-566) - Kitbash, Revell FLETCHER

[BB62vet]

Thanks, Tom!! Will have the Mail Buoy Watch manned and stationed!!!

May, and I repeat MAY have possibly figured out what's causing the bomb craters in my gun tub decks. 5th Edition (not the musical group, geez!!!! ) now printing so we'll see in a few hours whether this premise holds or not.

New After Stack Vent Pipe printed, dried, cured, and primed - now part of the stack!! Will shoot a new coat of haze gray on it in a short while.

Hank

[Fliger747]

Hank:

Hazing? Is that a nautical version of tar and feathering?

Cheers: Tom

[BB62vet]

Hank:
Hazing? Is that a nautical version of tar and feathering?
Cheers: Tom

Tom,
I do believe it is

Well, the 5th edition was also a big bust - same sq. hole, but because I had oriented the part at an angle (not straight up/down looking down on it) - it wiped out part of the superstructure on the side where the hole came thru everything. So, I'm leaning towards problems with the LED lamps inside the printer (you know, the Black Box items that our intelligence people have "classified" as "Above Our Pay Grade"!! As you suggested the other day, I did run the LED test and everything came on - however, that doesn't mean that they all came on at the expected intensity or brightness and I have no way to determine that (above my pay grade... )

I did get a bit of further work on the aft stack done tonight, but it's slow going with those rather fragile parts.

Hank

[BB62vet]

After further research & watching a pretty good video about replacing the LCD on a resin printer (vs the LED lamp array as I mentioned earlier), I think the problem is with the LCD and not the lamps. So, I've ordered a new LCD and we'll see if that solves the problem. There were a couple other noticeable anomalies that are occurring while printing that this video addressed and strengthened my view that this is where the problem lies.

It still prints, but there's an area that doesn't come out, so I'm going to try to remember where that area is and orient parts around it until the new plate arrives. I'm currently on the 2nd LCD as the original had a ribbon issue and required replacement very early on. So, I've certainly gotten my money's worth out of this current part. The LCD is considered a consumable and need replacement at some point in time due to the temperature changes and extreme heat that it receives during the printing process.

Hank

[BB62vet]

Actually, got some ship modeling done tonight/last night on the after stack -

I have the fwd yardarm w/RADOMEs ready to fit and that will be a bit tedious. May get to it tomorrow evening. Then, the stack intake vents, and some painting touch up and finishing, and it will be ready for adding cables to the cable tray. I'll leave off the communications mast and whip antennas until I'm ready to finish the model - those have a tendency to get broken easily.

Hank

[Fliger747]

Hank:

Good luck with the cable tray, I can see where feeding wires or whatever may have it's moments! It often seems as if several experimental efforts are necessary to arrive at the optimal solution that we should have utilized first with hindsight.

Eventually we will get to see addition of these sub assemblies to the hull and basic superstructure!

Best regards: Tom

[BB62vet]

Tom,

Cable tray cables did print - in fact, I have a scaled up version that may work a bit better. Haven't decided how to do these - the 3D printed cables or 0.20" dia. styrene rods, or old telephone copper wires.

My new LCD came in Thurs. so Fri. a.m. I overhauled the printer - replaced the FEP vat bottom (and 2 stripped machine screws in the vat gasket), and then the LCD. Only....that was NOT the problem with the holes in parts - one of the LED Lamp cubes was burned out - only saw this after closer inspection. So, good ole Tom F. has come to the rescue with the lamp fixture out of his now defunct Sonic Mini and it's winging it's way to the Mocksville Ship & Boat Yard.

In spite of this, I'm still printing, but only by carefully avoiding the area of the build platform that in is the area of the dead cube So, I began revising the Mk. 37 FCD Friday and have run one print and will do a couple more tomorrow -
This edition revises the telescope ports, adds hinges to the operator hatches, and cleans up some small details in the exterior design -

The print today had a splintered stbd rangefinder arm, so another couple prints are in order. Doing these in Rapid Black and the detail is really exceptional.

Still working on stack yardarm installations - slow going with revisions along the way - all part of the development process.

Hank

[Fliger747]

A note on the DSM (Design Spark Mechanical) views, the actual printed item will appear with much finer detail, especially the handrails. These MK 37's, of which Hank and I have mede several versions, also look excellent in 1:192. The correct versions grace my Missouri and Alaska in that scale. It is satisfying that Hank is able to fit Stoddard with a specific replica of this venerable director.

The LED array was a little different than I had anticipated. There is a lens arrangement on the top, but the LED's are actually arranged on a plate riveted to the bottom of the unit. This necessitated sending the whole unit base plate as de and re riveting the led block would have been possible but not optimal.

Cheers: Tom

[BB62vet]

The LED array was a little different than I had anticipated. There is a lens arrangement on the top, but the LED's are actually arranged on a plate riveted to the bottom of the unit. This necessitated sending the whole unit base plate as de and re riveting the led block would have been possible but not optimal.
Cheers: Tom

Tom,
Quite right, here is a photo of the aforementioned module -

Sonic Mini 5.5in ParaLED Module.JPG (24.38 KiB) Viewed 1116 times

So, this will replace the same part in my printer and hopefully things will get back to normal....

I have the two resupported Mk. 37's and another TED mast printing now. I had to make an addition to the mast for the small alternating footsteps on either side.

Hank

[BB62vet]

The print run was fairly decent - TED mast came out fine, Mk. 37's each had one very minor defect, one can be fixed (I've already addressed that) and the other will be set aside in case needed.

After having a bit of a diffuculty mating the forward yardarm & RADARs to the after stack cap, I set them aside in order not to mess anything up that couldn't be fixed. I decided to create a new file and see if the stack cap AND the yardarm could be joined together as one assembly - the result was this:

144 scaled DD566 After Stack Cap & Fwd. Yardarm Assy.JPG (16.95 KiB) Viewed 1084 times

I got it to the printer before dinner and took it out a little while ago. Surprisingly enough, it DID print, although the yardarm just left of center was missing about 5mm in length. So, while I can't use this, it did prove that the design worked. I think now it's a matter of orientation and support to make sure that everything that needs support is covered. I've checked the Chitu file and it was supported, but perhaps a couple more supports would help it out. I may even tilt the part forward a bit on the next edition. The other nice thing about a single printed stack cap assembly is that it can be sprayed black all at one time!

Just to cover all bases, I've now got the after stack itself in the design stage - that would eliminate ALL the kit parts from the after stack entirely. This is just in case I can't remove the 3D printed stack cap from the assembled kit stack as it sits right now. I'm still going to try to get the separate yardarm adhered to this assembly as originally planned as it has everything else in place (except for whip antennas).

Hank

[Fliger747]

Good luck attaching! I expect if you replace one stack you will have to do both? Hope you get the printer fully back in line! Tom

[BB62vet]

Good luck attaching! I expect if you replace one stack you will have to do both? Hope you get the printer fully back in line! Tom

Well, progress on the stack design is temp. at a stop while I think about your email regarding the 4 convex shapes needed to cover the open corners -

I was able to create a surface from 1/2 of the 4 curves I had offset to the right but it was flat, not rounded. (not shown in this picture)

I'm still hoping that I'll be able to add the fwd. yardarm to my existing stack assembly and use that as it's pretty well complete. Right now I have a 2nd edition of the stack cap/fwd. yardarm assy. printing - should be done soon.

As for the fwd stack, it's also under construction using the kit stack and 3D designed/printed cap and other parts. I don't see a problem with this.

A rainy day, so not a lot of work going on in the shop - sort of enjoying the holiday w/o any particular tasks to get done.

Hank

[Iceman 29]

A stuff like this, Hank, i suppose.. Not easy to draw.

[Fliger747]

Unfortunately our simple dimple Engineering program we use doesn't have that direct capability, it is good in doing basic geometric design to exact dimension. There may be some backdoor way to do this which is in effect sections of a spheroid. Easy to create a conical section. There is a way to create such a surface using a blend function following a curved guideline, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can make a solid out of it. Maybe there is a way by moving the created surface, copying it and adding artificial sides and filling to make a closed object? maybe.

[BB62vet]

Pascal/Tom,

- There's always a showoff in every class!!!! LOL!!!

Very nice rendition, but as Tom has mentioned, our low-end design program (at least the free-ware version which we use) doesn't have all the geometric commands that obviously your program includes, so I'm still working on solving this problem. I have been able to create a surface, but not turn that into a solid at this point.

A bit of refining of the arcs may be needed on the after two corners at this point. A work in progress indeed!

Hank

[BB62vet]

This evening I got the replacement LED lamp chassis installed and also had to re-use my older LCD plate as the new one was covered with splotches of leaked resin. Just bought it!!!!! So, the printer was basically overhauled AGAIN today. I may end up getting a new vat, as well.... we'll find out tomorrow. I left it on a piece of paper towel overnight to see if any leakage occurs - it is empty so there shouldn't be any. But liq. resin has way of getting into gaskets and so forth.

I've got several parts ready to print now that my light source is back up to par - thanks again to Tom Falley and our inter-sharing of critical materiel between shipyards!!!

Hank

[BB62vet]

After letting some resin sit in the vat for a couple hours, I checked, and it had leaked out onto some paper towel - time to replace the vat as I had just replaced the FEP bottom a week or so ago. It's the original and I guess these don't last forever either (or they wouldn't be selling replacements, right?? )

So, while the printer is offline waiting on parts again, I'll try to get the stacks finished using the on-hand parts which should be sufficient. I still plan on printing the after stack once I been able to determine how to finish the design and then use the 3D designed stack cap/yardarm assembly with that stack body - and then see which one comes out better.

Hank

[ModelMonkey]

If you like working with solid shapes, here's another technique (among others) to achieve the scallops on the rectangular base. The idea is to create a curved funnel base then use geometric boxes to create the flat scallops.

Part 1:

[ModelMonkey]

Part 2:

[BB62vet]

Steve,

Thanks ever so much - you KNOW what I'll be working on tonight!!! That procedure is obviously one I had not considered (or even thought about for that matter!!!! ).

I'll create a new file with only the stack body in it as it's sized correctly - should be an interesting lesson in solid geo - something I was not good at in senior high school. But, we're all sooner or later going to need geometry in our lives, right?

Will let you know how this evolves!!

Hank