• Modelers Alliance has updated the forum software on our website. We have migrated all post, content and user accounts but we could not migrate the passwords.
    This requires that you manually reset your password.
    Please click here, http://modelersalliance.org/forums/login to go to logon page and use the "Forgot your Password" option.

1/350 US Coast Guard Reliance class Cutter TLAR Models #723

20230725_170328.jpg
1/350 Life raft canisters came today from Model Monkey LLC in North Carolina.
He makes lots cool of high quality 3D printed parts for models ships of varying scales. These are suitable for US Navy Cruisers, Destroyers and (wait for it!) Coast Guard cutters!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Ok, Men. It's time to 'fess up.
20230727_182631.jpg 20230727_182439.jpg20230727_181903.jpg
Having captured the basic look of USCGC Dauntless' superstructure, I admit it needs more work. I do NOT wish anyone to think I am some kind of savant or made a deal with the Devil for model Master perfection. I am not and did not. The superstructure was .040" too short (I fixed that), and is .040" too narrow on both sides. The big, angular side spray shields should extend to the edges of the foredeck.
20230727_182101.jpg
The foredeck and the afterdeck were also .040" too short. This is the corrected freeboard height. I cain't say why every flaw on this Master is a measurement of .040", but that's what the digital caliber measurement is.
My brain gets stuck in 1/700 gear sometimes and everything looks way too big. :bash:
The caliper doesn't lie, I just clearly choose NOT to believe it! :facepalm:
It a "Do-Over!" I'm really good at do-over.
This whole project was an experiment. Just to see if I could do it. It's not going so badly.
Thanks again for looking in again!
:skipper::oldguy::salute:
 
Rhino does and thats all that matters :)

Remember watching the Hornby model show here and they were missing a rivet on a line of about 30 on a 00 scale steam engine and having discovered it...it had to be put right :)
 
You think anyone would notice .04 of an inch???
A lot to time, effort and pride go into making TLAR Models "Just so". My reputation rides on every model. I own the Store!
20230729_090036.jpg20230729_124310.jpg
A start was made on the lower hull plate. I usually don't do bottoms, but John asked for a full hull model so this will fill that request.
Now I have a use for all the .040 scraps I made cutting out layers for the solid styrene hull! Waste not, want not!

It looks like the guys at Todd Shipbuilding used similar profiles for their USCG hulls. The 210 lower hull closely resembles the Point class 82' cutter
below the waterline, but BIGGER!
Take a wild guess, if you will, at what fraction of an inch the lower hull is oversize by? :rimshot
 
Thanks Bob & Ian! I contend anyone can do this. Scale drawing, digital caliper, calculator and LOTS of wet-sanding sticks!
Water, music and brain-damage could be assets to the process as well.
20230730_101328.jpg
In the continuing "waste Not" motif, I filled the inside of the Big 210's afterdeck with plastic trash, stray resin bits and a few drops of C/A glue. the underside of the waterline hull got a similar treatment. If the Masters trap any air at all in the mold, all this is all for nothing!
20230730_145957.jpg20230730_150100.jpg
Hunting Shinies, filling with drops of C/A and wet-sanding takes time. While I fill the undersides of the 1/350 ship, I worked on the 1/700 210's superstructure.
My model eyes like 1/700 best. The Object isn't so grand my brain wanders (more than usual!) Progress is brisk and I have all the P/E parts to detail the smaller WMEC. The 1/700 superstructure does NOT have the accurate open undercuts the 1/350 version does. Molding will not need to be overly complex. See here a properly sized 1/700 Reliance class cutter superstructure!

I fear the 1/700 210' Master suffers from the same mismeasurement her bigger sister did, by 1/2.
The overhead on the afterdeck is .020 too short. A smaller do-over! YAY!
1690029970399blob.jpg1690029970400blob.jpg1690029932481blob.jpg
In other ship model news, Back-Aft Models of Millard, NE and TLAR Models are embarking on a joint venture. See here pictures from 2013 of Back Aft's AS-33, USS Simon Lake. USS Simon Lake is just a hair over 11 inches long in 1/700 scale. Molding and casting will NOT be done at my facility. You know, our Kitchen. :lol:

10 years ago, the plan was to create a waterline diorama of the US Navy submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland. Back Aft's 1/700 Los Alamos floating drydock, SSN and SSBN subs made it to production, but AS-33 didn't quite get there. As you can see, Simon Lake's "blacksmithing" is mostly done. I told Carl that my favorite part of Mastering is adding the dinky details.
He shivered a bit when I said that out loud. A Man's faculties may suffer just a bit, as he ages.

I have decided to finish this final Master project from Carl's excellent ship model company and help release Her under his Back Aft Models banner. Mr. Back Aft hisownself will make the molds, pour the castings and write his usual thorough instructions.
I am honored to be asked to finish such a thing by my good friend and resin model mentor.
I think She deserves a BIG finish and I get to have all the fun!

Thanks for enduring another of my lengthy narratives!
 
I am searching for P/E that has enough huge cranes to make a decent model of the Old Lady. Not so unlike TLAR Models, Back Aft Models makes/made subjects nobody else does. I hope them Friggin' Froggies at Black Cat don't make a 1/350 USCG Reliance class in their scavvy 3D printer for $200.00 before I finish my kit!
20230730_215455.jpg
The 1/700 ship got her .020 upgrade to scale freeboard. I extended the aft bulwarks to fit the after/flight deck with .030 worth of evergreen strip.
This gives her a stake bed pick-up look. I will trim off the unnecessary parts that span the bulwark before She goes to mold.
20230731_002845.jpg
"Daddy, will I have the Smokestack option like you do one day?"
"Well, M'boy, you'll have get quite a bit bigger before I'll allow you to smoke." :smack:
20230731_182814.jpg20230731_182829.jpg
Reliance class 210's sported 2 different pilot houses post 1987 overhaul. The Big Cutter kit will include both.
USCGC Active, WMEC-618 has her smokestack mod, but retained Her original Sturgeon Bay, WI 1966 pilothouse.
Thanks again for looking in!
 
The Barnegat class served as seaplane, PT boat tenders, Coast Guard cutters and submarine tenders. Along with this ASR, the possibilities seem boundless, do they not? Said "Wee Widdo Boat" are my favorites to model, unless some Communist sumbitch already makes a better ship model.
They never do. Wonkers! Pracks!
 
20230805_084421.jpg20230804_200024.jpg
Pouring the voids in the bow of the lower hull with resin worked fairly well. Milliput was to chunky, Tamiya putty would have taken a long time to cure and would been very expensive. I put some scrap evergreen in the stern half of the lower hull and inclined the bottom to keep the resin from running out astern. Making this part of the master is tedious, indeed.

More to come!
 
20230806_132656.jpg
I'm spending almost as much time working on the lower hull as I did the rest of the Cutter. The price a Man pays for being unable to accept mediocrity, I suppose. Hunt shinies, dab c/a glue, wait. Sand, black sharpie, hunt shinies. repeat :ph:
This is getting very tedious. :bang head

U.S._Coast_Guard_Over_the_Horizon_(OTH)_boat.jpg20230806_102154.jpg
The modern day 210' will carry 2 Mk.2 24-foot OTH (Over The Horizon) RHI boats. Seating for 5, helm, GPS, Radar and a bow mounted light machine gun. The Mk.2 is jet driven and inboard diesel powered.
This is a whole different kind of tedious. A welcome diversion from the Bottom I don't like to do.
Thanks again for looking in!
 
Back
Top