ausf
Master at Arms
Edit, Campaign startup photos:
Lotta stuff in this Platinum version:
PE, brass barrels and periscopes.
self adhering wood deck.
A whole addendum of directions
If I wasn't psyched enough to build once I finished the shop, I certainly am once I cracked the box. This should build beautifully and it'll be a relief not to have to consider RCing it.
I'm building it as U-1105, a U-boat that was one of the most advanced of it's time. It was covered in rubber sheeting (Alberich) to lower it's radar and sonar profile, had a functioning snorkel to stay submerge for long periods (over 30 days at a time) and advanced sound gear.
I had a mini disaster in my bench space early in the Summer. I was finishing a drum shell and thought it'd be a great idea to use these dry metallic pigments I had on hand. The idea was to wet the area with clear, dust with the pigment, then spray on a top coat of clear while the bottom was still wet. It produced a nice effect, only problem is I had to do it in front of the spray booth since it was too large to fit inside. With the respirator on, I didn't notice that the fine pigment was becoming airborne and spreading throughout the shop as much as it was being sealed. The entire shop was covered with a superfine blue and purple dust that immediately went airborne again with the slightest motion, but at the same time would stubbornly cling to everything. It was a horror show. A few minutes in the space and I'd be choking on the stuff. On closer inspection, it was everywhere, on every wire, cable, paint bottle or flat space. It was IN drawers, on tools, on every kit, built or unbuilt. I'd later find out it even crept behind the baseboards.
I couldn't even look at it for about a month. I ended up completely disassembling the shop. Everything was either packed up in bags to be washed off or simply tossed. I tore the benches apart, rebuild everything from scratch again, including the spray booth and dust collector. I patched all holes and painted the walls and ceiling, scrubbed the floor three times over the period of a week (for anyone questioning Vallejo poly primers, I scrapped, scrubbed and picked at 15 years worth of epoxy, putty and paint spills and the only ones I couldn't remove was Vallejo grey). On rebuilding, I carefully decided what I needed to keep everything to a minimum and have storage for all of it, so nothing sits out. I built underbench drawers for tools and set the place up for sculpting, resin casting and simple kit building.
After all these months of work, I'm finally ready to hit the bench. A bunch of tools are still away in bags like the vacuformer, vacuum pump, etc that I'll clean as needed, but I need to get working on stuff now before I lose my mind.
Here's a few pics of the new space:
Spray booth with hidden vacuum chamber under the sheet metal. The exhaust fan is mounted under the 3D printer and vents out of the exterior wall.
Paint storage with shaker. Clays and other materials all underneath.
Dust/fume vent for use with the Foredom and Hakko. Storage for all RC and electronics.
And finally my first project back, the Revell Platinum kit with wooden decks and PE. It's both a reward/gift to myself, but also for my son to display at Webb. I'm building it as U-1105 which was one of the first to have a few innovations that a Naval engineer would be interested in, a rubberized stealth coating (Alberich), advanced sonar and the schnorkel making it one on the first true submarines used in war.
Lotta stuff in this Platinum version:
PE, brass barrels and periscopes.
self adhering wood deck.
A whole addendum of directions
If I wasn't psyched enough to build once I finished the shop, I certainly am once I cracked the box. This should build beautifully and it'll be a relief not to have to consider RCing it.
I'm building it as U-1105, a U-boat that was one of the most advanced of it's time. It was covered in rubber sheeting (Alberich) to lower it's radar and sonar profile, had a functioning snorkel to stay submerge for long periods (over 30 days at a time) and advanced sound gear.
I had a mini disaster in my bench space early in the Summer. I was finishing a drum shell and thought it'd be a great idea to use these dry metallic pigments I had on hand. The idea was to wet the area with clear, dust with the pigment, then spray on a top coat of clear while the bottom was still wet. It produced a nice effect, only problem is I had to do it in front of the spray booth since it was too large to fit inside. With the respirator on, I didn't notice that the fine pigment was becoming airborne and spreading throughout the shop as much as it was being sealed. The entire shop was covered with a superfine blue and purple dust that immediately went airborne again with the slightest motion, but at the same time would stubbornly cling to everything. It was a horror show. A few minutes in the space and I'd be choking on the stuff. On closer inspection, it was everywhere, on every wire, cable, paint bottle or flat space. It was IN drawers, on tools, on every kit, built or unbuilt. I'd later find out it even crept behind the baseboards.
I couldn't even look at it for about a month. I ended up completely disassembling the shop. Everything was either packed up in bags to be washed off or simply tossed. I tore the benches apart, rebuild everything from scratch again, including the spray booth and dust collector. I patched all holes and painted the walls and ceiling, scrubbed the floor three times over the period of a week (for anyone questioning Vallejo poly primers, I scrapped, scrubbed and picked at 15 years worth of epoxy, putty and paint spills and the only ones I couldn't remove was Vallejo grey). On rebuilding, I carefully decided what I needed to keep everything to a minimum and have storage for all of it, so nothing sits out. I built underbench drawers for tools and set the place up for sculpting, resin casting and simple kit building.
After all these months of work, I'm finally ready to hit the bench. A bunch of tools are still away in bags like the vacuformer, vacuum pump, etc that I'll clean as needed, but I need to get working on stuff now before I lose my mind.
Here's a few pics of the new space:
Spray booth with hidden vacuum chamber under the sheet metal. The exhaust fan is mounted under the 3D printer and vents out of the exterior wall.
Paint storage with shaker. Clays and other materials all underneath.
Dust/fume vent for use with the Foredom and Hakko. Storage for all RC and electronics.
And finally my first project back, the Revell Platinum kit with wooden decks and PE. It's both a reward/gift to myself, but also for my son to display at Webb. I'm building it as U-1105 which was one of the first to have a few innovations that a Naval engineer would be interested in, a rubberized stealth coating (Alberich), advanced sonar and the schnorkel making it one on the first true submarines used in war.
I was smoking one over till breakers started failing in the garage. Long story.
You're a braver modeler than me, adding all these different perforated sheets
