crazypoet

That's an awesome Dauntless! Gives me some inspiration - and I look forward to seeing it there

Hmmm... i’m Wondering if their 1:32 turnbuckles could work on a 1:24 boat y’all have given me food for thought!

Thanks! Despite my intermittent complaints, I love the challenge of research and re-engineering from first principles when docs don’t exist. tech and material-wise, this thing is something akin to Frankenstein ‘s monster. Wood mostly, but also plastic, brass, white metal, 3D printed resin, copper, fiber (I recall that there’s some dryer lint and a few acorns as well!)... that’s been part of the fun, learning new materials and new techniques along the way

I need to dig back into the archives to identify which extra bits I picked up. i know I have a couple cockpit mods, some lighting mods and an engine mod, but my poor brain is a bit fuzzy on specifics - i’ll Have to brush aside a thriving spider colony and look!

Training Lines done on the carriage - at least so far as my best guess can take me! I also got the first of the big dry transfer decals on the base - an old map of the Albemarle Sound region, where the Actions surrounding October 24 1864 occurred... i still need to finish the torpedo rigging, ammo chests and a few more details on the base... but...PROGRESS!

Sweet build - glad you made it through!

Nice work!!! I look forward to seeing the rest of the build

That’s a bit that I don’t have - i’ll happily buy it from ya!

I need to clear the [expletive deleted] Picket Boat off the bench so I can get a running start on the next project. I’ve had some of these waiting so long that the spiders living in the boxes have had time to evolve into entirely new species...! That pile of ModelSpace boxes on the floor? That’s 24 out of 25 shipments of the ModelSpace Millennium Falcon... the last box should arrive this week... and i’ve already squirreled away a boatload of aftermarket mods to make it even more fun... whenever I get to it!

Sweet! I’m a fan of the P-61, just in general principles. Good to see one here!

RANT Ok, just venting for a minute. i’ve been nose-down in documentation for this thing all week... you’d think that, given the Navy’s penchant for documenting *everything* (including, for instance, how many times to strike a cannon-wad forming jig with a hammer while forming the wad**), that something as standardized as ammunition cases would be well-represented in the literature. ummm. Not. Army ammo cases are *very* well documented, and period examples exist in sufficient quantity to cross-verify. not so the navy. Small arms? No problem - these are well-attested. but fixed ammunition for the boat howitzer? HAH! I have a set of dimensions for the case (from the Navy Ordnance Manual - exactly where it should be), so that’s not at issue. question is... What color was the damned thing, and how was it marked??? My best guesses of the moment are either blue with white letters (as used for navy small arms ammo boxes) or buff with black letters as specified for army pre-packed canister. Given that the navy packaged their ammo differently (9 rounds per box for the navy vs 8 rounds per box for the army) there’s no specific reason for them to use the army paint scheme, but then there’s no reason *not* to, either... i’m going to flip a coin, have a double gin-n-tonic and make it up. /RANT ** the answer is 21 times, with moderate force, in sets of 3 strikes. Now you know

This is another build i’m just now getting caught up on - phenomenal work as always! i love watching the masters at work - you inspire me to stretch!

Gawds - this is epic! I’m finally getting caught up on all the builds i’ve missed while my bench was idle, and this is a standout!

So it seems that the 12-pound boat howitzer was rigged with a “training line” for the designated crewman to use to point the thing, and to help swivel the mount to it’s various pivot points. cool. except, well, there seems to be no place - even in period ordnance manuals - with a description of how the damned thing was done. sooooo... i’m Back to making things up. I think I have an approach that’s at least defensible. We’ll see who screams and points accusing fingers when I get it out on display finally! I also finally figured out what I was doing wrong with my dry-transfer decal paper, so I can finish the base and the ammo chests... wheee!

Ooooooo.... B-47 in NMF.... that would be a hell of a project!

Yah - cutting fiberglass isn't fun, and would mean a TON of scratchbuilding. I can sorta see why they want to keep those wings as simple as possible from a manufacturing perspective, but flaps seem sorta basic, at least from the outside looking in. I fell in love with the B-52 as a kid - my dad worked for a company that built components for the thing, so I had some *biased* early exposure. I don't always agree with the way it's been used, but it's a magnificent bird in its own right - doubly so when you consider that it's on its 6th Decade of front-line service... I love their work - but it's expensive enough that I have to plan my purchases carefully. Fortunately, there's a bit of time to make a case for either the PBY or B-52 as a Christmas gift to myself... And the A-20 in 1:32 isn't due out until "sometime next year" - so I have time to plan for that one as well.. Wheee!

What are your thoughts on the B-36? That’s another impressive bird!

Just catching up on this - great job on those turrets, and the AA mount PE build is gorgeous! i have been a bit fun-shy on tackling this kind of build as the parts are SO SMALL... yikes! but you’ve given me some inspiration. Somewhere along the line i’d Like to do the USS Arizona and USS Missouri to book-end the WWII Pacific Campaign

The HPH B-52 is scheduled for limited release in 2-3 months, per an email I received today. is anyone here planning to pick one up? They are accepting pre-orders now. This bird is huge even in 1:72; A 1:48 version is going to dominate any space it occupies i can *hope* for a future 1:32 release, but I suspect that 1:48 is going to be as good as it gets. i have a pair of 1:72 kits that I plan to build as “bookends” for the B-52 - one from the Linebacker II campaign during the Vietnam war and the second from the early days of the first Gulf War i’m at least re-evaluating my approach based on the HPH version... that would be an impressive centerpiece in my “look what I did” space!

Getting there - laying out the base before I do the last bit of rigging and the lettering on the ammo cases The ropes all need a bit of aging to make them look appropriately worn. I still need to finalize the rigging on the gun. Since it was designed to be “portable” (a hernia-inducing carry in two pieces by six men) and was also meant to swivel around three different mounts, it would not have had the more complex run-in/run-out rigging of larger shipboard guns. Short ropes on each of the four rings on the carriage both make sense and align well with existing documentation.

I'm not going to be able to attend the whole thing, but I'm hoping to make it to at least some of the stuff on Friday and Saturday. I'm in Atlanta, so I have zero excuse not to attend - it's less than 3 hours from my humble abode by car. I'd love to catch up with any/all of the crew - perhaps a Friday night pub-crawl?

Ah-Ha! Accurate Miniatures had an SBD-3 kit a while back. I could pick one up and use the cowl and prop/spinner from that. Thanks!!! The cowl on the -5 was 4" deeper and had different inlets and prop spinner. Most everything else was the same...

That is BEAUTIFUL! I somehow suspect that there's not a standard Legos kit for this one?

Greetings all! I have, sitting on my bench and waiting more or less patiently, the beautiful Eduard limited Edition SBD-5 Dauntless Dive Bomber. Of course, the version I actually *want* to build is the SBD-3, as was used at the Battle of Midway. Do any of you know of a conversion set for this? I've not seen one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist somewhere out in the ether...

This ship is iconic - and I love the version you’re building. I recall first learning about these back in the ‘80’s - there was more than a bit of institutional doubt at the time about the ability of the Cobras and front-line AA to deal effectively with them, should the balloon go up before the Apaches were field-ready this takes me back!