MechTech

@wm cheng The good news is that Navy and Marine aircraft aboard ship are dirty! The better news, can't really tell there's anything wrong with your finish except that YOU know the issues. It's looking good! @arbit MORE great pilot goodness! If only I could print my hair to be like that!😁 @derex3592 Everything is looking GREAT! What sucks about stuff like that is it's never appreciated by most people about how much detail you put into something. Hoever, YOU do know and can appreciate it. We see it too!😉 - MT

@Goodman Models Thank you very much! I originally started out with a base model that Micro Mart USED to sell. They probably discontinued it because of the low quality. Beware of cheap mills from China. The prices look good, but the electronics and quality can be bad. Most have a lot of play that needs to be worked out in them; like mine also had. After the mill I got a Sherline lathe after A LOT of research. Sherline makes the BEST hobby mills and lathes - period. There are some smaller brands, but they don't have the support and all the parts accessories that Sherline has. I've also found their precision to be rock solid. So I took my old mill and mounted a Sherline vertical piece (for converting your lathe into a mill) with the motorhead and revived my old mill. Sherline's motors are quiet and powerful. They are also variable speed, so you can work styrene without melting it. If you want to go entry level, get their small lathe (unless you think you'll need the longer one). Then you can buy a conversion piece that will turn it into a small mill. It depends on your budget. Here's Sherline's info for Canada: https://www.sherline.com/sherline-worldwide-dealers/#ca Feel free to ask more questions. Other board members have also bought their equipment and like it a lot. @wm cheng That SUCKS about your over-coat. I'm sorry to hear that happened. I've found the Mr. Hobby stuff to have the best coatings. I LOVE their matt finish. Mine can sit around for a while. So I shake the can for three minutes, even when not full. It almost sounds like you had more solvent and less coating in the spray. It also dries VERY quickly - at least the matt coat. Maybe it didn't mix well? I hope you can revive it! @arbit I'd title that sculpt, "The Power Couple"! 😁 ANOTHER great sculpt. I'm going to have to get those for some day when I get a 3D printer. - MT

@Goodman Models Your paint is nice-n-smooth! I like the optics too! There is depth to them. Slowly but surely the frigate is getting there. Needed some defensive missiles for quick-reaction, short range (like the RIM-116 rolling airframe missiles). So here's the launcher under construction. Getting a good and straight bevel is harder than you think - even on a mill! The boxes assembled and the turret pieces. Remember the missile "holes" from last week's post? NOTE: the bottom base is temporarily being used here. And assembled (with temp base) TEMPORARILY fitted together. And the actual base going with it. At the base of the lower left side of the turret you'll see ventilation louvers. While filing the turret sides, the file slipped and cut a DEEP gouge into it. Trying to figure out to putty it or cover it up, I decided to cut it out and put a piece of left-over louvers from the bridge area. The turret still needs ladders and detail pieces yet. The fun part was cutting out bases to fit into the vacu-formed turret tops. Several tries later... Next step is making the barrels and the swivel point for them. I cut the flats on the rotary table and drilled the holes and cut the outer area off on the lathe. This way everything stays centered and identical. I had to make six of them. THREE turrets. Two for the ship and one for a detailed cutaway. I used leftover poly-caps for the turrets so they'll hold a pose when elevated. And under the turrets a ring and the bases (same near oval shape as the original Oto Melara 76mm gun turret). The third turret is shown with the carousel-magazine test fit. That's it for now. Thanks for checking in everyone! - MT

@505thAirborne I wish the color swatches were bigger, but this chart is pretty good (depending on your monitor). https://www.tamiyausa.com/blog/ts-paint-chips-tamiya-color-spray-paint/ I know you could look this up too, but just wanted to confirm that its pretty accurate (from personal experience). I miss having local hobby shops! I pray they make a comeback somehow. - MT

@derex3592 I'll skip the railing puns and just say they look great - the who;e ship too!😉 - MT

@arbit Ha ha! I don't know about better, but thank you! I'm humbled. - MT

I hope everyone had a good weekend! Here's some more work done on the frigate. For the torpedo and missile decoys (the types that inflate to "look" like a ship on radar or emit a signal to look like multiple ships to a torpedo), this launcher was made. Basic rivet detail and the rounds are made from Gundma missile castings made years ago. Originally I made a sponson to hold the crane on the back on the ship. I'm such a genius, that I didn't think the crane would need more room to move. I was VERY WRONG! So why waste a good sponson? It now holds the decoy launcher. The rounds get glued in later when painted. Now my crane was left hanging with no place to go. So I made a new sponson - designed with more room. I recycled a failed part as the base and re-machined it to fit bigger bolts (the original was a failure because the smaller bolt hole pattern was off). The sponson top was made with failed deck tie-down patterned plastic for detail. Gundam to the rescue again with another PC insert piece. The crane and launcher are removable to slide the heli-deck outwards for equipment access. The sponson needs sanding when the glue fully cures in a couple of days. Don't throw away dulled drill bits! I needed a mill bit I didn't have the right size for to drill missile holes (think Rolling Airframe Missiles) in plastic. I ground down an old bit flat and filed the interior out so the bit was turned into a mill bit. You guys can do this with a Dremel like I did. Now I have missile holes for the AA missile launcher (more on that another time). That's it for now. Thanks for checking in. Have a good week guys! - MT

@arbit Awww! How cute! Cool sculpts on your page! - MT

@arbit @Thom Thank you guys! Yeah, the cats keep me on my toes. They also help with quality control. This same cat kept sitting on the deck of the ship. Of course it collapsed! It wasn't designed for cats! But I reinforced it with carbon fiber tube and it now supports cats too. Just one way they help keep my builds strong enough for radio control.😁 - MT

It's great to see a lot of builds going on here! My apologies for not posting more build photos lately and catching up with lots of photos, but things have been busy (partly because of building this model)😁 After completing some other models, I figured its time to get my frigate finished. If you remember I built a 5 inch mk-45 gun turret that fires caps to go on this ship. It is designed to be as realistic as possible. On that note, the actual 5 inch gun weighs 27 tons by itself - without the magazine for the shells! So realistically, it's too big weight wise. Although I thought it looked awesome on the deck!😉 The Oto Melara 76mm turret on the other hand is about 8 tons. So more realistic. I also thought two are better than one. The Italians and French have frigates using two of the same turrets side by side. So I thought it would be a good idea on my wide ship. So I tried out the concept with some rough made parts. It looked too much of an afterthought to me. So I got the styrene out, and with the help of one of the cats, got to work adding on to the upper deck area. I also removed some of the bulwark area on the bow and other pieces in the way. And did further "sculpting" to help with a design to get water of the bow quickly in bad waves. So I added roughly about 1000 square scale feet onto the upper deck area. And with the turrets and VLS cells mock-fit into place, it should look something like this when done. I thought the radar and electronics suite also needed improvement, so I added flat-panel radar antennas to go on the main mast area. I used 1/8" / 3mm thick plastic, drilled a hole and put a 1/4" plastic square piece in the middle to hold it for machining. Then beveled it on the mill. Then got these ready. Since even Dr. Evil's henchmen looked down on sharks with lasers, I thought a laser turret and optics would look cool and also be a good weapon system. So I added onto the mast area with a new platform. Then made a smaller mast and all the parts for the turret. Looks like somebody has most of the chaos stones😄 The glass is actual coated optic glass, so it has that red / reflective look to it. And all the pieces together now with figure to scale. Also added ladders cause stuff brakes in real life. Note the "old" hexagonal antenna under the big radar - it's gone now. And the final addition is a better Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) antenna array. It's made from "mistakes" making the 76mm gun interior and Tamiya "Modern U.S. Accessory Set" tank tread replacement pads. The large radar next to it has a new "boot" around the base of it too. I forgot to photograph it. That's everything caught up for now. Thanks for checking guys! - MT

That looks great! I wonder what scale that figure is? - MT

@arbit Awwwww! Great looking sculpts as always! Thanks for releasing them. I'll have to go out and get them. @Rock Those aftermarket parts look really cool! @derex3592 Almost time to get the champagne bottle ready! @505thAirborne That stinks about the canopy. I don't have any, but your build is looking good. - MT

@Bobby You'd just HAVE to make the arms and lower half to complete that beautiful sculpt! @electric indigo Hopefully they don't make it TOO smart in the future. It'll be Rise of the Terminators!😁 - MT

@arbit Oh oh, do we have a combo set coming out soon?😁 @pengbuzz Looks JUST like a movie I saw once! For those of you who would like to see last weekend's PennCon (IPMS Central Pennsylvania model show), here's the photos. I'm leaving them full size since many have a lot of models in them. I limited the amount of photos I took. Most are sci-fi, because that's what we do! Background info. This is not a 1st, 2nd, 3rd place judging. Models are judged by medals, bronze, silver or gold. You can have multiple gold kits in the same category. You'll see some models have medals next to them. I happened to take the photos after they were laid out. The gold medals were handed out at the end in person. I couldn't believe how many gold medals our club took home to include best in class and best of show (it was a '53 Chevy fully "plumbed" with wires and fuzzy seats details). I've got construction photos of my frigate, but I don't wanna hog the boards now (even though I may already have)😎 - MT

@electric indigo Looks much better in the light! - MT

@Thom It's hard to tell whether your mods are part of the kit or not. Looking cool! @electric indigo Great finish as always! It looks ready to make a run. I think you got the weathering just right too. @arbit Roy's "girl" looks cold and angry. 😁 Great sculpts as usual! Especially the last set. They are in a very convincing pose. @pengbuzz You TOTALLY breathed new life into that old kit! Even whittling out a Cosmo zero! All the details you added and kit fixes you made really bring it up to a whole new level! Even the base looks great! The "wood" deck effect also makes it look a world better than stock. Moving that gun turret REALLY fixed the profile of it too. Congrats on adding a new model to your collection. The flooding may have taken some away, but your collection will be built back up again. And I think with some even better builds! If you guys are interested, I caught a ride to the PennCon IPMS model show. I can share some of the photos if you guys are interested. - MT

Hasegawa milks molds BETTER than any model company out there! It's not just the Macross kits either. You gotta give them that. Just two missiles and a new decal sheet - whole new model kit! 😉 - MT

@ChristopherB You guys did an AWESOME job on the case! Just put that "Cure" album on and you can have a full flashback in time!😎 The LED lights look great in there too. It's great that they have no IR to yellow the plastic with. Nice and clean too. - MT

That sucks that the plastic is so brittle with time. Your improvements look great though!!! - MT

I like it! Nice amount of weathering and the clear sensors in the nose look great. - MT

He he, why does that look like an album cover?😁 Arbit's getting the band back together! Is is just me, or does cannon fodder on the far right need more hair? He looks more 90's than 80's 😎 They all look awesome though! - MT

@pengbuzz Man, I haven't heard that song since the 80's on the Dr. Dimento show! That is good news about the apartment. At least it will be freshly painted. Hang in there! - MT

@pengbuzz I'm SO SORRY to hear that happened! Law is not my specialty, but I believe Sanity is Optional is correct. It's usually your lawyers going after theirs. Another issue may be valuing things. Models are hard to do that with. Other items are easier. I pray this works out for you! - MT

@arbit That is a SHINY boat! I would NEVER actually put that in the water - to afraid to jack it up on some rocks! I agree with Pengbuzz. In fact, some wood glues are waterproof when set. Nothing likes to stick to that chrome. If you're feeling lucky, you actually can use A LITTLE superglue, but you have to thoroughly clean the area of oils / fingerprints. Also mask the surrounding areas to be careful. At the factory they use something like contact cements, but lots o luck getting that precisely applied. @HWR MKII You're still alive! Good to see you on the boards. - MT

@Thom "Then the Amaterasu is your thing!" That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! @pengbuzz Using the tape to your advantage! Your improvements make that kit look MUCH better! @electric indigo It looks like Zveda is getting better with their molds. The last kit I built from them (A LONG time ago) was ROUGH. - MT