I have clad the hull side with 1.5mm mount board as a substrate -I’m not wasting a pic on it - to which I will attach whatever cladding I decide upon. Experiments are being conducted as I type and will be reported upon completion.
I always intended to build the superstructure of the model from sheet material-foamboard, etc, so I have been studying my digital model to figure out the dimensions of the various structural elements, walls etc.
But I had a revelation.
I have two 3D printers; a small resin one, which I have used for all the detailed bits I’ve printed so far, and a large-format FDM printer (the type that extrudes a thin strand of molten plastic ) which I have used for the larger pieces like the funnel and gun tubs.
It occurred to me that I have already made the model ‘virtually’, and it would be the work of only a little while to divide the larger elements into printable pieces, so I have started with the main deck walls.
I had to add some detail of seam lines, and the porthole detail is too subtle for the big printer , so I will make them separately on the small one .
They will be inserted later and backed with 2mm clear acrylic, back-sprayed black - I am NOT doing the interior!
I made a recess in the side wall for the door
Here they are in a nice grey filament- I had to split the longest wall to fit on the printer.
The downside of using the FDM printer is that the surface finish is not at all flat-even when you print a piece flat on the build-plate.
Annoyingly this texture has to be sanded off, and that takes mark one elbow grease !
I do have an electric sander but the problem is that the melting point of the plastic filament is so low that it just wrecks the piece. So I started with P60 grit (which is practically cobble stones...!) and even that causes melting and has to be rested every now and then. I worked my way up through the grades to P320, wet, which will give me a good enough finish for primer. So you see there is no advantage adding any detail with this printer.
Well, I think that's all for now folks.
Thanks for watching
Cheers
Neil