SPA Modeler

Superb work Steve!! Gotta admire some good ship building.

Ships are not my choice of kits but will try one again. I’ve been wanting to build a couple of destroyers my dad was on when he was in the Navy. USS Wadley and USS Courtney. Both I have to literally kit bash them for accuracy sake.

BlackSheep214 wrote:Ships are not my choice of kits but will try one again.

Friends,
I completed the paint on the Spruance. I'll start on the rigging today, then the seabase. I ordered some modern 3D USN crew from "Tanks vs Panzers" on Shapeways. He makes superb figures at a decent price and ships rather quickly. I've ordered from him for years. I like Northstar figures as well and cost a little less but take an eternity to arrive.

Looks real good. After seeing your kit, I realized that the Sprucans were retrofitted with a VLS in place of where the “pepper box” ASROC launcher was originally mounted.

She’s a beauty!

Thanks guys. I installed the rigging using .005 Uschi. Expensive stuff but super nice to install and accurate in scale. The problem is, that I can't find a picture that shows the rigging well. I had to go with logic and the pictures I did find. I'll add some weathering, very slight rust and start on the seabase.

The rigging, weathering and slight rusting is complete, I just need to add the small boats......Can't forget that, can't forget that.

You asked for it, so I'll give you the "making sausage" part of the water base. When I started the build, I purchased the large blue insulation sheet from Lowe's. This is a new material for me so it's new ground. I marked out the hull and cut out it's outline, I then carved out a hole for the hull. This is an extremely messy process regardless of the material used.

I use a BBQ lighter to create the swells, although this is an admittedly easier task with my old standby material, the hard white Styrofoam. During the last part of the build I decided on the type of sea state I wanted. Heavy weather with a large bow crash, I've seen plenty of them in the Bearing, and felt the shock that ran through the ship, very hard on the older electronics BTW.

So onward. I dug out a little more for the bow and plunged the bow further in the material while raising the stern further out of the water. Since this isn't a see through seascape, I used old used paper towel pieces to support the stern. Non of this will be seen and the acrylic gel process will secure the hull to the base.

This is where I ended last night. I will be adding a little material to add to the swells.

This is looking really good Steve. I just got through getting a blown big block Chevy engine from Shapeways and I couldn't get over the level of detail that gets put into this guys products. Crazy.

I'm really impressed with the manufactures on Shapeways.

Here is where it gets ugly and you think, "boy, I really screwed this up". I glued some foam scraps to add some swells. Once dry, I'll cut and sand the scraps and then apply paper to make the actual "water"