Build #7 for the year: USS San Francisco (CA-38)

[ChuckD]

After a little over a month's work, I'm happy to share my first 1/350 ship build. This is the USS San Francisco (CA-38) conducting a continuous-fire shore bombardment of Japanese positions on Guadalcanal in September, 1942. Continuous fire, as opposed to salvo fire, means the guns fire independently as soon as they're loaded. It increases the volume of fire while sacrificing rate of fire. I used a lot of Tom's Model Works PE accessories on it, including doors, porthole covers, ladders, radars, stairs, and catapults. TMW PE is great, but their instructions just plain suck. To paraphrase, the catapult's instructions are something like, "1. Cut pieces 1-25 off PE fret. 2. Build catapult." sigh. Anyway, with a decent reference book, it turned out okay. The Trumpeter kit isn't super impressive, so I had to do some custom work to improve the bits on the masts, the propeller guards, and the funnels. Most of what you see in those places is stretched sprue cut to length and glued.

 

I'm reasonably happy with the fire effects, though if I do something like that again, I'll probably try some different techniques. Most of what I found online for examples/tutorials was overdone in my opinion. Period photos for cruiser bombardment don't show enormous billowing balls of smoke and fire like you see on battleships. Anyway, for a first go, it turned out well enough.

 

 
 

[dennismcc]

Most impressive

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[jenshb]

I like that.

[The Madhatter]

I love a good ship build and this is no exception. Awesome stuff! And I really like the dynamics of the display,  very well done

[LSP_Ray]

That is really an impressive display! Well done!

[LSP_K2]

Excellent!

[Greif8]

Awesome job Chuck!  The ship looks spot on and the muzzle blast looks very good.  Your water depiction is exceptionally well done.  You got the right hues and the wave action caused by the ship's movement through the water looks exactly as it should, as does the wake.  May I ask how you replicated the water?  I built this kit a few years ago also in a battle scene, though mine is a nighttime scene showing the opening phase of what was known as "The First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal".  Though I was ( and still am) satisified with how the water turned out in my diorama, I think you got the look of the transverse waves and wake more accurate then I managed.

 

Ernest

[TankBuster]

Hi, looks great, love the water and guns firering. Cheers.

[ChuckD]

Thanks for the compliments, all!  Much appreciated.

 

6 hours ago, Greif8 said:

Awesome job Chuck!  The ship looks spot on and the muzzle blast looks very good.  Your water depiction is exceptionally well done.  You got the right hues and the wave action caused by the ship's movement through the water looks exactly as it should, as does the wake.  May I ask how you replicated the water?  I built this kit a few years ago also in a battle scene, though mine is a nighttime scene showing the opening phase of what was known as "The First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal".  Though I was ( and still am) satisified with how the water turned out in my diorama, I think you got the look of the transverse waves and wake more accurate then I managed.

 

Ernest

 

Thanks, Ernest.    I'm by no means an expert, but I'm pretty happy with the water effects.  This was only my second shot at water, so I may still try other techniques.  There are some neat tutorials on youtube that I want to try out.  Anywya, here are the basic steps I used. 

1. I cut a base of foam board big enough to fit the ship, trace an outline of the waterline on the board.
2. Removing the ship from the base, I used 2-part epoxy putty to build and form the basic shapes of the waves getting the putty as close to the outline of the ship as I could.  I think next time, I'll try air-drying clay to form that base layer.
3. I thinned down some Liquitex modeling paste with water and stippled it on to the base to form random swirls and such.  It was a little challenging to get it to look natural, but I found that a very thin mix of paste could be stippled with the a large makeup brush to recreate water texture.  I repeated this step because the paste has to be applied in very thin layers or it cracks.
4. Primed w/Mr Surfacer 1500 gray.
5. Painted unevenly w/Tamiya Sea Blue (XF-17).  I went heavier in the lower-lying areas and lighter on the prominent areas to help simulate depth.
6. Overcoated with a thin mix of Tamia Clear Blue (X-23) to really give it those blue hues.  I found that some of the lighter areas were too light, so I repeated steps 5 and 6 to tone some of them down.
7. With painting done, I brushed on a liberal coat of Mod Podge gloss.  This really brings out the depth and makes it look like water.
8. Once the ship was completely built and the Mod Podge dried, I hot glued it to the base and filled in any gaps with more Mod Podge gloss. 
9. Once that dried, I used the methods outlined in this video to add the white water effects for wave peaks and ship wake.  This took me a couple days as I had to wait for things to dry completely to see if I missed any spots.  I recommend only using the extra heavy gloss gel when trying to build peaks or dramatic effects.  The heavy gloss gel was far better suited for putting down the cotton tufts.  

[Greif8]

16 hours ago, ChuckD said:

Thanks for the compliments, all!  Much appreciated.

 

 

Thanks, Ernest.    I'm by no means an expert, but I'm pretty happy with the water effects.  This was only my second shot at water, so I may still try other techniques.  There are some neat tutorials on youtube that I want to try out.  Anywya, here are the basic steps I used. 

1. I cut a base of foam board big enough to fit the ship, trace an outline of the waterline on the board.
2. Removing the ship from the base, I used 2-part epoxy putty to build and form the basic shapes of the waves getting the putty as close to the outline of the ship as I could.  I think next time, I'll try air-drying clay to form that base layer.
3. I thinned down some Liquitex modeling paste with water and stippled it on to the base to form random swirls and such.  It was a little challenging to get it to look natural, but I found that a very thin mix of paste could be stippled with the a large makeup brush to recreate water texture.  I repeated this step because the paste has to be applied in very thin layers or it cracks.
4. Primed w/Mr Surfacer 1500 gray.
5. Painted unevenly w/Tamiya Sea Blue (XF-17).  I went heavier in the lower-lying areas and lighter on the prominent areas to help simulate depth.
6. Overcoated with a thin mix of Tamia Clear Blue (X-23) to really give it those blue hues.  I found that some of the lighter areas were too light, so I repeated steps 5 and 6 to tone some of them down.
7. With painting done, I brushed on a liberal coat of Mod Podge gloss.  This really brings out the depth and makes it look like water.
8. Once the ship was completely built and the Mod Podge dried, I hot glued it to the base and filled in any gaps with more Mod Podge gloss. 
9. Once that dried, I used the methods outlined in this video to add the white water effects for wave peaks and ship wake.  This took me a couple days as I had to wait for things to dry completely to see if I missed any spots.  I recommend only using the extra heavy gloss gel when trying to build peaks or dramatic effects.  The heavy gloss gel was far better suited for putting down the cotton tufts.  

 

Thank you for the detailed discription of how you made the water Chuck.

 

Ernest

[themongoose]

Awesome model all around! The gun blasts look good and add to the model. Those are super hard to pull off. That video you posted is my go-to as well. You’ve got a couple new ideas there i want to try out. Thanks for sharing!!

[Rockie Yarwood]

Sweet!