I ran across this guy's work a while back and I am seriously considering getting this 1/72 scale Fletcher class destroyer. He also sells a 1/48 scale of the same as well as others including a 1/144 King George V and a 1/20 PT-109.


https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/hobby-diy/other/fletcher-class-destroyer-rc-model-ship

Do you have a 3d printer ?

Two of them.

I bought the 1/72 scale Fletcher, the guy has regular sales for $35 rather than the usual $50. It's probably going to take 4 1 kilo spools of filament to print all the parts out, at $10-$12 a spool (watching for sales on filament also) it will cost me around $50 for the material. So for less than $100 I'll have a 5 foot long USS Johnston to put on a shelf in the man cave.

I spent a few hours this past Saturday fine tuning my Creality K1 printer to get a really good high quality filament profile and then printed a few hull parts to see how it works out.

The hull is in 11 sections, I printed the first 2 and glued them together:

I now have hull sections 1-4 printed and assembled. Not enough filament left on spool for another hull section so I am using what is left to print other, smaller, parts. Such as for the 5" gun turrets. Also shown is a section of the assembly manual.

That's very cool! And will be enormous. I have a 1/72 scale U-Boat kit from Revell in the garage, and I don't know where I'd display that once built, so this thing would be a real challenge.

What kind of glue do you use on it?

CA glue. I'm going to put a shelf on the wall just to hold this model.

Sounds cool, looking forward to seeing the build.

Looks excellent F4!

Thanks!

The filament I started with is out of stock so I ordered 4 spools of another brand. Good practice is to do a calibration run on any new filament but I might just see how it does on a turret housing.

I am also intrigued and looking forward to your build. This will be something different.

Working out the technique to hide the seam lines betweenhull sections. Automotive Bondo Glazing putty, sand, spray with filler primer, sand. Should then be ready for top coat.

Delay of game on the shipbuilding for a short while. I had a good profile for my "Jayo" brand filament but Amazon hasn't had any for 2 weeks. So I bought a 4 pack of "ELEGOO" brand that had excellent reviews. Done a quick test print using the "Jayo" settings and it looked great, so I started hull section 5. About 30 minutes in the nozzle clogged and I had to do another couple of test prints, which was perfect. Adjusted the profile just slightly and tried the hull section again. Once again about 30 minutes in another clog. Was much tougher clearing the clog and when reinstalling the nozzle it snapped off inside the heater block. Instead of trying to remove the part broken off inside the heater block I just ordered a new assembly for about $50. It's an upgrade I had considered anyway so no biggy.

It's been a while, I've been concentrating on learning how to create 3D model hulls in Blender / Fusion 360. But I started back printing more Fletcher Hull sections... she's about 54 inches long now with 2 more sections to go.

Cool stuff, thanks for the update!

Hull assembled, 63 inches long.

That's impressive!

Thanks... you want to help sand?

That’s a big boat. What are you planning for it ?

A shelf on the wall. LOL

I don't have access to a pond etc where I could sail it RC so it will be static only.