Model Fleet: 4/15/09: Delayed - but Still Very Much ALIVE!

4/15/09: Delayed - but Still Very Much ALIVE!

Posted by Matty on April 18, 2009, 22:41:38, in reply to "BOW and NOSE CONE"
4.235.205.110

Obviously this project has endured severe delays - through which I've confronted the sheer impossibility of promising a release date - and, though I alsoi hate "teasers", I think you really have to see this:

Click on Image to Enlarge These are much better shots of the surface detail than I was able to show you before. At left, note the tiny lashing eyes surrounding the open hatch (and one on its back) are each about a third the size of a pinhead - and there are a couple more, even finer details on which I have not yet even been able to get my camera to focus! At right, note the inside of the hatch is accurately detailed; its contours are mirrored in the hatchway at its feet, such that, to depict the hatch closed you need only to chisel it off at the base, and drop it in.

Likewise for any or all of the fittings: bow fairlead, cleats (including a pair back at the foot of the sail), and capstan - which on the real thing are retractable; simply chop each off at its base, which is scribed to depict its surface panel, when retracted. One of the later holdups has been to engineer the same sort of thing (except kind of in reverse), for the torpedo tube- and tube-flooding doors (not visible), in the nose cone. Another has been to greatly improve the fit, and interior locator tabs (not visible) - none of which was possible (for me to do, anyway) when the project was first begun.

Of course, the primary value of this upgrade remains the accurization of the overall bow profile of the Revell (ex-Renwal) Lafayette- or Franklin-class SSBN:

This latest pic is the best demonstration of the accurized profile which I've been able to photograph so far. The OOB hull is too fat - there's no getting around that - but the upgrade optimizes the impression (again, as best I can do it) of the finer, more tapered bow which these boats actually had.

Again, I do apologize for not being able to promise a release date. But I do have available a couple developmental pops with exactly the same surface details shown above; they lack only the improved fit and interior improvements to be incorporated in the commercial release. If anyone(s) wants right away one of these latest, developmental sets - bow casing plus accompanying nose cone - I'll sell you a set for $45.00 USD, plus actual shipping; just eMail me. (Include "FBM", "Matty's Models" and/or "resin" - anything to identify your request as not for deletion as spam - in your title.)

And of course, when the final version is ready for release, you will be the first to hear about it - right here, on ModelFleet!

Cheers,

-Matty