PeterMachin

Hi Ian I bought the Tetra set from Inside the Armour which I think might be Tetra's only UK distributor. It is currently showing as out of stock, but it is probably worth emailing them to see when it will be back in. As for which set to get, I am still glad that I bought the Tetra set. As I move onto the hull, I will be using far more of the parts than I have on the island. Unlike the island where the Tetra parts upgrade the parts which are already there, many of the hull parts add missing detail, and so seem to have been better researched. The WEM set is about half the price of the Tetra set, but has less than half the amount of photo etch and no wooden decks or brass barrels. It does have some boat handling parts which are missing from the Tetra set though, so I may end up getting it as well. Hope that helps Cheers Peter

The lower of the rear pom-pom director stations is now complete, though currently unattached to the rest of the island. As mentioned previously, both the kit part and Tetra replacement are somewhat lacking, so I scratch built a replacement based on the plans. Moving back round to the front of the island, the plans show that the layout of the plotting office structure on B deck is completely wrong. This is the Merit part for the plotting offices on B and C decks with the admiral’s bridge removed. They clearly just carried on the correct shape from C deck down to B deck. And these are the plans for B deck with the layout highlighted which show some stairs coming up from the deck below and a curved protective wall in front of them. And C deck which is correct I moved the front wall of B deck back and added the correct walls and the stairs to the compass platform As @Ex-FAAWAFU pointed out, the mast support legs finish a deck too high, so I need to fix that. The plastic kit parts for the mast have been replaced with brass tube, starting with the mast itself which is embedded into the plotting offices with an additional support added at the base. To get the alignment of the mast supports correct, I have added oversized holes through the Tetra PE D deck. Styrene sheet was then added on top of this to neaten up the holes. As I have moved the plotting offices forward to create a gap between them and the funnel, there is now also a gap between the Tetra D deck and the funnel. This styrene sheet also fills in this gap. The forward pom-pom director stations were also remade as the kit part was a bit crude. There are supposed to be two searchlights mounted on the top platform, but the kit parts would not allow this due to the thickness and height of the walls. The rounded front of D deck has also been given the correct smaller radius, which then blends in with the curve behind it. And finally all the major parts in place. Most of these parts are not yet glued as I still need to work out how I am going to paint it. Cheers Peter

On the subject of references, I did come across this 3D model of the Ark Royal on the Sketchup 3D Warehouse: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/460c401e-9057-4445-851c-7b8cdc4920c4/HMS-Ark-Royal-91 I believe it is copied from the game World of Warships and shows her as she was at the end of her life, with the bridge extension and shielding. Comparing the model to the plans and photos, it does seem to be very accurate so could be a very useful secondary reference, and certainly fills in some gaps.

Thanks. The flange is pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, and I do worry that I am focussing on all the wrong things 🤷‍♂️. I have been worrying about how to do those legs though, how to get the holes in the correct place on D deck... thank you for your comments and for your efforts to find photos, the best I could find is the photo that I posted. The flange does seem to be a common feature on on many RN ships, with most of the plans in the John Roberts book showing some variation of it. Thanks for the heads-up. Out of curiosity, I have bought the ebook version just to have a look. There are five photos of the Ark Royal, of which only two don't seem to be readily available online. One of the starboard bow, and one of the port side rear of the island. Both of these views have been seen before, but these photos are fairly high resolution, so could be useful.

Progress has been quite slow over the last few weeks. My work space is currently in my garage and it becomes impossible to heat if the temperature outside is too cold. I am of course still working on the island. To start with I have finished off a few minor things. I added some internal structure to the island so you won’t be able to see straight through the doors I have opened up. I have also added more detail to the wind deflector… …and added some treads to the Pom-Pom platform. Next up are the three rear Pom-Pom director stations. The kit parts are pretty poor, and the Tetra replacements are more detailed, but do not seem to be correct. The plans show all three to be complete, round tubs with ladders for access. The lower one is depicted as being U shaped, and is too small. And the upper ones are about the correct size, but have an opening in the back. I also noticed on the plans that there is a flange around the base of the funnel (orange arrows) which angles up to the level of the director stations at the purple arrow. Merit incorrectly identified this diagonal line as a staircase in the kit. This is shown on the plan views by the blue line around the funnel. On the next level up, you can see that there is some additional structure at the rear of the funnel which also extends up to the director stations, which is shown by the green arrow. It is just about visible in this photo from @Ex-FAAWAFU, by the purple arrow. The kit parts have a straight transition between the lower island structure and the funnel. I have tried to correct this and also add in the flange, although I think it is a bit oversize. The port side has a steeper slope. Once that was in place, the director stations were fairly straight forward and were built from styrene sheet and brass tube, along with the Tetra supports and “Affirmative Signal” panel. Cheers Peter

Thanks, I hope it makes it a little bit clearer what I am doing, not just showing a completed part. Thank you. It actually ended up being a bit more straight forward than I thought it would be. I think sketching it out first definitely helped.

A fantastic build Rob, with a great painting and weathering

I have continued with the pom-pom platform. I first built some walls for the “balloon filling station”, which is attached to the rear of the funnel. To this I added a raised platform and the previously made truncated cone, which I mounted on a piece of tube. This then formed the base to which I added further detail I will come back to the support structure underneath the platform, along with all of the smaller details, once I have completed the main structural work on the island. Cheers Peter

Thanks for the idea, I was thinking about how to bend some sheet into a cone. So I gave vacuum forming a go, just making a plug from a few layers of styrene with some brass tube through the center. I put this in my drill and used used blades and files to get it to the correct shape. Using the brass tube, I mounted it vertically in a small vice I have. I then used a small heat gun to soften some 0.5mm styrene and quickly pulled it over the plug by hand and held it for a few seconds to harden. After some trimming and smoothing, this is the result. It did take quite a few attempts, but I have managed to get one which looks like it will do the job, and it was actually pretty straight forward. Cheers Peter

It is pretty close to the plans, I think it is just the perspective, and the lack of the support structure which makes it look longer and thinner than it should be I think it is a bit taller than it should be though, which won't help with how it looks. This gives me enough to make a start though, I can always modify it later if more information comes to light. I think I need to start with the inverted truncated cone which supports the pom pom, if anybody has any ideas how to do this, let me know. Cheers Peter

Hi Crisp. Thanks for sharing those pictures, I have seen numbers 2 and 3 your Flickr album, but must have missed the first one. I also found this picture in your album which gives a slightly better angle and shows a height change on the port side of the platform. https://www.flickr.com/photos/146063632@N05/50959360083/in/album-72157709128091737/ I have used those photos and the plans to roughly sketch out what I believe the configuration of the platform may have been before I commit to building it. This is extremely rough and it is almost certainly mostly incorrect. It also doesn't include the support structure yet. If there is anything here that doesn't make sense, or contradicts photos or the plans, let me know. Cheers Peter

I have not really made much more progress yet, but I am looking to tackle the raised pom-pom platform at the rear of the island next. It is clear that the version supplied by Merit does not seem to bare much resemblance to the real thing, and the Tetra additions don’t improve it much. The plans in the John Roberts book show the general arrangement at the flight deck and A deck, but the profile view seems to show that there are a number of different levels and a complex support frame. Flight Deck A Deck Starboard Profile Does anybody have any good information about this area as the plans, and the few pictures I have, are not very clear? Cheers Peter

You definitely need a good pair of side cutters for it (I have a new pair of the Tamiya 74035), but it does make the process so much easier I probably won't be spending the £150+ that the set seems to cost for that one part, looks like I will have to scratch build something

Apologies, it looks like we will be continuing with this first part of the island for a little while longer After trimming the vanes of the wind deflector, I added strip along the top… …and made the triangular supports underneath. These were oversized pieces of strip which were then trimmed to size with side cutters afterwards. I also used this method for all of the splinter shield supports on the KGV, and find it much easier than trying to accurately cut and attach dozens of tiny triangles. I have added the basis of the rangefinder platform, but I won’t continue with this, or the rest of the compass platform until I have decided on the configuration I am representing. In the meantime, I have scratch built and installed a new HACS platform for the side of the island Cheers Peter

Thanks for finding that @iang, i think i will hold off on completing that area until I have decided on a time frame and have some more information about the exact configuration at that time. Hi Crisp, welcome on board, and thank you for sharing your insight. I am taking a lot of inspiration from your fantastic build, and I am sure I will have lots of questions to pass your way. I have been looking for a copy of the Kagero plans, but they seem to be very hard to come by these days, I can't even find any overpriced copies on Ebay, so if anyone knows of anywhere it is in stock, I would be grateful if you could let me know. I did find the atlantic models boat set, so will be placing an order for that. I have also seen that Micro Master do an anchor set for this model which I will need to get, along with a whole load of other parts. Regarding the compass platform, I see that you have replaced yours with brass, and include the mesh in the floor. Are those parts from an aftermarket set, or are they scratch built, or did I just completely miss them in the Tetra set? Cheers Peter

Hi Ian. No I was not aware that this had been modified, so thank you for bringing it to my attention. This picture is from April 41 and shows the original configuration. © IWM A 3827 This one from May 41 appears to be different. © IWM A 4072 This picture from her sinking clearly shows that the rangefinder mount has also been modified, and appears to have been built up to the same level as the bridge. © IWM A 6318 © IWM A 6334 Again it is difficult to make out, but I don’t think that the picture from May does show this change, and it doesn’t look like Ian’s second picture shows it either. Sorry for all of the blurry pictures, IWM don't make it easy sometimes. If anybody has any further information, it would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Peter

Thank you, I think 😄. In terms of pages, so far there are two posts of the first part, and it is not yet finished, so there will be at least three. According to the box there are around 550 parts in the kit, times three posts per part, add comments, divide by 25 posts per page... that is a lot of pages. The Tetra etch does look very good, and they have obviously tried to make it as accurate as possible, it is just they are constrained somewhat by the plastic in the kit. Thank you. I was not aware of that company, I'm going to need to have a proper look at that website 🤔

The issue I have found with the Tetra set, which I guess is common with many similar aftermarket parts, is that they don’t expect the modeller to make significant modifications to the base kit. This is an issue with the previously completed wind deflector in that it sits over the moulded in one, so it is far too wide when compared to the plans. I will try to fix this by making by own from styrene. While doing this I also have continued with other details on this part, such as the scuttles and doors. To start with, I added some styrene to the inside of the splinter shield as the wind deflector extends further inside than the original part depicts. I also removed the moulded on detail on the outside. You can see that I also made some changes to the front of this part at the flight deck level to fill in the hole under the wheel house and the bring forward the front wall to the correct place. I took dimensions from the scaled plans which I am finding extremely useful. Next, I added some strip to the outside and filed and sanded it to a curved shape. You can see the grey stripe which was the original part, and also the scuttles and door I opened up on the side. Using a razor saw, I made some vertical cuts almost all the way through which are just wide enough for 1/8mm styrene sheet. I also cut a gap in the middle where the “chart table” will go. Oversized pieces of 1/8mm styrene were added which are trimmed to size after the glue has dried. The sliding doors which I have added were also supplied as PE parts, but they were oversized so I replaced them with Styrene. I am a bit unsure what the arrangement is on the open bridge. From the side view, it looks like there could be some sort of raised platform, is that what the large yellow/orange rectangles are? Also, it is hard to make out what the other equipment is, so if anybody has any more information it would be much appreciated. Cheers Peter

Oh no, my attention span is terrible, why do you think it took me so long to do the KGV. I was working on it as my main project for probably only 20% of the time. No doubt in a couple of weeks I will get distracted by something else. Actually, maybe having somebody checking up on me is what is needed to get this one done a bit quicker 🤔

Thanks Rob. I really should have gone for a submarine or something shouldn't I 😄. I had intended to keep this simple, but I really don't think it will be.

Because of all of the issues I have found with the hull, I thought I would start with something simpler, the superstructure. These are the main parts required, though a lot of it should be enhanced with the tetra PE. I will start with part G1 which is for the flight deck, A deck and some of B deck. First I removed all of the moulded on detail. And built the Tetra PE wind deflector. It went together very well, and I am impressed by the quality of the set. There is supposed to be a gap between the funnel and D deck, meaning that the whole of part G11 needs to be moved forward. I added some styrene to fill in the gap and cut down the rear of the splinter shield to the correct place. There is an opening on the starboard side behind the HA Director. This was added and the edges were thinned. I also filled and re-marked out the scuttles and filled in the hole for the HA director which is mounted too low. Cheers Peter

I have had the “I Love Kit” boxing of HMS Ark Royal III in the stash for a little while. After struggling to finish my build of the KGV, I had planned to leave it there for a couple of years and focus on clearing some of my aircraft backlog, but my unexpected success at SMW has given the motivation needed to make a start on it. Unlike my previous build on this site, I am starting this log at the very start of the project. So far I have the model, and the Tetra Model Works detail up set and aircraft detail set. I am of course looking at other aftermarket from Micro Master, Black Cat, and others. I did use quite a few items from North star on the KGV, but they seem to no longer be active, which is a shame. I have not yet decided when or where I will be depicting this ship, though I am leaning towards depicting her as she was towards the end of her life, the worn paint scheme seems to be an interesting challenge. As far as can tell, there were not many significant changes to her through her short life, so I will get on with the build and hopefully when I know a bit more about her, I will be able to nail down a date and configuration. Here are the obligatory box shots. In terms of references, I only have the British Warships of the Second World War by John Roberts and a copy of the Profile Morskie plans at the moment. I have of course also searched IWM for every picture they have along with scouring Google for anything else available. Detailed photos do seem to be particularly hard to find for this ship though. As others have said, there are some issues with this kit, some more significant than others. On the less significant end, I honestly don’t think that the level of detail is much better than the Tamiya KGV kit which is 30 years older. A lot of the parts are simplified, and will need to be replaced, and surface detail is lacking with scuttles and some basic hatches, but not much else. They also seem to mostly be in the wrong place. In terms of more significant issues, the first thing I noticed when I first looked at the parts, is the thickness of the hull pieces, which is particularly visible around the cutouts at the bow and stern. In the second picture you can also see some of the oddly shaped scuttles and one of the backwards hawsepipes. Pretty much all of these cutouts seem to be too tall, significantly larger than in the plans, but many are also not quite in the correct place. I would like to try and do something about this plastic thickness issue and the general sizes of the cutouts, and I have some ideas, but I will need to do some testing before messing up the model. I have reduced the side profile from the John Roberts book to 1/350 and made some comparisons to the kit. I believe that the length is okay, but it seems to be too tall (~4mm), and too wide (~6mm). Also, the bow profile is quite different. Interestingly though the stern is much closer. The error seems to be mostly in the top two decks which appear to have been stretched upwards, and possibly outwards as well. With the exception of the bow profile, which needs to be more bulbous and less pointy, I really don’t think there is anything I can do to correct this, short of binning the whole lot and scratch building it instead. Anyway, I doubt many people will pick up on these issues. I am sure there are various other things which I will find during the build, but for now I thought I would point out the main things which I need to think about. I don’t want to seem entirely negative, and I am happy that there is a kit of this ship, but if I can spot these issues with my relative inexperience and lack of resources, I don’t know why Merit would not have bought copies of the shipbuilders plans to get these basics correct. I suppose on the plus side, it will give me more of a challenge than if I was able to build it straight out of the box. Anyway, on that note, enough moaning, onto the build… Cheers Peter

Thank you. I also felt that it was difficult to see the model well. I think a combination of the poor lighting and the glass case were to blame. If I do enter a model again, I might take a risk and display it without a case. I am really blown away by you comment, so thank you. I had been hoping to get her completed last year, which I failed to do and probably could easily have spent another year fiddling with it, but I needed to get it done and move on to something new. It would be good to have a rematch, but you might be waiting a long time for me to finish😅

Thanks all for the fantastic comments, it really does mean a lot. I assume it was just the colour of antifouling that the chosen supplier produced, @dickrd might be able to shed some light on it As @Rich75 said, the 285 radars were installed when she went in for repairs after the collision with HMS Punjabi in May 42 There are photos of the bow of POW here https://ontheslipway.com/the-launch-of-hms-prince-of-wales/ on @foeth's website. I used that as the basis and followed those lines back along the sides of the hull to the stern. The bottom and the transition between that and the sides was based on how i guessed it might have been built. I have more detail about it on page 2 of the build thread.

Thank you all for the kind comments. I was amazed to win anything as the competiton was so tough this year, but to get both awards was unreal. The boat covers were aluminum foil, I use the cheapest, thinnest that I could find which works great for this. Cheers Peter