moaning dolphin Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 (edited) So I have been flicking through this GB since it started looking at the fantastic builds on offer and now I have finally succomed and been suckered into it! I managed to find a pure resin kit in my stash and this is the one I shall present. It is the very fine Pre Dreadnaught HMS Renown from Combrig in 1:700 scale. She is very small and very fine, I just hope I can do her justice! Any hoo here are the pics I also found the remains of a GMM 1:700 British Battleship etch fret. I was glad about this as it has railings ladders and also the admirals walk railings which will make alot of difference. I will mount here on a wooden slab that I have kicking around, and will also attempt my first sea scape. I have been umming and erring about seascapes for years so have now committed myself to it. I saw this pick of her on the web apparently off Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1897. As this is now my hometown I shall do a scene along these lines. She will be in her black scheme at anchor with maybe a couple of 'Liberty Boats' chugging around. During research I managed to uncover alot of pictures of both the black and white schemes. Also I have come accross a couple of builds in her white scheme but nothing of her earlier set up. This could be an web exclusive, the first build up of her in the black scheme! How many of you can claim a unique build like that eh? .............. then again looking at most of the builds in this GB that would be most of you More to come soon! Bob Edited May 28, 2015 by moaning dolphin 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted May 28, 2015 Author Share Posted May 28, 2015 I have made a little progress, just removing parts from the resin wafer and sticking a couple of things on. The super structure is very very fine, whilst removing the wafer I had to be careful to judge the thickness so I wouldnt go through! This is a quick shot of the main parts just popped into place on what will be its base. There isn't much to this at all! I haven't yet decided if I will replace the platform 'walls' with railings. I have some shots of each. I have put the admirals walk in place with the nice railings, not very clear but it does look nice! Unfortunately the supplied railings weren't long enough for this kit so had to join two railings together (dont try looking for it as I hid it on the other side ) 1st up will be to prime then start the painting the hull. I may try something new for the deck. I have very fine wooden strips that I may cut into planks and make my own wooden deck. We shall see how that goes! Also I have stated ill do the black scheme, but it is quite hard to distinguish other colours. Its seems obvious that the super structure is white. The masts and funnels are a differnet colour which I am taking as a mustard yellow same as the white scheme. On the Hull there are clearly different shades looking at the picture in my first post, Starting from the water level I reckon it is red, a thin white line then black and there is also a light cheat line at deck level. I am going to take that as a white line unless someone can shed light on it otherwise. Thats all for now, hopefully get another update very soon! Cheers now Bob PS, next post I shall detail some of the history of this ship as it is not well known! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomprobert Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 The sight of all that etch sends shivers down my spine... no doubt this will look very impressive though. Oh, and welcome aboard... sorry... couldn't resist Tom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted May 28, 2015 Author Share Posted May 28, 2015 The sight of all that etch sends shivers down my spine... no doubt this will look very impressive though. Oh, and welcome aboard... sorry... couldn't resist Tom Thanks, there looks alot of etch there but I wont be using most of it! As promised I did a little research on her and here is a brief history: HMS Renown resulted from a make do scenario when plans called for 3 new ships utilizing a new 12” gun to be laid down. The new gun wasn’t ready and two of the ships were delayed, however it was decided to build a ship at Pembroke dockyard just to maintain the workforce. This was Renown, she became the last 2nd class battleship built for the RN but was subsequently fitted with only 10” main armament. She was laid down in 1893, launched in 1895 and completed in January 1897. Six months later she was commissioned. She was deemed to be the most graceful battleship in the fleet and in 1897 became RAdml ‘Jackie’ Fisher’s flag ship for the fleet review on Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Shortly after she was chosen to become the flagship of the N American and West Indies Station whose Commander happened to be Jackie Fisher. After 2 years and a refit she was chosen as flag of the Mediterranean Fleet, the most prestigious command for the Navy at the time. The Flag officer at that time was Jackie Fisher! I get the feeling he quite fancied her! It was this time that she became a fashion accessory for the fleet and frequently hosted dances, but the design of having flash plates protecting the deck from the 10” guns caused the ladies to trip over them so these were removed! In 1905 HMS Renown was selected for its most important mission, this was to act as a Royal Yacht for the then Prince and Princess of Wales trip to India. To accommodate an extra-large party almost all the 6” guns were removed, but this was considered acceptable because the 10” guns were deemed big enough to scare off the baddies! After that she was considered as a ‘subsidiary Yacht’ with one last royal run in her which was to ferry the King and Queen of Spain to the UK for an official visit. That was the end of her at sea career. From 1909 to 1913 she was a Stoker Training Ship (STS) and also an accommodation ship during George V’s coronation. She was eventually sold and broken up in 1914. I can’t find any reports of her firing her guns in anger so the comparison between the 2nd class battleship Renown which made her name as a Yacht and ‘Gin Palace’ and her contemporary the Battlecruiser Renown which won her fame as a fighting Warship is at opposite ends of the spectrum I don’t have too much details of when she went from black to white and her fit changed continually throughout her career so a lot more research is required to try and get her accurate. History shamelessly plagiarised from Steelnavy.net! This is her looking mean and moody and this is her main deck, ready for her fighting role! Cheers now Bob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitestar12chris Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Very interesting model Bob, your a braver man than me, 1/700 photo etch, I stop at 1/350. Have a fun and enjoyable build. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enzo the Magnificent Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 This is going to look superb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Welcome aboard Bob and I'm glad your wee ship along. The resin moulding looks very nice but the PE! You are one very brave man, one of my least favorite materials (though pretty well every model I build has varying quantities of it!!!), you may need a little lie down and rest after doing some of those bits!! But it should look spectacular once done, and good to see you are straight into it as well! Well good luck with this build and look forward to seeing her maiden voyage in a couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 What a fantastic choice Bob Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkdipXV711 Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 Fantastic project, especially at this scale with PE. Going to follow with interest. Admiral's walk ?....perks of the rank. Great theme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Good morning all, Thanks for the encouragement! Its been a busy weekend what with kids footy and ALOT of yard work but I have managed to get a couple of hours to work on this. First up was the wooden deck. I didn't fancy painting this and found this product in my LHS Admittedly it is located in the rail road section but I thought it is not far off in scale for ships decks. It would be ideal at 1:350 but thought i'd give it a try on this one. Just checking out one plank it is slightly overscale. But i thought i'd progress to see how far I got so chopped up a couple of planks and trialed it on a sheet of plastic using some generic 'super duper white wood glue'. When dried the glue turned out to be very effective in sticking the planks together but was about as useful as poop in sticking the planks to the deck! I now have a very fetching wooden raft! I then thought about super glue and was going to trial that but i then had an epiphany, and test fitted the raft to the deck against the fine raised detail. Unfortunately it swamped the deck detail. I then put that idea to bed and started thinking about paint mixes. I think it will work fine (once i find something decent to adhere to plastic) on larger scale ships. I initially got it to deck out an Airfix Great Western so that may be better. I carried on with the prep, I drilled out the hawser pipes (?) for the anchor chain. I found some fine chain that looks a little over scale in the photo but in reality it is just about right. I also removed the deck walls on the upper superstructure. I will replace this with railings but may install the wind break material over the top to make it a little more realistic. Also I cut off the bridge windows and replaced it with 1:350 ladder section which is just about right. Here are the modified bits in rough position. The white bits of the wing are where I got a bit excited in removing the wafer thin resin wall and damaged the deck. This was chopped off and replaced with appropriate plastic card. Hopefully wont be noticable when painted. On the bottom photo the superstructure was missing somethin to lift it and there was no sign of anything in the instructions so I just knocked up a square house to sit it all on from plastic stock. At this stage I am not sure of her armanent state, pictures are not clear at all so I filled all the 6" gun placements in the hull, if needed these can be opened up again. FINALLY this weekend I got some paint down. I primed with Tamiya grey primer and sprayed the boat and superstructure decks in dark sea grey. Is actually Model Master RLM70 acrylic but it is quite close to DSG, I shall weather it a touch to take away the slightly green shade. Once dry It was out with the wood mix. In my eye it is a touch too brown, ahain I shall try and weather it to get more of a grey colour. Thats all for now, coming up is etch and masking, lots of both! Cheers now Bob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 I'd be looking for some 1/700 RN occifers, as well as damsels fair for them to escort, and doing her up as if she was being used for entertaining, complete with potted plants and gaily striped awnings. Just to be different from the usual run of the mill warships. (And possibly a liberty boat round 't'other side, with a seaman falling into the briny due to alcohol, an excess of.) I'll be watching this, small scale modelling amazes me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 there's some nice progress there Bob. It's a shame the planking didn't work out, The only way it could work is to make up "big" sheets of the planking, sand them right back (nearly paper thin) and finish the surface before customing fitting each section. Only thing is you run the risk of the planks being over scale! That aside you're doing a great job with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted June 3, 2015 Author Share Posted June 3, 2015 I'd be looking for some 1/700 RN occifers, as well as damsels fair for them to escort, and doing her up as if she was being used for entertaining, complete with potted plants and gaily striped awnings. Just to be different from the usual run of the mill warships. (And possibly a liberty boat round 't'other side, with a seaman falling into the briny due to alcohol, an excess of.) I'll be watching this, small scale modelling amazes me. I did think of that but I think she looks alot meaner when she is black and all tooled up! Although tooled up in this sense is not alot really! there's some nice progress there Bob. It's a shame the planking didn't work out, The only way it could work is to make up "big" sheets of the planking, sand them right back (nearly paper thin) and finish the surface before customing fitting each section. Only thing is you run the risk of the planks being over scale! That aside you're doing a great job with it. Again that thought crossed my mind but they are really thin already and with these pigs trotters for fingers it was a no go! A short up date: I have now masked the deck ready for spraying, this took an age as I wanted a uniform edge around the decks which would assist on setting the etch railings without glueing the masking tape to the deck as well. I think I succeeded but only time will tell, the intent was to use CA gel type glue so that it wouldn't run under the tape. Normally I would assemble the kit and then fit railings etc but I have seen builds where it was all assembled and then painted and these look fantastic so I thought i would give that a try. I shall give the deck and superstructure a couple of light dustings with Tamiya white primer and then just a little dusting of white on top just so I dont encourage too much bleeding. I have started with the railings here and if I am totally honest it is sending my eyes a little but I shall do it like drinking water in the desert, little and often! Thats all for the time being, hopefully have some more paint down come the weekend 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 It looks really good what you're doing but I don't know how your eyes can handle!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davepb Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Thanks, there looks alot of etch there but I wont be using most of it! As promised I did a little research on her and here is a brief history: HMS Renown resulted from a make do scenario when plans called for 3 new ships utilizing a new 12” gun to be laid down. The new gun wasn’t ready and two of the ships were delayed, however it was decided to build a ship at Pembroke dockyard just to maintain the workforce. This was Renown, she became the last 2nd class battleship built for the RN but was subsequently fitted with only 10” main armament. She was laid down in 1893, launched in 1895 and completed in January 1897. Six months later she was commissioned. She was deemed to be the most graceful battleship in the fleet and in 1897 became RAdml ‘Jackie’ Fisher’s flag ship for the fleet review on Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Shortly after she was chosen to become the flagship of the N American and West Indies Station whose Commander happened to be Jackie Fisher. After 2 years and a refit she was chosen as flag of the Mediterranean Fleet, the most prestigious command for the Navy at the time. The Flag officer at that time was Jackie Fisher! I get the feeling he quite fancied her! It was this time that she became a fashion accessory for the fleet and frequently hosted dances, but the design of having flash plates protecting the deck from the 10” guns caused the ladies to trip over them so these were removed! In 1905 HMS Renown was selected for its most important mission, this was to act as a Royal Yacht for the then Prince and Princess of Wales trip to India. To accommodate an extra-large party almost all the 6” guns were removed, but this was considered acceptable because the 10” guns were deemed big enough to scare off the baddies! After that she was considered as a ‘subsidiary Yacht’ with one last royal run in her which was to ferry the King and Queen of Spain to the UK for an official visit. That was the end of her at sea career. From 1909 to 1913 she was a Stoker Training Ship (STS) and also an accommodation ship during George V’s coronation. She was eventually sold and broken up in 1914. I can’t find any reports of her firing her guns in anger so the comparison between the 2nd class battleship Renown which made her name as a Yacht and ‘Gin Palace’ and her contemporary the Battlecruiser Renown which won her fame as a fighting Warship is at opposite ends of the spectrum I don’t have too much details of when she went from black to white and her fit changed continually throughout her career so a lot more research is required to try and get her accurate. History shamelessly plagiarised from Steelnavy.net! This is her looking mean and moody and this is her main deck, ready for her fighting role! Cheers now Bob Obviously expecting a "close engagement!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 Just had a thought about the above set up, could it all be a cunning plan? Disguise the ship as a floating marquee and then when close enough whip the covers off and then HA HA! 10" guns! Or tempt the enemy on board and hit them with jungle warfare that would confuse them! Although it did make me wonder where they would stow the foliage for action stations. Not much of an update i'm afraid. Just tacking more PE railings around the place (and to fingers!). I have a couple of nights of my lads footy practice coming up so I don't expect too much to change until the weekend. I am hoping to get the white down and possibly the black as well. Just wondering how much of the red and lower white cheat line would be visible at anchor. I am notsure how to paint the lower cheat line. I'm thinking to mask it off would be a little tricky to keep straight, I do have some decal strips so may have to look at them. Thats all for now Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 Well not alot has happened over the weekend with this. I continued with the etch railings which went well until I got to one of the upper superstructure parts and it all started going to rats! I couldnt get the bends right, it didn't want to stick and was on the verge of being launched, so I put it down and walked away. I then tried to prime the hull, I used Tamiya primer but for some reason it decided to spurt in one small area, and then a railing fell off! I am hoping the masking was sufficient and it didnt run under. Finally I got my airbrush out to give the white superstructure a quick cover but then my brush started spluttering (I think the nozzle is split) and then the trigger fell apart. I took the hint and carefully put it down and walked away and went off to cut the grass (after I had charged the mower battery as it wouldn't start ) I have ordered some spares for my airbrush and I shall try again very soon. Hey ho the joys of model making! Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 oh dear you are having a few issues by the sounds of it. Maybe you need to take up a relaxing hobby like........ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 Just a quick update, finally got the spares for my airbrush but whilst assembling it i managed to drop the bugger on the tiled floor and squashed the nozzle! I did try to reshape it but that caused the end to split so was back to square one! I did decide to give it a go anyway and the result was satisfactory so I applied a blue/black mix which came out ok. There was alot of bleed under some of the tape so I need to touch up the wooden deck but doesn't look too bad. It was late last night that I wrapped so didn't upload any new photos. I shall do some tonight, but I do get the impression that this kit doesn't like me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted June 11, 2015 Author Share Posted June 11, 2015 Ok so I took a couple of pics last night. I stripped off the masking at first I didn't think the bleeding was too bad but on refection there is quite a bit. The white stripes should be easy to touch up with a hairy stick but more on the deck in a mo. First up is the results from the black paint. She certainly does look alot better with a coat of paint on her! The problem I had with the deck was that I had mixed up the brown and had forgotten the mix so when I applied a little touch up it was the wrong colour and does look a bit pants. I think it was a light tan mix with a touch of grey so I shall have to go through a bit of colour matching. It also doesn't help that I am using acrylics and they don't cover too well when brush painted. I really do not want to be repainting the deck at this stage! I have also painted most of the super structure parts and they will be fitted hopefully over the weekend although I have more kids footy and then a day trip on sat to watch England in the world cup, so I aim to have an update by Monday morning at the latest. Now I really do need to research that seascape...... Cheers now Bob 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 11, 2015 Share Posted June 11, 2015 she starting to look the piece now, very nice. I know the issues with "home mixes" of paints and running out, think we've all been there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 Well its been a couple of weeks since the last update and to be honest I have not had alot of time to do much. I managed to get some oth the superstructure on and peeled off all the masking. All in all I am quite pleased with my efforts. I need to add a few ladders and stairs in before I continue with clogging up the mid ships area. At the moment she is looking very clean and a bit bland, I think some high lighting is required to show up the detail. Here she is so far. I also added a wheel in the wheel house but didnt want to go too OTT Some of the superstructure may look a bit lopsided in the photos but I think that is a quirk of the camera. In real life it isn't too bad and not as noticable. The forward armament is fixed in place but I am not sure about the height of the rear turret, I think it may need to be reduced a touch, what do you think???? And finally here she is looking mean head on Next up is to sort out the yellow colour for the masts and smoke stacks, then it will be fit all that and then death by rigging, I could go into overkill on that! Just hope my eyes can manage! PS. Just noticed that the front turrent looks a bit wonky in the bottom photo, I think that needs investigating when I get home along with the deck stains! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Nice progress, she looks great. Hopefully the front turret won't cause any issues! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 Greetings once again all, Just a quick update to prove that I am still progressing this all be it very slowly. Life has been quite hectic lately so modelling has taken a back seat but I have some progress I fixed up the funnel assembly and also the forward mast, this one was the neater of the two: I had a couple of snags with the rear mast assembly, first off the sidewalls of the bucket half way up broke off when I tried to remove it from it excess so that required a bit of repair with some plastic strip and also the platform at the top was rubbed down too much and broke away so that was replaced with an etched disc from the spares pile: Finally for this update is to try and decipher the instructions. I love the kit and the mouldings are superb but the instructions are to be kind a little vague. I have all these mast pieces to fit but they bear no relation to the drawing. Trying to work out what goes where will be a bit and lets not get started on the rigging diagram, I might just stick it in a dusty corner for a few years and hope the cobwebs that land on it produce something realistic! Well thats all for this update, not a great deal of progress but a little is better than none, still to come is the mustard mix for the upper superstructure areas and I really need to sort that seascape. I have a base, some watercolour papaer and a varnish, just need to slap some paint down on it! Cheers now Bob 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 15, 2015 Share Posted July 15, 2015 It looks like you have your work cut out for you trying to decipher the instructions! What you have done so far is excellent, keep it going, you know you have to finish it at some stage! What you have done so far is great!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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