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RN Type 21 Frigate - FINISHED


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[EDIT: Unfortunately my image server died so there are no pics until close to the end]

 

Hello everyone, I am new here at BritModeller. I'm not a Brit but my first subject here is British so hopefully that's ok B)

 

Anyway I had a look through the other builds and I see that there are some Russian missile boats on the slipway. So I guess my Type 21 will be an early casualty of this epic Warpac v NATO stoush, unless its captain is smart enough to get close enough to use the four short-ranged Exocets without being blown apart by the missiles on those things (I guess they weren't codenamed "Sunburn" for nuthin...), or bombed by that Tu-22 someone's building...

 

I will be using the Cybermodeler 1/700 kit which is actually 1/600. I sometimes write previews over on Modeling Madness and so you can take a look at this kit & its sprues there. (link)A little later tonight I will cut plastic and get started.

 

Between my fairly busy job, my wife's even busier job, and our crazy little two year old, I don't get a lot of time for modeling, but I figure a small kit like this and the fun of participating in a GB might help me make slow and steady progress. The opposite of what will be demonstrated by those Warpac forces currently under construction...

 

richard

 

Edited by bianfuxia
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Ni Hao Richard and welcome to BM.  Which part of China do you live?

It will be nice to see some naval builds and hopefully you will be able to post some photo's soon.

 

cheers


Mike

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Nice to see the NATO nations getting some sea-going representation, well done Richard, looks to be plenty detail on those parts regardless of the small scale.

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It's really a neat little kit, very simple with few parts (if you exclude the weapons sprue from which you only use about ten pieces). Comes with PE, too, not a full suite but railings.

 

It is absolutely not a 1/700 model, despite the box, but measures up pretty close to the Airfix 1/600 so I think if you build it with that in mind, to go alongside the other Airfix ones, I think it's fine.

 

Having again scoped out the order of battle in this GB wargame I really do wonder how NATO is going to prevail. Nukes, I guess!:worry:

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My trip got cancelled so I had a little time tonight. After googling around to try to find the right colours for this, I went with two of the six or so shades of acrylic grey I have (though I have enamels by Gunze too, now that we have a kid and also being so pollution conscious nowadays I can't bring myself to use those any more). I did a quick test and went for Vallejo 990 and 991. Quite sure it's not that accurate but the images I found showed the decks slightly darker than the hull and cabin walls so that's going to have to do. I've been in the hobby long enough to know that everyone's eye sees colour differently on every monitor and the same real life item looks different depending on the angle of light too.

 

So, that said, I painted (with a brush) the decks and hull and side tonight. The kit is actually designed so you really can paint just about everything on the sprue. The mast is about all that will need clean up, of the larger parts anyway.

 

(and now that I see it on the screen I think it might be a bit dark, but that's also my cellphone picture under poor light. Stay tuned!)

20170216_223826_resized.jpg

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Your photo gives a good illustration of the two different shades of grey between hull and deck so I'd say you're on the right track there ;)

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I repainted the hull and cabin sides a colour called Vallejo Green Grey (or Grey Green). It's still probably not exactly right, but has that sort of green hue I feel that naval ships have rather than the blue hue on planes that the previous grey had. 

 

The main cabins are glued on but the top layer is just sitting there, as are the weapons up front. Some clean up to do but it went together extremely neatly. 

 

20170221_221400_resized.jpg

 

20170221_221430_resized.jpg

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So I was originally going to do this just from the box but a closer look at some photos revealed some mods I felt I needed to do at the front end, because they are so obvious. Behind the Exocet launchers there are these blast shields - I guess because the frigates had a lot of aluminium in their structure and the rocket blast from an Exocet must be pretty hot! So tonight I spent maybe an hour freestyling with plasticard and I made two blast shields as well as the prominent deck that sits on the front of the launchers. I also made the side panels that go on the outside of the outboard launcher boxes.


These bits are not installed yet (I painted them tonight after this photo) but this is roughly how they are going to look:

 

20170222_230408_resized.jpg

 

Actually the kit I am using is of HMS Antelope which was the only Type 21 not fitted with Exocet. But in this group build, I can hardly send this ship out to fight to Soviets in the North Atlantic with just a 4.5 inch gun. Doesn't seem very sporting. So I will use the decals to make one of the other ones. It comes with Ardent, Alacrity and Arrow as well.

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On 2/24/2017 at 7:10 AM, Davek72 said:

Hi Richard I am late to join you on this one but welcome to the BM community and I look forward to following your build...I should however amid I know nothing about ship modelling though 😀

Haha, that's ok, neither do I really!

Thanks all for the nice comments. I'm away on a work trip but I will get back onto this build later in the week.

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  • 3 weeks later...

20170319_220540_resized.jpg

Getting a little further along with this one, too. I haven't progressed the front area because the Exocet launchers and their associated decks and blast shields are a bit tricky but I added a few more parts like the smaller guns by the bridge cabin there, cranes, torpedo tubes, some of the radars and sensors. 

 

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Getting a bit closer to the finish line on this. I decided against too much more work on the front deck where those missiles go. They seem a bit large for the area and the little platforms I built for them don't look right. So I just put the blast shields in place and added the missiles. Then I moved on to the PE railings. They were not as difficult as I expected though of course they're not easy. This is the first time I've ever done PE railings on a ship and actually only my second ever go at PE at all.

 

Still remaining to do is the other side of ship with PE, and then a fair bit of tidying up, touching up, and adding lifeboats. But otherwise most of the parts in the box are now on the ship.

 

20170323_232458_resized.jpg

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