neilh

Re painted the WA green today and whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry I tackled the next amendment to the base kit. As mentioned above the US destroyers had an enclosed bridge. We Brits liked to develop our Officers skills by sticking them in freezing wet open bridges 😄, so the Towns were converted in various ways. This picture shows a bridge after " Stage 1" refits. The kit part shows that the refit was extended beyond the original " Y" shape, in fact this level was also extended rearwards when the radar lantern was added roughly where the DF loop is shown above. I cut some thick plastic card to start to bring the bridge floor to an even level . I then sanded these as flat as I could without sanding away the kit parts. still not completely flat, but I can now add a new deck in the correct shape including the extension to the rear and fill any gaps on the edges with Milliput. Eventually the railings will then run around the new outer edges and be covered with a double row of 3D printed splinter mats.

Not much modelling time yesterday ( in fact most days- I got more done when I had a full time career than now I am retired- what gives?) . I touched up some of the white paint, hopefully I should get a little time today to re do the WA green, but in the meantime there are some sub assemblies that need to be built ready for pre painting before adding to the hull. The Bridge is one of those. These ships had an enclosed bridge/wheelhouse which the RN hated and hence rebuilt the upper platform into a working bridge. The structure was also weak as demonstrated by the collapse by a bug wave on one of the Towns. The kit would have me add tiny etched window frames - Eek! I had re read Jon's @Faraway build of this and he determined that trying to insert the etch into the resin frames would be tricky and risk a lot of bending of the etch. I agreed with his theory and practice and copied it. Quite pleased with the result. The inner frames are a little irregular so they didn't all sit 100% square but look perfectly acceptable to the naked eye. Once painted I will probably glaze with PVA or maybe see if I can add a strip of thin acetate on the inside.

Rapid progress and looking great already. The sprayed " wake" really gives it a sense of movement across the base.

Nah- this is weathered 😄

Cheers Rob. I saw that book advertised on here recently but couldn't really justify the cost for 2 ships. Colour conundrums seem to be part of maritime modelling. It's not hard to find the correct cockpit or wheel well colour for almost any aircraft in any period but finding out what colour the inside of the bridge was on a ship- well 😱!

First coat of the WA Green didn't go on to well. I'm struggling getting the mix right for my airbrush so I sprayed again this morning using my usual lacquer to thin the paint. Much better this time. I got a little bleed under the masking which I hadn't noticed had lifted a little overnight, but easily fixed once this coat dries. The lower hull colour will cover up the overspray at the bow. I can't find any firm information as to the colour but photos don't seem to show boot topping so will probably go with black. also got the first layer of acrylic gel on the base.

Bit more progress. The extensions cleaned up nicely once the glue fully dried. I painted the base with a mix of artists acrylics, lightning the mis in the wake and around the hull. I decided this was too green and too light for a stormy Atlantic so repainted it today mixing a darker mix, which I think looks better. I again lightened the mix around the hull and wake. Next I will add a layer of clear acrylic gel. Next job was to drill the hull so I could fix it to a handy block of wood for painting. I then primed with white SMS lacquer, followed by a coat of off white Mr Color lacquer as I don't want to risk paint peel as experienced on this kit by @Faraway. I can't match the correct WA green in my lacquer stocks so will be using Colourcoats for that, so I masked out the pattern ready for the first coat of green. and of course, more figure painting, I did the duffle coats last night, touching up trousers, hands and hats today. A tad tedious to be honest!

Hi @Mattilacken, I'm learning too as I usually build aircraft in 1/48th ! This is my 3rd base. Did a bit more work on the base today. I glued some more crumpled foil to form a basic wake from just behind midships and also the stern. Maybe hard to discern with foil on foil! Then once that had dried off a bit, I PVA's the base and added another sheet of slightly crumpled foil. Once this is dry, I will trim the foil and then begin basic painting. You might notice a few additions. I finished filling and cleaning up the pre moulded " sockets " that won't be used for this build due to refits Salisbury had. The first modification was an extension of the front of the deckhouse by around 6 feet, upon which the RN added two 0.5 inch machine guns. In the later refit which I am modelling, these and the 4 inch guns were removed and two Oerlikons added. I have very good plans showing a top and side elevation so I know the shape of the deck extension and the dimensions of the vertical side extensions. I cannot fins any vies of this area to see if the extension was just a " platform, or a complete extension of the deckhouse. All my reference refer to it as the latter, so I decided to build a full extension and add two watertight doors from spare etch in the same position as those that were on the vertical face of the front of the original deckhouse. They look a bit rough in the hi res picture but fine to the naked eye, however once the styrene glue and plastic card dries I will tidy up the joint edges. Finally, no pictures but whilst this lot was drying, I painted the shoes, boots, hands and faces of approx 120 crew figures. Trousers and helmets/caps tomorrow........ b

Finishing of the Vindicator has been delayed as I did not spot that 3 panes of the central glazing are in fact either painted over or solid aluminium! Instructions are very poor but that's no excuse. Masked and sprayed that and whilst waiting for the wash to dry I progressed with the sea base for Salisbury. After carving out a rough shape, I glued some wetted artists paper to the foam using UHU POR glue. Stance seems a little bow high at the moment even if I do want to depict very a rough North Atlantic crossing, but I will adjust as I go. Bit better... I decided to use foil again, so added a few crumpled bits to improve the water level near the stern so that the props are not exposed , and then PVA'd a crumpled sheet over the whole base. Once that's dry I will crumple some more foil to create any wake pattern and then likely add another overall sheet before commencing basic painting. Whilst waiting for that to dry, my extra parts from BC and Swordfish arrived yesterday so I started referring to plans and photos to mark out changes. Since marking these 1/2 hour ago I have discovered yet more changes / deletions! Will need a definitive list and then start filling unnecessary locating holes and marking out new ones. Ringed holes are to be filled ( eg 4 X torpedo tubes offloaded).

Looking great. Love the work with the signal halyards- so neat! PS - tried to send you a PM re the relative sizes of crew figures but BM says you cannot accept messages?

OK, apologies for the poor quality I phone pics but I think from these it's clear that there is no marked difference in height between the two brands. I think the greater animation in the Ion figures with bending seating and climbing figures will help with showing variety amongst a crew. @robgizlu - maybe you can update your figure reference article Rob? These were placed as side to side on the coffee sticks as I could with one hand! https://cdn01.hobbyphotohost.com?ujfjsbr and with a ruler- Ion https://cdn01.hobbyphotohost.com?ax17mmr BC - also slightly over 5mm in height, so if my maths is correct around 5ft 9 in old money.... https://cdn01.hobbyphotohost.com?wmfhely

I recall your review Rob. I do think they have been resized but the real variety of poses compared with Black Cats “ all standing” figures and the translucent look of the BC figures compared to the harder dark grey of Ion makes the comparison difficult on view alone. I’ll measure and share photos tomorrow. some generics would be great. Would have been nice to find those in 1/72 as Coastal crews seemed to be quite “ casual” in some photos!

Hi Graham, The Ion figures are definitely more brittle than the Black Cat figures which can take some bending movement before anything snaps, however they do not seem as strong as the Ion offerings. As you correctly spotted the Ion figures are attached by a main printing stub usually in the middle of the figures back, with smaller ones either on the fee tor on the head if printed inverted. I found it best to remove the feet or head connection first and then cut the " back" one, cleaning that with a sharp hobby blade once removed. The Ion figures are on 5 separate frets so could be possibly part separated, painted and then touched up later. I find the Black Cat stub too flexible and the figures too close together to be able to separate them into single rows with any success, but as you say, gluing individual ones is mind numbing! I did only get 5 casualties from 2 full sets though. I did get a few spare moments today so hacked up the base into ( very) rough waves/swell, and then chopped out the hull pattern. Had to glue back in a few wedges of foam where my cutting was over enthusiastic but this will be covered with either artists paper or foil before painting. Also managed to try a matt coat on the Vindicator with my new supply of VMS matt varnish, as my favourite Alclad is no longer available here in the UK, so that's another step to finishing that so I can concentrate on Salisbury. https://cdn01.hobbyphotohost.com?9hhwe0n https://cdn01.hobbyphotohost.com?9j4ekyo

Landscapers have finished our complete garden makeover so I've been a tad busy cleaning up and carting all the potted trees and shrubs back from their temporary homes. I cannot recommend shovelling 1/2 ton of spare gravel into bags in 34 degree heat 🥵! In the meantime whilst waiting for decals to dry on the Vindicator I have been doing some work on Salisbury in the background. I've stuck two sheets of foam together to get enough depth for large mid Atlantic swell, and marked out where I need to rough cut. Now waiting on a new pad saw arriving before I can cut it. I've also removed approx 140 crew members from their frets from both Black Cat and Ion and attached them with white glue to coffee stirrers ready to start the production line of painting. I won't use them all on this build but between the two brands there are a decent variety of poses. I removed them using the AK cutting tweezers recommended by @Faraway and they were extremely useful for this with very few casualties amongst the crew. Many less than previous attempts using DSPAIE cutters and a razor saw. I love a good new tool so thanks Jon!

I'll echo everyone's comments on the dynamic sea scape and realistic action in progress. Super!