gishuk

Thanks for the comments guys. Progress hasnt stopped on this, but its been all the unexciting bits like painting ships boats and tidying up various areas. Had to order some paint from Sovereign Hobbies as the White Ensign stuff I had from when I had initially started this build went a bit weird and gummed up, but once that arrived I have painted all the railings on the etched frets and installing the railings is the last thing to do. Assuming that goes smoothly it shouldnt be long before its done. Im also building a White Ensign 1/700 HMS Sheffield for my dad (which is presenting its own challenges, not least how bloody small everything is in that scale), but once thats done I have a 1/350 HMS Hood to build with a ton of aftermarket. Looking forward to building that with all the lessons I've learned from Repulse. Walrus' and boats are just sat in place in this photo, hence the wonkness.

This is a fantastic build. Your PE work is so clean, I'm envious! Mine always looks a right bloody mess until paint 😆

Been plugging away on Repulse. After seeing the previous photos I really wasn't happy with the dark grey on the decks so repainted most of that. Looks much neater now. The areas where I had to remove the incorrect gun positions are not perfectly repaired, but will have to be good enough. Secondary battery is painted and fitted now, the rear mast still needs a bit more touching up and is just sat there for now. I'm reasonably happy with how it looks, being my first ship model especially but it doesn't really stand up to close up photos. However in the 11 years it spent sat on a shelf the light grey paint has aged, taking on a more cream colour and so doesn't quite match the newly painted parts despite being the same paint from the same pot. Also not entirely sure what colour the ships boats should be in a pre-war Royal Navy ship, so if anyone has any suggestions for that I'd be grateful.

Looks to be a good kit and plenty of brass to keep you busy there. How big is she compared to Bismarck?

Realised today that in her 1939 fit there were in fact no 20mm Oerlikons or associated circular gun emplacements as I was about to fit them. Less fortunately I had already fitted three of them 11 years ago before painting 😬 The one on the stern came off easily enough, but two remove the two on the forward superstructure I had to remove some railings but I have enough spare railing to replace that. So now I've filled all the excess holes in the deck and once thats all dried up can repaint some sections. Wasn't totally happy with the paint anyway so was probably going to give it a touch up regardless. Large close-up photos really don't do her any favours either! Looks much better in person. Also now have a large box lid full of parts primed and ready for paint before fitting them. It feels like the finish line is in sight (it probably isnt)

Cheers Jeff! This was heading towards a multiple decade on the shelf of doom situation to be honest, easily done! Its 1/350th, I probably should put that in the title, whoops. I did think about trying some thin chain to improve that but don't fancy messing about with removing that moulded on detail now, but for my next big ship the Hood I have some chain I think amongst all the aftermarket stuff so will be doing it on that one.

Well after a brief pause (of 11 years, whoops) I'm back to working on Repulse. After a big increase in interest in naval history recently I bought a Trumpeter Hms Hood with a pile of aftermarket brass and resin, but for once decided to be sensible and finish and existing project first! Needed a thorough and carful cleaning to get the dust off without breaking any of the etch. Its not quite up to the standard of what I would aim for these days, but still holds up decently well and I think I can improve the paint a bit without having to start over on it and get it looking good. Built the rear mast (decided not to make the entire starfish out of brass, as while I could probably manage to build it I'm not sure how I'd paint and install it without making a bent mess) , made the anti aircraft fit (of which there really isnt a lot, as her fate in Force Z suggested) and the secondary battery. Folded the rest of the ladders, the second crane and detailed up the ships boats. Then discovered that the accommodation ladder on the front are spurious and the stowed ladders at the rear look awful, hence the plugging of holes along the deck with some plastic rod. Waiting on some 3d printed 20mm Oerlikons to arrive and then should be time to paint the increasing pile of small detail parts and get them on before thinking about the railings. Sorry, my model photography has not improved in the intervening 11 years 😄

As great as this looks, I'm going to hold out for the F-4K, thats a build I've wanted to do in 1/32 for the longest time. Even have a Tamiya kit ready to be converted, and then an IM kit was announced but that seems to be going nowhere fast so I'd jump on a resin one!

I contacted Paul Fisher about the size of this gap and he agrees that it is beyond what should be there and is going to sort me out with some new parts in a couple of weeks when he does another run on some refreshed moulds. Puts the build on hold for a little bit, but I cant really ask for better customer service than that so not a problem at all. Cro, no problem having those photos, that singe seater looks great and crying out to be finished!

The cockpit has now vanished into the black hole of the fuselage. With that secured in with some bracing under the tub Ive started looking at the wing and fuselage join. Bit of work to do here still, I have it fitting properly at the cowling but still need to fill that gap with plasticard strips to give it a strong joining surface.

One day i'd love to go to the Reno races, lucky bugger

Well I have the seat padding in green so im 50% right I think once the fuselage is together it should be straightforward enough, but getting that correctly spaced to match the cowling without creating alot of work fillering the gaps could be a little tricky.

Ive built the W.29 which is the monoplane version and have a W.12 in the stash so im keen to see how you get on with this. Looks really good so far

Made a start on this build a few weeks ago, my first all resin kit The Sea Fury is my favourite piston fighter and this kit is apparently one of the best, so it seems like a good one to start with. Spent quite a bit of time getting the fit roughly there on the major components before actually sticking anything at all together, so there hasnt been anything worth showing, but now im happy with how its going to fit together I have built the cockpit and the engine. The cockpit on this is the best ive seen, there seems to be nothing at all missing from the real thing. Shame you'll hardly see any of it in the end. Heres the cockpit painted in its opened state. And then stuck together to form the tub, giving an idea how little of this will be visible in the end. Next job is to stick it into the fuselage, brace it in there to make sure theres no rage inducing movement of it later on, which would be impossible to fix, and then get the lower wing joined on.

Looks like i'll be needing some more shelf space then Didnt think think this would actually happen, but glad to be wrong and hope its a sucess.