Ex-FAAWAFU

The first actual paint - specifically, Colourcoats NARN54 RN Dark Deck Grey - on the fo’c’s’le. As ever, it sprays beautifully: I also started on the decks of the superstructure, but a bottle of MicroSol fell off a shelf over my bench & hit the starboard bridge wing, cracking the resin - you can see the crack here: That was the bad news, but it was readily fixable so no huge problem…. but should explain why starboard forward part of the superstructure remains primer only! At least one more coat will follow. But it’s a good start! I am away with work for a few days, so this will be it for a while. Crisp

Some primer action (MRP)! For now I am concentrating on the decks, because in some places masking would be very tricky - such as when these characteristic tall vents are in place Seen from astern, including the addition of another gizmo (whose purpose has completely eluded me): Original seen here in this photo from our Crossing-the-Line ceremony on the way South (photo fairly obviously Andy Metcalfe, an 846 maintainer who is visible on the Sea King’s engine bay door): I’m talking about the horizontal thingy visible at top left of the photo). More soon Crisp

As I said above, I wasn’t completely convinced about the size of these Swordfish flight deck lights, but I think I was wrong; they’re good. I was also pretty sceptical about whether I could get them fitted into a convincing double array like some of the ones in Fearless, but… Ta-daah! I even managed to get them fitted to the superstructure without knocking any lights off! Really happy with how they look - a major upgrade on PE & lengths of rod! More soon Crisp

Interesting. I’m finding some possible scale issues with Swordfish stuff in my Fearless build, but I’m not sure yet. I’m also have a Corvus set en route, so it will be interesting to see which size turns up!

Gradually filling in the flight deck end of the superstructure; since my last post I have finished the footrails (Slaters 10 thou) & added a short section of 2-bar railing on the Flyco ladders, because I need this section in place to start adding FD lighting. You can see three lights in place (the smallest of the 3 sizes provided by Swordfish), plus a white rectangle that will be painted to represent flight deck traffic lights. I am not 100% convinced that the Swordfish lights are not a little under-scale - interesting in view of discussions in @robgizlu's excellent Type 42 build about scale issues with Swordfish. Not sure yet - I will only really be able to tell when I have added some of the larger lights; I have nicked an un-used platform from a PE set from Ark 5 (depicting a ?RAS? platform that Lusty had but Ark did not) and adapted it - plan to add the 10 lights over the weekend to depict that double fan of 5 lights visible above & to port of the roller door in the photo of the Shar on deck in San Carlos above. Even if Swordfish's lights do prove to be a little under-scale (as I say, jury still out), they still look a hundred times better in 3D resin than 2D brass! P.S. This photo gives a nice view of the GPI in its wee house; even shows that the mask is still in place over the lens... More soon Crisp

I'll do my best, though I am no expert on the Type-82

Continuing to detail the superstructure around Flyco / overlooking the flight deck, my thought turned to the GPI (glide path indicator - a light shining down the red 165 which shows red if you slip below the glide slope, amber if you go above & green if you are maintaining a 3 degree approach at night - often the only thing you can see as you approach a warship on a black night). Visible here directly above the jib end of the flight deck crane, silhouetted against the mainmast - looks like a black circle against a square gantry in this photo: Constituent parts are a piece of Airfix clear runner (from a Sea King windscreen, as it happens), polished on the business end and whittled to shape, plus a section of gash PE runner (from the Merit Ark 3 kit) bent into a gantry 2.25mm tall by 3.25 mm wide, and a 0.4mm hole drilled: I decided to paint the inside of the gantry before fitting, since it will be pretty hard to reach once we get to airbrushing time - and here you can see a section of 0.33mm nickel silver rod glued into the GPI body *before* I detached it from the rest of the runner: Here fitted, though upside down: ...and here in situ: Note also the first of 4 foot rails underneath the Flyco windows (for when they needed washing or maintaining) All very tiny but satisfying to solve the problem without feeding the carpet monster. More soon Crisp

Masking up the bridge & lower bridge windows - a fiddly job! …especially round the back of the bridge: Also masked the Flyco windows & started detailing that part of the superstructure; the middle one of 3 ladders up past Flyco, some flight deck speakers (Swordfish; TINY!), the roller door & starting re-work on various items on this aft face + some thin lead sheet to represent the cover that was usually fitted over the disused ECP (see discussion above): Here’s the real thing: More soon Crisp

I was a Pinger, but I was also one of Fearless' FDOs during the Falklands, working with 846's HC4s. No armoured seats at that early stage.

ResKit have (finally!) produced a folded 1/48 Sea King MRH, as I have long hoped they would - & I have my hands on it. CAD: Real resin: Extract from instructions: ResKit's designers' eye for detail even extends as far as including decals for the blade identification coloured marks on each root, sleeve & pitch change rod - visible here on this photo of a Mk.48 (Belgian) MRH [edit: possibly German Mk. 41 - looks like German stencilling visible at bottom right]: @perdu - Bill, I know you love a good droop stop, so I can confirm that they are excellent. Impossible to photograph without removing the protective cage around the parts, so for now you will just have to take my word for it (though you can see a couple of them in the top two blade root / hinge parts visible in my first photo of the resin). The ResKit head was designed (understandably) for the Airfix kit), but you can be 100% certain that I will be trying hard to get it to fit the Hasegawa kit on which this build is based. I am astonished to find that I have not touched it for almost 7 years. But soon, honest! Crisp

ResKit folded MRH now arrived, and it's pretty stunning. As you can see, I haven't made any attempt to separate from printing supports yet, but they all look commendably thin and not placed in positions that risk disaster. ResKit's designers have gone as far as including decals for the coloured blade markings that appear on each blade root. I am resisting with difficulty the urge to go straight back to my paused Sea King build... But will persevere with Fearless for now!

My recent Swordfish order has now arrived. I haven't had time to measure the Coles crane vs my drawings / the over-scale Airfix thing, but to the naked eye it looks a very significant improvement; nicely detailed (wing mirrors, good bracing leg thingies, wheels, tow bar) and apparently a good size, though it will need some clean-up (not uncommon with commercial 3D prints): Also got some Vickers Mk 1 FD Tractors, which are in a completely different league to Airfix's crude jobs (the Airfix wheels are U-shaped with only the bit protruding below the body of the tractor even remotely looking like a wheel). Kudos also to Swordfish for doing their research: they offer this mark (without the firefighting tank mounted on the front left wing), which was in use during my era AND the later mark with the wing-mounted tank. Those are both to be squirrelled safely away until the resumption of Ark 5. However, more immediately relevant to this build are something that has become a bit of a holy grail for me, namely nice RN roller fairleads, which are included in the Swordfish Modern RN Chocks & Bollards set. Every modern RN ship needs these, they are not easy to scratch build (though I have tried), my CAD versions were a bit meh once printed, and PE offerings are far too 2-dimensional to look convincing... but here they are (rows 4 & 5 from the top): Happy boy! I am busy this weekend (going to Wembley to watch my beloved Forest in the FA Cup semi-final), so maybe not much work imminent... But more soon. Crisp Edit: confirmed - even after the most cursory of clean-up, absolutely no comparison, and the Swordfish scale is correct.

Been working on the little duckboard platforms for the signallers to stand on when using the forward 10” SP (signal lamp) - seen top left of this photo: The wooden bit isn’t that hard - more brass mesh - but getting the legs to work was somewhat trying. I ended up using 0.33mm nickel silver rod; the things that look like staples in the photo below are the rod bent into shape. I got there in the end, but reckon I had to make about 10 (no exaggeration; the carpet monster really *loves* these!). Above you can see one complete one upside down & one in progress the right way up. The other breakthrough was working out that a filed groove on the underside seemed to prevent the “staple” from collapsing while the CA cured: I then drilled small indentations in the deck to give them a bit of extra stability & to allow adjustment so the height looks right. Finally here is one of them dry fitted: All in all a lot of work for what might seem minor details, but as anyone who follows my ship builds knows, I always aim to “busy up” my models - real ships are pretty cluttered on the upper deck, & to my eyes a lot of ship models feel too “clean”. Anyway; pretty pleased with these. More soon Crisp

Close of play tonight:

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