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dhogue

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Everything posted by dhogue

  1. dhogue
    Thanks for the reply. It had been a while since I had trolled through those photos and I noticed different details including splinter mattresses on the railings outboard of the four inch guns.
  2. dhogue
    While on the subject, I was wondering if anyone has an opinion about the the presence of splinter mattresses around the bridge and Pom Pom guns on the Suffolk in the Denmark Strait era.
  3. dhogue
    Just a heads up. The Ark Royal wasn't fitted with her port PomPoms until circa June 41. Before that the aft port PomPom director and the middle director on the island weren't fitted.
  4. dhogue
    Speaking of desert Tomahawks, I have a question about paint. I've read that Azure Blue didn't come into use until after the Tomahawk left front line service and remained in Sky undersides after repainted in desert colors. Any opinions?
  5. dhogue
    I'm glad my RN ships are waterlined
  6. dhogue
    Scuttle counting, the nautical version of rivet counting?
  7. dhogue
    On my Ark Royal I used a wooden deck for the first time (Very Fire set but probably similar). I had no problems with it. I painted the fittings first and it stuck to the painted surface fine. I clear coated the deck with flat lacquer and weathered and darkened the wood with a light coats of an oil wash. I took a different approach to the anchor chain. Because it is so hard to see when the model is together I used a cheap chain that was in my stash.
  8. dhogue
    Good job on the tripod, I've been working on mine on and off and finally realized that Very Fire didn't do a very good job on the shape of the Met platform. I will have to redo the rear part of it to get it all to line up correctly. I'm seeing more things in the Tetra detail set that the Very Fire set doesn't have but also the reverse is true. The rear supports do go through the compass platform deck down to the base of the funnel. Also, the two lower tripod platforms railings were covered with canvas. When I started my model I was willing to go with what came with the kit but I find myself going down the rabbit hole more and correcting things that I should have done much earlier in the build.
  9. dhogue
    Yes the photos are from the Warship quarterly. Someone in my modeling club was selling them off years and I bought some of the issues that had interesting articles. It was a minor miracle that I was going through books and rediscovered the photos before the build instead of after I built it. There are some nice photos in there
  10. dhogue
    Apparently the Ark did operate floatplanes.
  11. dhogue
    It looks like I'll be in the same boat. I will work tomorrow and then close my office for a while. It is starting to hit the fan in Texas. My wife has a very compromised immune system also so we will be trying to isolate ourselves as much as possible. The only bright spot is the possibility of more modelling time. The model shows in the area are being canceled one after the other.
  12. dhogue
    I wonder, would the interior of the gun shield be painted white? That's a heavy duty cutting block
  13. dhogue
    That’s how I did it. I did a Western Desert Matilda tank diorama a few years ago and used this technique to wear the desert camo back to the original green. I used an old brush with cutdown bristles. I have more experience with brushes than sponges and felt I had more control. The author of the article said it was tedious, he should try doing it across the vast expanse of the Ark Royal. Ship models is a whole different experience. I got my ship weathering tips from the armor guys though.
  14. dhogue
    Also I just noticed the ready ammo boxes between the Vickers in the top photo in post 803 look like they have angled tops. The Very Fire ones are flat.
  15. dhogue
    I’ve painted, paint chipped and weathered the hull already. For a summer of 40 I went with moderate paint chipping overall concentrating on upper hull, under overhangs and along the waterline. A lot of paint chipping was approaching the look of a lousy weathering job on the model. I’m going for the look before the lower hull was repainted. Your talk about walls has me reconsidering how I want to display these items realistically for the time period I’m doing. I’ve been on vacation so I have had too much time to think about all this.
  16. dhogue
    I took one look at the Very Fire instructions and went with the North Star Vickers. About half of them are done. I left off the shields though for the early war ship. Maybe added in the Oct 40 Liverpool stay? The devil’s in the details
  17. dhogue
    I’m always happy to support Mr Roberts and will order it. Although I need another book like I need a hole in the head. My house is going to capsize from the weight
  18. dhogue
    Not only a great story with dramatic twists but very well written. Thanks for the clarification about the cats l like the posts with the builder’s plans. If you have a chance could you post the plan of the front of the island? I really appreciated the one of the back of the island.
  19. dhogue
  20. dhogue
    In photos on the IWM website there is a wooden work platform with rope rigging parked on the starboard side of the flight deck aft of the pom-poms near the crane. It looks like it was always ready to be hoisted over the side for quick paint touch ups in port. In the photos taken in the Med it also looks like it was a convenient place for the flight deck crew to lounge and sun bathe while waiting to ordered around.
  21. dhogue
    Your insight is much appreciated. I understand why the Royal Navy loved their small boats but it is a little crazy with the additional of radar, AA guns, etc added to the topweight of the ships in WW2 that they wouldn't reduce their number. It seems like they would risk capsizing (or give up a turret in cruisers) than give up their beloved boats. This is my sixth RN ship (mainly Iron Shipwrights kits) so I have learned a lot over the years. I remember trying to figure out the mysteries of fittings like searchlight sights back in the day, now there are so much more aftermarket available. A nice time saver after having paid my dues. I enjoy reading about the history of WW2 RN (my ancestry is Scottish/English so it must be in the blood) and the effort to keep up with the demands imposed on the service. I recently read the book Gallant Quartet, I think that was the title, about the first four C Class light cruisers converted to AA ships. What an inspirational story. How over worked, exhausted men can function so bravely is hard to believe. I guess the resiliency of youth. To bring this back to topic, one of the ships operating out of Alexandria was trying to get repainted. The executive officer was getting very frustrated because every time they started painting the ship was ordered out to sea. I think the ship was sunk before it was finished. I wonder if this was the situation that would explain the controversy on modeling threads about the Ark Royal's paint scheme when she was sunk. Only partially repainted in port?
  22. dhogue
    The US Navy was good about taking a lot of walk around photos when ships were in the shipyard. It's frustrating that so many photos of the Ark Royal were taken at a distance. For the empty director tubs I will put a mounting plate in the bottom and leave it up to you to figure out what was in there. I am grateful for you pointing out the deployed signaling masts. I had scratch built the aft support for the one on the island out of spare PE but I will have the mast sticking out. Even though I had looked at photos multiple times I had missed the cutter on the starboard side that is always swung outboard. Luckily I was able to pop it off the deck and get it out of the pocket without damaging the railing. In the photo of the sinking you can see the waterway around the flight deck, I took the time to mask a thin edge around the deck and paint it. It really adds a nice detail that is not represented in the molding.
  23. dhogue
    It's painful but worth it. The ladies love it when the flash suppressors come off. Speaking of pom-poms, I have previously easily scraped the paint off the brass cartridges and it looks good under a flat coat and oil wash. And bringing up pom-pom directors, I was pondering them when there were only four guns in place. You can tell from photos, especially when the canvas covers were in place that the middle director on the front of the island was missing and the port director behind the funnel was missing with the lower one behind the gun was in place
  24. dhogue
    I've been thinking of how to paint the pom-poms myself. The Very Fire ones look similar to Tetra's and I am going to try to paint the barrels separately. Hopefully the thickness of the layer of paint will not prevent them from seating into the breeches. BTW I have been cutting off my flash suppressors for my 1940 version
  25. dhogue
    I've been enjoying this thread since the beginning and feel like it's time to chime in. My name is David Hogue and live on the other side of the world in Texas. I've been working on this kit since last April after a false start in the fall (trying to figure out the small boat situation sent it back into the box while I finished a plane). I am using the Very Fire detail set plus aftermarket details from various other manufactures. There are so many details missing in the kit that it does make it easier to add them and not have to scrape off the kit details. I thought that until I saw your corrections to the hull moldings and then I couldn't unsee them. So I started down that rabbit hole and took the deep dive. You are going deeper in some areas than I am mainly due to time spent vs visual improvement benefit analysis. I travel a lot in the summer so, like you, have done quite a bit of the PE work on the road. I'm using the Kagero book plans and period photos for reference and will portray her as she appeared in the Mediterranean in the summer of 1940. I am also going to try to realistically show the crew conducting air operations. Your build thread has been very helpful but I am farther along in the build so have been having to figure things out for myself. As an amateur historian, I really appreciate the historical context in your posts. The Ark Royal was a great hard working ship. I usually post on modelwarships.com and may eventually do a build thread there as I have been photographing the progress but my modeling time is limited so use my time to actually move the project along. That being said, this build has been the most modeling fun I've had in a while and it has been moving along very smoothly without any big problems. Now that I have jinxed myself I will probably drop it and really screw it up. I just want you to know there is a kindred spirit across the pond.
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