GrahamB

Fabulous model and excellent paintwork. I like the way the the USN stuck with the geometric/perspective style of dazzle introduced largely by them in WW1 (not forgetting Norman Wilkinson's British efforts).

Thanks to all. It is a great kit really - just needs a bit of refinement in places. I also added the obvious plating strip along the hull. I should really repaint the figures in tropical whites - it would be great to see a 1/350 RN range in this gear - knobbly knees and all! BTW, Atlantic Models had it on offer a few months ago as I don't think it has been a big seller. Cheers, GrahamB from a largely Covid-19-free NZ

Another finished WEM/Atlantic Models 1/350 resin kit; this one previous to the HMS Mermaid build. An unusual ship for the Royal Navy, a Banff Class sloop - actually an ex-USCG Cutter. Rather nice look I think. I'm not sure about the forward armament of HMS Gorleston (literature on these things is hard to find). Kit was relatively crude in comparison with the Starling model and a midships superstructure had to be replaced as it was set at angle rather than right-angles; also the photo etch was largely unusable being thick and only partly etched in places. At some point I'll replace the heavy HF/DF aerial on top of the foremast. Colours are supposed to be 507A/507C but I've got the contrast too high. I think I used a Polyscale/Aeromaster USN grey for the latter and my first experiment with Schminke inks for the former. Another reference for the camouflage scheme suggest B5/507C which would be attractive and appropriate for the Gibraltar-Freetown run that this ship largely did. Gorleston-on-Sea is just south of Great Yarmouth (Norfolk). Cheer, GrahamB and many thanks for the kind remarks and likes for the HMS Mermaid build.

Hi All, more progress has been made with this conversion, coming at it from all angles. The fuselage halves are almost done (next post) and the cutting out of the windows and refitting the clear parts was a chore. Not happy with my clear parts (cut-down kit pieces) - must learn how to restore blemishes and scratches. I've still to move the starboard rear door to over the wing root fairing. Made some ridiculous fuel tanks based on the Aeroplane drawings, and photos for size and placement. Work on the cowlings has involved cutting the "steps" off these and the wing nacelles as I could see that the kit's cowlings/nacelles are too long in front of the wing leading edge - it looks right now. It does mean that the fairings over the cylinder heads need a small extension adding at the rear, and I've actually shimmed the whole thing. The least you could do if not bothering with this excessive work is to flatten the lower edge of the fairings - they are not curved underneath. A complication for any other conversions of the Albatros is that there are at least three different fairing types - I think it is Frobisher that had two - early large close-fitting fairings replaced with narrower versions (as on Faraday), probably because of cooling problems. The cowlings are now on and I have since been cleaning up the joins and re-scribing the few obvious panel lines. The fuselage halves are soon to be joined and I'm almost ready for overall polish, prime and painting. As for that damned under-surface colour.............................????? Cheers, GrahamB

Really nice HMS Amethyst Chris! I can't remember when I saw the film The Yangtse Incident- it must be >45 years ago. My father recalls seeing some of these sloops just prior to, and during the Korean War when he was serving on HMS Belfast. I'm looking forward to the projected 1/350 HMAS Parrammata (Grimsby Class) from Atlantic Models too. Thanks Jamie - I appreciate the comments. Paints and colours are one of the great pleasures I get from this hobby. Of course, now that I have them, I'll be using the new NARN range in future builds. I'd almost finished the AJM 1/350 Scott Class Leader HMS Douglas when the Sovereign paints arrived and the big surprise was the relatively dark tone and saturation of the WA Green - I was anticipating the nominal 55% reflectance, matching WA Blue. I had interpreted the darker colour on HMS Douglas as possibly B6 (a known substitute in WA schemes) instead of WA Green as suggested by AJM but now can see that WA Green could have been the colour after all! It does look really smart though, and I'll post this model up soon. Cheers, GrahamB

Hi Britmodelers, here is one of my latest ship builds, the delightful WEM/Atlantic Models 1/350 HMS Starling built as HMS Mermaid. I was tempted to do HMS Peacock as my grandfather (Royal Horse Artillery) was sent from Malta to Palestine in 1948 on her for a mission, according to my family, to rescue Mountbatten's polo ponies! The nice colour scheme of HMS Mermaid won out though. The excellent book "Sloops, 1926-1946" by Arnold Hague provides an excellent resource for those interested in this elegant and extensive class of ships. Some modification to the basic kit, apart from the usual updating/upgrading with after-market parts, was required, mainly to the shelter deck supporting B turret and the split Hedgehog mountings. The bulwarks were extended aft as necessary. It still needs to be crewed, but an order from North Star Models (allegedly sent early March) still hasn't arrived here in Kiwiland. As for painting, I used my own mixes from Schminke inks. I had ordered the new range of Sovereign RN paints from Creative Models Australia primarily to use as swatches/matches to make/use acrylics but these took nearly a year to arrive, post this build. Using basic principles I obtained paint matches from my local Resene range, of neutral/neutralish greys with the appropriate reflectance values (all but one spot on, the exception being only 1% out) first by getting the accurate chips from brochures, then sample pots (see below). By iteration I made various mixes of Schminke white, pale grey (actually a bluish-grey, suitable as basis for the 507 series, B6/B15/20), and black (quite neutral) to achieve tones matching the reflectance values. By adding drops of prototypical ultramarine and/or chome oxide green it was possible to get colours that probably would be damned close. In fact, when the Sovereign paints arrived a few weeks ago I was really pleased with my efforts regarding B30, G10, G45 and B55. Cheers, GrahamB Resene paint swatches example of Schminke ink trials

Hi Alex, very nice of you to respond to this post. The kit is actually very nice and could have been built out of the box with very little trouble for a relatively short-run product. The moldings are very decent overall (the fuselage is lovely), with hardly any injection overshots or blemishes. The trailing edges are commendably fine too (albeit they could be refined more if you want to). The fit is OK based on what I have done so far and with dry fitting of the wings and under-surface fuselage/wing panel. Some panel lines are not necessary (e.g. on the wings) apart from those on the engine cowlings and nacelles. Wing-halves fit is OK too but the clean up around the air intakes is fiddly and I've not yet completed this. The trickiest bit are parts 30 31 (vertical leading edge supports) and the small inboard fillet/panel ahead of the u/c. This is is because the small part needs a proper cut-in/seat on the inner curved surface of the wing leading edge (plastic too thick) - otherwise is doesn't really settle properly. The plastic is also very thick on the fuselage which is OK for strength but difficult to cut out. I haven't tried dry-fitting the cockpit canopy yet. I will be adding brass rods to support the horizontal tail-plane and fins. All in all, not too shabby a kit. Cheers, GrahamB

Hello again. Well, the next daunting phase begins - the alteration of the cabin window configuration for the mail-plane version. A few happy hours pouring over photos (print-outs that coincidentally almost matched the kit in scale) with a measuring stick and trying to deconstruct perspective (?). I'll probably score in lightly the window edges before removing most of the plastic - then remove the masking for final clean-up of the edges. When this is done the basic conversion work is about done. Cheers, GrahamB

Kia ora Britmodelers. Starting to make some real progress with the lovely Valom Albatros but I've tended to be rather haphazard with with project, having originally intended to be slow and methodical and not start things before finishing others. Never mind. The wings have been a major focus and I decided to cut out and make the slotted flaps, using the kit parts as a basis. Also, an attempt has been made to reduce the bulbous upper wing engine nacelles by thinning the top surface down and narrowing/tapering the sides. A bit hit and miss accuracy wise I suppose but to me it looks better. The leading edge is pain around the air-intakes (not really the kit, not having benefit of Tamiya/Wingnuts engineering). Some adjustments need to fit the engine cowlings neatly. Fit, trim, fit etc etc. I also decided to tweek the engine cowlings and show the aircraft with the lower panels drooped as in some photos. While this was going on, I diverted off to the fuselage and tail assembly. The main meat of the conversion is the reconfiguration of the doors and windows and this starts by filling the port-side doors and all the cabin windows. There may be a better way but I went down this route. After filling the window apertures with plastic card (and backed with molten kit plastic - sprue plus liquid glue mix) I noticed that the kits appears to supply window inserts as well. Doh! Since then I've made good progress with marking out the new windows for cutting. Not as simple as it seems. Next post. Cheers, GrahamB NZ doing well with Covid-19. Came out of restrictive Level 4 to somewhat less arduous Level 3. About 1450 cases and 19 deaths. Only 2 new cases reported today. Stay safe UK folks.

Thank you JWM for the great photo links . I had not seen these before on searches for DH91 images. Also, I had not considered the nacelle shapes, not having seen the particular reviews. At first glance the upper nacelles do seem too high and blunt-ended, but probably OK for length. I'll follow this up and decide if it is worth the effort to change them. Thanks also, Mike - useful info for me. It does look as if slotted flaps replaced the original split versions now on BJ-W, especially with some good images of these on the Fortuna and others for reference. I'll have to dig out the Gunze filler (nail varnish remover works) from the upper wing halves now and show the aircraft with the flaps slightly drooped. Onwards! GrahamB

Well, I finally started to cut and fill plastic on the the Valom 1/72 D.H. 91 Albatros kit yesterday. My intention is to build it as one of the two mailplanes used by the RAF, in this case B-JW (earlier as one of the prototypes, E.3). At first, I thought this airframe would still have the split flaps of the two mailplanes (E.3 and G-AEVV) even after its partial reconstruction following a broken back accident that involved reconfiguration of the rear wing fillets to the airliner form. Now, I'm not so sure after peering at the various in-flight photos of B-JW. There is a hint of a change in tone of the upper surface colours where there could be a slotted flap, and the underside view shows the flap with five hinge points. Does anyone know, or have an opinion about whether these are the original split form or the later slotted version? I'll get some photos posted up at some point soon. Cheers, GrahamB

Thanks for the replies. I could experiment with a few silvers/aluminiums I've got here. Vallejo has a dull aluminium that might work. The key is, as WIP says, to attain dull finish. My objective is to paint the Valom D.H.91 Albatros with Aluminium undersides (see a previous post about this topic). The various photos of AX904/G-AEVW/BJ-W show this with a dull colour that is almost certainly not Yellow or Sky but might be Aluminium or a Sky substitute (Eau de Nil?). Playing safe, I'm going with Aluminium. I might post up some in-progress photos of the conversion. I was dreading doing the rear wing fillet back to the prototype( E.3 and G-AEVV) form (straight dorsal margin) but this appears to have been modified by the time period in question, after its crash/broken back episode (also for the other mailplane G-AEVV). Cheers, GrahamB

Hello cooped-up modelers. I don't know if this has been dealt with here before - probably, though. Has anyone a good recommendation for a model paint to convincingly replicate the Aluminium as used by RAF pre and early WW2 as an overall or under-surface paint? Don't mind acrylic, laquer or enamel. Best wishes from NZ and please take care, especially back in Blighty with the appalling Covid-19 there. Not so bad here, so far. GrahamB

Hi Michael, Thanks - I expected this, but nice to be sure.

Just wondering if Sovereign enamel paints are compatible with Humbrol - for instance tinting Sovereign/WEM naval colours with Humbrol white? I'm still waiting for an order of the NARN range (here in NZ) so can't experiment yet. Cheers GrahamB

Very good. Possibly in several issues or alternative parts as there were differences in inter-plane struts etc depending on manufacturer/series.

Well, I think it is fantastic news. Going to sell some of my single-seaters now as I can't see them being built any time soon.

Hello, this is a wild shot but I wondered if anyone could prepare and send a brush-out of the Royal Navy WW2 Sovereign colours (507 series, B5, MS series, 1943- B and G series). I simply cannot buy these in New Zealand even from the supposed "local" supplier in Australia (Creative Models) who do not stock the latest sets or updated/corrected range. Even then they will only post 3 or 4 tins at a time - at my own risk if they are intercepted. Also, I prefer to work with inks or acrylics now. If anyone can do this, so I can mix my own colours, I'm happy to pay postage and a small "fee" (PAYPAL). Please let me know via PM. Cheers GrahamB Almost finished a 1/350 Atlantic Models HMS Gorleston (ex US Coast Guard cutter) - a very fine-looking ship, but not a popular kit apparently, according to Peter Hall; (used the last of my old WEM AP507A and AP507C)

I forgot to mention this great little bit of archive film of the DH.91 - including the prototypes/later mailpanes E2 and E3. Wonderful stuff, including that extinct clipped accent of the narrator! https://duckduckgo.com/?q=dh.91+de+havilland&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=6Q_zNrj0GpM

Graham - yes, Prestwick not Preston.

Hi Steve, here's the link - it was actually on Flikr. Could be Aluminium, could be Sky/proxies, not yellow undersides? NO roundels under the wings.

Hi Giorgio, Ah yes, must have been thinking of something else!

Nice photo on the wwiiarchives.net site of BJ-W/Franklin/AX904 from below. Underside darker than the yellow of roundel and similar to MSG (Sky had similar reflectance?); also good view of split flaps and the fuselage door behind the W code.

Quite a discussion. I can except the possibility of yellow undersides for non-op aircraft flying in UK skies, but surely not for a military aircraft operating out of the UK and where the possibility of encountering Luftwaffe aircraft (e.g. from of Norway) was quite high. In the photos I would also say that the yellow of the fuselage roundel is quite brighter than the under-surfaces. As for timing, since 'Franklin' was impressed in September 1940 and lasted until 1942, this fits well with the introduction of Sky (or substitutes). - and time for repaints. Cheers GrahamB