salmo G

HI All So this is my Christmas pressie and I just couldnt wait to start it, plan is to put it on the same base as the trumpeeter Belfast that I am also building on here. TBH I plan on building this pretty much OTB as the Belfast build has tested my patience enough and I could do with something nice and easy, that plus the fact i just dont have anywhere near as much ref material to hand as I did for Belfast. The kit looks really nice, so far I have tidied up a few blemishes to the hull with filler and cleaned up some of the bits that had either snapped off or just not cast at all. If that sounds negative its not! I have no idea how they cast the detail on the hull such as the vents etc, they look fantastic! I need to replace a few bits and the bulwark at the rear but its no big deal (If that was the only issue i had with Trumpys Belfast I would be a happy man.....) the quality of all aspects of the kit is top draw and i am looking forward to their next release of a river class frigate even if it did cheese me off a little when it was anounced due to the 60% scratch built one I now have sitting on a shelf thats unlikly ever to get finished....... Plan is to run this alongsidel Belfast and aim to have them both finished and mounted on the base end Feb/march.

Merry Christmas all. Thanks for all the kind words, Managed a few hours over the break, Assembled 4 of the 4" twin mounts from Northtar, very detailed but tricky to assemble. they also dont match the type fitted to belfast so in theory i should modify the shields, still not decided if I can be bothered yet..... waiting for the extra two on order to finish these off. Most of the carley floats are now cast and ready in blocks. Boat deck is just about done, only need to tidy up the new walls and add some stiffeners, this whole part is really a bit of a nightmare from Trumpy, nothing seems to fit and detail is basic at best and I havent the slightest clue where they got their info for the doors over the torpedo tubes! Hoping to have the boat deck finished and painted by the beginning of 2018, we will see! and look for santa brought me! yahoo something to keep Belfast company on that base!

Excellent work, lovelly neat paint job but i dont envey you the task of making the crew or planes! one reason 'ive avoided aircraft carriers so far.......

looking good, do you plan on making a sea base for it?

Hi all Managed to get the forward superstructure/bridge fixed in place last night and spent a happy hour or three today adding all the small fittings that I had painted, apart from the directors/hacs and radars this part is amost finished now.Got a production line set up for carley floats which may take a while to add as they are tedious! now I really must get back to work on the boat deck and decide what to do ref the great funnel scandle......

Hi Andrew The turrets are based on the kit ones however I added the master trunnion inserts and the flyhawk roof plate (not 100% accurate tbh) The barrells are from the flyhawk set. Fittings at the front for the barrell deflectors are flyhawk and plastic rod and the strut on the roof is brass rod (not 100% sure what this is, suspect it may be some sort of periscope) I made one of these up for my gambia build and and made a mold, just cast extras now when I need them in resin.

had a reasonably productive day, finished the 3 turrets and got them mounted, tidied up the basic bridge paintwork and added the upper bridge unfortunatly i had not noticed there was an overlap either side so out with the filler and another round of sanding/painting to follow...... also added the catapult and have a healthy pile of smaller fittings all painted and ready to fit once i finally glue the supersture in place (its just resting in the shots below) also got a few of the castings i made tided up and ready for paint.

Bit more progress to report, the resin I ordered turned up earlier today and I have been busy casting various bits n pieces, also got some basic paint on the bridge in the last few days, hoping to have a free day tomorrow and maybe get the bridge attached to the hull.

Hi Nick I quite like painting wood decks as i think most (maybe not all, I have been eyeing the scaledecks.com blank decks up for some time) real wood decks look a little out of scale with their grain showing and seme times the depth of wood is also a little unrealistic. basic procedure I use Spray a light "beige" colour on and mottle it with a lighter shade. For this build I used GSI sail, but any suitable colour would do Pick out individual planks with various similar colours mixed from the vallego range (I usually use about 4 different colours, 3 lighter and one darker) Gloss the deck Add an oil paint wash to gather in the recesses, then wipe off after an hour or so (just as aircraft modellers do to highlight panel lines) Add a final misting with a VERY dilute mix of the base colour. The deck on the bridge superstructure is at the wash stage, as you can see the actual painting of the planks does not have to be too neat, the final misted coat ties everything together.

one step forward, two steps back springs to mind as an apt phrase for the last week....... Molds are made and look fine, however when i went to start casting I found my supply of resin has gone off! so I now need to order some more. Bridge fittings are assembled from the uber fiddly Northstar items and looked okish, at least untill I dropped them....... Finally I have chose a base and made a start on its assembly, looks like theres abit of room left in one corner? really hoping santa brings me something small and minesweeperish in shape to fill it!

Good One Andrew Will keep an eye on this, looks like a good start, may have to have a look at that modelling board for one of my future builds, ive used the plastic card frame technique myself for all my scratchbuilds with milliput for final shape and as long as I can get some decent plans probably takes about the same time but guessing your new method is more sturdy and maybe a little easier to get good results with a bit of practice. Where did you get hold of the flyhawk RN anti slip deck plates? i've been looking for a couple of sheets myself as I have almost ran out for a few months without much luck. Looking forward to see where this one goes!

Hi Kris No its resin from the Flyhawk set, nice detail but I needed to remove the rear floor and have to cut down the deckhouse that sits under it for it to fit properly. The white on the front face is just plastic card built up to increase the diameter of the barbette as its too small and the turret overhangs the edges when it should be flush. Surprisingly ALL the barbettes are too small but the rear ones appear a different size to the front ones? go figure!

Hi Not much to report this week as I had a weekend away to experience the bright lights of Edinburgh. I have however made a start on the bridge superstructure, usual story of issues and neither Trumpeter or Flyhawk are due any credit for this. Probably the biggest issue is the rear face with the hanger doors which I needed to totally replace as the doors were much too small and missing the central opening. I've also made quite a few box's, pedestalls etc both from scratch and various detail sets to populate the various decks. The top of the bridge is a flyhawk resin casting which replaces the inaccurate Trumpeter one, i;ve also added a bit of detail to one of the directors and made a mold box for this and some carley floats and wrapped cable reeels (I HATE making etched reels.....) hopefully get the mold made over the weekend. TBH there are so many issues with the superstructure that at most mine is probably only 80% accurate, about 20 years ago I scratch built a model of Belfast and I am sure it was easier than trying accurise the Trumpeter kit......

Not too much progress to report this week, added quite a few deck fittings and made a start on the blocks that sit on the boat deck, also made a start on the 4" shell transportation rails as the raised line on the kit just dosent cut it! Struggling to find carley floats that look the right size, both the kit and flyhawk examples are much too small, the closest ive found so far are a couple left over from the Academy Warspite, I might have to make a mold of these so I can cast some more, if thats the case I may as well prepare a couple of other items I have to mold as well and have a casting week shortly.

thanks LaurieS thats a weight of my mind! I can sleep easy tonight lol spent a couple of hours today fitting various deck fittings and if i get any spare time tomorrow plan on working on th boatdeck getting it ready for paint.

Latest update Railings are on and nearly all painted, rear deck superstructure coming along nicely and made a start installing the new deck fittings. What 'ive learnt so far is that you simply cant take anything Trumpeter have done at face value....... good example are the bollards, apart from the fact I think some of them should be a different size Trumperter suppliers the right amount of large bollards but not enough locating holes in the deck ......hmmm still its an IM british cruiser and I will be grateful! just hope if their Nelson/Rodney/Exeter/York come out they use aa different designer lol

After a frustrating Telford trip where I got neither the brass or paints that i needed i've managed to get the main painting of the hull finished, just the boot topping to do and then a touch of weathring before I can start adding the railings along with the smaller deck fittings.

Bit more progress to report before this weekends trip to Telford, main hull work all complete, deck painted and the rear superstructure finished, works now underway on the boat deck and thats proving a bit problimatical! but more on that next week..... Now all I need is some extra pots of colourcoats and hull painting can commence. FYI i realise the decks were probably painted at this time but i am sucker for a wooden deck so lets call it artistic licence!

Hi Andrew Thanks for that, I've seen your Belfast build and some of your earlier stuff as well, most impressive! it also seems we have a similar taste as you finished your scratchbuilt Jamaica (at least I think it was yours?) about the same time as I finalised a similar model of Hms Gambia (yours looks a lot better!) I had spotted most of the bits you mention but not all so many thanks! i,ve also spotted a few others but more of that once I progress a bit more, I am hoping to get the main hull mods finished before Telford next weekend so i can start painting it when I get back. I,ve already working on the boat deck and rear superstructure bits on and off alongside the hull (thats how i know about the bad fitting bits!) as i said origionally I AM glad that Trumpeter made it however if I can spot such obvious issues with a couple of hours research no idea why Trumpeter can't? (especially with such excellent reference as the AOTS book available and of course the real thing sitting down in London!) Gary

Hi Bootneck some of the issue with the hull are as follows. In plan view the bulge that was added to the hull extends beyond the edge of the original deck, best ref for this is the AOTS book, many photos clearly show this as well, a big giveaway in photos is the area in front of the step in the hull, its very obvious here, unfotunaatly as far as I can see Trumpeter made the hull the correct width and simply faired the bulge in at the top which looks all wrong. I have "scabbed" a bulge on which is a comprimise as while it looks a much better shape its made the o/a hull width too wide. The areas at the very front of the bulge are also too extended, compare any photor of this area to the kit to see what I mean. In section the area of bulge behind the armour on the front half at least should have an extended vertical area above the armour, this is all but missing from the kit. The area of the hull immediatly behind the hanger should be metal, Trumperter have planking here. Fairleads are the wrong shape and located too far inboard, I have used some 3d printed items here however these are also not quite correct but once located correctly and modified with a few bits of plastic card look a little better. The ones at the very front of the hull are totally wrong (that includes my representations as simply I couldnt be bothered!) There are a lot of deck fittings missing or wrongly located (I dont generally mind this type of thing as they only take minutes to make up usually and having them seperate eases painting. The 3 vertical supports for the mid part of the deck should be at the deck edge not inboard as represented by Trumpeter. TBH it probably would have been easier simply to scratch build a new hull.......however I kept trying to work with what was provided.

Hi All Been a regular reader here for a few years lurking in the shadows however this is my first post, Trumpeters 1/350 HMS Belfast. Tricky one to assess this as while on the one hand its an IM british cruiser in 1/350 (are there ny others?) its also riddled with issues...... overall I think I probably welcome it however to make a truely accurate representation will take an awful lot of work. I plan on tackling some of the more obvious issues and will be adding bits from Flyhawks detail set (not as useful as it could have been this one as its also got quite a few issues) as well as various updates from the likes of Northstar, Flyhawk, shapeways etc to try and add some finess along the way So far I am about a month into the build and have chosen to go waterline, biggest issues I have come accross so far are the bulge shapes which verge on the side of fantasy and the barbetts which are simply too small to match the turrets (and just to add insult to injury they are not even all the same size!) Photos are from my phone so apologies for the quality!