JohnWS

Thanks Chewbacca. Finding something that didn't look too bulky was a wee bit of a challenge. I started out with .4mm dia. brass rod, then a number of attempts with stretched plastic sprue, & then raiding my wife's sewing basket looking at various sizes of pins & needles. But, everything either looked too out-of-scale or was too weak to hold up the helicopter. Finally, I found the wire brush in one of my tool boxes. I didn't have a choice here. The hangar is solid resin. John

Happy New Year everyone. Time to get back to some modelling. I've completed building the Regina's beartrap. My first tiny build since my cataract surgery. Man what an improvement, using two eyes instead of just one. Here's a photo showing the actual beartrap plus my attempt to build the beartrap on Regina's flight deck. I've dry fitted the helicopter in place s well. It took a while to find a small diameter wire to simulate the beartrap's hauldown cable in 1/350 scale, & that would be strong enough to hold up the helicopter. I ended up using a .3mm stainless steel bristle from a steel wire brush (the kind used for removing rust, old paint, etc. from metal surfaces.). Another photo showing how the helicopter will look once it is glued in place. Next up, I'll be attaching the PE 'netting' to the side edges of the flight deck, & then attach the masts plus start adding the rigging. Thanks for looking in. Stay safe! John

Happy New Year, David. Nice to see the awesomeness continues in 2024. John

Best wishes to you & your family, beefy.

Merry Christmas Steve.

Impressive work using Clingfilm, beefy. I don't think you can get much more realistic than the waves shown in your photo, above. John

Now thatis going to be a 'fun' build. For reference https://www.combinedops.com/FDTs.htm John

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Rob, to you and your family. And, quoting Jon, "Thanks for your inspiration and guidance over the past year." John

Another nice build, Jon. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you & your family, as well. John

Thanks Rob, my vision is pretty much back to normal. And, thanks for the links. I'm still on the fence whether to use the static prop or the blurred effect. John

She looks great Rob. Fantastic detailing ! John

Jon, it looks like you'll have some challenges with this kit. Sometimes, i wonder if the kit makers actually build the kits prior to putting them on the market. John

Thanks beefy for your kind comments. I was standing next to the beartrap in the helicopter hangar of HMCS Vancouver last May. At the time, I was more interested in the hoist that was hanging from the hangar roof, than what was on the deck. If I only knew then that I'd be adding the beartrap I'd have paid more attention ... Thanks for the reply Chewy. I remember talking to an RCAF helicopter pilot who had just been transferred to fly Sea King helicopters off the decks of RCN ships. We were just going through the pain of armed forces unification at the time in the '60's. Up to that point, the Navy had trained its own pilots. After unification, anything that flew was crewed by the RCAF. The RCAF pilot told me it was quite an adjustment for him living on board a ship & having to land on a small moving target.. Thanks Stuart. It's good to be back. And, thanks for your feedback regarding the props. I've thought about using the disks from my days modelling things that fly, but I've always defaulted to using the props. I guess it's one of those things that comes down to personal preference. John

I'm back! My eye surgery went extremely well. I can actually see out of both eyes now. Apparently my vision can only get better as it'll take a couple of weeks for the eye to heal completely, I've been thinking about different ways of mounting the helicopter to Regina's flight deck. I like the idea of having the helicopter airborne similar to that shown in the following photos; The Halifax class frigates have a device, affectionally known as the 'beartrap', used to assist helicopters in landing on the flight deck in rough seas, as described below; I'm going to attempt to scratch build the beartrap, and attach the helicopter to the deck with a small gauge wire, simulating the helicopter landing & being hauled down on the deck. Building a detailed beartrap (about .2" square) will be a good test for my repaired eye. Thanks again for looking in. Stay safe! John

Hi Jon, I'm leaning towards the HDML to add to your fleet of coastal forces vessels. John

John

Awesome, Rob. Looking forward (with 2 eyes ) to see this build progress. John

A small update. I've closed down my boatyard for a while. I've developed a cataract one of my eyes that's affecting my depth perception. It's a real pain when trying to glue tiny parts in tiny spaces. Luckily, my surgeon was able to bump my eye surgery up to the end of this month (apparently there's currently a year long waiting list for elective surgeries, due to the pandemic). If all goes well, I should be back to finish off Regina soon. Stay tuned & stay safe. John

Nice rust effect on the deck Rob. Interesting reading about life aboard LCT's. Thanks for sharing. John

socjo1's HMS Jed - River Class Frigate build thread includes some nice photos of the River's bridge windscreen. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235080780-hms-jed-river-class-frigate-1350-starling-models-conversion/&do=findComment&comment=3951476 John

Jon, your River-class frigate built has really got my old brain cells working (cobwebs & all). My Dad served in HMCS Lauzon, a River-class frigate, near the end of WWII. The RCN Rivers were decommissioned after the war. Some of the Canadian Rivers were re-commissioned in the 1950s and modernized as a Prestonian-class escorts. One in particular, HMCS Buckingham, was further modified as a platform to test the helicopter carrying concept. The tests were successful, & from that point on a number of later classes of Canadian warships were designed to carry at least one helicopter. As I like building models of unique RCN/RN warships, your build has got me thinking about how to scratch build HMCS Buckingham (with her flight deck) using Starling Models 1/350 kit as the base. I guess I better start paying more attention to your build, & do some homework, to determine if it's possible to modify the Starling kit to turn it into a Prestonian-class escort & finally HMCS Buckingham. John

Awesome detail on the open bridge, David. I've been known to have a little experience in breaking drill bits. Initially, I could only buy replacements in full sets & that was getting expensive. More recently I'm able to buy individual replacement sizes ... a little easier on the pocket book. Keep up the good work! John

Very nice, Jon. John

I can almost hear the roar of the engines. Very nice work on the seascape Jon. John