Chewbacca

Wouldn't have got up at 5.00am every morning this past week to put in an hour and a half before I go to work if I'd known that! Mine should still be finished tomorrow.

After a week on complete inactivity while Mrs Chewbacca and I were away on holiday (14 deg and rain on a cruise to the Norwegian fjords while the rest of UK basked in 30 deg!), I spent a good proportion of the weekend after we got back playing catch up. Main effort has been on the boats which are now almost all complete although I did knock the screens off when i was fitting one of the SMBs so they need to be replaced and looking at the photos made me realise that i have yet to add the gripes so that will get done this week. Flight deck decals also added. These were taken from the Atlantic Models Leander Class frigate set and were a little tricky to get lined up, especially the circle which was adamant it wanted to stretch in every direction other than where I wanted it go. The astute amongst you will notice that the deck codes are spaced a little too far apart. That's because although i lined up the bum line with the flight deck supports, it is about 2 mmm to far aft which means that the circle is also too far aft leaving insufficient toom for the deck codes. But by the time I realised that it was too late so will have to live with it. Attention then also turned to the foremast which was completed and just waiting to be fitted. Easy you might think? Well it would be if it weren't for the bulwark that goes around the signal deck which is a complex shape of varying height and curved around the mast. But we got there in the end, not before I'd knocked off the I-band nav radar while fitting the halyards though. I think I need to move the starboard inner halyard though as the angle doesn't look right compared to the port side. Annoyingly, while we were away someone was fiddling with my workbench (we had people coming in to feed our cats) and had moved a few things around. In doing so they have managed to knock the Inmarsat aerial on the floor and I cannot find it so will have to 3D print a replacement. So nearly there. Main elements remaining are to: finish off the boats, signal projectors, flight deck and bridge roof guardrails whip aerials main roof aerials a couple of small derricks swimmer of the watch gear bridge roof DF antenna horizon bar flight deck floodlights glide path indicator figures and, if I get the time, finish drawing a Wasp helicopter in CAD, printing and adding that though I suspect that may be a step too far for this GB! Thanks for watching

That's it - perfect. Thanks

I am rapidly reaching the point in my HMS HECLA Op Corporate build in the Falklands GB area that I need to start fitting the davits and boats. The motor whaler and SMBs use a variation of the standard RN gravity davit fitted throughout the 60s and 70s and I know that there is a rigging diagram in the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship 1981 edition. Unfortunately I have loaned my copy out to my son who professes to not know where it is. Does anyone have a drawing of the davit rigging that they could share please? Thanks in anticipation

Little more progress though I am getting increasingly concerned it won't be complete by the end of the GB, especially since between now and then I have a week of leave when I will be away. Main change has been the addition of decals so that I could get the model mounted to the seascape. Previously I've always used Crafty Computer Paper decal sheet but my existing stocks were all part used and my new printer refused to play with half sheets. Unfortunately Crafty appear to have gone out of business so I searched for an alternative and none of the ones I found had consistently good results. In the end I went for a product from a company called Rolurious. I was slightly concerned that the online instructions suggested baking the decals in the oven at 120 deg C for 15 mins to harden but that was very much aimed at the ceramic market where the products would have to ultimately be washed. I figured I would probably be okay without. Most of the negative reviews said that the ink washed off as soon as you put it in water but I assessed that was probably people not understanding the difference between a laser jet and ink jet and using water soluble ink and not sealing it. Fortunately I have a colour laser printer and can report that the ink is indeed waterproof but it is definitely more fragile than Crafty as I had to be extremely careful when handling the decals in the tweezers as the ink had a tendency to scratch off. They settled on extremely well with the use of Microsol but again the Microsol if used aggressively would break down the edge of the decals. Fortunately I printed a number of spares . So with the hull decals fixed the ship was attached to the base with 2 pack epoxy and eft to set before I started to fill in the gaps (largely caused by the base warping as the plaster set) with acrylic gel. Still some more of that to add especially around the wake area. So that meant that I could start work on the guardrails (Atlantic Models generic railings set). Still a fair few to do but I've reached the point that I need to work out how the guardrails fit around the boats. I realised a while ago that and some I needed some 1/350 modern flight deck nets which don't appear in any of the generic sets that i am aware of so a very helpful exchange of emails followed with Peter from Atlantic Models which resulted in the procurement of a spare set of PE from a Batch 2 T22. Not only has this provided the flight deck nets but an array of other useful PE which helped no end with finishing up the foremast including yardarms and aerials. The revised funnel has printed quite well with the platforms and sirens as have the Geminis ... which is more than I can say for their photos which are all out of focus. They will have to follow. Thanks for watching

Thanks both for your comments. I have already sanded the hull extensively both before painting and after and apart from a couple of bits that I have gone over again after seeing those photos above, I assure you that the vast majority of those blemishes that show in the macro photography can be barely seen with the naked eye! No much progress this week unfortunately but I did notice another omission. When I was looking for the original of the photo in my last post of us coming up the Hamoaze, I remembered that I had taken a copy of this photo taken by the ICRC as we were alongside in Montevideo on I think our second visit. And it made me realise that a, the position where 02 deck cuts back in is too short and should in fact be about another 5mm further aft and b, I had completely missed off the small sponsons and very prominent ship's sirens from the funnel. I decided that having already modified 02 deck once, I was going to leave well along on this occasion as I feared that I would cause too much collateral damage. But I could do something about the funnel. The sponsons would be easily added from sheet styrene but the sirens were another matter so back to the CAD and redraw. The revised funnel is currently curing so I'll know how successful I've been in a pair of hours or so but in the meantime, here's a screenshot of the render: I also took the opportunity to draw a Gemini and outboard to go on the hangar roof (which is where I assume it was stored - it usually was in my other ships but I can find no photographic proof of where it was in the H class. What is currently puzzling me though is this. If you look at the pictures in my previous post, you will see there are two what look like inverted "L" shape gantries on the foc's'le adjacent to the survey crane. I have no idea what they are or actually where they are located. This image of HECATE shows them quite clearly but does not show whether they are in fact two gantries side by side or one gantry with two vertical supports in line astern nor where they attach to the deck. https://www.navy-net.co.uk/community/media/hms-hecate.477/ Are they part of the crane? Or are they part of the hydraulics? Or something else? They are certainly not there in later photos of HECLA post about 1984. I wonder if anyone else has any ideas? Thanks for watching

Thanks @ArnoldAmbroseand @Ex-FAAWAFU for your kind words. Sorry for the lack of recent updates. As strongly suspected from the outset, I failed to get it ready for the Royal Naval Association Modelmakers' Special Interest Group event to tie in with the 40th anniversary commemorations last weekend in Portsmouth. So the aim now is to get this model complete by the end of the Group Build which I think would be a first for me (at least on BM, i think I finished one on time over on ATF). Some progress has been made since my last report although with being away last weekend that did slow things down a little. The first thing I realised was that the 25 man liferaft containers that I printed for my PUMA build could be improved. The ones I printed for PUMA had the black rubber seal that goes around the middle standing proud and whilst this may have made for easier CAD, I felt I could do it more accurately. And so they were redrawn with a slight inset. Of course that did then mean that they were more difficult to paint but for every up there' a down and vice versa. The other thing I noticed looking at this photo blown up to maximum resolution was that I had completely got the position of the 27 ft motor whaler engine bay completely wrong - it was way too far aft whereas as this photo clearly shows it is nearly midships. I'd also included thwarts which I think the older motor whalers I'm pretty certain that by the late 1970s they had transitioned to seating around the sides of the boat. So that gave me the opportunity to redesign and reprint the motor whaler. On the starboard side of the foc's'le there is a very prominent structure that I think is the hydraulic power pack for the main survey crane. You can see it in the photo above but even that photo didn;t give me any clear vision of hat it truly looked like. Later on this whole structure was boxed in but in 1982 it appears to be open on all four sides with just a roof to provide shelter from the elements. So let's just say there is a degree of artistic licence there. I've also started the weathering because I'm not far from the point that I want to start thinking about securing HECLA to the base to make handling a lot easier. Surprisingly the photo above and this one: show that in comparison to many others ships in the Task Force, including our sister ships HYDRA and HERALD, we had survived the ravages of repeated South Atlantic Force 12s very well with very little rust. But then I seem to recall that we did a fair bit of painting on the way home so it may well be that we had removed the evidence by the time these two photos were taken. The first photo I know very well - I am stood there on the starboard bridge wing as we return up the Hamoaze on 29 July 1982, IIRC, I am the 5th one in from the aft end of that line of officers. I don't recall when the second photo was taken but we weren't doing photexes on the way south so I would hazard a guess that was taken sometime between Ascension Island and UK. I do have another photo in my personal collection that I found online but for which I can no longer find the URL so I won't publish it for fear of breaching copyright rules, but it was taken in the Red Cross Box (or NOSH box as it became known) and clearly shows some corrosion on the port anchor and down the port side. (I do hate macro photography so much! With the naked eye the ship's side doesn't look anywhere near as bad as that photo makes it out to be!) I've also started painting the seascape base. This comprises a base coat of Vallejo Gunship Green and Royal Blue with several coats of Dark Blue-Grey misted over the top, Once that had been given a few days to thoroughly dry, I then started to dry brush the crests of the waves with Tamiya XF-2 flat white. Annoying, when the bae was originally created the hull sat perfectly in the cut out but once again the base has warped slightly as the plaster of Paris dried resulting in the hull sitting proud either forward or aft. I will sort that with the gel coat. Next job is to start on the decals as i need to get the main hull red crosses on before secure the hull to the base and the bottom section of at least the port side will be underwater so they need to go on first. To continue the thoughts from the South Atlantic, we arrived at the top end of the Total Exclusion Zone on 14th May and rendezvoused with SS Uganda for the first time since she had sailed from Gib just over 2 weeks previously. She was already in use and had a number of SHEFIELD's casualties embarked. A few days later, we were called into action for the first time when HMS YARMOUTH appeared over the horizon and flashed a signal to us which basically said "follow me". Because were were sailing under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, we were not allowed to carry any crypto and so could not receive classified signals. But we followed YARMOUTH for a couple of hours until our radar started to fill with lots of contacts as we rendezvoused with the main elements of the Task Group. Very soon a helicopter appeared and transferred 24 Argentinians to use, the survivors from the fishing vessel Narwhal which had been following the Task Group and was subsequently sunk by Sea Harriers. Most were walking wounded, suffering just from the exposure to the waters in the South Atlantic as they abandoned ship but there were 2 or 3 quite nasty injuries which our medics tended to. We headed back west to the NOSH box, rendezvoused with Uganda once again and passed these survivors across. But it would not be the last that we saw of them... Now I mention the NOSH box. Officially this was entitled the Red Cross Box, but it was quickly nicknamed the NOSH box in a parody of the TV series M.A.S.H.; in our case it stood for Naval Oceangoing Surgical Hospital! If you look at this photo of an Argentine Puma sitting on Uganda's flight deck, you can see NOSH painted on the stbd aft quarter. The NOSH box was located about 40 nm north of Falkland Sound and was a holding box for UGANDA, the 3 H class and the Argentinian hospital ship Bahia Paraiso (see below). I seem to recall that they had a second hospital ship but we never saw her. Thanks for watching

I decided that i would never been totally happy if I left off the missing ladders and so I carefully drilled a hole through 01 deck on either side and armed with a brand new X-Acto No 10 blade carefully opened up the hole to the right shape/size. I did however compromise on not fitting the ladder on the port side from 2 deck up to 1 deck as I couldn't even get the frill in the accurately open up the hole without serious risk of taking out the deck above. I did dislodge 01 deck anyway cutting through but that was quickly reseated and there was just a small amount of damage to the paintwork on the superstructure above which was easily rectified. I also made the base yesterday. This is the usual technique with plaster of Paris but my usual bag was nearly out to I tried a different type which was left over from some recent decorating. It had one advantage and two disadvantages. Firstly, it didn't set so fast as the usual material which gave me more time to work it, but because it took much longer to dry (2 hours + as opposed to the usual 10 minutes), I lost a fair bit of time waiting for it to set before I could take the model out of the base. Also, because it was designed for decorating, I wanted to self level and so I am not sure how well the swell and Kelvin wake will look once it has finally dried. I guess I will only find out when I put a coat of primer on it. I did consider going for the South Atlantic force 12 but in the end settled on a calmer sea. I know all of the headlines were of awful weather - and for much of our time down south it was - but there were times when it was calmer. So this is representing us on the day that we went into Grantham Sound to secure alongside SS Uganda to embark casualties. Some more recollections from the trip south. HECLA had a big wake up call on the evening of 4th May. Because we were operating under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, we had no means, other than commercial VHF of communicating with the Task Force and so we found out what was happening from the BBC World Service. I clearly remember going up to the bridge at 2340 that evening to take over the watch for the Middle and the first thing that the offgoing OOW said to me was "SHEFFIELD's been hit". Just writing that now still sends shivers down my back. This wasn't the game plan. They're not supposed to fight back. I think to a man we genuinely thought that we would rock up, they would throw up their hands in terror that "the Navy's here" and we would all be home in time for tea and medals. But no, they were shooting back. One of our newest destroyers was now about a few hundred miles south of us burning. My first thought was "Who did I know in SHEFFIELD; were they okay?". At this stage we didn't know anything about casualties so we had no idea that 20 sailors had already lost their lives. The mood was somewhat subdued and sombre for the next 4 hours, I finished the watch, went to bed and got up for breakfast at 0730. By the time I got into the wardroom, the place had been transformed. Previously the mentality had been "we're not going to war, no need to secure for action" and so curtains and all the soft (burnable) furnishings remained in situ. By 0730 on 5 May that had all changed and everything had been taken down and secured in the deep survey store. where it's risk of catching fire was much reduced. As officers, we also changed our rig. Up to that point we had continued to wear our then usual sea going rig of No 12s (white cotton shirts, black polyester trousers) or their white equivalent (cotton short sleeved shirts and shorts with sandals). After 5 May we all started to wear No 8 action working dress - dark blue trousers, light blue shirts. However, as we were to later find out, this was probably worse because they were all man-made fibre and when you got into a fire they tended to melt as many of the burns casualties that we were to meet later experienced. Thanks for watching

The perils of scratchbuilding without actual plans continue. So a fair bit of progress has been made including fitting the main superstucture block to the hull which meant that i could start adding things like ladders. Unfortunately, the ladder that goes from 01 to 02 deck should sit inboard of the two large whip aerials. And as you can see, there ain't no way that I could do that. Sadly what I had done was cut the aft end of the wooden element of 02 deck too narrow and didn't notice that there is in fact an overhang. I figured that I had two choices: Fit the whip aerials inboard of the ladder; Modify the deck albeit accepting that I would never get an invisible join. I would never have been happy with the former so I opted to cut away a section of 02 deck and replace it with a larger infill to provide the correct space to fit the whip bases. Not perfect, but at least now I can fit the whip bases in the right place. I also noticed that I had forgotten to cut at the access through the deck from 2 deck up to 1 deck port side and from 1 deck up to 01 deck on both sides. I haven't decided how to proceed on those yet - given that the risk of greater damage is significant I may end up using modeller's licence and omitting them. But i do need to decide today because the more I progress, the more damage I risk if I do decide to fit them. Annoyingly, this is almost identical to a problem I had with BULOLO but at least access to her decks was somewhat easier. Anchors, cables and windlass have been added to the fo'c'sle and the rest of the forward fo'c'lse fitted out. There has been significant; sanding to the front of the bridge screen to align the bulwark at the fwd end of 01 deck to the superstructure block below which is why I haven't yet fitted the survey crane and other fitments on the aft end of the fo'c'sle but I think I'm just about there now with the bridge screen so I can get those bits fitted. Deck supports have also been added between 1 and 01 decks and 01 and 02, though I do need to add more to the aft end of 01 deck.. Not shown in these photos is the fact that the navigation lights have been built from sheet styrene and styrene rod but given that they stand proud of the bridge wings, there is a risk they will get broken off with handling until it is secured to its base...which I haven't yet made. That's probably a task for today. Thanks for watching

No. The one thing that HECLA taught me was that hydrography, vitally important though it is, was supremely boring! We had a very charismatic Wasp Flight Commander on board (akin to Lord Flashheart if any of you remember Black Adder Goes Forth) and he persuaded me to specialise in naval aviation instead (and hence my avatar). What the hydrographers also taught me though was astro-navigation from first principles and all 3 Midshipmen on board graduated with our Ocean Navigation Certificates at the end of the trip which in those days to get that qualification as a Mid was extremely rare. Continued fitting out the quarterdeck and bridge areas so that they could be closed up. I realised though just as I was about to finally fit the flight deck that it was a tadge too long. The photos showed that even with the transom flight deck nets lowered. they did not extend over the sea despite the measurements taken from the photographs appearing correct. So I took the decision that regardless of how the mistake had been made I would rust to Mk1 eyeball and get it to look right rather than worrying about the odd mm here or there. Thus 3 mm was shaved off the back end of the flight deck before it was secured in place. Original Shortened I fitted 3 figures to the bridge - OOW, 2OOW and QM and did a test fit of the bridge roof to make sure that they did not foul the fitting but that was fine. But when I took the roof off, the OOW had disappeared. He is no where to be found anywhere on the bench. But I needn't worry for despite my best efforts with leaving the doors open and glazing the windows, you really cannot see anything inside! The photos below were taken after the OW went AWOL. I experienced the same with the main chart room where I fitted the plotting table and printed a decal portraying the map of the South Atlantic that was always on there (another story about that but I will include that later). Again, can't see a thing through the windows but I know that it is there! Macro photography is so unforgiving! Next job is to sand the bridge screen smooth before repainting. Thanks for watching

@Enzo Matrix Thanks for moving this across I was sat there the other day thinking I had loads of time to the Falklands commemorations in Portsmouth in June and thought that I might actually get this complete. Then reality struck yesterday when I realised that it is 2 weeks today. So not a chance. But I think there is a chance that for the first time ever I might finish it within the GB period. So while others were out celebrating the jubilee over the past couple of days, I managed to get some time at the bench. Those who have seen my 1/350 PUMA build will know that I 3D printed about 270 figures for her to represent the visitors on her upperdeck during Navy Days and I vowed I would never do that again. Painting that number of tint people was not at all relaxing. But people put models into context and so I have printed a few for HECLA and started to get them painted. At least most are all the same colours. Now you might be questioning why am I doing that so early in the build? Well I have opened up the bridge and so therefore need an OOW, 2OOW (me ), QM, and BM and I need to put them in before I secure the bridge because after that it will be near impossible to get them in. How much of the bridge interior you will be able to see I do not know as I have left both bridge doors open and glazed the windows with PVA but it's still a little limited. I'll know that they're there. Having originally planned to use a generic wooden deck before I realised that all of the Artwox suppliers were based in China and were quoting months shipping times, and the Mk1 design deck from Hannants with shipping was eye wateringly expensive, I went with the traditional painted approach, this time trying Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan which I'd not tried before. I don't think it's a bad representation. If anything I would say it is a little too dark and too brown. The other part that needs completing early is the quarterdeck as when the flight deck is attached, it will be impossible to add all of the bollards, fairleads and vents under there. So work has started in the area. I realised when I was doing that that I put the bulwarks almost all the way to the end and forgot the fact that there is a small gap on the port side where the jumping ladder is lowered and a slightly larger gap on the starboard side for the petrol stowage. I had a spare 3D printed petrol stowage from Puma that I thought I could repurpose but when looking at the photos of HECLA returning up the Hamoaze, it was apparent that HECLA's stowage is much larger than PUMA's so had to draw a print a new one. Charlie asked for some recollections so I'll add a bit to each thread as I go. The Falklands for me started like so many matelots on Friday 2 December 1982. I was a fresh-faced Midshipman, still at BRNC Dartmouth and preparing to pass out at Lord High Admiral's Divisions the following week. we came off the parade ground on lunchtime that Friday to hear the news that the Argentinians had invaded the Falklands: our immediate response was to head to the College Library to find out where the Falklands were with some people querying what the Argentinians were doing off Scotland. On Monday the Task Force sailed and on Tuesday, I led the senior platoon at our passing out parade, a privilege that was afforded to the student who had achieved the highest mark in the final exams. I went home on leave and expected to fly to Gibraltar in 2 weeks to join HMS HECLA as an Officer Under Training to begin what in those days was known as Fleet Time. General List Young Officers in the 1980s spent a year at sea post Dartmouth learning how the Navy worked and this was split between 3-4 months in a small ship (generally a Ton class minesweeper) followed by 8-9 months in a frigate or destroyer. HECLA was my small ship because I had expressed an interest in specialising as a Hydrographer. Anyways, I'd been at home for about 3-4 days watching the events unfold on the TV when i got a call from a Petty Officer at the Fleet Headquarters at Northwood. "Get yourself to RAF Lyneham tonight, take warm clothes and think penguin" was all he would say. And so I got to Lyneham at about midnight. Spent 48 hours or so in transit accommodation waiting for a seat to become available and then spent a very uncomfortable 4 hours in the back of a Hercules with no heating as our main cargo was about 10 tons of frozen food. We arrived in Gib and still didn't know what was happening but were transported to the dockyard whereupon I joined HECLA which was resplendent in a new paint job. Gone were her buff funnels and mast and replaced with white all over with red crosses. We were being transformed into a hospital ship. Actually, SS UGANDA which was berthed astern of us was being transformed into a hospital ship, we were going to become one of her ambulances along with our sister ships HYDRA and HERALD which were already on their way south from Plymouth. SS UGANDA was interesting. Taken up from trade while on a schools educational cruise in Naples, she put her schoolchildren ashore to fly back to UK and then the dockyard mateys in Gib spent 84 hours converting her into a fully fledged hospital ship with operating theatres, an intensive care unit and a flight deck. I well remember coming back from my only brief run ashore (run ashore being the naval term for a night out) to see welders sitting over the edge of UGANDA's flight deck in 3s. There were not enough fully qualified welders in Gib at the time so either side of each experienced welder were 2 apprentices, watching what he did and doing the same. UGANDA sailed first, leaving Gib on 18 April and we followed 24 hours later. Now Officers Under Training traditionally spend their whole time split between bridge watchkeeping and completing their whole ship task books - the end of Fleet Time is an 8 hour oral grilling by senior Commanders and Captains about everything in the Navy with a penalty for those who fail of being dismissed. In 1982, there were no options for retakes and so we (I was one of 3 Mids to join HECLA in Gib) were a little disconcerted I guess to meet the Captain and be told to hand in our task books as they would not be needed as we would be 1 in 3 watchkeeping on the bridge or, if the casualty numbers got up, on the wards (which were a couple of our mess decks repurposed). As it turned out, we needn't have worried as there was actually plenty of time on passage south (and north) to complete the small ships sections of our task books. And very quickly after setting course for the Falklands, the 3 Mids had our own watches on the bridge with charge of the ship as opposed to simply being the 2OOW. But all the time we were wondering. Why have we got a hospital ship and 3 ambulance ships. Surely as soon as the Argentinians know that the Royal Navy is en-route, they will throw their hands up in the air and head back to the South American mainland? And sadly that was the mentality on board.

Well they say that you learn something new every day! I stand corrected. Thank you. I suppose I should have checked my various reference books on VICTORIOUS and Fleet Air Arm squadrons before opening mouth...

I know I'm late to the party on this (as always), but I only spotted this thread when looking for something else. My last job in uniform at Boscombe Dow was commanding the squadron that produced all of the aircrew technical publications for rotary wing. Any Topic 16 (the Operating Data Manual) will simply have a series of graphs and performance data tables that the aircrew use to determine whether they have sufficient power to take off/land/hover/achieve safe single engine etc in any given condition of all up mass, outside air temperature etc. The Topic 15 is the Aircrew Manual and is the most detailed aircrew technical publication. Some, like the Lynx, and Merlin were reasonably well furnished with images. Earlier Topic 15s such as the Wasp were much less so. When I was doing my Wasp, I did ask a friend who's a civil servant still serving on the squadron, and a former Wasp flight commander, to send me a PDF of all of the images in the Topic 15. It was about 4 small pictures! The Topic 14 are the Flight Reference Cards and very rarely have any images in them. It's the engineering manuals that you need for drawings for any aircraft..

Thanks Charlie and Rob. I suppose I could do if people would be interested. Sadly I didn't keep a diary so the memory is a little vague on some of the details, but some, like the night I arrived on the bridge for the Middle Watch at about 2330 on 4th May and the first thing the off-going OOW said was "SHEFFIELD's been hit" is as clear today in my mind as it always has been, and still sends a shiver down my spine to think about it. I can certainly pull something together if you think it wouldn't be too self-indulgent. As for the Wasp, I have already done it in 1/48 with a section of flight deck to match. I'm certainly not drawing a whole Wasp in CAD to 3D print in 1/350 but my friend Roger at Dorsetprintman has just released a Wasp in 1/72 and 1/144 so I suppose I could persuade him to share the .stl file with me. I have 3D printed the flight deck team and was planning on representing this ship at flying stations, nets down with the flight milling about waiting for Wilbur to return. Latest update is that I am struggling somewhat with the airbrush. I know it's my fault in that I primed everything using a Halfords grey rattle can; I should have not been a cheapskate and bought a white one because the white is struggling to cover the grey. The hull has now had about 8 coats I think and it's still patchy. It's not helped by the paint mix. I'm getting it to what looks like a milk like consistency (about 2/3 : 1/3 paint to thinner) but it's either too thick to spray or one more drop of thinner and it goes so thin that it just runs off. I'm using Tamiya acrylics with water as a thinner and a tiny drop of washer fluid to relax the surface tension. Anyone else had similar problems of too thick or too thin with no middle ground?

Bit remiss of me I suppose but is it too late to join? I hadn't realised that this GB was running when I started to scratchbuild HMS HECLA in 1/350 with extensive use of 3D printing about 4 weeks ago. It's still well under 25% complete based on the fact that there are very few pieces actually connected together apart from the two hull halves though I have got most of them designed in CAD, printed and started to get them all painted ready for assembly.. I started a build log here: I won't go into full details here but in short, I joined HECLA in Gibraltar on 17 April 1982 as a baby Midshipman straight out of Dartmouth and 2 days later was heading south. I think that's what they call a baptism of fire! I was hoping to get her ready for a Falkland's Anniversary model show in 4 weeks time but I can't see that happening somehow. Anyway, if its not too late and you don't think there's too much done already then delighted to join in

Definitely EAGLE. VICTORIOUS never carried Buccaneers

Correct. The first 3 entered service before the UK's order of MM38 was delivered by Aerospatiale with the intention of retrofitting when available but ANTELOPE never had her chance. In the end they were fitted to hulls 4-8 first before AMAZON and AMBUSCADE got theirs IIRC.

I use a similar set of magnifying glasses to the optivisor which my wife gave me a couple of years ago. Absolutely invaluable and work fine with my varifocals. I would say they are essential for any ship modelling as these days the level of detail that people put in with aftermarket is impossible to see with the naked eye!

I know this is probably way too late but HMS COURAGEOUS was open as a museum in Devonport. Their website which hasn't been updated for a wee while says that it is closed for maintenances until early 2021 but worth a call I suppose if anyone's in the area.

Sorry a little late to this I know but have you considered making your own? What I have done for many of my models is get some 4 mm glass cut to size from my local glaziers and get him to take the sharp edges off. Then simply glue them together on the base using specialist glass glue. I've just had a look and I can't find any photos of my models in their cases - I must get some done. I put the sizes into that website for a typical 1/600 cruiser (450 mm x 120 mm x 150 mm) and it came out at just shy of £60. My glazier usually charges me ~£10 for that size. I've recently found an online supplier of perspex who can do the same but cheaper still. Only issue with them is their shipping was quite pricey (more expensive than the perspex) so I'm holding fire until I have 4 or 5 to do in one batch to spread the shipping costs. Hope that helps

Work continues slowly. Now got a couple of coats of white on all the major components though it it still looks somewhat patchy and thin so will need a couple more coats. I think my paint mix was too thin. Also added the bulwarks to the fo'c'sle and 1 deck port and starboard and started to cut out the decks from 30 thou plasticard. Some dry fit photos below. As you can see from these, still more remedial work needed on the hull join. [ In the background have also drawn all (hopefully) of the other minor components - motor whaler, cutter, davits, vents, lockers, bollards, fairleads and so on. They'll be going to the printer later today. Thanks for watching

Fwd and aft hull halves now epoxied together, filler added to hide the join and a first coast of primer to see where we're at. Still some more filling and sanding! I also took the main superstucture off the print sprues and flattened off the base ready for a dry fit. Unfortunately I thin I should have UV cured it before taking it off the sprues because the port side of the hangar, which was pretty thin (0.2 mm IIRC), warped as soon as the support was removed. So will have to replace that with some sheet styrene. The hangar door isn't much better I'm afraid so that may have to go as well. The other area that needed attention was the bridge roof. Where I had cut through the bridge windows for visibility, I ended up cutting too close to the roof and it was less than 1/20th mm think in the end which of course crumbled as soon as I cut away the supports. So that's already replaced with some 20 thou styrene. I also had an issue where I was trying to be too clever. Just aft and 1 deck below the bridge was the main chart room. This was a huge open space with a large plotting table in the middle where the hydrographers would manually prepare the chart masters. I thought I would mould the table to the deck below so that it would be visible through the fairly large windows. Only slight snag was that for some strange reason I drew it in the wrong place. So out with the razor saw and off it came. In hindsight, it was a bit too big. It was only about 6 foot square and that was closer to 10 or 12. I have very fond memories of using that table to "amend" a large chart of the South Atlantic on which we had plotted all of the seabirds we had seen which was to be presented to the Royal Naval Ornithological Society when we returned. Let's just say that there may have been some additional ones added that probably have never appeared on any bird watcher's list before or after! In our defence, they were only in pencil... (and no, that is not a fingerprint though I do concede in the photo it does look spookily like one) @Andreas.R was very kind and offered me the offcuts he had left over from his Artwox deck but no matter how I played the jigsaw, I couldn't get all of the bits to fit and I can't find any suppliers outside China who are all quoting July/August delivery times. So I guess I will have to try the Mk1 deck which Hannants do have in stock. Or I might just resort to painting the deck as I always have done in the past. I've also printed all of the smaller bits and pieces - funnel, foremast, main survey crane, capstan and windlass and have started to draw the boats in CAD. There must be an easier way to draw boats that I have found. So far I have done a first pass at the Survey Motor Boat. Still need to draw the 27 ft motor whaler and the smaller cutter that sits on the stbd aft davit. For the life of me I cannot remember what that was and the photos are not especially clear Thanks for watching

Dear Andreas, That is extremely kind of you. I have sent you a PM with the dimensions Very best regards

Or maybe I won't. Hadn't spotted that all of the suppliers I had looked at for the Artwox deck were in China and quoting delivery times measured in months not weeks. I can get the Mk1 from Hannants but they seem expensive.. I may have to go down that route though.

Thanks Andreas, that's most helpful to hear from someone who has actually used the product. I shall place an order now.