Chewbacca

Hi Nick, Not necessarily true on the white fronts. In home waters, ratings dressed as seamen in Class II rig (i.e. the traditional sailors uniform that everyone thinks of), white fronts (the RN's terminology for the shirts you refer to) were summer rig and blue fronts, also known as blue jerseys, were the winter rig worn under the serge jacket. Pre-war, this summer/winter rig was also aligned to the cap covers with the basic cap being black and a washable white cover worn over the top in summer. An Admiralty Fleet Order was issued, I think in October 1939 (it may have been AFO 3025 which certainly dealt with hostilities uniform changes but I can't find anything definitive), that white cap covers would not be worn for the duration of hostilities so you can get black caps with white fronts, as this photo shows of Rear Admiral Glennie (the former CO of HMS HOOD before she went down) welcoming King George on board his flagship, HMS TYNE, at Scapa Flow in August 1943: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205151304 I don't now the exact date of the changeover from winter to summer rig but based on the regulations that were in force in the 1980s/90s, i would imagine summer rig, i.e. white front, would have been worn 1 Apr - 30 Sep. However, it is slightly complicated because there is this image: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142659, which shows the King visiting HMS SOMALI in June 42 at Scapa and they're wearing blue fronts. If anyone has a copy of Brayley, 2014, Royal Navy Uniforms 1930-1945, that probably has the definitive answer on the AFO number, the date of its imposition and the annual changeover dates. Unfortunately I don't and at £17 I can't really justify the cost.

Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. Absolutely crystal clear from the surface down to the seabed which was about 15-18m at our berth. But other than the very rare, obscure Far East Asian, ports, i'd totally agree with that! I remember an excellent diorama of this using a heavily modified Airfix CAMPBELTOWN that was in an Airfix magazine or modelling special back in the 70s. That used a resin so that you could see down to the deepest part of the quarterdeck - probably about 5-6 feet under - but no more. In 1/700 scale that's only about 3 mm

I think it all depends on the thickness of the plastic part. Would it look out of place compared to the almost adjacent 20 mm screens? From the photo the kit part looks okay to me, though in a smaller scale I can't see it working so well.

What make are those figures Nick? they're so much better than my 2D PE ones from North Star? Also don't forget though that Home Fleet cap covers were black during WW2.

For a first model that's excellent! As Nick says, White Ensign do some very good generic guard rails. The only downside with them at the moment is that they come from the US and whilst ordinarily their service is outstanding (order to delivery usually in the order of 3 days), with the current regime we're in they may take a while longer. For a UK supplier, I've used Peter Hall's Atlantic Models guardrails and they're as good (I think he used to be White Ensign's designer when they were in UK). Starling Models offer the Flyhawk guardrails which I've never used but they're supposed to be very good

Fair enough. We didn't have covers when I was flying them, just a very nice polished wooden ceremonial one for the nose array!

Thanks. I'm fully expecting that I will have to reprint all of the decals as looking at the state of the ones that came with the kit, I have every expectation they will disintegrate as soon as I tr to move them off the carrier fill. And since I've got to print the serial numbers (XT420 rather than XT423 that's in the kit), I might as well do them all. Challenge I guess is whether I can do the stencilling as well. Even with a half decent quality printer, most of the detail was lost in HMS BULOLO's crest once I printed it to actual size (3.5mm diameter). But sadly this one won't be folded. At least one of my 1/48 Lynx will be though, complete with a full set of Op Granby extras (Yellow Veil 2, Sandpiper IR camera turret, M130 decoys and a .50 cal heavy machine gun pod) all of which I fully suspect I will have to scratch build. I may even be persuaded to put the Challenger IRCM turrets on though I rarely flew with them because i had little faith in their effectiveness. Alternatively I suppose it might be the one in my avatar with 4 warshot Skua.

After years of being a fan of the simple Humbrol putty, I was recently (well a couple of years back now) introduced to the Vallejo version. Apparently its made from very finely powdered marble but it goes on beautifully, can be worked for about 20 minutes and is ready for sanding after about 3-4 hrs. Produces a lovely smooth finish and unlike the Humbrol putty, I've had my tube now for about 18 months/2 years and its still perfectly malleable. I found that Humbrol dried out in the tube after about 6 months. As for sanding awkward shapes, B&Q do a set of sponge sanding sheets. They're about 4 inches by 5 and come in a 2 pack, 180 and 240 grit and can be folded into any form you like to get into awkward shapes. They conform quite well to the basic shape for the deck edge you showed above. Now I know that 180 and 240 grit sounds quite harsh, but they don't feel anything like as coarse as that. My usual practice is to take the majority of with the sheets and then finish off with a few swipes of some 1800 or 2400 Micromesh. Again, the B&Q sheets last for ages. I've had mine for at least 5-6 years and they're still going strong. Hope that helps

Looking good Silvano. I'm not sure if you know you still have it to do or if the Airfix instructions are wrong, but don't forget that the Orange Crop aerials (the panels on the nose, main undercarriage pylons and near to the tail boom) should be a very dark satin grey/near black

Work continues around the tail pylon while I wait fro my former colleagues at HS to come up trumps hopefully with a copy of the aircrew manual so that I can return to the engine/transmission area. First thing I started on was the prominent Pitch Control Rod on the stbd side of the pylon which Fujimi decided to ignore. Simply added from a shaped strip of plasticard with some slivers of 40 thou Evergreen rod either end and a small length of brass wire. That then got me looking at the Intermediate Gearbox fairing (that blob bottom right in the photo). It's where the tail fold mechanism hinges and the fairing should be open and overlap the tail rotor drive shaft fairing in front of it. So out with the razor saw to cut a slot which would be replaced with an offcut of PE frame. But that then exposed a fairly large hole in the fairing which should ordinarily have the TRDS coupling underneath. The only thing for it was to drill a hole in the tail pylon, pass a length of 40 thou Evergreen rod through until it reached the forward fairing and secure both ends (CA at the front end for an instant hit, Tamiya extra thin at the rear for strength. When the back was dry, cut off the extension of the rod and sand smooth. You can just about make out the TRDS under the fairing - apologies for the poor quality Then onto the tail fold mechanism itself but only part way through so no photos of that yet. Challenge for that will be the fact that the red Danger marking passes underneath so I sense that will be cutting the decal to get it in there. I could add it later but I sense I'll get a better finish if it's all sprayed at the same time.

Never seen that seascape technique before but its very effective. I especially like the way you've got the surf coming off the casing, How did you get the gel/cotton wool to stay teased out like that? Whenever I've tried a similar technique, as soon as I add PVA glue to the cotton wool it goes claggy, sticks to everything and looks awful and I would have that gel would have had the same effect.

Thanks Steve 👍

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be critical so my apologies if the post came across that way. That's one of the great things about any form of ship modelling unlike aircraft. When an aircraft gets modified, it generally gets a new model number. so everyone knows, for example, what is different between say a Spitfire Mk 1 and a Spitfire Mk IX. A ship gets modified many times though its life but is always the same ship. The challenge is always to work out which modifications were done when. I think you've done a great job of portraying VICTORY as built, a configuration that is very rarely seen (I think I have only seen one other model of her like that which was in Captain Hardy's cabin in the early 1980s but had been moved when I was last onboard in about 2010).

Pleased to report that those few people who were actually in the squadron yesterday (complying with all social distancing rules you will understand) were ferreting through the archive trying to find a copy of the Wasp aircrew manual for me! It's great having friends in all the right places. I do wonder though that looking at the images of the transmission deck in @Bell209's Scout build, it may be somewhat challenging now to get that dome replaced with a well. I started reading that this morning. Wow! Unfortunately I managed to put a nice incision through my thumb last night while cooking dinner which made any modelling afterwards near impossible. I did manage a start though on the mods needed to the tail pylon for the anti-collision light. Should be ready for sanding by this evening.

No!

Great job. Always had an interest in Potemkin after being forced the watch the film of the same name - without sub-titles - while studying Russian at school!

Me too!

Outstanding

Forgot to add. I've got a PE bending tool. Only had it just over a year because everyone told me I should get one and it would make life easier. Rarely use it, even though I know most people seem to swear by them. For most of the PE work I do I can get adequate - not great - results with a steel rule and scalpel blade but only so-so results with the tool. I think I am not using the bending tool correctly

Hi Lewis, I bought my first airbrush from Machine Mart. It was a Clarke ripoff of a Badger (200 I think) and cost about £25. They still sell a similar one here. The compressor came from the same source and was slightly more (~£40 rings a bell) although I note now that compressor is over £100! It was great at getting a decent effect across a large area, but utterly useless as fine intricate spraying that i see so many on here can master. After about 5/6 years I upgraded to an Iwata Eclipse SBS. Superb airbrush and does everything that I want. I even did a course at Airbrushes in Lancing where I was spraying 1mm thick lines with it (but at home I cannot get anywhere near that level of granularity). The airbrush can do it, but I clearly cannot! Then last year I invested in a much better Royal Max compressor from Everything Airbrush (superb customer service by the way) and that has improved my spraying but still not anywhere near the extent of most people I see on here who can spray pinheads without masking the surroundings! You can get those starting at about £60 although they do have other ranges that are cheaper. Upshot of that is that I have spent ~£260-280 on airbrush equipment over the past 12-13 years but in reality if I'd gone straight for the better quality one, I could have saved about £60-70. Now I appreciate that prices have gone up (I paid £140 for my Eclipse, they're now nearly £190) and even so they may be out of many people's budgets, but the results are so much better than a brush and even a rattle can that once you start using one you'll never want to revert. Even if you went for Clarke airbrush and an entry level compressor from Everything Airbrush, (note that you'll need an adaptor as the Clarke airbrush is a different thread to most other airbrush equipment), you'd get change from £100. You actually don;t get that many rattle cans for £100. The one downside of airbrushing to my mind, and this is where I will disagree I'm afraid with Rob, is cleaning. Maybe I do it wrong, but I can clean a brush in 15-20 seconds in either water or white spirit depending upon whether I've used acrylics or enamel. To clean my airbrush often takes me 15 mins if I'm using acrylic or 20 minutes f I've been spraying enamels or other solvent based products. It's the one thing that puts me off from using it. Actually thinking back, the Clarke airbrush was my second airbrush. I bought my first back in the late 70s to spray the flight deck and ship's side of the Airfix Forrestal because I recognised even then it could not be painted by brush. I bought the then new Humbrol entry level airbrush kit which came with a can of propellant. It was utter rubbish and Forrestal is still upstairs waiting for me to finish her!

+1 👍

Whilst I don't know for certain (but probably do have it in a book somewhere), I don't think those changes can have been instituted by Nelson himself as there wasn't enough time in port to undertake the work. He first joined her in May 1803 and almost immediately set sail for the Mediterranean assuming command of the Mediterranean Fleet in July. From then until she returned to Portsmouth from the Caribbean in August 1805, VICTORY was continuously at sea (I think the US Navy these days gives a medal for 4 weeks continuous at sea without a port visit!). She was in Portsmouth for not more than 2-3 weeks before Nelson was ordered back to sea by the First Sea Lord, sailing on 14 September 1805 from Spithead. So whilst yes its possible that those changes could have been ordered by Nelson, I think it much more likely they were done in the extended periods in port running up to May 1803.

That is lovely. I especially lie the way that you've recreated the cover for the air intake. How did you do that if I may ask? Also what's that device just in front of the starboard mainwheel? is it some from of night sun? Never seen that before on a Wessex

As I've often said about the old Airfix 1/600 ships. If they were accurate and needed no modification or scratchbuilding to put them right, it'd be no fun!

It's also so that when the ship is heading into any strong wind, the door has to be pushed against the force of the wind rather than having the wind rip the door out of control and slam back against the bulkhead thus risking damage to ship structure, door and hinges.