Agriamodeling

Dear All, I could apply the first color this morning - it is the flat areas of the superstructure. I opted to use the 507A coded Admiralty Dark Grey from AK Interactive Royal Navy Camouflages 1 set. As it is on a black base coat, it is hard to see the shade and painted surface on the photos taken in the sunlight but it looks great to my eyes. Surely, there is a certain amount of overs-pray to every other surface but that was expected. The paint is currently curing and I hope to apply the second (light grey) color tomorrow. The idea is to spray from under so the light grey will not cover the dark grey painted surfaces. The wooden deck and any mall details will be hand painted and that step will include corrections where needs. Regards, Tamás

Hi Jon, I have some fear about the painting method mentioned above, too. My goal is to present a ship in the standard (and age-correct) Navy greys but trying to use some shadow effect to enhance 3D visual effect of the tiny details. It works perfectly on tank models. If the handrails would not be there, I could use masking but as I wanted to cover the flaws of the building-gluing process with the preimer and the paint, I have opted for the full assy before painting approach. All my fingers are X-ed already.... Tamas

As promised in the first entry, I have sprayed the model (and the turrets and boats, too) with Mr. Hobby 1500 Black Finishing Surfacer as there was a beautiful weather in the last days over here. This is my standard technique used for tank models as the color layers can be applied in light coats and this makes the process a bit similar to the old-fashioned photo developing when one had to control the photo in the red room in a combination of the developing fluid and time. Actually I do enjoy a lot coming up the small details of the tank model and decided to do it with this ship kit too. This goes perfectly against the "standard" solutions but I have good hopes to have an interesting result at the end. Due to the heavy sunlight and the black primer, it was hard to make good photos but some details can be nicely seen still. [/url] I had time to prepare the painting stand too, so I will start the airbrushing process on the next weekend (again, depends on the weather). The plan is this: first apply a light coat of black. Once completely dry, mask the black waterline and the hull upper half and paint the lower half red. I will definitely wait a couple of days to mask the bottom half and paint the superstructure walking areas with a darker grey where possible to airbrush. After that I will airbrush the main lighter grey color to the hull and the superstructure vertical surfaces. May or may not paint the handrails with airbrush - it is still a question. The wooden surfaces will be definitely brush-painted as well as the small grey details and the chains. At least this is the plan. May sound weird, I am open to try 🙂

Gentlemen, Thank you very much for the positive and encouraging feedback, highly appreciating them. As the weather is pretty rainy and cold here, I have to wait for some warm to apply the black primer (I always do it in the garden avoiding conflicts with other family members). Having seen the weather forecast, I will update next weekend hopefully, Tamás

HMS Radzeer "The aircraft was flying low enough, and the pilot could clearly see through his binoculars the beautiful armoured ship, gleaming in the sunlight, gliding at full speed towards Calcutta, skimming the smooth surface of the sea, and the white uniforms on her deck and the name of the cruiser on the side of the ship, clearly visible: "RADZEER" - "I don't understand," said Bradford, "I hear aeroplanes flying overhead, I see warships through the window, and they let the 'Balmoral' pass under their noses. It's a world scandal. - But I think I have the solution: the 'Radzeer' has sunk, and if I'm not mistaken, they've painted the word 'Radzeer' on the side of the cruiser. They are telling all radios that they are on their way to Rangoon with us, and that is consistent with the position of the ship, which is otherwise made doubtful by the name. These are not stupid people, my friend. I just want to know what they want with us..." The above excerpt is taken from the book "Lost Cruiser" by Jenő Rejtő (pen name P. Howard), a very popular Hungarian pulp novelist. I translated into English for this very buildlog as I could not find any official translations on the internet. Probably it is not translated at all. This was the first Rejtő book I ever read at the age of about 9 because the title sounded very exciting and the front page had naval ships that really inspired my 9-years old boy fantasy. Although the story had little to do with the Navy, the story was tremendously adventurous and entertaining, but mostly it was devastatingly humorous. In a couple of years I read practically all the books about sailing and the Foreign Legionby Rejtő, I still tell a lot of jokes by heart and so does about the entire Hungarian population of my age. If anyone is interested in Rejtő's life, this Wikipedia link will give you some insight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenő_Rejtő I don't know how many books have been translated into English, but there may be some. It's quite difficult to translate these stories full of puns and situational humour into a foreign language in a way that captures the original mood, but they are certainly very good to read in Hungarian. After this introduction, here is the buildlog and model of the '(HMS) Radzeer'. Inspired by my reading experience above, and by Trumpeter's increasingly popular warship scale models, I decided to build the lost cruiser '(HMS) Balmoral', which the members of the 'Joint Stock Company' renamed '(HMS) Radzeer'. It was very easy for me, as there were no British warships under either name in the 1930's (and ever), so I didn't have to try very hard to get it to look true to life. The best fun of scale modeling, I think. The biggest challenge was choosing the right model ship. Rejtő described the '(HMS) Balmoral' as the newest cruiser in the British fleet, which is why I originally chose 'HMS Exeter', but I had to think twice when I managed to get on board 'HMS Belfast' in London. In Rejtő's book there were 18 men operating the stolen cruiser, the same number of men in a single turret of the HMS 'Belfast'. The next issue was the size of the '(HMS) Radzeer. In the book, when the stolen cruiser docks at Calcutta, the men on shore are astonished to see "Dirty Fred, the captain", standing on the bridge, occasionally taking a cigar out of his pocket and putting it back in because he realizes that smoking is forbidden on the bridge. Since the 'HMS Exeter' is not a small cruiser and the crew of eighteen is unrealistically small, and the captain's cigar would not have been so easy to spot from the shore, I had to look for another model. It was a complete coincidence that the choice of 'HMS Calcutta' was made by Trumpeter, which is funny because the book says that the '(HMS) Balmoral'-'(HMS) Radzeer' is heading for Calcutta to rescue the brother of the "Kid". Midship section (port side): Midship section (starboard): Building the model was fairly quick, with some 290 parts and a very straightforward assembly, except for the railings on the machine gun stands on either side of the bigger chimney. I had glued these in the wrong position, so that the gunners would have to step on the chimney from the ladder. This was somehow corrected, but the two sides are not mirror-symmetrical in the end (my mistake). I'm not particularly bothered, just noted here for the record. Stern (starboard): As an upgrade I used aftermarket copper gun barrels, which improved the appearance of the half-open gun emplacements a lot. When replacing the eight barrels in total I had to make small holes in the breech of the cannons, this did not go without problems as one of the holes was a bit offset and I could not correct it. Because of this, I adjusted the two barrels at different angles to optically mask the error. Finally I am satisfied with the look. Turret 'A' (port side): I also replaced the machine gun in front of the turret 'A' with a Quadruple 2 pdr MKVIII pom-pom from Flyhawk. I added it last as I was very apprehensive about my skills in 1/350 scale. I'm not an experienced shipbuilder (mainly build 1/35 fighting vehicles), any etched parts in the 1/350 scale are a huge challenge compared to tank model phot-etch parts. I finally got the pom-pom assembled, just needed to redo the railings (twice), so I got the finished system on the boat. Pretty busy looking detail. Turret 'A' and the pompom (port side): Turret 'A' and the pompon (starboard): Pompom (bird's eye view): The other upgrade was the handrails all around on the hull. Trumpeter only provides rails for the superstructure in the kit, so I bought the Royal Navy railing set from Eduard. Unfortunately the Trumpeter railing is one size taller than the Eduard's aftermarket set and I only noticed this after the Trumpeter railing was already on the model, that is why the height of the rails on the model is so strikingly different (hull to superstructure). As I found it too risky to dismantle, straighten, cut, re-bend and re-glue the Trumpeter's etchings, which are made of thin material anyway, I left it as it was. A good learning point for the HMS 'Exeter' kit, to be built soon. Midship from above: Midship from above: The next step awaited is to prime the model, which I plan to do with Gunze (Mr. Hobby) 1500 grade Finishing Black Surfacer. As I am a tank model bbuilder, this ship model will also be made using the techniques and skills I learned there - this is expected to be controversial for a ship build, and will definitely produce an interesting result. Have fun! Tamás

Nice small dio Andrés, congrats! Tamás

Hi Sebastiano, it looks fantastic and impressive! Never thought that the cockpit is so much detailed. And you did a great job! Tamas

Congratulation, this Snowspeeder is outstanding! Tamás

Gentlemen, I promised to Mr T to provide the link for this figure. My colleague just sent me it, please find it here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4038181 There is a Download files button on the page, it is about 100 MBytes zip. Tamás

I definitely like this build and camo! Following with interest. Tamás

Hi Mr T, my 22 yrs old one also wants me to make one for her, but as I am working in home office, no chance to 3D print. I will ask the url for the 3D model from my colleague, so you can 3D print it (if you have a printer at home) or ask someone to 3D print.There are surely more versions on the internet with different gestures and poses. Cheers, Tamás

Hi Pappy, I have already passed Yoda to my colleague, so no more photos possible,but there is one in the buildlog where the figure is placed on top of the regular Tamiya (or Gunze Mr Hobby) acrylic paint bottle. My best guess from the figure height is about 10 cm (or. 4 inches) imcluding the stand with letters on. i hope this helps. Cheers and #StayHome Tamás

Absolutely amazed I am with your improvement skills! Fantastic job. 👽 Tamás

Thank you very much! Tamás

Great restoration job, congratulation! I sometimes do similar effort to get an old (lovely) model looking modern. This is a beautiful result. Tamás