ArnoldAmbrose

Gidday All, thank you for your kind comments. Yeah, that's a fault with a number of Airfix models. I didn't think I could make ten identical guns so I went with the supplied kit guns. In actual fact I think the gun muzzles were very very slightly flared, but not to the extent of the kit guns. Again, thank you all for your interest, comments and responses. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday Reini, I've got to agree with Colin above. Plus I think what you've done in the cockpit looks good too. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday, that would be my guess in that era. And I stress the word "guess". Regards, Jeff.

Ah, that makes sense then, sorry about me getting confused. Regarding making one I found that they're not that difficult. And the beauty of your model here is that you don't have to make a matching set. Regards, Jeff.

Which is also the principle behind most of my model building! Gidday, and not only yours. Some of my time in the naval reserve here many years ago was spent chasing Indonesian Trocus shell poachers off the Kimberley coast. And I've seen some of their confiscated boats in Broome. I wouldn't take some of these boats across the Swan River, let alone the Timor Sea. A couple in particular I remember. Their engines were obviously an 'addition', which made them illegal straight away. A hole punched through the stern for the shaft. The screw was too big to fit under the transom keel - no problem, a bit of adjustment to said keel with an axe. And one had it's screw tied onto the shaft with rope. By comparison, the engineering of SS Xantho was Star Trek quality. Oh and by the way, 6 feet is 1.83m, not 1.83cm. You gave me a fright with your figures, trying to make a 1/100 screw less than 2mm diameter. The blades would have been about 0.5mm wide and 0.75mm long. Quite a challenge. Going by McCarthy's figure 1 the screw was right-turning, and you're looking at 18mm diameter. Are you going to make one? Regards, Jeff.

Gidday Steve, I'd imagine that the shape of screw blades would vary over the years. If you can find any early photos of screw ships in drydock that might help. Also if the screw is left- or right-turning (the direction of the top blade when viewed from behind the ship). Regards, Jeff.

Gidday Mitch, those I think are the boat booms you're referring to. In the models they're in their stowed positions as they would be while at sea. They're used in harbour and protrude 90* (directly out) from the hull and ship's boats are secured to them while not in use, to save having to hoist them inboard again. Jamie referred to them as being varnished wood rather than painted grey. HTH. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday Steve, I thought that joinery was cutting two pieces that fit together and then, er, fitting them together. But that last photo suggests to me you've mastered that. I'm watching avidly to pick up tips because sooner or later I'm going to have to scratch build an entire hull myself. Regarding the screw/propeller, do you know the number and shape of the blades? Regards, Jeff.

Gidday Sean, welcome aboard. What kits have you got? Regards, Jeff.

Probably the curator's been scraping off the barnacles.

Gidday Sam, and thanks. And sadly the rest of the vintage appears to have been neglected by Airfix too. I can't see why they didn't do companion ships to this one in their range, such as at least one battlecruiser plus one of each type of German ship as adversaries. I've often thought too that the tripod foremast, spotting top and starfish gives the RN ships a look of "Don't mess with me". Gidday yeah, in 2018. I parked moored her in front of your model of the Aussie submarine HMAS AE2. That was a work of art. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday Again, as you can see there's a few discrepancies between the models. @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies is one of the acknowledged gurus on RN colour schemes and I certainly take heed of what he says. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know him when I did my build. Oh, well . . . Regards, Jeff.

HMS Iron Duke was Admiral Jellicoe's flagship at the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916. Her gunnery during the battle was reportedly very accurate, hitting her adversary several times. This model is my only WWI vintage warship (to date) and depicts the ship at the time of the battle. The kit is Airfix 04210 in 1/600, and highly modified by me to depict the ship as at the Battle of Jutland. I did this model five years ago but have not posted it here before. I have decided to do so now as others intending to do this kit might wish to know a couple of the pitfalls and inaccuracies with it. Despite that last comment I think it is a good kit that I enjoyed doing. The modifications I did were very numerous, including rebuilt (scratch) tripod mast, spotting top and top mast, lowered the bridge structure, scratch building new searchlight platforms on the second funnel, replacing twelve 6-inch and two 3-inch guns with scratch built, omitting those guns and boats provided but not carried in May 1916, removal of the chin plate at the forefoot, removal of the external range finders on the turrets. This was the last model I did in 2017, only 101 years late! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and although it is not perfect I think I came close and am quite happy with the result. This was also before I'd joined modeling forums such as Britmodeller (or even heard of them) so I was totally on my own when I did this. As I said I did this kit five years ago so my comments here are from memory. A few issues with the kit:- 1. I think the locating pins between the two hull halves are out by 0.5mm. This is not a major issue and easily rectified but I thought I'd mention it. 2. I don't think the chinplate was fitted to the forefoot in May 1916 so I filed it off. 3. When complete the bridge was too high. This is easily fixed before assembly if you reduce the heights of parts 49, 50, 54 and 55. Unfortunately for me I didn't know this at the beginning but I had a second kit and hence raided it for the replacement parts. (The parts I'd originally used I refurbished for a later model of HMS Benbow if memory serves). 4. There are fourteen secondary 6-inch guns supplied but the ship only carried twelve. Originally the ships of the class had a pair of casemate 6-inch guns below the quarterdeck abreast of 'Y' turret (one either side, kit parts 1 & 4) but they proved to be too wet in a seaway so they were repositioned at the rear of the foc'sle deck (kit parts 133 & 134) but the kit has guns in BOTH locations. The new position of the gun had the same firing arcs as in it's original position (ie aft) but the kit allows it to fire directly fwd. I simply added a working chamber fwd of the casemate. And in actual fact I replaced the kit guns and casemates with some I scratch built from styrene tube and rod anyway. 5. The heavy spotting top above the tripod starfish wasn't added until later so I made my own smaller spotting top. Neither did I use parts 62 and 64 (above the bridge/compass platform). I also scratch built my own tripod mast, and the topmast above it with four yards, not three. According to photos I think I'm correct. 6. The searchlight platforms attached to the second funnel weren't that type in May 1916 so I scratch built my own. 7. The main turrets didn't have those external rangefinders in 1916. I again raided the other kit for some of the turrets but the holes and slots in the kit turrets could be plugged, filled and sanded if required, if you don't have a second kit. 8. All the extra small guns weren't fitted in 1916 AFAIK except two 3-inch AA guns on the aft superstructure. I made my own using two of the unused kit 6-inch guns. 9. I altered or omitted some boats, davits and booms as per photos I was able to find on the net. In particular I omitted the boats on davits abreast the aft superstructure. A well known photo of Adm Jellicoe about to ascend a ladder shows that part of the ship in the background - no boats were there. I also added funnels to the steam pinnaces with styrene rod. 10. Another source of info regarding the area around 'Q' turret is a photo I found of Lord Kitchener with Adm Jellicoe just before he boarded HMS Hampshire. Anyway, enough of me rattling on. Here's my efforts at HMS Iron Duke as at the Battle of Jutland, 31st May 1916. Some of the photos are a little blurred in places. I was still getting used to the camera, with lighting and depth-of-field issues. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and regards, Jeff.

Yeah, me too, although it's not a difficult choice for me as I don't do PE. Re Hood's boats I think they were the ship's colour except for the admiral's barge. That's one way I like to add a bit of colour - one boat (usually) blue instead of grey. I've converted an Airfix HMS Hood to her May 1941 configuration not long ago. The Airfix Hood OOB is about 1932 I think. In the next day or two I'll do a post on HMS Iron Duke in the Maritime RFI section. A little hint if you're not aware of it already, if you want to get someone's attention in a thread there are a couple of ways (besides a PM):- 1. You can quote them like I have quoted you here. 2. You can type an @ and immediately start to type their user name. A list of similar names will appear. When you see the name you want in the box click on it and it will appear in your text like this @Harriers4Life. This will alert the member next time he/she logs on and can reply to you. You might get quicker responses that way. HTH. And I've been wondering why you've been awake at such an ungodly hour. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday @Chewbacca, I'm not sure if I've seen this before. You've done an excellent model conversion here. I wish to convert an Airfix Belfast to HMS Sheffield one day and your model here is an inspiration. Many thanks. Regards, Jeff.