S-boat 55

I don't know how you do that, magnification or not, that's too small

Hi All, Got a the first couple of parts of the wooden deck stuck on, as per suggestions elsewhere I glossed the deck so hopefully they'll stay stuck, Painting the walkway floor between the railings was surprisingly without drama. Those being in place meant the flat top could have its flat top finally fitted and stuck in place (Supterstructure is just sat in place), you can see the next shade of blue adjacent the white on the bow, tried brush painting that on but will finish it off with the airbrush I think, cant quite work out colourcoats by brush yet, Hit a snag, not sure how to fix it yet. I can confirm that the slight warp on the flight deck mentioned in some reviews is real and as a result the locating pins for the deck supports are out, they were going to end up sitting at a 15 degree angle they were that off. I trimmed the lcoating pins off but slightly too short (see below), i could try sticking the to the deck but i think that would risk it getting pulled up and likely wouldn't stick anyway. Current thought is a bit of square 0.5mm card, painted and put underneath the upright as it the column is meeting a square mount. Theres a trim to go on the front of the flight deck edge as well which Ive yet to add. Were I to do it again I'd put some kind of door or opening where the gangways meet the foreward bulkhead. Close ups are never kind, bit of etch repair needed but nothing major, Every ship has that angle that becomes a favourite, I think this one above is oddly Graf Zeppelins, captures the long lines of her and the bonkers funnel. The real thing was the result of several fact finding missions carried out by German authorities, the two ships they primarily looked at were none other than HMS Furious and the Japanese ship Akagi. You can see the fight deck set back as per the bow of Furious and the extensive use of side bays for stowage as well as the heavy armament sitting at the same level for defence against cruisers. Granted the bow is highlighted by the added 'clipper bow' as she originally had a straight stem akin to many German WW1 ships. Just like Akagi though there is a healthy overhang at the stern and of course the use of casemates for the guns as mentioned. Seeing the guns on both of the ships they visited must have pushed them towards needing them and i guess they were not alone in that at the time. It seems a little crazy to think they were intended to be able to fight off a cruiser or two but that's hindsight for you. Saying that they didn't just give them the guns, in a lot of ways Zeppelin and her sister would have had a more comprehensive armour scheme than that fitted to the hipper class cruisers. There is also a hint of the Lexingtons about her with the long superstructure and oversized funnel, Anyway Taiho needs some love so while i work out the supports issue I'll get her going again,

I use superglue myself so would say that personally,

I'm part way through building Graf zeppelin in 1/350 (link below) and looked at both for the same reason as you. In the end I got graf zeppelin only because I found it knocked down to within a fiver on amazon. By memory the kit is very similar, the differences being the super structure is shorter as it doesn't have one platform for an aa mount and Peter strasser includes a sprue for blanking off the 5.9inch gun casements along the hull. I found sprue shots at this site; https://www.super-hobby.com/products/German-Navy-Aircraft-Carrier-DKM-Peter-Strasser.html#gallery_start and if their pictures are correct the Peter strasser kit actually includes 4 sets of sprue D which has the gun casements on it anyway, so if you wanted to add them as per GZ that should be easy enough and just discard the blanking off plates that trumpy provides. The only other differences I can see is that the PS kit has 2 fewer of the range finder 'golf balls' and 2 fewer 4.1inch aa guns having 2 fore and 2 aft of the island as opposed to GZ's 3 each way. Aftermarket stuff would solve that one too if you wanted. I belive trumpeters thoughts were to do PS as if she were later war and so removing the casements would make sense, reducing the AA doesn't but as she is a what if personally I'd say that gives great latitude to make you own stamp on her aa fit etc, Anyway I've started wittering, in short I can't say for certain but as the kit is for all intents and purposes the 95% same I'd expect the MK1 set should fit but ultimately up to you to be sure of course. If I get chance I'll upload some photos later of where i think the differences are,

It's between Glos and Cheltenham so handy for the motorway, not sure how much naval stuff they'll have but I'll likely go for a gander anyway, https://ipmsuk.org/calendar/ipms-gloucester-model-show-2022/

Looking great, she must be a reasonable size even in 1/700, Definitely making me want to get mine out the cupboard to do

Thanks Jon, have you heard about rhe show over our neck of the woods? Hopefully.......Hopefully

Very very nice

you lot are to blame for this.....And So It Begins - Hefyt bit of bleed in places but theres darker shades next to each so thats fixable and a learning curve and overall i think its going to look pretty good when done. Had to do each end to allow for sequencing, wont be much more painting for a little while now essentially to allow for getting the main deck on and as much ready to paint as possible, hopefully get to do a bit tonight and take some better shots. You'll notice Taiho has her anti-fouling on in the background as well, thanks Sam

Looking great Jon, Question if I may, when you brush paint with Colourcoats how much do you thin them by?

Indeed it's not cheap must say that the dx version is worth every penny though,

She really looks great, wonderfully clean and neat, she's unusual as well with her island position, I'm getting a little hooked on Japanese carriers, trouble is I only have x number of kidney to sell lol,

Not a massive amount truth be told, about an inch and half each way unless you look at a very oblique angle so i've painted about twice as much as needed really,

Hangar deck markings done, pretty basic but happy with them anyway as i didnt fancy any more masking off, The bits of sprue are to elevate one of the lifts partially,

Very very impressive, both the outcome and the dedication

pulled up,

Fair enough, sure she'll come out great your Bissy did,

Dunkerque?

Certainly will do no worries, she is one half of my next double build when I finish my carriers.......or get itchy lol

I know you said German but would you consider a French ship? Hobbyboss's dunkerque and strasbourg are nice out rhe box as they have a reasonable bit of etch included and the extras from model master are readily available, just a suggestion,

That h class looks fairly hefty even in 1/700, I do sometimes wonder of my choice of scale at 1/350 wasn't actually very smart as she'd be a monster at twice the size, and I'm limited by cabinet size ruling out things like her (were they to release her and missouri et al)

Sorry me again, I got the lion roar set for bismarck, from looking around I'd say its on a par or better than the pontos etch but does lack the wooden deck though, You have one.....I envy you, I found one a while ago but couldn't justify it as I've bismarck to do anyway, regret it now though,

I've the revell bismarck and dragon scharnhorst in 1/350 in the stash, both look very well detailed and would look good, trumpeters bismarck also looks good but I've not seen it first hand, both bismarcks have eduard photo etch sets which are reasonably priced if you want to keep costs down. For me I think the revel bissy is slightly better proportioned and can often be found for 40-60 on ebay, If you can find one the revell tirpitz platinum edition whilst expensive includes extensive photo etch and brass barrels and will give you a near museum quality model with patience and care, As for scharnhorst I've literally just got the kit, but the detail looks very fine in places, although I'm told the horizontal hull split is supposedly a faff to sort out, Just my two pennies

Thanks both

Howdy all, So got a bit done on the front flight deck supports, these are the gang ways that would carry the catapult trays back into the upper hangar for re-use, innovative but bonkers, the eduard etch so far has been very easy to use, However they say nothing about what to do when you hit this issue below, the two gangways foul on the support structure on the foremost part of the flight deck, I don't think the infi set has this issue but that was out of my budget so survey was required, For those of you who read this and will one day be building your own with the eduard set - (hint .. get it now as its discontinued) - then this is the adjustment needed, the yellow highlight parts were shortened as the new support structure is thicker than the kits and a different profile, without cutting them back then they would bent all out of shape. The Red part then had to be removed to allow for the gangways which leaves you with a central post to be fitted back later and makes space for the catapult shenanigans, apologies i didn't take a before shot of the part, This is the outcome, - ive not idea why the field of focus on my phone camera is so 'little' or however you describe it, things that are 3 cm's back are blurry for some reason, Nearly finished and ready to be primed, Thanks for stopping in, Sam