S-boat 55

Thanks Jeff, I've the rear one to do next, slowly getting there,

Et Voila - a bit of French seemed appropriate, I'm not at all happy with the search lights but don't know what else to do with them,

So i must confess I've not been brave enough to give the aa guns a go, I'll eventually have to, although the etch parts want 3 odd coats of paint before i can really start them, and that's waiting on working out the main deck railing so i can paint that at the same time. Still plenty of other little bits to do though, this took about an hour last night;

Don't know how I missed that start on this, I shall follow along, plating looks great btw

So little has happened other than correcting an issue with the kit, there is an inaccuracy with the rear anchor chain, in essence there isn't a holey bit for it to go in, i.e the chain starts magically at the capstan, from looking at photos of Dunkerque this should actually be roughly in the same position as where the two deck hatches are, those hatches are a little too far in board. So it was either remove at least one hatch or jimmy something up, I chose the latter. It should be almost directly in line and sitting the opposite side of the run of chain but that wasn't possible. The other issue is the kit is missing two deck hatches from the the opposite side, roughly where the chain now comes out, had I of noticed bits like this earlier I could have tried doing something about it but its all a little late in the game. Before; After; It doesn't look quite right, better in person than on a screen but it'll be under the catapult so hopefully shouldn't stand out too much

Very sorry to hear that Steve, may I add my thoughts and condolences for you and your family to that of the others,

7 hrs is a very good turn around, will be interested to follow along, I envy you chaps able to do 1/200

Hi Guy/all, With the discussion re colours i thought this might be of some use, as mentioned I've a 1/350 Bissy to do at some point so invested in a set of Sovereign hobbies paints for her as they are widely held in high esteem for accuracy and usability. They spray the tops of the tinlets with the colour from that batch so literally what you get on the tin is what you get, Obviously the issue with all of this is my phone cam has changed the colour a little on some but not much on others and the set up of the screen your looking at this on will change it as well. I have two screens for work and looking at the same photo on each there is a bit of a difference but hopefully this is of use but there could be a pinch of salt to add. The colour for the antifouling changed the most so I wont add that image. Top right is the turret top grey - this has been lightened by my cam and screen, I'll try another photo when I test it on a bit of spare, Top left is the superstructure Hellgrau 50, which is slightly darker on screen than in person Middle is Hellgrau 51 for the hull sides, a little richer in person Bottom is ..wait for it schiffbodenfarbe III Grau 1 - for the boot topping/waterline which ever you feel to call it, The interesting bit is when taking a B/W photo of the super structure paints they come out about bang on some of the photos of the ship, As ever a change of angle, backing and light and they change colour; here hellgrau 51 and 50 are probably closer to in person but the outer two less so and bare little resemblance to the tin lid, I brush paint and I'm guessing at 1/200 you'll airbrush, but from what little I've used so far they go on very nicely by hand, I'll certainly get more, Hope this helps Sam

Polka dots work......only if pink though

That said there's an error on one paint scheme in the book, it shows him with the false stern at denmark strait which had been painted out,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472828887/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_AFAC2MRRPVV2VCQZ3MF2 The newer red cover ones have a bunch of 3d views as is all the rage now, it's very good in my opinion and well worth the £25, If you don't want to use amazon I think smiths can get it and if not Waterstones though the latter will be pricey Reason I mention it is that it has the various colour schemes she wore, I've not checked them against photographs, but in my opinion as her make up changed almost from day to day during her one sortie that you can legitimatly argue just about any scheme or mix thereof could be argued as correct, plus unless photos can be pinpointed to an exact time they can themselves be misleading, Personally I'd say candy stripes would be interesting

The other option is the top of C is still yellow and they just haven't got to it yet........ Incidentally have you got a copy of the updated anatomy of the ship for Bissy?

I recently picked up a 1/350 uboat for a similar reason,

I shall stand and watch until I find my deck chair

Lol, I think I'd get banned from the site if I wrote down what she calls me...... Paint wise it's always so hard to know given only black and white photos survive, thats where enthusiasts like Jamie deserve so much credit for giving people the chance to benefit from their research, I'll try and do a bit of Graf Spee over the weekend and upload a picture, Sam

I believe the turret top colour will depend on when exactly you want to model her as they changed comparatively quickly over little more than a few weeks and at times days, one thing that often gets missed is the dark barrells for her main armament. As for coverage Jamie has an application guide for his paints on the sovereignhobbies.co.uk site which would be worth a look, I recently bought a set for Bismarck from him, I can upload a photo of them on a model when I get to it if that would help? I tried taking a photo of the tin lids but the camera just exaggerated the colours to the point of uselessness,

Well they've arrived, I hadn't appreciated quite how tiny some of the parts are.....I shall have to be brave and give them a go over the weekend, given I originally wanted to complete this one in December I'm now foolishly saying I'll get her done in the next couple of weeks, that would just give me time to get HMS Zulu finished and maybe the u-boat before my next 'proper' sized project arrives at the end of August

Nice work there, much better than my first attempt at 1/350

I stumbled on that photo site just the other day, iys excellent isn't it What fit will you go for?, not a huge amount of change of course its often a case of with or without camo stripes

Re the customs charges...a lot will depend on if the retailer included the VAT on the transaction, since Brexit some seem to and some not, I think its if the goods are worth more than £135 then VAT is effectively charged at the border rather than at the point of sale, or if the transaction is made outside of the UK, eBay for example when you buy from abroad often the transaction is made within the UK so they add the VAT upfront, don't hold me to any of this though, I think its how its supposed to work but I reality who knows, then I think there's a 2.5% customs charge, sorry I probably saying things you don't want to hear..either way I'd expect its still going to come out cheaper than buying it here, some shops seem to add a hefty markup on some kits Will be interested to see your build start and progress, I've a 1/350 to do at some point, problem is there's never enough hours in the day

Looking good so far, I'd not thought of rolling set but looks like it could be handy,

that is so very nice looking bits of kit but good golly gosh they aint cheap,

So the kit has obviously got its own AA guns along with basic photo etch for them, I must say I'm not convinced, granted I've thrown it together but it looks rather ropey, So ive been bold and ordered some of these of model masters range along with the twin mount, - wish me luck, i may need it, it all looks very good rendered on a computer, we'll see how they turn out, Thanks Sam

As ever you're very kind to say so, I'd very much agree re their plans, i think the steps for example were intended to be cut but there was no clear way of seeing that, Its certainly been a learning curve, I'm looking forward to doing a couple of smaller things next...when I finally finish that is, when i peruse the forum though i am buoyed to see others stop and start much the same as me, That blue beauty by the way came out very very nicely, i've been eyeing one up on amazon...though shouldnt give bezos more of my money really,

I really do have to stop saying silly things like it wont be long, it invariably is when I say that! Anyway, various small bits of photo etch going on, Jon word to the wise these steps weren't fun either, bot sure if its something with hobbyboss etch but they'd not been thought through, they were effectively asking you to twist the connected rail though 180 degrees to get it the right way up to connect to the deck, ended up just snipping it and doing it as two pieces, The long ones were easy enough though, you can see atop the range finder there is a round bit of railing or something, rather foolishly I blithely followed the instructions, from what i can see its a fictional bit of railing, cant find a picture of the actual ship with it on. Mines stuck firm now though so it may stay, I had thought about having the hanger open with the second plane folder away, turns out that isnt as easy as you'd think, there are two 'bulkheads' from the quarter deck that run into the anger space, id geuss for ease of engineering the kit. As a result to fit the other plane you have to chop the front half off, see pics below of what I mean, The red lines denote the bulkheads within the hanger part of the model, they do come a good way in, you can likely see it earlier in the build photo's, but i didn't realise until now and cant be faffed with chopping a plane in half then trying to make it fit etc so hanger door on, If any one else wants to do it with hanger open and second plane in id say beware its easier to modify the bulkheads right at the start of construction Hope you're all well Sam