S-boat 55

Looking good Jeff, indeed a milestone getting the main decks fixed in place , , I think my wife would rather I built 1:600! It's good to see a good taking shape with the updated knowledge on her likely colours, the grey antifouling sets her off nicely, in some ways it's easier to appreciate the hull lines without the red pulling your eye towards it all the time,

So onedrive is working again - for now...... i think, Tried the tricolour marking on turret B, - hasnt gone wonderfully well, The lesson appears to be don't use generic modelling masking tape from hobbycraft, - never had this issue with Tamiya's so some 2mm is on its way to me, hopefully a second attempt will yield better results,

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z4YbgErWrRtnvXVc6 Ah the try and a new link hasnt worked, apologies for the tease, I'll try and post pics later Edit: nope OneDrive isn't playing ball today,

Thanks Jeff, Those range finders are kind of what makes the ship in some ways with them sitting so high. Their height (the lowest was 30m above the water) was to avoid interference of smoke and the designers estimated that they would be virtually immune to receiving a direct hit/splints from hits. Given the heaviest was 40 tonnes adding a lot to the top wieght the designers must have been pretty sure of the benefits outweighing the affect on the ships stability/handling. The different directors handled different calibre guns, the fwd tower handled the main armament with the bottom director and then the top two handled the 130mm guns, the rear tower handled the main armament as well with the lower director and the one above the secondary armament again. So each would/could operate independent to the other. They also had range finders in the turrets themselves and a couple of the sides of the superstructure for specific night fighting. According to the book by Jordan and Dumas i read they put a lot of thought into the way these different positions would communicate and work in tandem and if one were lost how they would reassign primary responsibility.

So a little progress, although it doesn't really show much, its largely just a case of a bit of paint here and there, I've pretty much all of the 'major parts painted now, (not that its taken months!), rather annoyingly though found one section of rear range finder that I'd missed! The lower half of the forward S/S is not fixed together properly, this week I'm hoping to finish painting, glosscote the front section of S/S and the Hull and then get the main areas pin wash done,

Looking good, very impressive really, making me wish i didn't sell my kit on a while back,

Looking very nice, love the portholes, I'm guessing they're north star as well? What size did you use?

Howdi all, I've been looking at an MK1 set including deck for a kit in my stash and thought I would fire this past your good selves. So a quick question to see what the general consensus is on who's after market sets are best to look for. I know there will always be a case of which are the most accurate for a given year etc but on a general level who offers the best quality, ease of working with, cost, value etc. Thanks

That hanger arrangement although a 'gopher' is really quite wonderful, its giving me ideas! As for what else it could be called IM not sure - I've heard people use the term 'modelling for the gods' but aside that don't know, Sam

Hope you are on the mend, get well,

Thanks, its my first proper attempt at photo etch - so far im generally liking it, i think that was the most complicated bit on this kit, so be plain sailing now right...lol

Looking good, interesting idea for a sub, do you have anything else in 1/350 we could see her against to get a sense of scale?

What is this - 2 nights in row! Last night was sorting this bit of photo etch railing, it was actually okay, I'd previously bent some of it a while back and then discovered my daughter had decided to 'help', to be fair it was only a bit bent so last night i decided to bite the bullet and get it done; It didn't like being put on though and in the process having had to of been bent a few times one 90 degree corner gave up, then I ended up having to cut it so as the stanchions don't quite match up to the corners so one piece was now three but it came okay I think; I tried side moutning the rail as that's what it was on the real thing, its certainly easier to get a good bind but harder to make sure its sitting true, Will it be three nights in a row.... we'll see

Timely - ive just started building HMS Zulu so these are very tempting!

I'll look them up thanks

Hi Jeff, thanks she's certainly starting to come together, .. it is indeed, HMS Zulu, had a promotion at work so the wife got me a surprise, its a nice little kit, certainly small compared to the others I have but doing a little bit on her got my mojo back to get on with Dunkerque after I stalled. I know there are issues with the kit but thought I'd just knock it together OOB (+some extra railing) for a quick bit of fun, in an hour and a half I was to this stage; Problem is I'm now tempted to try and detail her up a bit, I know WEM do tribal class etch but I cant get on with their website and it would defeat the object of a keeping it simple really, might well do a second one and go for it more in the future, would make a nice companion piece to Hood and Warspite (both in the stash)

So days turned into a month but hey she's back! Yay! So not done a lot really, just ben painting a few bits but thought I would post to show the project hadn't disappeared into obscurity, Dry fitted everything so far that is readyish and she's looking good I think; Hopefully more in somewhere less than a month!

Ive used epoxy on a similar project, worked well, well the epoxy did, the project didn't lol,

some very impressive stuff going on there, I'd agree the funnels are the feature of the, good job yours are looking very good so far,

My condolences on the passing of your dad, hope your finding some solace in the hobby,

Thats disappointing from Pontos, Ive looked at their set for the 1/350 Revel Bismarck as she's in the stash but tis rather pricey, you'd hope for top dollar you'd get top service, meant to say that Arado looks very nice btw,

Love the photo, if my eyes don't deceive me I spy 4 of the Type 45's there at present, talk about eggs in a basket lol

Apologies progress has been very sparing/slow but I've been trying to work out how to go about getting ti done rather than bit here and there when i could do it more quickly if a little bit of coordination came in. So with a view to that i figure get all the little bits built as far as possible to allow 'mass painting t occur - which by brush isnt quick, the replacement barrels for the secondary guns came out well, couldnt have been mor easy to line up at they come with resin mounts. Apologies the photo isn't great, this in turn led to the turrets and I found the photo etch details that go around the openings are slightly too large, not sure there's much i can do about it now though, I'll need to tidy up around them pre painting of course, Lastly tried adding a pre painted ladder to the side of a rear bit of s/structure, I've noticed how others' builds these seem to stand away from what ever they are mounted on a bit so i tried chopping a small bit of some spare railing to pack behind to rungs and see if it came out, Im pretty happy with the look i think but boy was it fiddly, maybe there's a better way but i cant think of one right now, And good golly gosh close ups aren't kind are they! More hopefully soonish, I have been working on finishing the hull off but that's a few days away,

Very tidy pe work