S-boat 55

Thanks for the comments, How that mouth washing going? So as promised a few shots of things dry fitted together showing where things are at. In order to make any real progress now I'm going to need to get a chunk of the photo etch done. I know its customary to treat large warships as a series of small subassemblies but the forward tower will ideally just need to built from the deck up as it doesn't lend itself to being assembled post photo etch. Talking of PE do others pre paint then fit and touch up as needed? Best pics i could get in natural light on a very wet day in Gloucestershire, the grey o the hull needs another coat so will be as the rear superstructure. Thanks for thoughts re paint finish, at present I'm finding that when thinned the satins I use dry very much matt anyway. Is testors dullcote okay to brush? Any thoughts re the red? I don't want to get too much further and then conclude I need to repaint it as the deck will be fixed on soon,. thanks for looking

So my goal of by the end of the year may not happen, but we'll see, some progress is being made albeit it slowly, one issue I find is three coats of paint by brush takes a good long while. Id guess that may be quicker with an airbrush but that's not currently an option so I shall persevere, I'm pretty happy with the rear most deck although the camera is making it look a little more blended than it really is, , just wondering what to do wash wise, also I've gone with a fairly bright red for the hull. What are people thoughts re a different finish below the water line to above, i.e Satin beneath and matt above or even gloss below and satin above? So far the PE i've done i'm happy with and enjoying but we'll see if that continues, nearly to the point where a few bits can be properly fixed, the funnel needs another coat and should be able to go on; Hopefully get a good shot of where I'm at with things tonight, Thanks,

Hi all, Thanks for the recommendation re tools - I've looked at them and wondered, I'll see how I go and then if I find doing photo etch mainly enjoyable I may well invest, Got a bit of work done on her, the Loire float plane is together, I'm actually going to try adapting it to add some missing frame work, I saw it done on a build log on another site and it looked great question is if I can pull it off or not. The kit comes with two so the second my be adjusted to folded wing and sat in the hanger or used as spare in case my plans to adapt the first don't come off. The moulding on the whole kit is very good, very little in the way of seams and not flash to speak of, Master Barrels are in now for the main guns, these one come with resin mounts which is very handy as there's less fear of cutting the old barrels off the mounts and then trying to get the replacement ones to sit square. The secondary guns are the same. Lastly a quick shot of the photo etch that comes with the kit - I think this makes it very good value compared to others, especially as i got mine 2nd had off evil-bay for a song, it lacks rails for the main deck but otherwise its pretty good. The one downside is there is no option but the photoetch in places, for example the catapult is not offered in 'back up plastic' as well so its get it right first time.., it'll be fine what could possibly go wrong! Lots left to do and 15 days left to finish her,

Is that a 1/700 ark royal in the background?

HI All, So this is my second work in progress entry, the first - ICM's 1/350 Grosser Kurfurst is on hold due to it getting squashed when rearranging the office, the super structure wasn't damaged but the hull looks like its gone 5 rounds with Yamato! I'm slowly sorting the damage out but given I'd put it on hold a bit anyway as its was stopping being enjoyable its likely that I wont get if fixed quickly. I'd already started playing around with this one a bit anyway. To start with I just placed the main parts together to see how they fit - pretty well is the answer, there was nothing deck/hull wise that leapt out as needing sorting. She's an odd looking ship to be sure but elegant with it, With Grosser Kurfurst I was working on the idea of RC conversion, thought about it with this one as well but decided against taking the chance of watching my work sink in the middle of a lake in Gloucestershire. Decided to try drilling the scuttles out to add depth, tried this with a 1/350 Dreadnought and I wasn't sure on the outcome but thought why not try it again. There are about 120 per side, compared to some builds on here this isn't many but it took a while, also opened out the square windows in front of B turret, did that by drilling out then cutting square with a fine point blade - don't know if there is a better way than that? One thing I hadn't realised when I bought the kit was that it includes a decent amount of photoetch, I'll add a pic later of it but there are 5 small sheets, this will be a challenge as I was goig to attempt a bit of etch on Grosser K but never gt that far so this is the first proper go. I'm pretty happy with my first attempt; Ive started a bit of painting as you can see, the steel decks are Humbrol 123, the hull/ss 125 and main deck 71. Hobbyboss' instructions said different but given no one really seems to know what exact colour they were thanks to poor/destroyed records I've allowed myself to go with what I have. For reference i got hold of a copy of 'French Battleships o1922-1956' by Jordan and Dumas. I think its a great book, very interesting explanation of why these ships ended up the way they were. In it Dunkerque is said to still be a dark Atlantic grey 1942 just as she wore on operations with the RN in 1940. the difference between her 42 look is a tricolor on Turret B and no division markings on the funnel. Couldn't resist the tricolor look so as going fr a 1942 appearance just before scuttling. So with a bit more colour on the main parts, I decided to paint the waterline first this time - not sure I like doing it that way, but it's done now; My camera is giving it a blue tint on the superstructure, its not that blue although it does have a hue of it. but you can see from the two photo's above how from a different angle the blue reduces. second attempt at photoetch went well I think,; I promise I wont post a pic of every bit of photoetch - I'm just pleased I've managed to do some! Having read over 'Ship models from kits' by Griffith, I've tried highlighting individula planks on the deck by adding a bit of Humbrol 196 which is very light grey, i'll then do more with a bit more light added then darken a few and see how it looks. What are people thought to running a pin wash for the grooves between the planks? I'm not sure if that would look too much? Last pic - the ill fated Grosser kurfurst in the background; Im hoping to finish Dunkerque quite quickly - by the end of the year as I have a chunk of time off work but we'll see, Further update to come on the weekend, thanks for reading my muddled waffling's,

Mike, I'd not thought about it like that, very interesting, that must have caused some headaches at times,

Thanks for taking the time to look that out for me, you have to admire how the navy wasn't too concerned with standardisation

Thanks, I've no idea how i missed that, looked and looked thinking surely it must be somewhere, turns out it was

Hi, quick question to those who know, in the warship publication which has been very kindly supplied to me, it has sections denoted with different numbers, unfortunately there's no corresponding long section with frame numbers so knowing the position of said sections relative to the length is uncertain. There are twelve sections in total which are profile only each with a number, the first few are 20, 40,60,74,81,96 and so on. Would those be frame/station numbers? If so did the RN use a standard distance between them maybe starting from the forward perpendicular? Thanks, Sam

They do look like a very odd way to do the props, almost like they've made them complicated just to up the parts count, some of the printed ones look very impressive,

Funny looking beast really but not without her charms, I may have to try a sub sometime I think. How have you found the zvesda kits? Any reason you don't tend to finish them? I've built their dreadnought and found it generally good apart from a couple of joins on the superstructure,

Outstanding, the weathering looks spot on, just enough, love the additional details you added, She's a handsome ship for sure, cruiser meets cruise liner with the triple funnel, Looking forward to seeing HMS Berwick

I shall follow with interest

Hi all Apologies that there's been no updates of yet, life has been lifey and so time has been limited and with what time I've had I've not really made any substantial progress. The build has become frustrating so I'm gonna put it to one side for a couple more weeks and then come back to it, hopefully a couple of weeks on something different will spark some enthusiasm for this one again, Sam

That's a very kind offer thank you, I'll drop you a direct message, Sam

Hi all, Thanks for replies, handy to know that they were actually all the same beam wise Maurice, iang - four on the go at the same time that's a challenge, interesting idea about the hood hull idea, The problem with all these ideas is they're easy to have but hard to follow through, I'm trying to get hold of the profile warship editions that cover HMS Furious, did find them on evil bay but in Canada and I'm always apprehensive about buying from abroad, Sam

Hi All, As much as I'm currently working on something which life has forced a short stall to of late, it doesn't stop me planning future things. So I've always thought HMS Furious and her half sisters were interesting looking carriers following their conversion. From looking at a lot of photographs and some dimensions I've wondered about using other kits as a base. From the look of the bow profile and comparing dimensions the hull doesn't actually look that dissimilar to HMS Repulse, granted bulges' are different but the dimensions are nearly spot aside the draught. I'm guessing the RN was reusing parts of designs for speed by the time these were being drawn up. Anyone explored anything along these lines before? I've seen a few tentative discussions but no overall outcomes,

So I've managed to make a bit of progress, I've got a few of the major bits painted and have tried a dry fit to see how things line up, there are certainly some issues, bits are crooked that shouldn't be but nothing major really. I did this largely as the deck details are driving me potty. Its interesting that as she takes shape you can clearly see some design ques that carried on into the designs for German ships in the thirties. I've changed tone for the trim line to black and I think it sets things off a lot better even if it may or may not be historically accurate. I'm hoping when I finally set up the 'office' I'll be getting better progress with it. I do love the way that the brass barrels look, shame they'll have to be painted, I'm getting to the point of having to start trying the photo etch, I've got some WW1 German railings from MK1 so we'll see how that goes, I'm planning to work on the rear super structure first while I sort the fit issues on the forward section oh and finishing the deck details, Thanks for having a look,

We've all done it, lol, your build looks good, how are you finding the Eduard photo etch?

Two sprue D's?

Very very impressive, makes me want a Tirpitz now though

Well following a week of getting no real time at all I managed to get a bit done, it seems at the moment i am forever just masking bits of deck and painting tiny parts and so cant really see a lot of progress, I'm hoping they all start coming together and it becomes more noticeable. In an effort to have something that I can see is clear progress I got the distinctive red on the rear funnel. I'm going to get hols of some photo etch ladders to run up the side as the plastic detail isn't great and got swallowed by the paint, Hopefully a bit more going to be done tonight, thanks for looking,

I found an artwox deck nowt but a pain, I wish you better luck, that's a lovely red you've mixed up, I shall be following this with curiosity as POW of KGV are on a list of maybe's when I finish my current build,

Yes it did go with a thud, the Germans made em string though, joking aside I think had it of had a clipper style bow it might of done a bit of damage to the point. On a related note, who knew that purgatory came in the form of a warehouse selling Swedish flat pack furniture, best bit was I came away empty handed, still what can you do

So she's starting to look more like a ship now, colour on the hull and some bits of superstructure, and finally got around to putting the replacement barrels in the casemate guns, They were actually so tight it took a fair bit of jiggery to get them through the opening, I can't see how the plastic parts would have fitted or not broken. With them in place I can finally fix the two decks together and start making more progress, there's a gap at the join of the wall to the 'D' barbette which needs filling which can now be done. Also started on the main armament, they're odd fittings, the base doesn't cover the base of the guns, they sit in a cradle which is glued in place. The replacement barrels from Aber are a big improvement, they technically cost more than the model itself but are very much worth it. The main guns of the plastic parts were moulded wrong, the upper and lower half of the barrels were out of line by half a mm which would be too much to smooth down I think. Lastly I mentioned a painting by Clause Bergen the other day, its actually of Konig at Jutland but its a useful reference I think anyway, you can clearly see a painted trim around the vertical surfaces which is mentioned on another website as being present whenever a metal vertical met a timber deck. Here is the painting and the website I found mention of the colour for the ships and trim strip. As Jamie mentioned the website also states that the colours were unchanged between wars which makes sense, http://german-navy.tripod.com/sms_paint-overview.htm I've tried adding the strip on the superstructure but I'm not convinced I have the right colour, the website states it would be a beige brown but the one or two photo's show it as being very dark so must have been a grey or black, I tried a darker brown but its come out more red really so I'll need to go over it I think. I may not post much for the next few days as a rearrangement of my 'office' and the kids bedroom is happening, I've got quite used to working from home so I'm setting up a proper work space with an adjoining area as a 'dockyard' to save having to keep trying to work around the hobby and hobby around the work. A trip to Ikea is needed though.