[New Ship Related Releases]

Not really a new release but just an FYI amazon (yes I know it's not a LHS but a budget is a budget) currently have 1/350 Littorio's for £59,

[Hobbyboss 1/350 Dunkerque]

21 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, I thought I'd try red wine, in fact three times tonight to make sure it worked. 

 

The model continues to look good. May I ask, what are those 'track rails' on the deck behind 'B' turret?

Regards, Jeff.

So they're for moving some of the ships boats around, I can see them being a pain to paint though, was thinking I'd seal the deck first so when it invariably goes wrong I can at least clean it up and not affect the deck to either side,

[Hobbyboss 1/350 Dunkerque]

8 minutes ago, beefy66 said:

For the PE railings I tend to paint bend and touch up as to other bits I try and get as much fitted to the main parts and then paint as one HTH

 

beefy

If it works for you I shall try the same, thanks

[Hobbyboss 1/350 Dunkerque]

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

 

 

[Hobbyboss 1/350 Dunkerque]

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,

 

 

[Hobbyboss 1/350 Dunkerque]

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, 

 

 

[HMS Prince of Wales Tamiya 1/350]

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

 

[Hobbyboss 1/350 Dunkerque]

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, 

[1/350 Furious hull options]

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

[1/350 Furious hull options]

1 hour ago, bootneck said:

I've had a look through various resources and found the following text:

"In cruisers and larger ships the spacing of the transverse frames varies from 4ft. to 6ft., in destroyers from 1ft. 9 ins. to 2ft. 6 ins., and in frigates from 2ft. 6ins. to 4ft. 6 ins."

 

Those dimensions for cruisers and larger ships wasn't always true though,  I mentioned that HMS Ark Royal IV (laid down 1943) had varying transverse frame spacings.  Checking my records I have found the spacing on her to vary between 2ft 0in; 3ft 0in; 3ft 6in and 4ft 0in.

 

These variances are also backed up with this image for a cruiser, showing frame spacing of 3ft 0in and 4ft 0in.

 

 

HTH

 

Mike

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

[1/350 Furious hull options]

1 hour ago, Dave Swindell said:

Sam, I'm presuming the publication is Warship Profile 23, if so the position of the corresponding frame numbers of the half sections on P251 is shown on the colour centrespread immediately below the main side profile.

Frame numbering can be from Forward Perpendicular (as in this case) or Aft Perpendicular, frame spacing varied depending on a number of factors including amount of local strength required, internal equipment fit, bulkhead positions etc.

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

[1/350 Furious hull options]

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

 

 

 

 

[Zvezda 1/350 Delta IV]

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, 

[Zvezda 1/350 Delta IV]

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, 

[1/350 HMS Kent County Class Cruiser 1941]

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

[DKM Graf Zeppelin]

I shall follow with interest

[ICM 1/350 Grosser Kurfurst]

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

[1/350 Furious hull options]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

Sam, I'm currently researching Furious myself in order to design a 3d printed version of her in the 1918 refit - I've a spare copy of the Warship Profile 23 'First Eight Years' for her if it is of any interest to you?

 

Am next door in Ireland so postage shouldn't be too mad.

 

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

 

Sam

[1/350 Furious hull options]

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

 

 

[1/350 Furious hull options]

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, 

[ICM 1/350 Grosser Kurfurst]

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,

[HMS Prince of Wales Tamiya 1/350]

13 minutes ago, Guy said:

Well that Homer Simpson moment has come true .. how many times did I look for it to be obviously the issue and now it is the first one I picked up!

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

[HMS Prince of Wales Tamiya 1/350]

1 hour ago, Guy said:

Now I know my eyesight isn't great, hence waiting on some new glasses for close work to turn up at the opticians, but I have hit one of those moments.

 

 

According to Tamiya there should be 3 capstans(?) part number D15 in picture here and it wasn't unti I had glued in place the two outboard ones that I realised that sprue D only had 2 of the little blighters.

 

 

I am probably going to have one of those Holmer Simpson moments when someone points out it is hiding in the picture above, but for the life of me I cannot spot the 3rd. has anyone else with this kit seen the same ?

Two sprue D's?

[1/350 Revell, Tirpitz (Platinum Ed)]

Very very impressive, makes me want a Tirpitz now though

[ICM 1/350 Grosser Kurfurst]

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,