GRK

Thanks, definitely the right antidote to this weather! 😂

Hi all Another little Star Wars project to show you. I've gone with an imagined scene showing the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, with an AT-ST looming over a crashed speeder which has blocked open the base doors, possibly allowing the imps in! I had a few corner protectors that came with the packaging from a new sofa which i'd kept hold of which came in handy for making the base- really neat size for the tiny Bandai kits. All scratch built otherwise. Thanks for looking, Graeme

Well that’s rubbish news! How will that affect the Revell kits- weren’t they through Bandai? I don’t get how the licensing works

thanks @beefy66 and @robgizlu. @Ngantek you've just connected the dots for me- i had seen Mike's build on modelshipgallery.com but i hadn't made the connection to Starling models! So yes, thanks Mike for some inspiration and a great kit!

Looks fantastic, I'll have to have a go at a Hunt class one day. Thanks for putting the AM list up which will very useful for people I'm sure- i personally hadn't heard of shelf oddity before so i've added them to the bookmark list! Very impressed with all the details, the spent shell cases are a great touch

That's very nice and good to see something unusual as well. I didn't know about the swan heads

Thanks @Tim Reynaga @ArnoldAmbrose @Saeran, glad you like it. I've enjoyed learning more about Captain Johnnie Walker as I've gone along this build and was glad to see the connection to Bootle was still there, with Starlings ship bell being used to open the council meetings.

Hello all Here's my latest one off the bench; HMS Starling coming into Gladstone Dock to a big welcome on 25th Feb 1944 after Walker's 2nd Support group had had sunk 6 U-boats in one patrol in the Western Approaches. All my family are from Bootle so its been nice to pay homage to those who served in the Atlantic and to good old Liverpool itself. This was my first stab at a resin model and I was impressed with the detail in the revamped Starling Models kit (though I didn't enjoy removing all the printing supports!). This welcome into Gladstone was well documented, so there were lots of pictures of this scene to go from but i only realised after painting that it looks like Starling had lost her camouflaged pattern, in favour of overall grey. The lock quay was made from foam, with a layer of filler spread across, through which I then dragged a fine razor saw across to mimic the bricks. The lock door was made from styrene and a spare PE Jagdpanther radiator. Initially I optimistically only ordered 120 resin figures for the crew and the crowd but I'd estimate there must be around 400 in the end (a mix of resin and PE figures) but I could probably do with another couple of hundred really to properly give a sense of the real crowd that day- there's only so much fiddly figure work i could take!

Great work! This is bringing back memories of my 1/48th jagdpanther where I used the almost identical PE set. I definitely bailed on the PE gun lock and used the kit part- you’ve made it all look very neat and easy so far!

Yes, good luck with the rigging. At least you can put that to the back of your mind for a little while at least. Always enjoy looking through your builds, I’m sure this will be no exception

The way I got round this issue was to do hairspray chipping round the camo. I was as neat as I could be with the airbrush, but then I could chip the edges of the paint to produce the stippled effect

Just seen this and would like to sign up for my first group build please!

Looks excellent, how did you find the kit to build ?Very tempted to pick one up myself

This is on another level, it’s absolutely amazing! Thanks for sharing it and well done on finishing it, I’d imagine quite a few of us think about doing something with this level of detail but get frustrated, bored or just don’t have the ability to pull it off!

This is stunning! Fantastic work, and as others have said, way beyond average! All the additions added have really made it come together. The problem is that now you’ve set this bar, all your future builds are going to have the same hefty price tag!!! 😉

Sure looks the business to me, excellent work on an iconic class

You’ve done a fantastic job on this, looks great!

Thanks @Donald, it’s just set up against an image on my computer screen. It was a bit harder to do than with the slightly smaller HMS Kelly I did! In fact I’ve just been listening to a talk about the hood on HMS Belfast and the chap said that the Hood was still the largest ship the RN had produced until our two new carriers which surprised me!

This is really nice, like the water colour and the way the tugs give that sense of scale to the scene. I hadn’t heard of snowman before so will be keeping an eye on them to see if the extend their ww2 range.

Thanks @Saeran and @Andy H. Thanks @MRMRL, I enjoy making the seascapes. I keep looking for good pictures of ships in rough seas to maybe do in future

Hello all Finally got round to doing my 2nd ship and hopefully now that my hobby room has been restored post extension, it won't be that long before the next one is underway! May I present H.M.S Hood underway in the Denmark Straight, 24 May 1941. This is the Trumpeter 1/700 kit with a bit of spare photoetch thrown at it, along with some Starling Models crew figures and some metal barrels. Despite battling with the fit of the kit, i did enjoy it-even individually painting the deck planks and I definitely enjoyed making the sea again. I'm pleased with the way the bow spray came off. I'm thinking its going to be H.M.S Starling next, sitting pretty in Gladstone Dock. Anyway, on to the pics and thanks for looking. Graeme

It looks excellent! The stowage has been painted brilliantly, you've made that plastic look soft! Brilliant crusader

I moved from 1/35 to 1/48 a while and haven't looked back since! I think the main benefit for me is that i can create a larger diorama/vignette in 1/48 which takes up the same space or less as 1/35 on the shelf. I probably get more enjoyment out of making the base than the kit, so the fact that i can pack more in in this scale is a big win without compromising on detail at 1/72. The main drawback for me is the very limited range of figures at this scale.

Well a bit of a lean year for me exemplified by posting the 2023 yearbook back end of Feb 2024! To be fair i've had a big extension done on the house and lost my hobby space for a good chunk of the year. This 1/48 Jagdpanther just snuck in Jan 23! Set on Hill 226 Normandy 1944 https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235120521-jagdpanther-on-hill-226/ Followed by a change to Star Wars and Docking Bay 94: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235123754-docking-bay-94/ Then my Ki-43 Oscar: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235128016-ki-43-hayabusa/ and the base for it: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235129154-mingaladon-airfield-burma-1943/ And that's all folks!

Looks amazing! Fantastic job all round