Aurange

Excellent attention to detail with fittings and weathering! I admit I'm partial to the newer PLAN hulls, but this MCM class and its successor are both good designs, too. Looking forward to your upcoming Jiangkai I frigate with post-2012 pennant number.

That is very impressive for 1/700! I've got this ship in 1/350 and eagerly awaiting an opportunity to get stuck into it. The detail of your work makes it seem like 1/350! What caught my attention most was the Z-20 detail and the fact that you've got the torpedo hatches etched out on the hull at that scale. Please do share your WIP as I will be using that when I start building mine. It's not just displacement that determines a vessel designation. A NATO cruiser defintion differs from a destroyer in that is can also accommodate command staff. So there's a functional aspect in addition to size. The more recent PLAN ship designs have quite some aesthetic appeal. The Renhai class cruiser may look a bit bare, but to me it looks like they've taken a bit of inspiration from the Singaporean Formidable class frigate regarding stealth features. Definitely a ship that means business!

I've got a bunch of PLAN hulls at 1:350 from various brands. Having browsed through countless photos of the ships taken over several years, I've decided to apply a uniform shade/tone of grey for all vessels, with subtle differences for radomes and other fitments. I've stocked up on Tamiya acrylic paints to airbrush my projects: XF-80 "Royal Light Gray" for the vertical surfaces XF-63 "German Grey" for most weather decks You're right, PLAN ships did appear to have a slight bluish hue compared to other navies, but I think this is typical for older photos. It's hard to make a definitive call because the images available on the internet are altered for aesthetic effect, and of course auto-white-balance and colour will be different depending on the surroundings and weather. I have seen a photo of three ships in line astern formation where the first Jiangkai II is a desaturated grey and the second Jiangkai II is distinctively bluish. Differences, perhaps, between northern, eastern and southern fleets? I've given up trying to be precise with the relative tone and shade, as long as the subtleties on the ship itself are highlighted. Best I could suggest is find photos of international fleet reviews where you can compare navies in one photo. They'll show that PLAN and RN appear closer in colour than the relatively greenish tone on RAN ships. Indian, Russian, Singaporean, Thai and USN vessels are all darker relative to PLAN. The instructions for my various ships recommend a range of colours, if that's if any help to you: Trumpeter Type 054A Jiangkai II FFG: XF-19 "Sky Grey" (Vallejo 990, Model Master 1728, Humbrol 127, Mr Hobby 308) Bronco: XF-53 (for Z-9C helicopter, often comparable shade to embarked ship) Bronco Type 055 Renhai CG: "IJN Gray" Bronco Type 056 Jiangdao FSG: "Light Gray" Bronco Type 052C Luyang III DDG: "Light Gray" Trumpeter Type 071 Yuzhao LPD: "Aircraft Gray" (Mr Hobby 57 / 73 - Mr Color, no further details for other brands) My Type 680 Dadu AX only has Chinese instructions, as does the Type 053H3 Jiangwei II FF (which I'm intending to convert to China Coast Guard). I'm keen to see what you end up using for your project! I've yet to apply primer to move; doing all the hulls at once before getting to the superstructures. Time poor

I'm starting my first build soon. Also a submarine. I've placed the upper and lower hull parts together and noticed that the port and starboard bow have an edge that doesn't quite marry up. I'll have to sand it back and hope it doesn't erase some markings. What grade is best for sanding a smooth finish once the edge is corrected?

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I'll definitely take my time, but also contribute where I can.

While I'm awaiting delivery of my air compressor I've started collecting photos of the subject. There's only so much you can find by Googling "Song" or "Type 039" with "submarine," but I stumbled across a Chinese translation for their vessel types and used that instead. It opened the floodgates to lots of detailed photos. I imagine I'll soon need to decide how much detail/accuracy is practical

Hello all! Greetings from Australia As with a lot of members, I collected and built model kits as a teenager before life got in the way. Back then I prefered the size and level of detail of 1:72 aircraft, initially starting with WW2 fighters and a small number of twin-engine aircraft, before moving onto more modern aircraft (what was modern at that time). The exceptions being a Nimitz class CVN-69 Eisenhower and an IDF Merkava MkII. After a pause of a few years, the last I built was in my early 20s; a Russian T54/55, where I explored weathering. Unfortunately, I have none of these with me. Lately, I've decided I need a hobby at home that helps me regulate a bit of the work/life balance. I've probably gotten a little ahead of myself and bought a bunch of kits over the last year while invesitaging how I want to go about doing this (I take my time with things, especially those I want to do properly). I've never air brushed before, so I've tried to do some homework before jumping into the deep end. It's always been brush work in the past, using enamel (Humbrol) paints. Since I've (re-)started my hobby and turned my attention to maritime (1:350) kits, it seems an airbrush will allow large areas to be covered far more effectively. I've also decided to move towards using acrylic and have decided to go with Tamiya's range of colours. I think I've acquired all the tools I'm going to need, with a few dispatched and on their way as I type (including a Badger 155-7 Anthem). Having been lurking over a week, a Work In Progress recently completed by @Terry1954 in particular (the Chinese Type 039G class diesel electric submarine) caught my attention. It had me wondering what I'd do if the kit in the sprue wasn't exactly accurate. Also, how to build a kit that at first glance appears to be one tone of black overall. Thanks to that inspiration (and also being the same submarine kit as one I bought) I've decided to do more homework on the subjects I'm preparing to build and teaching myself how to innovate when it's not the way it should be. If I end up actually getting anywhere, I'd like to try my hand at a scratch build project later down the track. As I mentioned above, I don't enjoy an abundance of time and I'll be moving slowly. I'll attempt to capture my progress and share as I go, and get involved in my new area of interest. Aurange