andyelbac

Rob, part of the rationale for recording the hours is to give me an idea of how much time my other big ship builds will take. I can then make a judgement as to whether I build more or sell the ones I have. I mentioned at the beginning of this build that I'm an armour guy and this has been a real departure for me and whilst I have completed some armour kits in between this build, Rodney has obviously taken a huge chunk out of my armour modelling. Currently in 1/200, I'm sitting on the Yamato and USS Hornet and Iowa (both with Pontos PE) plus Type VII U Boat in 1/48 with extensive PE and led lighting, so I need to think rationally about the liklihood of building the damn things. Mind you, if I had thought rationally in the first place I might have tried building Rodney BEFORE taking on the debt of a small African country and buying those other kits!🤔

Here we see one of two hand rails that sit at the rear of the forward elevated walkway. I gently bent then to confom to the shape of the walkway: and here we see both fitted: Next up is the front hand rails that run the full length of the walkway. It took many attempts to get this bent and fitted and it was only after the fourth or fifth time that I realised I was trying to fit it upside down! Not my best PE work; it was difficult to get the handrail curved to match the front face of the walkway. Here it is prior to fitting: and after: Now to fix the fog horns and their supports. Each horn comes in two pieces, machined from the same piece of brass. You snap the two pieces apart, no clean up required. Below you can see one horn still as one piece, one already separated and one of the support pieces: The next two photos show the horn assembly. Bluetac is my best friend on these occasions!: Here we are with the horn supports added: and finally the fog horns: Moving on to the rear walkway that provides access between the port and starboard searchlights. This comprises two pieces of brass; the walkway, with two (extremely flimsy) supports that fold down and the handrail: First up, we attach the walkway: Then we move onto the handrail. I changed my approach when forming the handrail to match the walkway on this part. I wasn't overly happy with the result on the front handrail, so this time I used my Mission Models bending tool: A careful application of pressure at the right points and I managed to replicate the curves at each end of the walkways reasonably well: There are a number of ladders to be added but those can wait until after I've painted the funnel and installed it. Five hours on the bench, bringing me to 335 hours.

The funnel assembly is finally starting to come together. I fitted the internal walkways and pipework (Pontos brasswork that I assembled eons ago) to one side of the kit funnel moulding and glued both sides together. I then fitted this to the funnel base and inserted the searchlight platforms. Both platforms come as one piece of plastic which fits into a slot moulded into the funnel. The platform support struts are courtesy of Pontos, and again, I added them a very long time ago. Here we are with the platform assembly attached, the external pipework added, along with a ladder that provides access to an elevated walkway on the front face of the funnel: A note on the external kit pipework; Trumpeter made a mistake on their instructions. There are five external pipes to be fitted but they omit one of them (C6): You need to take a little time here as it's very easy to get the pipes mixed up. Here is how the entire assembly should look when fitted with all that lovely Pontos brass: and: Starting with the elevated platform in the first of the Pontos assembly photos above: Fairly easy. Here you see the walkway and two support struts and above are the extensions that will eventually support the fog horns. Seven pieces of etch that required just a little bending and some CA glue. Here we can see the walkway fitted to the funnel: The funnel cap (another part assembled many months ago) has been painted black and will be the last thing I add after finishing the brightwork and paintwork. Hopefully more soon.

Back to the build. Built up and painted the compartment on stilts that sits at the rear of the bridge superstructure. Here it is in place: Followed by a variety of vented structures. Here they are after painting and weathering: and in place: Next up is the funnel. Those of you still with the patience to follow this build may recall I started some funnel parts many, many months ago. Anyway, here are the Pontos instructions: We will add the fog horns for good measure: This bit should be fun; deciphering the dazzle scheme as it applies to the funnel will not be. 330 hours under the belt.

How time flies. It's been 4 weeks since my last post. I've not had time to do much with the old girl these last few weeks but I did manage to rouse myself from hibernation to paint and add the two observation posts either side of the bridge superstructure and the forward gun director (?) All three have 20mm AA positioned on top: I also took time to add Rodney's crest. You can see it above the forward gun director. This is what it's meant to look like: and my interpretation: Bl**dy difficult at 1/200 scale! 323 hours all in.

I squeezed a couple more hours in last night, painting up the two pompom directors and 20mm's that sit either side of the main bridge superstructure. I asked myself if they would have been painted to match the dazzle scheme and with no response forthcoming, I decided the answer was 'Yes'! I also painted up the 20mm's to suit with the exception of painting the barrel, breech and ammo canisters in gun metal. There is evidence that the 20mm's were painted (at least partially) to match the dazzle colour they were sitting against. Here's a picture of Rodney's bridge in mid-1942, taken from the back cover of Man O'War 3. You can see a 20mm with the gun shield painted the same colour as the surrounding vertical surfaces: Here with have a shot of the port side showing a 20mm in place with the director underneath: and the starboard director: and starboard 20mm: The gun metal looks a little silvery in this picture but much darker in reality. I also took the opportunity to paint up and attach the two signal lamps that sit above the bridge: Very tricksy to attach! The astute amongst you will have seen a few things missing from previous pictures. Both yardarms were knocked off in the process and will need re-attaching. I also purposely removed the bridge running lights. I hand painted them red and green and they looked abysmal. I have spare on a fret and I will use the airbrush on them before sticking back on. One stwp forward... Total time 319.

Very nice work Ruchard, I see you are at about the same stage in the build as myself, or are you concentrating on above deck fittings before working on the hull? The Micromaster parts look soooo good!. I had a peek at their website yesterday and was sorely tempted, especially by the pompom directors. I know I've put a lot of effort into getting the Pontos ones done but you need to be a PE wizard to get them even remotely as good as the MM parts. I just don't want to commit even more money on the old girl, especially as the MM parts appear to come in sets of four, meaning I would need to buy two sets and have 3 spare, let alone the cost of postage. How are the MM parts to remove from the sprue and use?

I think I'm going to have to check out Micro Master. Let's see what condition they are in after paint!

and five finished optical boxes: Next, part 739. This is a small electrical box that sits at the base of the pedestal. Numerous small 90° bends to be formed: Now to bend part 743. This was the part I had previously left off. It's still unclear where it goes but by deduction I think it should be the first piece to be fitted onto the top of the pedestal. In the photo below you can see an 'arm' on the right hand side of the first three parts. This needs bending and will eventually hold a small hand wheel/manual sight (?). You then need to turn the piece over to fold the small sausage roll like thingy (on right of last two pieces). Don't be tempted to fold this section too far towards the central area containing the hole or the pedestal won't seat properly. Pushing on to part 741. This is the central box that sits at the top of the pedestal, on top of the previous part. The small 'flaps ' between both arms just need a slight fold as they fit the angled contour of the central section, when folded into a box shape. The arms on either side need several folds and almost proved to be my nemesis. The optical boxes formed earlier sits between these and the antenna sits on top. Easier said than done: Moving on to part 736; another total b*tch of a piece. This forms the base of the director and the pedestal drops into the hole. It's basically a small platform that has numerous seats and benches for the operators. The two small square tabs actually have a subtle knurled effect and you need to make sure these are facing up when folded 180° flat back on themselves. There are numerous other folds required to produce the seats and benches, on both sides of the pe, and it's very difficult to achieve without damaging the folds already created: Here you can see one with the pedestal mounted, sitting in my white tack jig!: Now we turn to part 740. This is a structural support for the back of the antenna. You need 2 per antenna and as Pontos give you enough parts to make 8 directors you would assume they would provide 16 of these. Unfortunately not. Pontos screwed up and only provide 8, meaning even if you didn't lose some to damage or the Carpet Monster, you still only have enough to make 4 complete directors. Ultimately it will probably never be noticed, but irritating all the same: Two simple 90° folds and they are ready to be added to the rear of the antenna. You can see the one on the far right missing the supports: Now with the pedestal mounted and part 743 added: Now with the central box added on top: We then added a small flat piece of pe (744) (with one tiny bend) to the top of this box: Pontos would have you fit this to the top of the central box before adding the box to the pedestal. In reality this is quite difficult; if the two holes are not perfectly aligned you won't get the top of the pedestal through. I found it easier to just stick this piece on after the central box was added. Here we are with the finished pieces: They're not all perfect, but if I can get some paint on without anything falling off I shall consider it a job well done. I didn't photograph the small hand wheel/sight (?) being added, but they are there, well, on four of them. The Carpet Monster ate the other four. As to part 742, which is a tiny handle; Pontos never show you were that is fitted and as my tweezers were struggling to pick them up it was one part I was happy to leave off. A few hours over the weekend and some early starts before work and I had these done in 9 hours. 317 hours in.

In my previous post I said I would look to paint the two pompom directors and fit them to their locations on the bridge. However, on reflection two things made me pause: the first was that I still had another three to build at some point and I didn't want to go through the learning process again in the future; the second being I was still slightly irked at not using all the Pontos parts on the two already built. To that end I decided to build all five needed (starting from scratch) and try to photograph each step for anyone else looking to build Rodney using the Pontos kit. Because Pontos know this assembly is a real b*tch to put together, they helpfully give you enough parts to make eight (sort of). Overkill? Trust me; you'll need them! Off we go then: Here we are with all twelve different parts (but thirteen pieces in total): First up is part of the director antenna (part 735). Two simple 90° folds and it's ready (Pontos say to make the folds 70°, but 90 is easier and after you can gently prise them apart slightly): Next up, part 734. Another part of the antenna. This glues in between the two folded sections of the previous part. I found it easier to hold part 735 between my fingers whilst inserting this piece: Now part 738. This is a box that contains the optics and will eventually sit between the director 'arms'. Let's fold these up ready. Like all PE boxes, I find it easier to start on the outer folds and make my way in. Here you can see the progression:

Richard, there was some good advice on uploading pictures from other users very early on in my post. Might be worth looking at that.

Hi Richard, I did have a slight issue. I couldn't tell if it was the height of the Pontos window section or the the height of the Pontos binoculars on mounts that gave me a less than satisfactory seating of the Admiral's Bridge to the section below. As a result, I could move the angled section of the PE window in and out. My gut feeling is I may have built the Pontos binoculars a bit too high (they were very fiddly) and they were causing the issue. In the end I just applied gentle pressure until I was happy both sections were mated and nothing popped out! By the way, if you run short of a few Pontos etch parts, drop me a line as I bought a few replacement frets. You never know, I might just be able to help you out. Good luck with the build!

I spent a couple of hours over the last few nights trying to get two pom pom directors assembled. One each sits port and starboard in a tub on what I think is the Admiral's Bridge. Here are the Pontos instructions: Each part is made of 12 pieces. I found these to be challenging. A combination of my average pe skills and some not so great pictures from Pontos. I never ended fitting part 743 because I realised too late that I had missed a stage. Unfortunately a stage that Pontos failed to photograph. I doubt it will be noticeable once painted and fitted but I'm not looking forward to making any more of these: I will try and get them painted and fitted over the weekend. 308 hours on the clock.

Thanks Keith, As always there will be down times, usually when I can no longer stand the sight of it, especially If I dwell on all the PE still to attach! BUT, she will get finished. The only question is whether that happens before or after my retirement!

More work over the last few nights. Finally got the forward mast in place ( had to reseat a few times until it was level and vertical) plus added the crows nest housing the HACS: You can see the brass bottom of the forward mast. The fit through the hole in the HACS platform was so tight it stripped the paint off when it went through...Just one of several areas that needed a hand painted touch up before this section of the ship can be considered complete. For those planning on building this with the Pontos kit, a smalll error to note here from Pontos. In this photo you can see two views; one a close up of the small platform on top of the forward mast and one expanded view of the entire HACS platform. The top of the ladder that hangs from the small platform down towards the HACS platform is numbered 284 in the close up view, but on the expanded view below, Pontos have changed the part to 165 (which is the correct part): Here we are starting to fit the yard arms (?) that sit on the forward face of the bridge superstructure. Port side first: and starboard: You can see more brass to touch up as this part went through an unexpected disassembly event and had to be redone with spare pe. Here's another view, this time with ladders added around the superstructure: A close up of this image shows the delicate pe 'thingys' sitting on the Orelikon (?) tubs either side of the Control Tower Platform: Bl**dy tricky to glue on, I can tell you! At this point in the evening, parts were getting knocked off, glued on again, knocked off again, refixed; some fell off just because I had the impertinance of staring at them (honest!). A very frustrating time. This was exasperated by having to remove the old girl from her temporary stand as the addition of the forward mast meant she was now too tall for the storage box that has been her home for three years. In doing so I put her down on the workbench, straight onto a cardboard pallet I use to drop CA glue onto, resulting in some more paint to be touched up at a later point! One last thing. Some areas of the wood deck looking seriously unglued now. Does anyone have any advice on best way to fix loose edges and what glue to use? 306 hours in.