neilh

I got my kit last night. At worst I aim to copy the ideas of Bjorn and Jon and sand to a better shape, but I was wondering at which point does the trainer fuselage widen to accommodate the extra seat? I was wondering if the front of the tub from the PR kit would slot into the rear fuselage of the excellent Alley Cat kit. Another option could be to cut the cockpit out of the Airfix upper and lower fuselage halves and insert the PR pod. Drastic and possibly expensive but a thought.

Thanks for your kind words Gents. I'll be busy with funeral arrangements and as Executor there will be lots to do there as well but I hope to find some time to keep Rupert progressing.

Just a small update on this one. Sadly I have to report that my Dad, the intended recipient of this model contracted pneumonia and sadly passed away at the hospital in Bristol. I was a bit unsure if I wanted to continue with Rupert, but Dad did enjoy seeing the WIP photos so I have decided to crack on. The bridge and mast are temporarily fitted for now. I finished the railings for the upper decks. One section took 3 lots of railings and at least 6 attempts to get right ( very very frustrating!). I added the boats, amending the etched davits to better represent the Quadrantal davits used for the whaler, and I reversed the kit davits for the motor boat as all the photos I found seem to show them facing inboard. Doing so put the motor boat right on top of the length of railing that took me 6 attempts to fit! The motor boat is held from the davits by thin wire. I made up some oars for the whaler but think it was likely to have been covered in reality. I fitted the extra stowage for the depth charges which meant I needed to relocate the rear Carley float stowage. The photos of this area on Rupert ( the one with Redmill) are very blurred but I think they are now about right. Next step will be adding the railings around the edge of the lower deck, after which I can then add the weathering and then add all the final detail parts.

Love the final effect, that sea scape base is excellent and I too feel " cold" looking at it....

Thanks Rob, do you cut the figures from the base to detail paint them? I can't see how I can get a brush in to get all around the figure without splodging paint on an adjacent figure.

I'll soon have to paint some Black Cat Royal Navy figures for my model. Does anyone have any tips on how best to paint them? They are the rough weather figures so likely black boots, Navy trousers and brown(?) duffel coats. Thanks.

Neat work there on the dazzle camo scheme. Can see how effective it might have been full size.

Goodness what a difference in appearance! That should improve things nicely.

Thanks Modelholic. Those are the spare depth charge holders - think they are called arbors (?) for the deck mounted K Guns ( yet to be fitted) . They are moulded on the kit parts and are probably a bit overscale but I really didn't fancy cutting them all off and trying to build them from scratch or trying to fold them all up from an etched brass set!

A quick update before an extended Easter break so away from home for 2 weeks. I have started adding the railings from the inside of the ship to the outside. I think it went OK for a first attempt with etched railings. I will fill any small gaps with white glue and touch up when dry. They look much tidier to the naked eye than in large digital photos. I also added two more doors to the upper bridge and since I had no more etched " close" doors, decided to open one up. I also added a missing ladder to the rear. The upper bridge is temporarily fitted. I had hoped to add the depth charge storage racks and sort out the boats today before moving on to the outer railings on the deck edge after the holiday but circumstances prevented that so it'll have to wait. I did lose one of the inclined ladders for 4 days. I looked and looked and eventually had to clear the entire workbench and found it hidden in the rear corner of my desk under an overhang of the lid. I'm learning that when you hold your breath to add a railing and then exhale, tiny etched pieces can suddenly fly away, completely unknown to me at the time! I also cut out and bent to shape the ridiculously tiny depression bars that prevent the gunners shooting at the ship. I will fit them just before I add the guns. Once the outer railings are on, its then a case of adding all pre painted armament, searchlights etc , the mast and the boats and then weathering and rigging.

Bit more progress. I've started the assembly from the centre of the ship outwards. The bridge is just test fitted as I will need to fit this at the same time as I add the mast so planning to leave that right to the end before I rig. Added a representation of some vents and extra ammo lockers. The etched supports for the gun tubs were fun ( not!). I've been touching up paint as I go so currently a mix of gloss and matt finishes. I hope a matt coat post weathering will bring the finish together. Of note are the colourful floats. Like the unusual B55 panel, another feature of the ships in 21 Escort Group. Thanks to @Stephen Allen for the helpful diagram of these. I think the next job will be the railings around the upper decks and those around the guns, after which I can then add the guns and depth charge racks and throwers.

The GWH kit was tricky to build in that area using a large piece of PE which ( in my case) didn't seem to have anything to locate against and as a consequence broke away several times in the build. Will be interesting to see if the separate canopy sections will stack. They don't in the GWH kit, so I used the full canopy and that was the death knell of the kit when I removed the masks and found loads of gunk inside which probably got in there via the loose PE! I recall some debate particularly on Hyperscale about the entry steps as moulded in the GWH kit, not sure if the HB one is different

Not to hijack the build thread but Bobs Buckles were mentioned, and not to take anything away from his fine products, I thought I had some 1/48th and 1/72nd ones left over from aircraft builds but either have used them all or lost them so as advised by @thorfinn I made a few up myself in 10 minutes or so this morning. I used wire from an old shielded computer cable, but the inside of any cat 5/network cable is probably the same, chucked a piece of beading wire that I uses to apply superglue in a pin vise and used tweezers to hold the looped wire. I think it would be even easier with a pin vise with an archimedes screw or longer shank.

You would hope that the AA gun had some kind of limiter to avoid firing on the A gun crew in the heat of action!

But it's only focused attention from a relatively small number of individuals who post here on Britmodeller. Just think how many modellers you see at SMW every year and even that is a smaller subset of those who take up this hobby just in the UK. Sure, maybe 20-30 less sales from the BM readers who (quite fairly) won't accept the errors, but given how dreadful the Hobbycraft kits were and the newer equally dreadful Trumpeter kit, both of which still sell regularly on E Bay and both of which I see regularly on display built up at UK shows, PR could still sell plenty enough of these to satisfy their business model. I may still buy one, as there isn't anything better out there at the moment and who knows if there will be in my lifetime.

Hi Steve, Should have thought of that. The differences in the various Captains are discussed in the reference books I am ( supposed) to be using!

Life getting in the way a bit but a little more progress made. I went on a "Jolly Boys Outing" to IWM Duxford with IPMS Avon last weekend and we exhibited at the Peterborough show on the return trip on Sunday at which I managed to find some Xtradecal 1/48th RAF/RN serial numbers that are the correct type and size for the Captains. Rupert seems to have has a smaller " K" compared to the 561 hull number after the repaint to the white scheme. I cut down the K at the top and bottom to replicate this. The superstructure is just test fitted at this point. Everything is glossed as I plan to weather the hull once these parts are properly attached. As you might be able to see I have been painting the smaller detail like the depth charge carriers, and have applied a light great pin wash. The etched doors didn't take the wash as well as the original moulded plastic ones would have so a lesson learned. Not sure about the outcome of the covered railings on the searchlight deck. They do however look much less ragged to the naked eye. I used a single ply thickness of tissue paper fixed with diluted white glue. I also made the flag locker covers the same way. I also added some etched mesh to the bridge deck. It looks a little large in a digital shot but again better to the naked eye and at least looks more like the wooden decking than the flat plastic. Now I have all these detail parts painted up to start fitting....plus 20 + oars for the Carley floats made from plastic rod, squashed at one end. I had to fit the ammo lockers for B gun and the 2 Oerlikons on that level as they would be masked by the deck level above. As a newbie to ship modelling, one thing I am learning is how ships can change over time. The kit has several vertical ladders that are just curved " rungs" fitted directly to the vertical surfaces, with no handrails. Anatomy of the ship for the USS England also shows these in the plans. The upgrade set marketed by Swordfish has these as the usual " ladder". When at IWM Duxford this past weekend I came across this very sharp photo of HMS Inman blown up to a huge size on the wall of a hanger. Apart from being one of the clearest pictures I have seen of a Captain class frigate, it also seems to show traditional style ladders being fitted to the outside of the superstructure. Since there are no pictures of Rupert as detailed as this that I can find, still deliberating if I should add these before I glue the superstructure together. I did also spot however that there seems to be only a single position for an Oerlikon above B gun rather than the 2 on Rupert.

Googling suggests it is not flammable when dry ( highly flammable in its liquid state) but you should be very cautious about the fumes that will be given off when heated.

Wouldn't the CA block the heat or the solder itself from flowing? maybe whack a bit of CA on some spare brass tube/rod and then see what happens with the soldering iron?

Not sure if this will add value to the debate but as promised, here are my pictures of the Vampire trainer taken at Duxford this Saturday. As I posted previously the wings looked quite thin from my normal eye level, but when I crouched down to look straight at the leading edge, the looked much fatter. Taken with an i phone camera: and port wing:

Hi Jon, Bob used to make buckles in 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 scale. He only seems to make 1/32 and " EZ" size. Are you using those or some of his smaller earlier ones? Thanks.

I went to Duxford this weekend and saw the real thing. What was very odd was that depending on the angle at which I viewed the wing, the depth of the wing at the root and to the tip varied widely depending upon my viewpoint. Same viewing through the i phone. When I first looked, I thought " wow that wing is way thinner than the kit", and then when I lowered my viewpoint from my 6'1" height, then I really wasn't sure at all, the wing looking really quite fat. Getting close to the nose, it was only at a certain height and angle that the " egg" shape previously mentioned was so obvious. From other angles the curve was quite minimal and the curve on the lower windscreen seemed quite close to the one in the pictures of the built up kit. Makes me think that I will want to see the real plastic in my hands before I commit.

IPMS Avon enjoyed our "Jolly Boys Outing" with 10 of us attending the Peterborough show, taking in Duxford on our way up the day before. A good mix of clubs and traders, friendly welcome and a great atmosphere added up to a good day out and well worth the trip. Among other things, I personally I picked up a couple of sets of decals I have been struggling to find and a great prize from the Tombola. Thanks to the organisers for a good show.

Interesting. From that angle the wing looks quite thick and the nose less egg shaped. Clearly they may be something off in the PR kit but I think I may wait to actually see the plastic before writing it off, especially as there may well also be builder induced error such as the poor join from windscreen to fuselage in the pictures, almost as if the nose seam was overly sanded. Earlier in this thread, photos of the test shot taken from above showed the bulge at the wing joint looking to be correctly shaped and placed.

Very slow progress at the moment mainly due to Dad still being in hospital for post stroke care so daily visits, and I am now decorating his house whilst he is absent. I have however finished the hull with the B55 panel and am ready top add the few decals for Rupert which are K 561. Unfortunately the RN decals I have from Atlantic models are incorrect as the Captains has US style numerals with straight sections and cut off corners. The RN style decals are rounded so cannot really be amended by careful cutting. Atlantic don't do US style numerals and Hannants only have a sheet with the white " outline " style numbers. Does anyone know of a source for these please? Whilst I am trying to fix that I thought I would commence some weathering. The ship is largely in off white with a dark grey deck, so what would you suggest as a colour for pin washes or filters? For aircraft I tend to use Burnt Umber or Paynes Grey oils. Not sure if they would be too strong on an off white scheme? I have however made 16 paddles for the Carley floats and 4 oars for the whaler. Tested my patience.......