Ray S

Can you add me to the list too please? I have a couple in the stash at them moment (subject to change + or -), and I can always add if I end up with zero. If you know what I mean. Look forward to this and wishing with all my might that it gets through the bunflight (sic!) Ray

Hello all. Well, destruction continues with the DUKW, though not quite as terminal as in the video clip above. This time, it was the removal of moulded-on spade and axe on the port-side of the bonnet area: They were rather indistinct, so they had to go. I did toy with the idea of trying to get a blade between the objects and the hull to sharpen and define them a bit, but I felt that could be fraught with danger, both to the Duck and to me. My plastic rod filling in the holes up front needed a bit of extra help from Perfect Plastic Putty, so that has been slathered on too. Yesterday evening I starting making up some individual 'cushions/squabs' for the benches. I did two different sizes to give the effect of a makeshift nod to the rescued party's comfort when being taken back to shore. This afternoon, I finished them off with a bath of liquid glue and some poking with a cocktail stick (wooden!) to give some texture/wear to the cushions: The one cushion is missing for a reason, as will become clear later in the build, but it too has been distressed in the same way. It all looks okay and plausible when in the bay. I broke a habit of a lifetime this afternoon by planning ahead. I decided to mask the glazing for the driver's compartment. When I got the part out of the bag I thought 'Gulp!' and put it to one side. It was very thick, and not particularly clear. I had a rummage in my plastic sheet bag and found some clear card. Phew. Thankfully, the glazing is not a convoluted shape, so a quick bit of measuring and a swift recollection of my City and Guilds Engineering Drawing (Distinction) skills produced... ... a template where I could stick the clear card to (having just found out that clear card will not accept a pencil mark), and then cut out and also scribe the bend points. So, without any vacforming/plunge-moulding, I had new cockpit glazing... ... and as a bonus, it even fitted! All I have to do now is steady my nerves and get it masked inside and out and then fitted to the thing. I can then think about popping the first coats of primer on (when I have sorted out the filling first though). Anyway, as some of you will know, I have an inner child screaming at me all the time to 'see what all the bits look like together' so a quick dry-fit of all the bits so far: Hmm, I am quite happy with the way it is going at the moment. Using the link that @dnl42 popped on here a few days ago, I will drill out location points for various gear sticks, handbrakes and other sticks before doing the priming, then add all those bits when the main construction is complete. That is it for today, it has been a good day. Thanks for looking and the likes and comments, Ray

Well, I got that wrong, those words were not in my book! Perhaps it was a memory from the film. I am now seriously wondering if ever I did read it after all - I have images in my mind of the school room, the book cover and where I was though. I must be going slightly doolally! Oh yes, and in the book it was the Parsee who was seen wrapped up in hemp with Moby Dick, not Ahab which surprised me too as it did not tally with my memory either. Doh. Anyway, I really enjoyed the book, despite struggling with the prose at times. I liked the way it became a documentary at times, and the final acts were a rivetting read. Cheers, Ray

I have had a closer look at the manual, and what a treasure-trove of information it is! I think I will have to see if there is a better 1/72 - 1/76 kit of it around and utilize that info a bit better. Thanks so much for sharing the link again! Ray

It all adds to the 'feeling' of a good Group Build which is what I love about them, so no worries! Ray

@danbuoy, you know you want to...! Crumbs, this thread is on page 3 already and I have hardly done anything. Thanks to all who have commented, and hopefully given inspiration for some other DUKW builds, there certainly is a lot of scope. Please keep these ideas and anecdotes coming. This morning, my good lady wife and I were in town and I saw something that I could not resist! These salt and pepper shakers reminded me of our fabulous Group Build, the Salty Sea Dogs. Well, whether these are penguins or puffins, they are certainly Salty Sea Birds. I cannot help thinking that the one on the right has got a very contented look in her eye, while the one on the left has got an evil chuckle in his eye. I don't know why I thought that, but I decided to share it... Anyway, back to Ducks. I filled a few of the large locating holes that will not be needed, one which would have taken a gun support, and two where the 'splash guard' would have been attached when laid flat. My photographs show that guard in the raised position, and I will do mine like that. I just have to see where the support rods go to. I got rid of the locating pins on the guard, and filled two huge ejection pin marks. It is not part 24 as the peg says, that is from another project but I do not clean up the pegs. Maybe I should. I have fitted a few of the bits underneath. I am keeping this pretty much out-of-the-box there as not much can be seen: I cleaned up as best I could the rear twin axle part, then decided that I should not fit it yet as it would be awkward to paint later. This will have a good covering of primers (grey then white) ready for the red and yellow plumage that it will end up with. Then I started to make some hypothetical benches. I have not seen any interior photographs of the Sefton DUKWs, so I am using imagination (if anyone knows anything different to what I am going to show, please shout out, I don't mind changing things around). I have made up a couple of benches to fit length-ways along the sides of the large compartment: I have just cut them from some plastic card and guessed dimensions, but they don't look too bad, especially when I sat a 1/72 pilot form and Airfix Aichi 'Val' that I am building (going back to basics on that one - totally OOB and just having fun with it). I still need to make up a back rest, and give the impression of seat squabs yet. It all can be easily changed if it does not look right. Maybe they should be slightly lower. So there we go for today, OOB underneath, a few improvements up top, I hope you don't mind the mish-mash. In my minds eye though, it will turn out fine in the end. Thanks for looking, liking and especially for the comments, Ray

I am looking forward to this one Jon, it will be interesting to compare it with the Airfix one I did a few years ago, and I hope it goes well for you. A goodly selection of extras too. Ray

Thanks @dnl42, and an especial thanks for that link, it will help a lot. I am not going to super-detail, but do just want to liven it up a little. Cheers, Ray

Hello all, and welcome back. Having just completed HMS Alynbank in another thread, I can now concentrate on this DUKW, which has been rather lonely for too long shut up in it's little box. The first thing I did today was look at my reference photographs for the Sefton Lifeguard's DUKW, and it slowly crept into my brain that the wheel guards were not fitted to these - at least not in the images I have. So it was out with the razor saw and brute force, and pretty quickly, they were off and the remains of the hull cleaned up. Before: This was the state of play when I was going to do this one, but then I found the mainly yellow with a bit of red one without the shading on the lettering at this link: https://hmvf.co.uk/topic/8810-dukw-sightseeing-tours/page/2/ and this one does not have the guards, and has easier lettering so this is the one I am going to try to do. I have found an image of the 'cockpit' of a DUKW, and have tried to produce an instrument panel. It may be slightly over-sized, but it is going to stay as it is now: I have dry-fitted the steering wheel and it fits, at approximately the correct angle, which is lucky. I have started to make one or two of the ancillary things for the driver's compartment, but will add those when some paint is on. It would have been better if I had done this before building up the hull. Ah well, 'ne comb de plume pas', as Del Boy would say. Hopefully I can concentrate on this as some light relief now before I start a Twin Gotha WWI Bomber build in the 'Not My Comfort Zone' GB in about a month's time. As usual, and advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated, and I will see if I can build this without too many problems. Cheers all, Ray

@ArnoldAmbrose, thanks for the comment, it is very much appreciated. These final pictures show the issues (well, sort of) that I had with the davits and the radar/aerials. First, the davits: It looked scary with that webbing underneath the davits, but I found the resin was slightly flexible, unlike some other resin kits I have done, and a quick trim with the razor blade and a scrape along the seam line was all that was needed. I did not even have to use the spare. The aerials were mis-etched, and each of the four supplied (two spares) had a problem: I used the two on the right, where the upper left-hand side extended section was not attached to the main aerial. It was a relatively easy job to add it after the multi-folds had been done, but would have been better if I did not shake so. They are really delicate, and I do not fault Starling Models for this, it could easily happen, and was solvable. All the best, I am now off to try and find my DUKW thread and re-start that! All the best, Ray

Hello all, this is my entry into the Salty Sea Dog Gallery. It is the Starling Models 1/700 resin/photoetch HMS Alynbank (1942), an Auxilliary Anti-Aircraft ship. She was a converted civilian ship (converted at Harland and Wolff, Belfast) from the Bank Line. She was involved in Atlantic convoys, three times on the run to Murmansk, then in 1943 was involved with the Operation Torch landings in North Africa. She provided cover for the invasion of Sicily, and later on was part of the invasion fleet at Salerno. She was one of the ships sunk at Arromanches when she became one of the Gooseberry breawaters for Mulberry Harbour. She was later raised, and scrapped at Troon in 1945. Thanks to Starling Models instructions for the potted history. The seascape was inspired by some images I found online of Baltic sea states, being, in my mind, set in calm seas, at anchor. A build thread (including errors) can be found here: Thanks to all who have tagged along for the ride and for the comments, Ray

@Rob G, thanks for your suggestions. Following up on that, I dug out my SLR camera, recharged the battery and used it for these next photographs. Hopefully you will see the improvement. Andwil, it is the most complex build I have ever attempted, the tiny detail is never-ending but so well worth while. Thanks for the comment. Jeff, that can always be a problem, but I am glad I thought about it a bit and chose the way I did go. Anyway, thanks all for looking at this build, complete with it's 'whoops' moments without which my builds never do seem complete. I have made boo-boos in quite a number of my threads, but hopefully it prevents other folks doing the same. Yesterday I fitted the davits for the boat deck, they went easier that I expected. They had a wafer of resin all along one half of the davits which I thought could be tricky to remove, bearing in mind that resin is fragile, and the davits were thin. A fresh razor blade was all that was needed, and a delicate scrape along the davit got rid of the remainder of the flash. The hooks were fitted with the PVA dot and CA dab method. The radar/aerial assemblies were made 'interesting' by my discovery that the etch process had split the parts so where I had to fold a bit there was nothing attached. However, the PVA came into use again and the split parts were reunited. It was then delicate work fitting them to the mast tops. The aft railings were bent to shape and fitted, and the paintwork retouched. And so, after quite a long time of very intense concentration, HMS Alynbank was complete: I will pop some different photographs into the Gallery in a moment. I would like to say a HUGE thank you to all who dropped in to look, like and comment during this project. All of the advice has been greatly appreciated, and hopefully it will stick in my memory. All the best everyone, Ray

Thanks for that Jeff. I do have a zoom function on the camera, and it does seem to work quite well, but the camera will often do what you said, focus on something else! I switched off the multi-point focus system and had it centre only, but it still messes around. Sometimes it will work well, others not. I will try your suggestions, otherwise I will get my SLR out and deal with things manually. I will need to get the tripod out too now, as my shakes are worse with the bigger camera. I will also be able to set a smaller aperture, and so increase the depth of field. I will think about that, and see how things go when Alynbank is done and ready for the final photographs. Thanks @Chewbacca for that comment. This I think is one of the most complex kits I have ever attempted, not withstanding an Aeroclub Felixstowe vacform. It has been fun though, I certainly enjoy a challenge, and Group Builds really help me in that respect. Thanks @Col. for that, it means a lot. This morning, before toddling off to work, I started reducing the list of things I need to get finished with HMS Alynbank. I had a list of 12 or 13 things that needed doing, so I started with No 1, the main deck and hull. I added the kite mast in the stowed position (a simple 0.5mm plastic rod), a couple of what look like depth charge loading davits, a three-legged thing just forward of those which was fun folding, and the stern jackstaff, at a suitable rakish angle. Moving forward, it was time to add the raised anchor on the starboard side. Thank goodness for duplicates on the pour blocks, as one had vanished, who knows where. Apologies for the blurry photograph. This evening, it was time to deal with the cranes. The instructions suggest building them off-ship: I felt this would be fraught with problems. I had visions of getting the booms on with the wrong angles so the pulleys would not fit, and the hooks on skew-wiff. So, being someone who often tends to over-think things, I came up with an idea. Build it in situ! The hardest part of that was to actually get the vertical posts to stick. I used CA gel, no good. Fresh medium CA, no good. Then some more CA, and bingo, they stuck. Phew. I cut the booms from some 0.5mm plastic rod, fitted the hooks with a tiny dab of PVA followed by some medium CA, gave it a quick coat of Humbrol 64 and then attached the booms via PVA to the vertical post and the half-moon shaped supports that Jeff had correctly identified as the boom cradles, oh, so long ago. I measured up the etch wired cables, needed to trim the attachment tabs just a little, then added them to the posts and the booms with a dab of PVA which grabbed quickly but allowed adjustment, then locked them with CA. You may notice that the pom-poms are fitted now, I got them done yesterday evening, and that was another tricky bit done. I felt really chuffed when the cranes were done, they had been bothering me for quite some time. HMS Alynbank is progressing nicely, and I hope you don't mind another pair of images of the whole ship. Every time I see her with the extra bits added, she looks more menacing and purposeful than ever, and I really like her lines. That is it for now, thanks for looking, and for the likes and comments. All the best, Ray

Yesterday evening I fitted the searchlight platform, it went into it's space very well indeed. I used PVA for that, as I may need to remove it to repaint the railings. The searchlights had some silver popped into the lenses, then were fitted with CA to the platform. This morning, I had a rapid-fire 40 minutes and got the main mast rigging done, with only one thread that did not 'bite' the CA. I altered my method this time - I popped both ends of the thread into accelerator before fitting it to the CA spots. That meant that I did not have some awkward handling issues trying to get the thread into the accelerator when it was already half attached to a fragile ship. It was a real help on the short wires. The thread is not so obvious in real life compared to in the photograph. I have not shown much in the way of close-up images in this build, but I did some experimenting with the camera this afternoon, and found it could produce some, so: first, some Carley floats in situ, with added oars (forgive the bendy railing - it is where I damaged the deck when I tried to straighten it). An inclined ladder has now been fitted in the space aft of the boat deck: Next, the quad 0.5-inch Vickers gun station: And finally, the searchlight platform: Oh yes, and even finally-er, the pom-poms with five of the six etched parts added - the aft shields were particularly tricky as they needed bending and folding, and I could not get a good grip, and being rolled did not help the bend. But I got there, sort of: It is just the gun sights to add to them now, along with a bit of paint retouching. Hopefully I will have a good evening with this later. Thanks for looking, Ray

Hello Jon, the instructions are fine and well illustrated in this instance (I think). It was the size of the bit to be produced that frazzled me! @Col. and @ArnoldAmbrose, thanks for your comments. I am glad it would have been a light - I must check the guide and see if I missed one on the foremast... Today I dealt with another of those 'gulp' tasks - bending the etch for the searchlight platform. The platform itself was twin layered and needed folding over, and the railing around the top was in a single, attached piece. However, it had etched lines on it, and the etch just needed a slight bend at each line to bring it around the platform in segments. I used CA to secure it as I went along, using accelerator to speed the process up. Then came the support legs, another single piece, but that too was easily done, and a resin part dropped into the leg space under the platform. It looked impressive when done (albeit out of focus as the camera could not cope): I still need to add a couple of davits/hoists at the back end of of the platform (which will be forward when the platform is fitted) and a vertical ladder to the gap, along with the searchlights. I had fitted the quad 0.5inch Vickers guns to their mounts yesterday, along with the nets below their stations: I have had a really good look at the instructions for the quad pom-poms, and I think I will be able to manage the folding and bending of the etch parts, I will try that tomorrow. I have got two of the pom-poms ready attached to some masking tape on a peg which should help with handling them, and the guns themselves have been painted ready. The final thing I have done today is glue the boat deck to the hull with PVA, and now HMS Alynbank is certainly looking much more formidable: I am going to try and get the main mast rigging done tomorrow too, so it may be a busy day, full of concentration. Thanks for looking, and again for all the comments, advice and encouragement, Ray