johndon

Looking very nice so far. John

Cheers Andy, I'll give that a go. John

Construction of turret 1 is nearing completion. Ladders on the front: Floater net baskets (not fixed yet) on the rear: Next to the pin the photo below is one of the triangular parts that are meant to go on the top the turret ring at the front of the turret, how on earth are you supposed to pick it up to get it in place, bearing in mind this is the largest of 6 parts!! John

Tonight's short modelling session has seen more PE added to the turret with the side ladders and floater net basket supports added. The Pontos set includes replacements for the triangular ribs on the turret ring bases but some of those pieces as so small, I've decided, in this case, to stick with the kit parts as I reckon the chances of getting all the PE pieces in place is almost zero. John

PE going on turret 1: John

Cheers James, another order will be on it's way as soon as the Hood set is released I've decided I'm going to treat each turret as a kit in it's own right and get it built and painted before moving on to the next thing. I've made a start on the insanity that is the Pontos set but some of the parts are microscopic! The photo below shows strengtheners that replace the kit details round the bottom of the turrets - some of them are so small I can't even figure out how to pick them up, let alone glue them in place... John

Definitely a case of semantics but, rightly or wrongly, if you buy to sell or, in this case, build to sell then you are, in the eyes of HMRC a business. I guess if you built a model and kept it for six months then sold it that would OK with no tax to pay. If you did it 100 times though HMRC might take a different view... John

If you build with the specific intention of selling then HMRC treat it as a business. If you build something for your own collection that you then decide to sell at a later date it is not a business. John

It appears that the book is a rare as the proverbial rocking horse poop - not available from the publishers, no copies on eBay and over £300!!! on Amazon... John

One thing I have become acutely aware of already is the need to keep a very close eye on two sets of instructions as the Pontos set replaces so much of the Trumpeter plastic, I'm already checking everything twice to make sure I don't use a plastic part when a PE part is available... John

As it is clear that this will be a very long term build, I'm determined to get something done each day, however small. I couldn't resist making a start on turret 1. The barrels will, in due course be replaced with those from Pontos and the turret roof still needs to be glued down. John

An hour or so's work with wet and dry and the hull seam is almost gone. Pretty happy with this as I've not, so far, used any filler on the join albeit let's see what it looks like with some primer on it... John

Cheers Pete, not got that one so I'll go have a look. John

Looking very nice Peter, I'm just started on the same journey with the full Pontos set. John

So, having decided to get back in to ship modelling, I've decided to go large: And, as I've got the Pontos detail set, first up to be built is the Iowa. A little reference material: First up is to fit the bow (quite why Trumpeter felt the need to do the hull in two parts, who knows) and, to give it some extra strength, I've drilled the join and added styrene rod to help reinforce it: Next up is to fill and sand it all smooth and then figure out where the boot topping should go as I plan on doing this as a waterline model... John