Rob 1

Cool, sounds like a great visit, hope you get plenty of photos.

Lovely work, superbly finished.

Just had a look through at this build. Very impressive, and interesting to see a classic ship being built in its classic material.

Thanks. I'm also starting to get a few bits together for the quayside, and got hold of some of the excellent new 1:350 L'arsenal vehicles. Here I've painted up a couple of Ford saloon cars as Naval staff cars and a Jeep, plus a civilian car. I'll be adding a few more vehicles in due course.

Here's a good profile photo of HMS Roberts (circa 1945), and below that her sister HMS Abercrombie (1946), both c/o Wikipedia.com (Date of HMS Roberts photo edited - incorrectly labelled on Wiki, photo originally from IWM collection, but not dated - 24 Oct 13)

Time for an update. Most of the work done now, just a few more minor details and some tidying up to do. These are poor photos, but will take some better ones when finally done, which should be in the next few days. and a couple to show it's relative size:

My goodness you've got your work cut out there! That little lot is going to take some time, but will be worth the accumulative effort as it should create a pretty impressive model at the end. Look forward to seeing this progress further in due course.

Very good, nicely finished, and plenty of interesting activity. The Wessex looks particularly good and adds a great focal point to the model.

That's looking good, certainly considering the old kit being used it certainly looks much improved with the added detailing. Interesting idea to convert her to the late war appearance, presumably not very different from her appearance when serving in Korea (and nearer to what is seen when visiting the real thing in London).

Nice work there Ray, she's starting to look pretty good. Nice tip with the fishing line to apply CA glue. I had problems applying CA in fine amounts until someone gave me a very fine acupuncture needle (an unused one given by someone they know who uses them for therapy) and it probably works in a similar way, but if it is lost (or wares out) I will remember your tip about fishing line. Cheers, Rob.

Been working on weathering and detailing the tug. Additional detail has been added to create a busy look, with crates, timber, oil drums, and some rope on the main deck area (similar to as seen on photos of Woban class tugs). The rope was made from reeled cotton out of the wife's sewing basket, covered in PVA and formed into lengths laid flat on the deck, and painted to look like old natural fibre rope. The other items mostly sourced from the L'Arsenal sets below, along with timber planks from some left over wooden deck from my last ship build. Now working on a few crew members, updated photos to follow soon.

Nice diorama. (I love those big classic Mercedes of the era - I've got the Citreon in 1:48, I wish one of the manufacturers would do one of those Mercedes in 1:48).

My larger scale modelling is all done in 1:48, both land based and aircraft. I got this set which is great for signs, and plan to use some of it as part of a 1:48th diorama some time in the near future.

This is simply modeling at its very best!!! Stunning 'Zero', and the diorama base comprising of the focal point of the infamous Akagi is inspired, and looks awesome.

Just dropped in this thread to see how she's coming along and find you've flown half way round the world (sorry, just had to use that smiley). Well hope you have a nice time over there and look forward to seeing more progress with the Victory in the near future.

Very good; you can't beat finding your own solution to fix a practical problem. I've just read this thread from the beginning, and just from the first post the whole build looks like quite a challenge, but so far so good. I think there's nothing more rewarding than completing something that has taken considerable time and effort to achieve, so keep up the good work.

Thanks for your comments. Some more photos now, with the main colours on. This is the clean version, before any weathering or extra details have been added. I had to check the colour schemes. This particular little tug featured in a famous photo in a Life magazine shortly before the war, with what appeared to be a black hull and light grey vertical surfaces above (which is the photo used on the box). Photo above linked courtesy of NavSource.org I would have liked this scheme, but it seems to have gone by 1942. The scheme for coastal craft was then Ocean Grey (5-O) sides and Deck Blue (20-B ) decks, and photos (and a great colour video fond on You-Tube) backed this up. Added the Deck Blue to the decks in this photo, also slightly lightened up in the middle with a spray of a slightly lighter shade (where working and sunlight may have faded the colour). And below with the Ocean Grey added to the sides, mostly airbrushed on but touched up at the edges by brush, and other colour details added. The fun bit starts from here on in!!!

Hello Physics1993, thanks for posting photos of the submarine. It is very well modelled and looks good, and it is an interesting to see a Chinese Navy submarine on this forum. Look forward to seeing your Warspite model. If you look back in this section of the forum, there are others who have built the Warspite, so we are getting quite a collection of them between us

This was the quickest build ever for me, now primed (as photos below) and main colours just been added. I normally use Halfords primer from their large spray can, it goes on smooth and pretty much any paint type goes over it without any problems (that I've come across). Some people don't bother with primer, but I prefer it to give a firm and even base coat to add the finish paint to. Also planning to add plenty of 'clutter' on the decks, to make this look a working vessel, so giving some of the newly required L'Arsenal gear a go.

Excellent. Really well done. Great to see such an interesting subject, we don't see many of the early capital ships so this does make a refreshing change

Apologies for the messy title, but this is going to be a lengthy build in parts; first part is a district harbour tug, second a major warship, finally a portion of dockside, to make up a small diorama. I wanted to do the chosen ship for a while, then decided to do her alongside. I got hold of Alliance Modelworks 1:350 Woban class district harbour tug, which was described as being widely used by the U.S. Navy throughout the war. I was originally planning to do this subject at Mare Island, but after quite a bit of research found that Woban class tugs didn't arrive there (12 Naval District) in the year I want to show my model (1942), but a few were serving in the 14th Naval District - Pearl Harbour, so that is where this will be based, which fits in well with this ship's activities at the right time. The Allaince Modelworks kit is very finely made, and is complete with ample resin parts and full set of photo-etch, and ample decals. This first stage included full assembly, including all required photo etch fitted. I normally limit initial building in major assemblies, but the small size of this kit made the whole thing like one assembly. Also the port holes had very little depth so I drilled them out to show a dark interior. Also the bridge windows were solid, so I took the gamble of drilling them out, and squaring the corners with a fine craft knife, as best as I could manage with the solid resin bridge. More to follow as this progresses.

Wow, that is really well finished, those close up photos look fabulous!

Nice work, particularly well finished.

Nice job, particularly on the refined scale of 1:700.

Thanks all for your comments. Well, may have a little dabble - purely for the fun of taking part of course