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Showing results for tags '1/600'.
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For me this was THE kit: Not mega expensive so that you needed birthday money, just super rare, as in I never even saw one except in the catalogue. No shooting sticks, just so completely off-piste as to be enticing. Turns out though that this wasn't just any cross-channel ferry, but used in San Ferry Ann a 'comedy'- no I'd never heard of it either but then it was a complete flop even with the likes of Barbara Windsor and Joan Simms in the cast. The received wisdom is 'be nice to your children because they'll choose your nursing home', but in this case I've been nice enough to them that they clubbed together to pay the excessive collector price for this. So finally I have one albeit it at birthday money prices. Fortunately it all seems to be present Though maybe not 'and correct' as there's quite a bit of gentle warpage going on, especially with the decks. But I've seen worse, such a the decals that are very discoloured. Fortunately the fonts all look simple enough so I expect that I'll be making my own. Instructions with words! Though the surprise was when I turned them over... Never saw a set of instruction where painting wasn't until stage 4, so these instructions are in a hurry with 79 parts fitted in 2 steps. There is the advice to use Airfix paints (of course), but then we come a cropper because Airfix never did a Townsend green, nor is there any suggestion of a mix ration. Still, it's what the internet is for- first colour photo I found was a LOT lighter than I expected for starters. Got a couple of other builds to sort out before starting on this one, unless I get impatient!!!
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Hello all. After a traumatic first six months of the year, I am now almost in a position to restart my Group Build projects. I had a very difficult (all things are relative) choice as I had so many 'Classic' Airfix kits, but I have chosen the 1/600 KM Prinz Eugen as my starter. To satisfy a certain Enzo, I may well contribute something else later. The Prinz Eugen was first released in 1975 according to Scalemates, the boxing I have is from 1981 and was produced in France. I will pop some photographs on here soon, when my back allows me to be a bit more flexible. The suggested kit scheme is the one with black and white diagonal stripes on the hull and superstructure, but I want to see if I can do it as a plain grey alternative - I don't think I can mask this so it actually looks good. I have a photoetch upgrade set for it from Tom's Modelworks, but it is incredibly fine. I will have a look and see if anyone else (Atlantic Models?) does an alternative. I am looking forward to this starting, and getting things a little more back to 'normal'. All the best with your builds, Ray PS, I am not sure who did the artwork, I cannot see a signature
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As this is the wrong scale for me as I want 1/600 for liners it might seem stupid to buy this kit when there are a 1/600 scale Titanic from Academy. But as I have a saw this kit is just what I need to build RMS Aquitania in 1/600. First I remove 10,3 mm from the hull. After the hull has been put together again more parts were removed. Now I have a hull that has the dimensions wanted. As Aquitania had four propellers while Titanic had three work has to be done to the stern. A piece of thick plastic card was cut and bent in to shape. Glued in to place gives a deeper rear. A piece of the bottom has been removed. The paper rudder is just there to help me at the next stage of the rebuild.
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Another new work in progress despite numerous build. I have decided that I will start the new year 2024 with something different from what I have been building; a ship…..a tiny one……make difficult with tiny PE parts. Wanted to build a Falklands ship but the conversion will only increase the difficulty level. So, I shall stay with the original version. This is my first serious ship building. The last few times were built during school days, built out of the box. I bought the Atlantic Models PE set and there are some new structures added on some levels. Will probably need to dig further for some pictures.
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Made a start on this. The two halves of the hull were well warped. Managed to eventually get them stuck together but required filler to fill a gap in the middle 🙂
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Gidday All, I've decided to give this Blitzenbuild GB a go, my first although I have done other GBs in the past. Usually I build model ships but I thought I'd be pushing it to do one in 24 hours so I'll do an aircraft instead. I've decided to try and scratch build a Grumman F7F Tigercat in 1/600 scale. The Tigercat was designed as a very fast heavily armed carrier-bourne fighter, however it never operated from aircraft carriers that I'm aware of. It's main problem was directional instability when trying to land with only one engine. Due to this it failed to gain carrier qualification and hence operated from land bases only. I've made three aircraft in this scale before, as trials for making air groups for 1/600 scale aircraft carriers I wish to make someday. These are the Grumman Wildcat (Martlet), the Supermarine Spitfire and the Vought Corsair. As the Tigercat never operated from carriers this aircraft may seem a strange choice but - I like it. Anyway, below is the traditional photo of 'kit parts' and 'instructions'. 😁 Well, that's it for now. I plan to start tomorrow, and I stress the words "plan to". I'm a volunteer bushfire fighter and tomorrow the forecast temperature is 44 degrees C with strong NE winds - the worst combination for Perth in West Oz. I live just out of Perth in the hills, surrounded by state forest. My plans might change very abruptly - we'll see. So until tomorrow, stay safe and regards to all, Jeff.
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Here is my build of the Vintage Classic re-issue. Tooled in 1963, when Devonshire was a recent addition to the Fleet, I did this straight out of the box for our A&NVM Sig Telford display later this year. Hope you enjoy this old kit.
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Hello all, I know some folks have been after this kit (Airfix 1/600 SS France) for some time. Well, I have just been on KingKit's website and they have one on offer for £99.99 if anyone is interested. I did think about it but... Ray
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I have today made a very belated start on the Amazon class frigate from Airfix's Falkland Warships triple set (1/600). I started the Devonshire many years ago and I fear that is lost for good. The initial hull assembly was a bit of a faff but I think it went ok. Looks like I may need to pick up some putty however as there are a few gaps. I'm not sure if this down to my skill(or lack thereof) or an old and not great (cracked sockets, lots of flash) molding.
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The story: In 1947 the Royal Navy commenced designing a cruiser (design Z) of which a number of variants were considered. Variant D was chosen but ultimately the project was cancelled before construction began. News of the Russian Sverdlov class of cruisers however convinced the British government to fund a single cruiser of the design, the ship to be named HMS Minotaur. At over 15,500 tons standard she was a large ship with a flush-decked hull over 670 feet long. She had a beam of 70 feet and was very weatherly. Her guns were of a new design, fully automatic and DP (dual purpose) and all on two levels. The armament consisted of ten 6-inch guns in five twin turrets, three forward and two aft, disposed like those of the Japanese Mogami class of a decade earlier. These guns fired a heavy shell and had a rate of fire of 20 RPM per gun. She also carried sixteen 3-inch guns in eight twin turrets, each gun firing 90 RPM. The 3-inch turrets were arranged in four pairs, two on each beam. Between the forward and aft 3-inch turret pairs were sixteen 21-inch torpedo tubes, in four quad mounts, two on either beam. For fire control a DCT (Director Control Tower) and a HA (high angle) director were supplied for each pair of 6-inch turrets. Each 3-inch turret had it's own HA director. The directors could be cross connected if required or each turret operated under local control. No aircraft, light guns or anti-submarine weapons were carried. Her long slender hull gave her a theoretical speed of 32 knots although she topped 33.25 knots on trials. The automatic guns had teething troubles for the first few years but by slowing down the rate of fire to 15 and 75 RPM respectively these guns became reliable and deadly. When the battleship HMS Vanguard was scrapped in 1960 HMS Minotaur became the glamour ship of the RN. While there is no denying the power of aircraft carriers and nuclear ballistic submarines the general public liked to see guns, and HMS Minotaur had the biggest and mostest. Of course, that changed in 1977 when the battleship HMS Bellerophon (formerly the French Richelieu) was commissioned. This event naturally put the Minotaur's collective noses out of joint and the next two years were spent in friendly(?) rivalry with the Billy Ruffians, or Silly Ruffians as the Minotaurs liked to call them. In 1979-81 HMS Minotaur was given a belated refit. The forward shelter deck was extended further forward and 'B' turret was raised up on it. 'C' turret was removed and in it's place a sextuple GWS-25 Seawolf missile launcher and four MM-38 Exocet canisters fitted. Another GWS-25 launcher was fitted aft in place of the saluting guns, overlooking "X" turret. The aft superfiring 3-inch turrets and their directors were removed and in their place were fitted two six-barreled Vulcan Phalanx 20mm gatling guns and two 8-tube Corvus chaff launchers. These two Phalanx systems were for assessment by the RN and how the ship's two senior officers, Captain Edward Teach and Commander John Rackham, acquired them both has never been established. These two officers were also concerned that the ship's weapons, however reliable now were still dependent on the ship's electrical power so as a final last ditch defense they 'obtained' four single 40mm Bofor and four single 20mm Oerlikon guns. The also 'sourced' two RHIBs for rapid man-overboard recovery and two Hiab cranes to launch and retrieve them. These two Gentlemen seemed to have a knack of obtaining assets that took their fancy. The ship also received two STWS triple torpedo tubes. As HMS Minotaur was conceived and built before the days of helicopters operating from ships and her primary role being long range gunfire a flight deck and associated equipment was not deemed practical. However her long quarterdeck was often used for helo transfers but usually by suspended loads. In early 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and HMS Minotaur was included in the task force sent south to recover them. Like HMS Bellerophon her first task on arrival was shore bombardment. Sometimes she operated independently of the battleship to keep the Argentines guessing and sometimes with her to destroy those targets that Bellerophon missed, which admittedly weren't many. As reported by that eminent naval historian @Alan P when the Argentine cruiser Belgrano was sighted HMS Bellerophon was sent to deal with her. Using such overwhelming firepower against the cruiser was deemed unsporting by the crews of both Belgrano and Minotaur alike, but the Minotaurs conceded that the admiral was, well, the admiral and had the right to chose which of his toys he wanted to play with. But HMS Minotaur's finest hour was to come that very afternoon. When Argentina purchased the American cruiser USS Phoenix they also purchased a sister-ship, USS Boise which they named 'Nueve de Julio'. This ship was decommissioned in 1978 but when the Falklands invasion was planned the Julio was quietly reactivated. And while Belgrano was being pummeled by Bellerophon Julio was sailing south towards the Falklands. She was detected by satellite and HMS Minotaur was ordered to intercept, which she did by mid afternoon. A Google search failed to reveal if Julio was armed with Exocets and Captain Teach, being a descendant of those notorious sea-faring gentlemen of Penzance believed that all should be fair in love and war, a view not universally shared. He decided on gun action, a decision that had the gun crews joyously skipping instead of the more usual running to their action stations. Julio was intercepted 180 nautical miles NNW of the Falklands and ordered to depart the total exclusion zone. Her response was a ragged, diverse and inaccurate broadside which never the less sent a shell passing between Minotaur's funnels. Captain Teach had no choice but to engage, and Minotaur's accurate gunfire soon smothered the Julio with 6-inch shells. Within a short time Julio was on fire and when an explosion forward sent smoke and flame skyward Minotaur ceased fire. As the Argentine ship began to settle Captain Teach ordered all boats away to rescue the crew. Darkness was approaching and the crew were leaping into the water, most of their boats and rafts having been destroyed. (This act resulted in Teach receiving a humanitarian award several years later, by Argentina no less.) As a result of these two actions Bellerophon and Minotaur were to receive considerable attention from the Argentine Airforce. While they saved their dwindling supply of Exocets for Bellerophon the Argentines sent waves of A-4 Skyhawks against Minotaur. The cruiser's AA fire was impenetrable however, with a multi-tiered defense of Seawolf, 3-inch and Phalanx all claiming aircraft shot down. Even the Bofors and Oerlikons had a go, at one very brave and skillful pilot that evaded the storm of metal thrown at him. He survived and his bomb hit but failed to explode. It was successfully disarmed the next day. For the rest of the Falklands campaign HMS Minotaur alternated between shore bombardment and AA defense of the carriers. Other than the bomb hit she avoided any further damage, and later returned to Britain to a hero's welcome. Captain Teach was censured however for risking the ship by not engaging Julio with Exocets. But as he'd successfully sank an enemy cruiser they could hardly relieve him of command. Several years later HMS Minotaur had her Exocets replaced by Harpoons, and was sent on anti-pirate patrol off the Horn of Africa. On one clear day Captain Teach was ordered to prevent a pirate vessel attempting to escape after an aborted attack on a tanker. Minotaur achieved radar lock and mindful of his rap-across-the-knuckles after the Falklands he ordered a Harpoon fired at the vessel. The resultant wreckage was then obliterated with gunfire from every weapon that would bear. The cost of the ordnance used to destroy the open boat and four 150hp outboard motors - over 1 million pounds. As Captain Teach was simply obeying orders he again avoided an official reprimand, instead he was promoted out of the ship and became Rear Admiral in charge of Naval Procurement. Rear Admiral Teach decided to retire and was last heard of cruising the Caribbean. HMS Minotaur was decommissioned in 1991, sold and scrapped the following year. HMS Minotaur in 1982: The last two photos show the ship in 1987, after the Exocets were replaced with Harpoons. Anyone with an intimate knowledge of the RN and it's ships, and of the Falklands war will find this story full of holes and probably quite implausible. The ship, and the story are both 'what-ifs'. The model was a fun thing for me and built as a GB on the ATF.. I'd like to draw your attention to the model by Alan P of his HMS Bellerophon (nee Richelieu). I earlier gained his permission for the links. His model: The build thread of HMS Minotaur: Thank you all for your interest. Regards, Jeff.
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I make no claims to accuracy, this is an impressionist build.
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Here's what's in the box. Assembly is illustrated in six exploded diagram stages. For something a little different I like the look of the Falklands scheme that she wore for a time after the conflict. First a dry fit. I airbrushed the wooden decks.
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Out of sheer nostalgic memories and the challenge of an old kit I took the plunge for an accurate small model of Hms Devonshire Sadly no plans for this particular ship although still not feasible paying for large scale plan Lot of photos of the class but they have to be of the actual ship The actual model is far too inaccurate main issues forward superstructure short and far too back main mast on wrong structure Aft deck too short
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This is the HMS Victorious in 1/600 scale from the Airfix Classics range that has been upgraded with the Atlantic Models PE kit. The model was all brush painted with acrylics, mostly Humbrol but some Revell and Vallejo too. The physical layout of the ship with the atlantic highway etc. is as she looked in the late '60s just before she was scrapped. I did the deck in the colours it was at the start of the '60s because I didn't need to do any helpicopter landing circles this way, I only had straight lines available so doing multiple circles was going to be too difficult. The PE sets I used were the 1/600 HMS Victorious detail set and the 1/600 HMS Victorious Airwing set. (ATEM60016 & 60017). I didn't make all the parts as per the PE instructions because I've been working on the kit so long I just grew fed up with it, and I didn't have the plasticard needed to do tasks like remake all the life rafts. I will at some point return and make the x6 Sea Vixens and x6 tugs once I've taken a break and worked on a new project for a bit. The four planes that make up the current airwing are Supermarine Scimitars. Thank you for looking
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This is the Airfix 1/600 HMS Campbeltown (F4S/01204-3) with PE railings and finished as USS Buchanan, which was supplied to the Royal Navy in 1940.
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One can forgive the old Airfix 1/600 scale Bismarck it's inaccuracies as it was produced in a day when all that remained were mostly sea level grainy pictures and remote subs were way off in the future. It's still rather pants though. Would this stop me from building it? If you think that you don't know me vewy well Had this kit in the stash for some years bringing it out from time to time only to put it back as it required too much work. Well, a few weeks back, having been signed off work, I took it back down and began to tinker. The following is the product of two or three weeks of therapeutic plastic adjusting. The box art Some of the parts tree Hull halves and main deck assembled filled and sanded Portholes opened aft and forward Nasty, clunky moulded steps in the wrong place Marked positions for some of the superstructure surface detail Underside strakes added using Mr Dissolved putty masked with tamiya tape. Hatches and portholes added to lower superstructure Turrets re-detailed removing the ranging wings deepening them and moving them to slightly lower down the sides of the turrets. Blanked off ranging wings on A turret. Also added rivet detail using small wheel riveting tool Also tried adding the ladder detail on the sides although it's just a pair of lines each side of each turret so far. And how they used to look More superstructure added with mahoosive gaps filled as best as possible And added porthole detail Turret Barbettes look a little bland A little more busy And forward turret barbettes Weird and fictitious teardrop shaped anchor guides filled And chain guide detail added Just going for a reasonable impression rather than millimetre perfect detail And that's it for now Thanks for looking in. Floaty Phil the cough captain
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Well making a start on this just for something different to do and because there is a very nice gentleman on this site @stevej60 who very kindly gave me some kits he was wanting to clear out from his stash He would not take anything for them even though I tried so I will be making a donation to the Northumberland and Borders Childhood Poverty charity to help out the underprivileged children in his name. Wanted a simple OOB build to do while waiting for some bits to arrive for another project and had been liking what I had saw that @ChrisSC has been building lately on here First will have to fix the bow as it looks as though it has a mould fault and the anchor position should be square not rounded I did say OOB. Stay Safe beefy
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So! A couple of years back I was at a modellingshow in Randers, Jutland, Denmark, where I spotted this oldie but goodie offered for sale for the princely sum of 75 Dkr (ca. 8£)! But - the seller told me - he wouldn't sell it to me, unless I promised not to sell it on Ebay for a large sum of money. I told him, that I always intend of building the kits I buy, and so I was allowed to buy it. As a child I remember seeing this kit in the Airfix catalogue so I was very happy to finally being able to getting it. The box had had an accident being 'stabbed' and the kit had suffered from it resulting in a crack on the lefthand fuselage. The first order of the day was therefore to repair this with some plasticcard. This done, it went back into the box awaiting more info. And this is where it sat until now. The colour callout are for the old Airfix range, but luckily Vicarage Vee, Seahawk and Clipper helped me with this, so now I'm good to go. As it stands now, the two fuselage halves, the stern and the frontdeck are all glued together. And may I take this opportunity to apologize for my lack of knowledge of the correct nautical terms - I am but a simple landweller with no experience of the wonders of the sea! This is all for now - and - as always - this build may take some time as it is the first shipkit I've modelled in ages! Cheers Hans J
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Progress so far comments appreciated. I think my paint work has improved since the gun leander, can't manage regular photo updates as son assists with tech and I am a slow learner, Thanks to other leander modellers for research, which has helped my build. Cheers Brian.
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This is a conversion of the Airfix HMS Hotspur. HMS Dulverton was a Type II Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down on 16 July 1940, and launched 1 April1941, she saw service during the Second World War until being damaged by German aircraft in 1943 during the Battle of Leros and was scuttled. My grandmother’s brother served on HMS Dulverton as an Ordinary Signalman and was lost at sea in 1942, aged 19.
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HMS Matabele was a Tribal Class Destroyer of the Royal Navy that has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Matabele, which in common with the other ships of the Tribal class, was named after an ethnic group of the Empire. In this case, this was the Anglicisation of the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. Matabele was ordered on 19 June 1936 under the 1935 Build Programme from the Greenock yards. She was laid down on 1 October 1936 and launched on 6 October 1937. She was commissioned on 25 January 1939 at a total cost of £343,005, which excluded items supplied by the Admiralty, such as weapons and communications outfits. She was initially assigned to the 2nd Tribal Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet, which was renamed the 6th Destroyer Flotilla in April 1939. Her early career with the flotilla mostly involved port visits and exercises. With war looming, she took up her Home Fleet war station in August and was deployed for interception and anti-submarine patrol in Home waters. On 27 May 1940 she was taken in hand for repair and refit at Silley Cox Falmouth, including the 'X' mounting being replaced by a twin 4-inch AA gun. In January 1942 she formed the screen, with HMS Somali, for the cruiser HMS Trinidad on Convoy PQ8 from Iceland to Murmansk. The convoy of eight merchant ships plus escorts departed on 11 January and came under torpedo attack on 17 January one day short of their destination by U-454. That evening the merchant ship Harmatis was hit at 6.46pm by a single torpedo and taken in tow by the minesweeper HMS Speedwell, with the Matabele providing escort as the rest of the convoy continued. U-454 was able to manoeuvre into a suitable position and at 10.21 pm fired and hit the Matabele in the stern area with a single torpedo which detonated a magazine, causing the destroyer to sink in less than two minutes at position 69.21N 35.24E. Unable to free their Carley life rafts the surviving crew were forced to jump overboard into the freezing sea, with many being killed when the Matabele's depth charges exploded as the ship sank. The ice-cold sea temperatures then caused further loss of life to such an extent that out of her complement of 238 only two survived of the four that were rescued up by the minesweeper HMS Harrier. Converted from the Airfix HMS Cossack kit.
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I have chosen to step outside of my comfort zone again and have decided on a naval subject for this GB. Two of my favourite films when I was growing up were Battle of the River Plate and Sink the Bismark, and once I became interested in sticking bits of plastic together I built a few ships with HMS Ajax being one of them. I'm sure that it would have ended up with gluey fingerprints all over it and with the paint roughly applied, not much different to my modelling standards today , so I thought it was time to revisit the subject. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr
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Built as Pre-Ikara gun Leander, HMS Arethusa F38. Detailed with Atlantic models photo-etch and bogies bits. Brush painted with Tamiya enamels. First post, feedback appreciated. Next will be Ikara conversion.
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Not up to the standard of youse guys, but I like to build a ship every so often, and I've just done this one. I used some of the WEM PE set I had left over from my first build (9 years ago). A couple of b/w pix She was launched on St. Patricks Day, 1938. Commissioned in early August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of WW2, Belfast was initially part of the British naval blockade against Germany. In November 1939, Belfast struck a German mine and, in spite of fears that she would be scrapped, spent more than two years undergoing extensive repairs. Belfast returned to action in November 1942 with improved firepower, radar equipment, and armour. Belfast saw action escorting Arctic convoys to the Russia during 1943 and in December 1943 played an important role in the Battle of North Cape, assisting in the destruction of the German warship Scharnhorst. In June 1944, Belfast took part in Operation Overlord supporting the Normandy landings. For D-Day she was the flagship of The Commander, Force E.
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Hi, Wonder about the Airfix moulds for their 1/600 passenger ships. Where they really scrapped or missing? Looking at prices of Canberra, QE 2, SS France and QE there must be a demand for new kits. And what about the "Southern Cross"? Or... ? Cheers / André