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  1. Here's a build of HMS Hermes (1919) and HMAS Vampire (1917), from the Aoshima and Tamiya kits respectively. These two were lost during the Indian Ocean Raid of April 1942, caught virtually undefended while fleeing for Trincomalee by the bulk of the IJN Kido Butai airfleet. I thought it would be nice to display them together in happier times, in this case at the end of February 1942, when they were briefly bound for Fremantle together. Vampire had served with distinction as part of the Scrap Iron Flotilla in the Med virtually without rest since April 1940, and it would have been her first return home. Sadly they were recalled two days later to prepare for the invasion of Madagascar, and thus ultimately became ensnared in the Ceylon raid in April. Please forgive the photos. Originally as part of the excellent Salty Sea Dog GB, I 'finished' these two a while ago; and they did make it to Telford and back, but I was never particularly happy with the result, at least not enough to take any good pictures; before I upended the box they were travelling in 🤣. Since I entirely lack the inclination to untangle, repair and rebuild everything, I've decided to go with what I have. Anyway seeing as how annoying I know it can be to find builds on here that die out or questions that never get answered, I figured I may as well post what I have in case anyone in future has interest in the kits or subjects. The difficulty of displaying two ships together at a distance that doesn't look ridiculous (let alone anywhere near accurate) was something I struggled with. In this case I thought it would be nice to have some goofers on the Vampire enjoying the spectacle as she is acting as plane guard while Hermes lands on her Swordfish, although in reality that would put her a good mile astern. The diorama is consequently rather unbalanced to squeeze them both in. The odd shape is owing to my lack of space at home, so the base actually separates and the ships can be therefore sit individually on their own small hexagonal cut out portions. The sea base itself is rather rough, it's my first effort and let's just say lessons have subsequently been learned, I hope! HMS Hermes is from the Aoshima kit with various minor upgrades and scratch additions courtesy of Starling models (oerlikons) and Tom's Modelworks (upgraded PE crane). The aft netting is scratched from 0.1mm wire and some mesh ribbon, but the result is so shonky, it would've been better to leave it. It could've used Aoshima's PE set but I failed to find one. The kit is nice enough, a little abstract in places but suffers by comparison with the stunning Flyhawk one, and I spent no small amount of time bemoaning my decision to build the former. It says something about the state of the industry where I can feel aggrieved at building the worse modern tooled IM kit of an obscure single-ship class. HMAS Vampire is from the Tamiya, which is very nice, but a little simple in places, and despite being of the same ship, presents her in a pre-war fit that required a significant range of alterations. Mostly these were made using the comprehensive White Ensign V&W PE, Starling Models (oerlikons, depth charge gubbins, spools and vents) or scratch (2pdr pom poms, superstructure, masts). The stringbags are a mix of the kit ones and Flyhawks nutty 14-part versions. Yes, 1/700 aircraft, 14 parts. Figures mostly ION and Starling Models. Paint was predominantly Colourcoats with the odd bit of Tamiya thrown in here and there. My sincere thanks to all those who followed and helped out along the way. Particularly to @Procopius for sharing his excellent paper on the Indian Ocean Raid itself. I've benefitted greatly from the research of others, but the decisions and subsequent errors are my own. There are some issues with the scheme and fit of Hermes (left hull, lacking any photos, is entirely a guess on my part; Oerlikons and quad poms are incorrect and no doubt many others); and of Vampire (the blue B5 colour is almost certainly incorrect). I'd (as always) urge future builders to do their own research and perhaps check back on the WiP before assuming any details are correct, many decisions were plain (usually uniformed) guesses on my part. The result doesn't nearly live up to the quality of information provided, but I'm glad to have got them finished in the end. More info on the builds and research can be found on the WiP pages below. Thanks for looking! Andy WiPs:
  2. Having bitten off way more than I could chew in a fit of enthusiasm during the Salty Sea Dog GB, I'm left with several builds still on the go. I think in the interests of not wasting mod time, I'll just continue them in new threads here. The first half of the build, along with most of the research can be found here: This one has stagnated for a while, and it actually has taken a lot of modifications to take the (initially hoped for shake and bake) Tamiya kit to convert her to her configuration at the time of sinking in April '42. Still, we've had some colour. I hope you'll forgive some comparisons, they're not intended to show off my shonky work, rather for me to see some side-by-sides to work out which guesses were right, which were wrong, and what subsequent modifications and remedial work I need to make. Bizarrely, the easiest way to do that seems to be posting them here over incessantly clicking between internet tabs and photo windows. ( /\ this photo is actually a slightly earlier configuration) Nothing like some zoomed in shots to show up how shonky your work is! Andy
  3. Another build that didn't make the Salty Sea Dog GB deadline, I hope it's not too obnoxious to continue it here. The build (or rather, a large amount of obsessing about camouflage without actually doing much building), up until this point can be found here: Most recent update sees the major colours of the camouflage (mostly) down; colourcoats 507C, B5, MS1: There don't seem to be any photos of the port side camouflage, barring some fairly obscured views of the island, so this is pretty much a guess as to what it might look like. Many thanks to Jamie and Richard for sorting through it all for me. It's not come out quite how I imagined it, but I'm reasonably happy. Looking back at the photos and plans, a few bits that haven't come out quite right, but after a bit of 507A on the flight- and quarter-decks, I think we're not a million miles away from assembly. Cheers, Andy
  4. Well, time to give myself a well deserved KUTA, and get a thread set up! A long time ago, in a group build far, far away, a naive model maker recklessly launched 5 ship builds, despite the closest thing he had built before being a DUKW! Needless to say, only 2 were completed within the GB time frame (Matchbox Narvik class destroyer and Lindberg USS McNulty), one sailed over the line a week or so later (Matchbox USS Indianapolis) and the other two, well, just stalled. These were the Matchbox USS San Diego and USS Fletcher. I think part of the reason is the camouflage required for both of them. Fletcher has an irregular pattern all over the hull and superstructure and San Diego has odd geometric patterns, requiring some fiddly masking. Neither has been touched by brush or glue since March, so time to bite the bullet and try and get them finished! Here's where Fletcher is up to; And here is San Diego; As more needs doing on San Diego, I decided to start there. Matchbox helpfully provide a nice side profile on the back of the box showing the camouflage pattern, which I scanned in and printed out on A3; However, unhelpfully, they only show one side. Found this online; Also I have this; Which has this inside; So, time to get busy with the masking tape! A decent session last night, and this is where I'm up to; Some of the starboard hull side I will do freehand; And the superstructure; Just got to mask up some of the gun turrets then it will be ready for some paint.
  5. OK, so it's not actually Christmas Day, but we are still very much in the festive season, plus one of the aforementioned ships was a Christmas present. So, I would like to do a triple build of these three Matchbox US Navy ships; USS San Diego USS Indianapolis And to round off the trio, USS Fletcher No idea when I will actually get started on these, as I'm in the middle of 2 half tracks plus I have a thread in the KUTA build, but I'm really looking forward to getting them underway!
  6. To complete my trio of Matchbox ships, I will be building the Matchbox USS Fletcher, a kit I actually received for Christmas. Its a noticeably smaller box than for San Diego and Indianapolis; 20221228_111834 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr USS Fletcher was the name ship of a class of destroyers that would eventually consist of 175 vessels, with some claim to being the best all-round destroyers of WW2, due to their combination of armament, range and speed. They would perform every task undertaken by destroyers, from anti-submarine (sinking 29 Japanese submarines), to anti-aircraft to surface action, with many of the ships having long post war careers, not only with the US Navy, but also with the navies of, amongst others, Greece, Brazil, West Germany, Argentina and Turkey, with 2 even seeing service with the Japanese. The last one in service left the Mexican Navy in 2001. Nineteen were lost during the war, with 6 more damaged and not repaired. Four Fletcher class destroyers still exist, three in the US (The Sullivans, Kidd and Cassin-Young) and one in Greece (Velos, ex-USS Charette). Fletcher herself was launched in May 1942 and would serve throughout the war in the Pacific, eventually earning 15 battle stars, plus another 5 in Korea. Whilst conducting shore bombardment off the Philippines in February 1945, she received a hit which killed 8 of her crew. One, Elmer C. Bigelow, would posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor for his efforts in fighting the fire. During the Korean War, she participated in the Inchon landings. Fletcher actually appears in the 1960 film "The Wackiest Ship in the Army" starring Jack Lemmon, and also as part of some stock footage used in "Down Periscope". She was eventually decommissioned in 1969, and scrapped in 1972.
  7. 1/700 scale figures unloading an Imperial Army Maru-Yu cargo submarine.
  8. If you have looked at any of my current builds (Seafire 47/Seafang; HMS Brinton and/or Walrus), you will know by now that I have fractured my wrist. I cannot model one-handed, so I have been wracking my brains about what I can do for the time until I get my left arm back from the menders. The power of modern technology is at least helping in one respect; I am dictating this post into my MacBook Air and will then cut & paste it into BM; no one-finger, one-hand typing for me! Right, so you can't build models for a while, Crisp - why start a new thread then? Because... well, read on. Many of you already know that I served on board HMS Fearless in 1981-1982, including during the Falklands War. The ship, therefore, for reasons that will be obvious, has a very special place in my heart, and it has always been a long-term plan of mine to build a model of her. Kits were very thin until a couple of years ago; basically there was the ancient 1/600 Airfix job. It can be done - one build in particular on the internet shows a wonderful result from that particular elderly sow's ear [http://steeleelstudios.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/marine-art-and-modelmaking-hms-fearless.html]. But it's not my scale - I am very much a 1/350 man when it comes to ships - and if I am going to spend hundreds of hours scratch building, then I might as well scratch build the whole thing. The utterly stunning Hermes, Broadsword and Yarmouth build on this very site (take a bow, @andrewa) shows what is possible and has been a massive inspiration to me. If you have not already seen this masterpiece, then go and look at it now. Actually, do so even if you have; it is superb modelling. [No pressure, then, Crisp…] There will be two Fearless builds shown in this thread; one will be the scratch built 1/350 one I have wanted to do for so long. This will be built docked down in action, as in San Carlos Water, probably as on about 24th May 1982, when this well-known photograph was taken (from one of the Rapier batteries on the hill). [You can tell it was around May 24th, because that Lynx on deck is Antelope's - she had blown up the previous day. I spent much of the war working on the flight deck - this was before I started my flying training]. I have assembled quite a few detailed parts for the 1/350 one, mostly from Peter Hall at Atlantic: I have 4 x Seacat launchers, a Cheverton (Captain's barge), motor whaler (sea boat), 2 x 40/60 Bofors guns, some basic LCU hulls (which may or may not be suitable for adaptation), and plenty of Seaking material which will be left over from Ark Royal. I also have lots of resin bitts, fairleads, hawser reels, etc. and PE RN pattern doors, hatches and ladders. As you would expect, I have lots of reference material, of which the three most useful books are these - two widely available, and the other (the home-produced pamphlet which every member of the Ship's Company took away with them when we got back) definitely not. Ewen Southby-Tailyour's book is particularly good because it has some clear photos of areas you don't normally see (like the inside of the tank deck0. I also have copious plans from Jecobin - and we will come back to those. The second Fearless model - which will be the first to be finished, no doubt - will be half the size; the L'Arsenal 1/700 resin and PE kit. It was launched at ScaleModelWorld in about 2012, and you won't be astonished to learn that I snapped one up instantly. I will not be starting it yet (too many other builds on the go, not to mention the wrist thing!), but I will give you the statutory intro shots. The box: And the contents: The L'Arsenal kit looks very nice, though it's not perfect; it is billed as Fearless as she was in 1982, but some of the details show her as she was a few years later, post-refit - notably the guns (which are BMARC 30mm rather than ancient Mk.7 40mm Bofors) and the chaff launchers on the bridge wing (which are SuperRBOC rather than the old-fashioned Corvus). Nothing, though, that cannot be fixed. I also found a build of this kit in an Airfix Modeller Magazine back issue, in which he says that the only problem he encountered was that the flight deck in his copy was a horrible fit. Yep, me too. Time for some plastic card, I think. Really nasty, bubbly casting on that flight deck, too - which is odd, because the rest of the kit is beautifully cast; here, for example, the fo'c's'le with a Swann-Morton No 11 alongside for scale. Rather than repeat the San Carlos scenario at half the size, I will probably build the L'Arsenal version to show her as she steamed back into Portsmouth in July 1982, missing one LCU (F4 having been sunk) and bearing her battle scars. ANYWAY... why start this thread now, when I cannot model? Because the one thing you definitely need when scratch building is a really good set of plans. I have these; the 1/192 Jecobin jobs, which are excellent, and of which I have already produced numerous copies reduced to 1/350, which will be cut up to produce templates etc. You will note that I have plans for BOTH Intrepid and Fearless - because neither of them show the ship in the 1982 configuration. Intrepid is as built, when the rear of the superstructure was very different. Fearless is as post-refit, with Phalanx, modern guns, a revised comms fit etc. So what I plan to do during my enforced lay-off is to combine the two sets on my computer, and generate a full set of plans for Fearless as she actually was in 1982. Those of you who followed my SeaKing rivet marathon will recall that i did something quite similar then. There will be no modelling in this thread for some time; but in the next few weeks there will be updates showing progress towards accurate plans for the time I wish to depict her. More soon-ish Crisp [P.S. Why "explicit women"? Because the motto under Fearless' crest is EXPLICIT NOMEN - essentially, "The name speaks for itself" - but shortly before the Falklands malarkey we had to pulp a load of publicity leaflets (for open days etc) because it had a misprint; the junior officers immediately adopted the revised motto.]
  9. Hello! here is my last finished model. Both the Uboat and the short Sunderland are part of the same Flyhawk kit called : " battle of the Atlantic: anti-submarine warfare set 1" in 1/700 scale. in the same kit there's another model, a Royal navy destroyer, that will be used on another project. I was lucky I had enough clear resin left to cover the submarine. Until I started pouring the resin I didn't know if It was enough... bad side of this project: - I don't have ink for resin so I've used some drops of AK aquatic turquoise. as you can see from the photo there's tiny bits of pigment that stay no matter how much you mix. - the rigging on the submarine displaced in the hardening process of the resin ( next time no rigging ). you can see it floating under the submarine ( looks like hair )
  10. Hi All, after coming across a request from Martin @RidgeRunner, decided to throw my hat into the ring with HMS Rodney, a battle ship from Force H using the Tamiya 1/700 kit. I'm in a little bit of a dilemma with this build as I would like to fit her with a wood effect deck and other AM stuff but that's going to be pricey. What I may do is get a railings PE set 'coz it's got to have railings... The box. Instructions. A waterline hull. Plastic to stick on. Never built a capital ship before but it will give me skills for when I get round to building my Renown and Courageous ships. Won't be starting this just yet as I need to complete my Type 42 destroyers first. Stuart
  11. Ok, so I decided to buy some new ship. Initially, I planned to get Cleopatra (to make her or Carlisle) and maybe also Trumpeters Zulu or Eskimo. So I went shopping. And what I got? Well... 🤪 I went through topic here: http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=23454 and I am under the impression that Flyhawk model is generally good (I have correct deck). Are there any major issues I need to look into? I plan to paint her for march-may 1941. Is camo in instructions ok? It calls for 507C and black with grey underwater hull? At the start, I was considering making her in damaged state after 26th May'41 attack, but I squashed this thought as 1) I want to preserve graceful lines of the ship and 2) it is massive undertaking as is, I do not need more challenge. The start is simple. I glued lower deck into hull and added decks of all galleries on the sides. Anyone has tips how to paint all the openings in the hull and then mask it for painting main hull sides? I obviously also made one little plane - Fulmar.
  12. As I am near to finishing my detour build of a 'wingy thing' here if you're interested. At the end of the T23 Frigate build, I asked a 'What should I build next?', so here I am. I'll build both T42 batch 2 & 3 destroyers using the appropriate Dragon kits in 1/700. The T42 Batch 2. Unfortunately this boxing doesn't come with any PE, so... I had to acquire WEM PE from Atlantic Models. T42 Batch 3 boxing with PE. Stuart
  13. Hi All, Here is my recently completed Type 23 Frigate of the Royal Navy, HMS Westminster using the Trumpeter kit. Built mainly OOB that included a PE fret but unfortunately doesn't have any railings, so the Atlantic Models PE was used too and like London buses, Jon aka @Faraway supplied me with more railings, thanks Jon. Building the plastic wasn't a problem, some nice detail and went together well but the origami needed on some of this 1/700 PE took a bit of concentration and nimbleness. Painted using mainly Colourcoats paints, my go to paints for maritime. Kit decals were nice and thin and settled well. The build was completed by putting her on a simple calm sea base, it's not always roughers ya' know. Build log here: Thanks for popping by. Stuart
  14. My second build for this GB will be the Matchbox USS Indianapolis; 20220715_082939 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr In contrast to the subject of my first build thread, the relatively unknown USS San Diego, Indianapolis is a very famous (perhaps even infamous) ship, though sadly for very tragic reasons. A Portland class heavy cruiser (Indy and Portland being the only ships of the class), she was launched in 1931. Main armament was 9x 8in guns in three triple turrets. Indianapolis served with distinction right from the start of the war, escaping damage at Pearl Harbor as she was conducting a mock bombardment of Johnston Atoll. She served in most of the major campaigns in the Pacific, before, after an overhaul, starting down the path that would lead to her tragic end. She was selected to transport the enriched uranium (then half the world's supply), plus other parts for the Little Boy atomic bomb, destined for Hiroshima, to the island of Tinian. These were successfully delivered on 26th July 1945. Indianapolis then set out for Guam, where some (unknowingly lucky) crewmen who had completed their tours of duty left the ship. She set sail from Guam on 28th July, heading for Leyte. Sailing alone, en route she was spotted by the Japanese submarine I-58. Two torpedoes struck her on the starboard side, one at the bow, and one amidships. The vessel went down in only 12 minutes, taking with her 300 of her crew. This was tragic enough, but 900 or so crew survived to enter the water and await rescue. Unfortunately, due to the secret nature of her mission, the ship was not reported as overdue, and it wasn't until three and a half days later that the survivors were spotted by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura. Not being a flying boat, all the crew could do was drop a life raft, report the position and radio for assistance. By this time, out of the original 900, only 316 were still alive, due to a combination of dehydration, exposure, and, most famously, shark attacks. Although this aspect definitely was a factor, it may have been exaggerated over the years. The number of men said to have been killed by sharks ranges from a few dozen to 150, and it may well have been that sharks were mainly attacking sailors who had already died. Whatever the real circumstances, it must have been absolutely horrific to be floating in the water, desperately cold and thirsty, only to see shark fins appear, and it is this that most people now think of when the topic of the Indianapolis comes up, helped no doubt by Quint's memorable monologue in Jaws. First to arrive at the scene was a PBY Catalina, which, against orders, landed on the sea and took on board 56 sailors. Not being able to take off in this condition, the Catalina became a lifeboat until rescue ships arrived. The plane would end up too damaged by her ordeal to take off, so once the survivors and crew had been removed, it was sunk by gunfire. Two survivors would sadly die later in hospital. USS Indianapolis would remain undiscovered until 19th August 2017, when she was found at a depth of 18,000 feet (5,500 metres), well preserved, but with her bow broken off. Just hoping I can do this great ship justice with my model!
  15. With the completion of the Batch 1 Type 42 destroyer, thought I'd jump to a Type 23 Frigate - HMS Westminster before doing a Batch 2 Type 42. Usual stuff... Box art Plastic, no waterline here . Instructions, clear sprue for helicopter, decals and some PE. Unfortunately, there are no railings which is a little disappointing. White Ensign do a set PE but the cost to get it be more than the kit and that wasn't cheap, so no railings . 'Cos I'll want to put her onto a sea base, not sure if I'll cut the hull down to waterline or make a hole in the base . Stuart
  16. It was always my intention to try and squeeze a cheeky little destroyer build into this GB if I was able to finish my first one, but the it occurred to me I'd stand a better chance of getting it finished if I were to start sooner! Since I'm already building HMS Hermes, it seemed fitting that the destroyer be HMAS Vampire, who while escorting the carrier during her final voyage, was also sunk. Vampire was a flotilla leader of the old V class, produced at the end of the first war, and while old, these ships were capable and contributed throughout WW2. Vampire herself had been transferred to the Royal Australian Navy between the wars and served in the Mediterranean initially. However, by mid 1941 her age was beginning to show and was released to Singapore for a full refit. I suspect that is when she was given this scheme: Vampire was present at the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse, and continued to serve in the Indian Ocean until her final voyage alongside Hermes in April 1942. I'm fortunate that Tamiya make a relatively new kit of this very ship, and while I haven't got on top of how much her final configuration differs from that in the box (the camo scheme at least is for an earlier period), I don't anticipate a lot of modifications. This is a 'proper' Tamiya tool, rather than a repop like the o class. The kit looks really nice. The moulding is sharp and the masts are remarkably slender. I may even opt not to replace these. Tamiya have done that propellor thing they do, with the main armament locating into pliable sleeves to allow them to rotate. Flags (which look rather large) appear to be printed on tracing paper, which may look a little cartoony, but we'll see. There's something very satisfying to me about these simple little kits and their nice compact boxings. Limited start has been made, the bottom hull is trimmed and glued, I think I'll leave the deck dry fitted for now before I decide whether it will be easier to paint in isolation Ships are so satisfying to build, none of this misery of having to fuss around with cockpit painting right at the start. Andy
  17. Finally decided on this one, despite having amassed a small hoard of reference material on escort carriers, which was the other option. I've always been quite taken by the pointed flight decks of the Hermes and Eagle, and the fully enclosed and flared bow is particularly striking to my eye at least. Unluckily for Aoshima, Flyhawk released an (apparently) much better kit at about the same time, but this one caught my eye at the LMS and I figure it's better to buy local. The plan is to be pretty lazy and build it OOB from the instructions, in the hope that it might free up some time for a second build in this GB. A little background for those who know as little about her as I did at 9am this morning (apologies for any errors for those who actually know what they're talking about, I'm very happy to be corrected). HMS Hermes was the world's first carrier to be built as such 'from the ground sea up', rather than as a conversion. Owing to the experimental nature of ship based air operations at the time, the RN didn't have a great idea what they were doing, and construction took until 1924 with many changes of configuration along the way. Some artefacts of the bygone era remained though, including the rather anachronistic 5.5" anti-ship guns built into her side in a style evoking the pre-dreadnaughts, along with a massive battleship-style gunnery control tower to direct them. The open stern and quarterdeck is also a result of intial designs being focussed on recovering seaplanes straight in through the aft hangar doors, with a flexible deck that could extend below the waterline. Her small size and lack of petrol storage limited the size of her air wing, and she saw wartime service in the Med and Indian Ocean before her sinking in April 1942, when caught without her aircraft, and trying to flee Trincomalee in anticipation of the raid on Ceylon by the bulk of the Japanese fleet carriers. The kit is for her configuration at her sinking in 1942. The later wartime camouflage appeals to the modeller as both adding visual interest and being easier to 'hide behind'. A certain part of me would prefer her in a pre-war configuration on the China Station, but I don't have the aircraft for that, nor I suspect the skill at pulling off those acres of white paint. Still, having avoided work most of the morning by looking at various sites and the flyhawk instructions, it doesn't seem to be a massive change in configuration, since it seems that most of her planned wartime refits were never started. EDIT: Right so a first foray into the box and what to do we have? First impressions are actually pretty good. I had expected (given the unflattering comparisons with the flyhawk kit that I'd seen made; along with some similarly unflattering comments about Aoshima ship kits of the past), some vague outlines with a few simple nondescript styrene dumplings to stand in the correct position for various guns, masts and whatnot. Really though it looks a fair bit better than that. The satisfyingly deep box has a nice picture of a PE fret on the side, but my Kanji-fu wasn't up to realising that it's an advert for the upgrade kit. Not that it would've changed my purchase but heyho. You can just see a big metal plate under the box which is clamped to the waterline base for some stability. A nice touch. The hull detail is a little textured but sharp enough. Print sharpness, gate design and so on seem pretty good to me at first glance. Guns are always a bit of a weak point in 700 scale ships but these little 5.5" and 4" look pretty sharp for IM styrene. What I suspect are Oerlkons to the right are a little marginal, but I think I have some nice Starling resin ones, or indeed some leftover PE origami versions from IBG destroyer kits. A random solitary pair of swordfish included on these frames. Some madcap slide moulding went into the crane, which is hard to believe was cost-effective, but it looks pretty nice for styrene. Then oddly there are two copies of a frame from their Ark Royal kit. From what I can make out, they don't seem to be used for much more than a few lowly carley floats in this kit. The detail looks a little less sharp on these and the gate design is noticably less well defined. Still, lots of nice serviceable 4.5" turrets, directors, octo pompoms, quad .50cals, anchors and outriggers. Possibly my perspective on this kit is somewhat influenced by the unholy reaction of asian-scottish genes to the sight of free stuff. Roundels look a little fried eggy. I think I might have some better AM ones lying around. The final bag contains a couple of frames with 4 more swordfish; two folded and two unfurled. I also have a copy of Flyhawk's WW2 Royal Naval Aircraft I (only partly obtained with this build in mind). The Flyhawk stringbags have some excruciating looking PE props and struts, where the Aoshima are rather simpler, and while the plastic also looks a little better, the comparison is not horrific from Aoshima's perspective. Flyhawk to the left, Aoshima to the right. Given my history with these nutty flyhawk superdetailed addons, the Aoshima ones will probably look the better once I'm through with them. 13 pieces for a wee 1/700 aircraft is getting pretty silly. So looks pretty good so far, I'm raring to go but with the weekend comes kids, kids' birthday parties, playdates and all the excurciating things that go with it. Still in the post are some Eduard crew figures that I've never tried before, and some more reference material. Andy
  18. Well, it seems I have well and truly caught the shipbuilding bug! I've been enjoying my trio of Matchbox US Navy ships so much, I have been looking to add more from the Matchbox marina! Won this off the Bay of E at the start of the week for £7. 20230126_204031 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Not exactly the 99p that it has obviously sold for previously, but still a good price! Can't say I am too familiar with German destroyers, though having done a bit of obligatory research, it seems that the Z23 class (Narvik was the name the Allies knew the class by) was notable for having relatively heavy armament for a destroyer, in the form of 5.9in guns, with one twin and three single mounts. The subject of the Matchbox kit is Z38, which seems to be mostly well known for having been taken over by the Royal Navy after the war, and renamed HMS Nonsuch. It was used for testing of the effects of underwater explosions, and contrary to what was expected of her, she broke in half during the first test. Here is the back of the box, showing a rather plain scheme; 20230126_204042 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Two classic Matchbox sprues: 20230126_204109 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr And 10 stages of construction; 20230126_204135 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Same as with my other three ships, got the two hull halves together, and dry fitted the deck; 20230126_205630 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr All four turrets done, 1 twin and 3 singles. These are slightly more of a faff than with the other 3 ships, as you actually also need to attach the turret bottom, once the barrels are in place. The turret bottoms for the single guns are extremely small! 20230126_224745 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr All superstructure sections assembled; 20230126_224759 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr And here she is with everything dry fitted; 20230126_225127 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr That is her pretty much at the same stage now as San Diego, Indianapolis and Fletcher.
  19. This build wont really kick off until May, but hoping to do a little bit between other projects. Intelligence of foreign equipment played a key role in the lead up to and throughout the second world war. Information gathered on the enemy was used to improved strategy, improve current weaponry, and help develop more advanced technology. Over the course of the war, all countries made it a priority to capture enemy equipment, and had some success obtaining them. Special teams were formed to test and evaluate captured pieces. By late 1944, it became clear the Allies were on their way to victory, making large gains, especially in the Pacific and European theaters. As they advanced, intelligence agencies knew they could come across important enemy weaponry, and planned to take advantage of such finds. For the United States Army Air Force, intelligence teams created a list of specific German aircraft to be captured, if possible. This was one of the main goals of Operation LUSTY, as well as capturing German scientists, research facilities, and advanced technology. In early 1945, Air Technical Intelligence (ATI) teams were moved just behind advancing troops, and in several cases, going behind enemy lines to secure specific equipment. One team was lead by Colonel Harold E Watson, a USAAF test pilot who's previous experience was testing captured foreign aircraft. His team became known as the Watson Whizzers. This team became quite successful at capturing black listed aircraft, which were to be sent back to France for transportation to the United States. This mission was known as Operation SEAHORSE. In many cases, some of the aircraft were not fully operable, requiring the team to gain the cooperation from German mechanics and pilots. By June, the team was able to get a majority of their targeted aircraft airworthy, and with the help of German pilots, trained USAAF pilots the basics of operating them. By the end of the month, they were flown to Querqueville Airfield near Cherbourg. In early July, the aircraft were prepared for transport, wrapped up in a protective film with propellers removed. For transportation, the United States was able to convince Great Britain to loan one of their carriers, with HMS Reaper being selected. HMS Reaper was initially to be built as USS Winjah (CVE-54), an escort carrier of the Bogue-class. It was then decided that the Bogue class would be transferred to the Royal Navy to help full requirements of the Lend Lease program, so once completed in Tacoma, Washington, she was sent to Vancouver, Canada, for additional modifications. After spending much of 1944 and 1945 ferrying aircraft, she was the ideal choice due to an already planned relocation to Australia. 40 aircraft were loaded onboard the deck of HMS Reaper in Cherbourg, which departed July 18th. Arriving in New York July 31st, the aircraft were unloaded, and began their journey to Freeman Field. Most aircraft were sent to Wright Field in Ohio, while some, assigned to the US Navy, were sent to the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. Many of these aircraft were tested, and some were set aside for a future museum. However, due to the sudden outbreak of the Korean War, some of the storage facilities were needed, and many airframes were instead destroyed. A good number managed to survive this unfortunate period, and were given to several new museums, notably the National Museum of the United States Air Force and the Smithsonian Museum, where they reside today. For my build, I have chosen HMS Reaper during Operation SEAHORSE. I will be using Tamiya's 1/700 USS Bogue, which will be quite similar in appearance to HMS Reaper. Pit Road offers several sets of Luftwaffe aircraft in 1/700, which I have also picked up. Some photoetech will be used from a Five Star set, and I'll also look into possibly replacing some of the anti-aircraft suite will some upgrades. I'll also need to make molds of a few of the aircraft and make resin copies. For example, Pit Roads Luftwaffe Aircraft Set 2 has 4x Me-262s included, but as 10 were transported on HMS Reaper, I'll need to make some more. I've never done this, so it may require some experimenting.
  20. So I started this one for the Salty Sea Dog GB. I've been thinking about doing the Akagi in all three 'variants,' from the proposed battlecruiser, its conversion to an aircraft carrier and then its last refit to the full deck. But as happens a lot, my drive dropped off and my attention wandered. (It wandered to the Three-Decker, but that's another thread!) As of now, the GB is not over, but I know it will not reach the finish line there. But nor do I want this to languish at half status - along with so many other kits! So, hopefully, this will keep me working on this so I can get it into the DUN Column. And just to be up front, I'm no expert on ships and such, so I hope you'll forgive some gaffs.😉 So, to start the 'base' of the project is Fujimi's 1/700 Amagi kit. I know now that they also have a battlecruiser Akagi kit, but the only difference between the two is pretty much just the name of the ship on the box, so all is good there! Except that it is a waterline kit and I like to see the full hull. Bum, bum, buuuummmmm! No worries though, I had bought more kits! I think five in total, the one battlecruiser and a Fujimi full hull full-decker and two Hasegawa versions, the three-deck and another full decker with a full hull. Between them I had enough bottom hull pieces for all three ships, although I had to mix-match in order to get a good fit for the battlecruiser. The bottom from one of the full deck Hasegawa's was a 'good enough' match, with that kit having then been sold off as a waterline kit. Compared to the Fujimi lower hull from the full deck kit, this one is more flat-bottomed though and lacking in some 'shape' near the stern. Here's a pic of all the parts, starting with what came in the Fujimi kit. And the rest, And the wood deck. The first thing to do was to check the fit of the hull pieces. I had chosen the best fit for the Fujimi upper hull but there were still some discrepancies. From the side, the bow looked really good. Though there was a bit of an 'under bite' at the stern. None too bad, as that can be dealt with, especially as going down the sides, the parts lined up pretty well with only a little bit of sanding needed. First though, was the shape of the bottom, Again, the Fujimi hull (top) has some better looking curves to it compared to Hasegawa's more flat-bottomed version. It also has more of a 'keel line' going forward, which I mimicked by gluing on a thin strip of styrene. This also helped during sanding, as it kept me from sanding across the center line. After a little bit of sanding I got this. A shot of primer and it looks pretty good. I snipped the strengthening cross members in order to allow for flex and movement while gluing them together. Which left me with a canoe! For the seams, I tried Perfect Plastic Putty first, but that made a cake of it, and I ended up using CA to further bind the sections as well as act as a filler. And sometimes you (I) just sand a little too much... I ended up with a shallowness to fill on the starboard side. To fix that I pulled out some stryene strip and glued one to either side to keep symmetry. Those were then sanded in which fixed it up. With that self-inflicted wound fixed, I moved onto mounting. For that I got some bolts and lamp parts from the local hardware store. And then drilled some holes. (Yeah, one was out of place...) Those were glued in with CA. With that I moved to the upper decks. For the PE I sanded off some unneeded details. And drilled through some holes for the chains. I sanded the under bite off of the stern, and though there is some PE for the 'Captain's Walk' I left the plastic in place as it looked well enough. I started doing some PE after that, which was a little miss... And a little hit... I've since taken off the smaller T-shaped piece and used parts of it on the kit part. Then it was onto the gun barrels. The Fujimi barrels looked pretty good with open muzzles, but I already had the brass ones, two sets in order to account for all of the turrets, so the plastic ones were lopped off and replaced. And some super structure PE started. The next part going on top of that though looked a little off... I sanded the front posts now to level it out. And that's where I'm at now. As usual, I got side-tracked, this time by the Three-Deck version for the Transports Loaders and Carriers GB, which won't be finished for that one either!😄 But I'm getting the hull on that one to a 'good place' and I'm now awaiting some more PE to show up for it, so I'll be coming back to do more work on this one soon. Keep on modelling! Thom
  21. Trumpeter is showing a 1/700 Queen Elizabeth class carrier in their latest catalogue, item 06751.
  22. 1/32 vintage cars: MG TC (Matchbox or Revell - same tool) Bugatti 35 (Airfix) 1/72 aircraft: Farman F40 (even the Veterans resin one) Breguet XIX (waiting for an injected kit better than HitKit - BTW it's very hard to imagine any worse than HK) Mitsubishi Ki-21-2 Sally (a new tool needed eagerly) Lavochkin La-9 (a new tool needed eagerly) McDonnell F-4B Phantom (Hasegawa or Fujimi, later variants excluded) 1/72 AFV: Vickers MBT Mk.1 Vijayanta (never kitted in any scale - shame on you, Airfix. Especially since you make your kits in India). M47 Patton (Polistil or a new tool needed eagerly) M59 APC (injected, a new tool needed eagerly) K200 Korean IFV/APC (injected, never kitted in Braille scale so far) 1/700: HMS Vanguard battleship (waiting for the Flyhawk 1166 announced years ago) USS Midway/FDR/Coral Sea (straight deck configuration, prior to the SBC-110 mods) USS Forrestal CV-59 (never kitted in 1/700 so far) USS Enterprise CVN-65 (Dragon 7130 if anybody has seen it in reality) Cheers Michael
  23. Here is my recently completed HMS Sheffield using the 1/700 Dragon/ Cyber-hobby kit. Built mainly OOB with a couple of corrections and was an experience to use 1/700 PE that was included in the kit. Paints were from Colourcoats, kit decals and was depicted in her final scheme before her demise during the Falklands Conflict. Build log here: Stuart
  24. Hi All. I thought it was about time to do a couple of maritime builds before giving attention back to my scratch build of the Fushimi Maru. So what do have? The subject will be the Type 42 Destroyer, HMS Sheffield using the 1/700 CybeHobby kit. First, the stuff: The box. I will be building her as the waterline version. The plastic. Instructions, decals and PE. This will be an OOB build but like life, things are bound to be either incorrect or missing and will need to be remedied. I know very little of this type, so if the 'collective' spot something please tell and I will give it some deliberation. Stuart
  25. Hello all, this will be my main entry into this GB. My good Lady Wife very kindly bought me this for last Christmas, how she knew I wanted it I know not, but when the parcel arrived from Starling Models she was very quick off the mark and grabbed it out of my hand and said "that will do for your Christmas present. How much do I owe you?" Well, I was honest and truthful and did not make a fast buck, and did not charge her for the postage, only the kit. I knew it was going to be a complex kit when I ordered it, but, upon opening the box on Christmas Day 2021, I thought "Gulp!", put it away in one of my stash places, and waited for a suitable GB to rear it's wonderful head. The reason is that I find if I try and build anything too complex, I can easily get bogged down and go under, but if my friends here on Britmodeller keep chiming in with encouragement, help and advice, I can usually pull something out of the bag and am more adventurous. This is what I have chosen to build: A good, solid start, very well packaged. There was bubble wrap and folded tissue paper inside to protect the components. It has a high quality instruction guide with colour coding to show etched or resin parts. It also shows you to build in sub-assemblies which I will try to follow. It may well make painting and attaching the parts easier, but I am a little concerned about crushing the delicate etch when I try to fit the assemblies to the hull. There is a superb etched frame, and all the parts are numbered and lettered to correspond with the instruction guide. That is not a sample bottle, but it does contain some goodies, notably turned brass mast uprights - I will need to make my own ancillary parts for masts and cranes. The hull is very well detailed, but has some very delicate detailing, which I hope I will not break. The superstructure parts again show very nice detail, there is just a hint of resin flash here and there but nothing untoward. And finally, A myriad of small, delicate components which were the main contributors to me putting the kit away! Some parts had broken off the pour blocks, but they are all in a plastic takeaway box with the lid firmly sealed for safety. Well, that is the introduction, roll on the start! I am so looking forward to starting these builds. As usual with one of my complex builds, I may well say what I am going to do next to the kit, but if I say something which would be a serious boo-boo, please let me know, any advice and help will be greatly appreciated. Good luck with all of your builds, Ray
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