1/350 HMS Ark Royal, 1987 - sailing back from the Shelf of Doom

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

You can also see that I have added some scrap plastic into the two port aft corners - not for strengthening (though it is now rock solid as a by-product!), but because those two corners are not square in Ark, but clipped at an angle, and I want to make sure I don't file through into thin air when I make the change.

If you were wondering what on Earth I meant with this filing off corners malarkey, it was this:

It was to give the Phalanx the best possible arcs of fire without shooting off the ship's superstructure - and the bottom shot shows that I would definitely have filed into thin air on the right-hand one, so I feel vindicated.

More soon.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

...and now the revised CIWS sponson is finished - looks rough at present because some filler applied to disguise the many joins, but only sanding now needed (which will wait a couple of days for the filler to cure properly).

This is the first of the major differences between Ark & Lusty which I've managed to complete. Hoorah!

Edited October 22, 2013 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[foxy]

Well like I said you are having a cracking time with this build.

Its sorting whats what that gives this so much interest.

I have traveled on a few Warships me-self, Ark Royal in the 60's. mind you this was a pleasure trip from Gib to Cyprus, 'cost me ten shillings'(50P to those who did not have PS&P.

Made the trip back via Destroyer, those were the day's.

She has changed since then, I would not recognise her now.

Nice working it out and 'don't tell me you are not enjoying it'

Cheers foxy

[Forlornhope]

: have traveled on a few Warships me-self, Ark Royal in the 60's. mind you this was a pleasure trip from Gib to Cyprus, 'cost me ten shillings'(50P to those who did not have PS&P.

Made the trip back via Destroyer, those were the day's.

She has changed since then, I would not recognise her now."

Foxy gee your a funny bugger. I'll leave it to the RN fellas on here to point out the differences between the Ark Royal in the 60's to how she looks in EXFAA's thread here. you are good for a giggle tho

Nice bit of plastic surgery to her bum FAA

Cheers Callum

[Martian]

Even without the filler rubbed down, that sponson is a work of art in it's own right!

Martin

[foxy]

Yep sorry Callum mate, its my sense of humour .

Wondered if someone would spot the joke .

I get into all sorts of trouble .

At my age It don't matter .

The ship is coming along spiffingly

Cheers foxy

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

And now the CIWS sponson, sanded and primed to check for blemishes. A few little things to fix, but basically sorted. Happy.

[phildagreek]

The sponson loks the biz, worth the effort.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I have started work on the bow section - both reinstating the fo'c's'le deck and rebuilding the starboard bulwarks / "garden wall" where I had to cut it away to remove Lusty's extended flight deck.

I've also made early strides in building the island - again, chopping away the mizzen mast (Ark's was totally different in the era I am building) [not pictured], and awaiting the 909 domes I'm hoping to get from Shar2 at Telford.

Airfix don't provide any bridge windows, so I here are a couple of pics with the Glue & Glaze just applied, and again this morning now that it has cured. The great thing about this stuff is that I can safely spray the whole bridge without masking, and then replace the glaze - this was just by way of a trial run to see how it looks. Pretty good, I'd say!

[Rob 1]

Phew, looks like a lot of re-building.

It is looking good so far though, the re-built stern end has come out really well.

Edited October 28, 2013 by Rob 1

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Bits and bobs day, but gradually coming together in a few places.

Firstly the fo'c's'le , which is now essentially built apart from the anchor cables. Just given a quick primer squirt for the usual check for errors - and a lot of this will be hidden under the for'd CIWS platform, so absolute perfection not required (in particular, I am not going to spend ages removing and/or covering up that locating pin which is right in the forepeak; not going to be visible.

I have also had an idea about how to improve the look of the garden wall; the original has quite prominent strengthening strakes running up the inside of it, which will be hard to get looking right in card. Then I remembered that the WEM PE set (which is pretty awesome) includes a large number of support brackets for Lusty's modified catwalks - which Ark doesn't have, so won't be used.

They need a fair amount of filing to get to the right profile, and the inside of the bulwark isn't finished yet in a number of places (as you can see from all the filler floating about!), so I have so far only fitted two, largely as an experiment to see whether they work: see the two brass support brackets - I think these look pretty good, so once I have finished fettling the inside of the bulwark, I'll fit a whole bunch. [incidentally, I saved a fairlead from the area which I cut away, and it seems to fit pretty well in the forward of the two new holes.]

Elsewhere I have started to extend the mainmast upwards, cos 1988-vintage Ark had 992 & UAA1, rather than the later 996 fit (don't know what the new ESM is called) - so the mast is a good 15% taller.

I am away for a couple of days, so more later in the week.

[Forlornhope]

she is really coming along and a lovely neat job with the stern sponson. Looking forward to more in a bit over a week

Have a good trip

Cheers Callum

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Bit of a gap as I settle into my new job, but I have managed to get back to Ark today. Lusty is modelled by Airfix in her modern configuration, which means extended flight deck, removed Sea Dart and all that jazz when compared with Ark in 1988, which is when I am portraying her. But there are also smaller details which have changed, such as the boat fit. The only visible difference is that Ark still carried a Captain's Barge in my day - a Cheverton motor boat in the midships bay on the port side, just astern of the SRBOC [chaff] platform.

The easy bit was carving out the simple cradles which would have held a Pacific RIB in Airfix's version out of the box. The more difficult bit was how I was going to set about building the davits (not too bad, though lots of curves and fiddliness) and the boat itself (much more of a challenge).

But then the mighty Peter Hall of Atlantic Models brought out an exquisite 1/350 HMS Glamorgan (I have only had the model out of the box so far, and it won't be built for some time, but it really is a stunning piece of resin work). I served in Glamorgan's sister ship, Norfolk, in the very early part of my career, and I have a long term aim eventually (like, in the next 10 years, probably) to build a model of every ship to which I was appointed. And the County class DLGs had a Cheverton - in fact two; hoorah!

So I have today built and installed the replacement davits: first shot shows just the support brackets in place

And these show the davits completed

I could detail them a little more, but probably won't, because any more stuff would only be hidden behind the boat anyway.

Final pic shows Peter's lovely little Cheverton alongside, for people like Fritag who presumably haven't the faintest clue what a Cheverton looks like! [Now all I have to do is copy it...]

Doesn't feel like much progress for 2 hours' work, but it will make a huge difference to the look of the ship in the end.

Finally, one with the Chevvy in its davits to see what it looks like (not glued or even blutac; just gravity).

Pretty happy with that

Edited November 24, 2013 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Martian]

That's a lovely little piece of work, it is detailing small areas like that which will make this build a bit special.

Martin

[ekonbor]

Oh I've just noticed this thread , will be following keenly.

As a 10yr old I was allowed onboard with my scout group in 1988 in singapore, alas the only photo I have currently is this one I scanned from a book given to NZ forces personnel.

I still have an ornate bell rope given to my dad made by a petty officer from Ark Royal.

Would you happen to have any pics/info on the harrier parked on the ramp? I'd like to build one one day. I vaguely remember being allowed to clamber into the cockpit, or if not pretty close to it.

They definitely resembled the images below but I'd like to build that specific aircraft on the ramp, I have the italieri 1:72 kit with 801 sqn markings in box.

DSG is about right, and the Admiralty had put a stop to the black & white checks on the tails and would only allow black ones.....

We (801) had one or two little mishaps on that trip, this was one of them....The Pilot claimed the ship had moved to Stbd as he was landing, (yeah, right!).....Notice the Roo' under the cockpit...

Edited November 25, 2013 by ekonbor

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

The jet on the ramp could have been any one of 801's aircraft, I'm afraid - I very much doubt even 801 would keep a record of which airframe was used in an Alpha range (i.e. cabs put out on the deck for the sole purpose of looking good on entering harbour / ship open to visitors, rather than with a view to actually flying). Unless Swordfish Fairey knows any different, of course?

Now that I come to think of it, the whole point of the stay in Singapore was to allow the ship to do some maintenance, so most of the air group disembarked: 801 and the AEW boys went to RAAF Butterworth and we went to Sembawang. I guess it is possible that the Shar on the ramp was u/s at the time, so 801 might know. Long shot, though.

[i got to play at Chickenhawk by flying an RNZAF UH-1 in the jungle in Malaysia, which is the only reason I remember this...!]

Edited November 25, 2013 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[AntPhillips]

Final pic shows Peter's lovely little Cheverton alongside, for people like Fritag who presumably haven't the faintest clue what a Cheverton looks like! Now all I have to do is copy it...

I'd drop Peter an e-mail, I know he was talking about making the gun mounts and other bits and pieces available for those wanting to model early Counties, I'm sure he could also do the same with the ships boats.

A delightful piece of modelling by the way, I look forward to every update.

Happy modelling.

Ant

[Shar2]

You could also ask Peter if he could model the Seadart Launcher and Gazebo, as this would be a great help to all of us who wish to backdate the Airfix Lusty.

[Ray S]

Ark Royal is coming along really well. I thought the way you highlighted the Cheverton was a touch of genius by the way (and I now know what one is too, not just Fritag!).

Look forward to seeing more.

All the best, Ray

[MAVERIK]

WoW that ship's coming along good, excellent scratch building .

Tell me, are you making this a waterline or full hull model?

Keep up the good building.

[longshanks]

Love the attention to detail

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

WoW that ship's coming along good, excellent scratch building .

Tell me, are you making this a waterline or full hull model?

Keep up the good building.

Definitely waterline; I just think carriers with a full air group embarked look a bit weird in full hull. My own opinion, of course, but then she's my model!

[hootch732]

As a soldier I had the opportunity to travel back from Gibraltar in 1992 on the Ark, wonderful experience.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Been a bit of a mad Xmas period, what with 90-year-old Mum finally starting to act her age (alas) and the new job starting shortly beforehand, so most of my modelling has been of the snatched 10 mins here and there variety.

I am still gradually working my way aft with the PE supports for the garden wall (not visible in the Airfix Lusty, but a very visible feature of the fo'c's'le when it was open). These are being modified from the WEM PE supports for the extended catwalks, which won't be required for my build. Each one has to lose about 1/3 of its length and about 1/2 of its breadth, plus becoming concave in profile rather than convex, so each tiny piece of brass represents at least 30 minutes' work. Only 3 or 4 more to do now, I think...

Ugh in close-up, but it looks pretty good with the naked eye - and will of course be cleaned up a lot more before we're done.

The other work I have been doing is a lot of filling and sanding on the bridge; I have seen some builds where it appears to fit beautifully pretty much OOB, but that's certainly not the case with mine - some nasty gaps and misalignments to sort out.

Thought I'd better let you know I am still alive at least!

[AntPhillips]

Great to see some progress, I've missed my regular fixes.

The bridge on my kit also required a fair bit of filling and the resulting need to clean up, I did manage to keep most of the window wiper gear intact, but as the detail is quite soft I might replace it with microstrip pieces anyway.

Hope to see more soon.

Happy modelling.

Ant