Chinese destroyer "Anshan"

[Will Vale]

Hi folks,

In with a bit of a late entry here, but inspired by the fact that I've finally finished something this year I think I have a chance of getting it done before the deadline. Regrettably this is my usual MO with group builds (join late, fail to finish on time) but it does mean I get things built eventually.

The kit in question was a bargain purchase from my local model shop in their annual sale last year. I think it was stock cleared out by the supplier as I picked up Trumpeter's 1/144 Tu-160 for the same price at the same time. (That got built last year.)

The price in question (20 NZD) is about a tenner at the moment, I think it dipped under last year and it's certainly the nearest round number. I also may want to use some scrap-box etched railings I bought a few years ago as roadside fencing for my Hollentalbahn layout. They might not be entirely suitable, I'm not sure. In which case perhaps wire posts and nylon thread would work?

I checked with the powers that be and this is all legal, and the shelf-worn and motorised origins of the kit do seem to fit in with some of the other weird things people have been building

The contents of the box are promising, though there's some weird gunk and discolouration on the hull it looks like it'll all sand off.

The real ship has been preserved in Qingdao and there's quite a good selection of photographs to look at. It seems to vary between "smartly painted" and "rusty as hell" so that provides some fun ideas for weathering

Cheers,

Will

[snapper_city]

Looking forward to this...

[Will Vale]

I've made the tiniest of starts! The hull is pretty nice, but the decks are rather too thin and have warped, particularly the foredeck:

I taped it to an X-acto mitre box, a ruler and some chopsticks and applied boiling water, resulting in:

which is better, but still needs bracing I think. I might cut the two wall sections off underneath, then I can just use a flat surface to form it against. The wall sections don't match the hull anyway - the instructions optimistically show a nice notch for them which never made it into the tooling

I also fitted the insert for the stern, which will need plenty of putty and sanding, and started building some of the superstructure:

As you can see, the mouldings are quite nice. Again, a slight warp in the deck means that I need tape and weight to keep the walls aligned at the bottom. Once they dry they should brace it nicely.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

I found that once I'd got the stern plate in, I could see a twist all along the hull that previously looked straight. Probably 5-10 degrees bow to stern. So I've spent more time with the boiling water and I think I have the front 2/3 right now, and just need to rework the back where I un-twisted it a little bit too far.

Also noticed that the starboard hull edge is a tiny bit higher than the port side - you wouldn't see it but it means the deck has more visible lip at one side than the other. Is this a "real ship" thing or do I need sandpaper?

It's as well I'm building this in a group, if I was on my own I'd probably have run away by now

Will

[snapper_city]

You cant quit now...

[prowler0000]

Never seen one o' these. Most interesting!

How big is it?

[Bengalensis]

Great to see you in here Will. This is no doubt going to be both interesting and very enjoyable.

[Will Vale]

Thanks for the interest/votes of confidence!

How big is it?

The overall length is a little over 21" as you can hopefully see here. Very thin though.

I've made some progress in the meantime - I had another couple of sessions at the sink with the hull and the boiling water and have removed the twist. I then sanded about 1.5mm off the middle of the RHS to get the deck to sit level, and chased out the notch it fits into using the edge of a file so that it all lays back down.

I also added some hefty bracing to the deck from scrap-box lengths of Evergreen bar and tube. Not elegant, but quick and effective:

and the end result is that the alignment looks really good now:

I still need to do something about the droopy deck extensions at the front, and fill various gaps when it's fitted in place permanently.

Bouyed up (ha!) by this success I thought I'd clean up the rest of the hull and went to sand off the chunky attachment points. Unfortunately I think they had some stress cracking so I sanded for longer than I should have done (because they didn't disappear when they were level) and created a couple of divots I've been filling and wet sanding to build the keel back up to a consistent level.

Lastly I did a bit of assembly of some superstructure parts, and some of the deck fittings to get a feel for what what was all going to be like.

Sort of good news, there's a fair bit of fettling required to get things to fit even this well and I removed some detail from the gun director which I'll need to reinstate. But the shapes look decent and I think I can fill and clean everything up given time.

Cheers,

Will

[snapper_city]

You are really moving with this. Great effort.

[PlaStix]

That's looking good so far and you've obviously had a to do a lot of work to get it to fit correctly. It's very useful to hear how you've achieved this. I would never have thought of using hot water to straighten parts out - will remember this for future reference.

[Will Vale]

Thanks folks! I also found that chopsticks (aptly enough) were really handy as sighting sticks when trying to figure out whether I was making the twist better or worse.

Will

[Will Vale]

Bit more progress over the past few days. I got the bottom of the hull smoothed out to my satisfaction and fitted the "things which hold the prop shafts". I also drilled out all the portholes on the hull, one came out slightly wonky and I'm trying to decide whether or not to fill it. Other than that I think the hull's ready for paint - I already sprayed a little primer to check the surface.

On the decks, I spent another hour or so with clothes pins, metal rulers and a temperature-controlled hot air gun trying to flatten out the wobbly edges of the foredeck overhangs. They're much better now, such that the wobbles are more-or-less in scale After that I added a bit more bracing and filled all the pin-holes under the overhangs.

Most of the first level superstructure is attached to the decks too, so I can get clean joints with the deck. I'd rather attach the upper levels such that the joint is at the top of the walls because it's less visible. Most of it went well but I didn't clean up the edges of the frontmost section (below the bridge) well enough and there was a gap, so I've fed some extra-thin behind it and peeled them off for another try.

Lastly I cleaned up the Styx launcher I'd assembled after puttying it. It looks pretty good - the shape is great and it's quite easy to get the joins to look decent. I suspect the gun turrets are going to be a bit more work because there's more detail in the way of the shape.

No pictures tonight, sorry. I'll hopefully take some tomorrow.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

Lots more sanding last night and today, and a bit of gluing, to get here:

The decks are all loose still, but the superstructure is all attached to the relevant deck. More to do building the upper levels. I re-did the front superstructure and got rid of the big gap with the deck, I'm pleased with that now.

I also finished sanding the bottom as described in the previous post:

and finally I've been sanding my weapons and finishing off the Styx launcher. I think it came out pretty well.

The gun turret now has the curves that it should, and I've thinned down the edges of the armour from 1mm to about 1/3mm at the back - will provide a pic of that next time. Only three more turrets and another launcher to do, then I can think about masts and such...

Cheers,

Will

[stevej60]

Coming on a treat looks a cracking kit.

[Will Vale]

Yeah it's surprisingly nice. The fit is decent but not great once you get the parts straightened out. The butt-jointed-90' things like the superstructure are very accurate, but things like the mitred joins on the launchers were poor. Detail is not bad either, they obviously looked at the real thing.

I did a bit more this evening having found some more reference (foolish boy, this is supposed to be a quick build...) and added the hull strakes from styrene strip. I'm not sure what the vertical ones are but they are definitely proud of the surface and flat-faced.

I found some 0.5x0.25mm Evergreen strip in my plastic box and tacked it in place with Tamiya tape to line it up. Once it was about right I ran some extra-thin along the strip, waited, and ran a finger along it to seat it. Then removed the tape. The joins I filled with CA.

The vertical strakes are the same, but they have a fillet of CA on each side. Then I sanded the whole thing down to about half the original thickness, both to get closer to scale and to round the edges. Learning lots on this project.

Oh, the reference I found is here:

http://www.haijun360.com/news/6607X/2010/1124/10112421633KG90E11J95BD237193DG.html

I like what looks like an in-service pic of 103, with blast bags (?) and some other canvas covers (?) on the AA guns which don't appear to be on the preserved 101.

[edit] I'd always thought those ribs on the sides of boats to take the impact from the pier etc. were called rubbing strakes, but it turns out that a strake is a more fundamental part of the construction so maybe that's not the right thing to say. To be safe, let's just say, I added some raised detail I copied off a picture

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

The hull has now been primed, I cleaned up a couple of imperfections and re-primed it:

The glue fillets I was so happy about look a bit crap once primed since they've been drawn to the bottom more than I thought they had. I think trying to fix them will be difficult and maybe they won't look too bad with weathering etc?

The black thing in the background is a very basic base which I also started today. The standard two bits of tube fit into holes in this and in the bottom of the hull. I still need to add some boxing inside the hull and glue the tubes in place.

Lastly I mixed up some teal-grey paint using a base of Tamiya Sky Grey with the addition of blue, green and white. I think it looks pretty promising on the hull so it's had a couple of coats. Camera battery died after I took the last pic so more will have to wait.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

As usual, saying "I don't think I'll bother to fix X" and then going on to the next step meant that I had to go back and fix X. In this case, I chipped away at the offending glue and sanded the vertical ribs right back so they're only slightly proud of the hull. Not a tidy fix, but it probably looks better.

I also charged the camera so I can show you the (just touched up) paint. Hope I have enough for the superstructure!

Still need to add the boxing for the base supports inside the hull. I might also spray a barrier coat along the waterline so that when I apply the anti-fouling colour I can chip away at it a little.

Cheers,

Will

[snapper_city]

The stand is looking good.

[Will Vale]

Thanks! It's surprisingly tidy for how little effort it was, and all made from things I had I think I might try and find some red ribbon or something to edge it with since while the top is tidy (thin MDF) the sides have a lot of grain where the pine framing was.

In actual progress news (since time is running out!) I have painted the lower hull. I started with a messy pre-shade with black and NATO brown, making sure to get the fittings at the stern nice and dark.

Then I mixed up some Hull Red and Flat Red and gradually filled in the space.

I added more Flat Red and sprayed this along the waterline several times since the one in-service picture I have shows quite a bright red here:

I think it's a bit model-ey, but it should be a good base for enamel weathering etc. later on.

I also sprayed some white paint inside the second Styx/Silkworm launcher, but I was lazy and didn't prepare it properly so I suspect that'll be coming off tomorrow. I hate white paint, I suspect if I liked it I would make more effort and it would all go swimmingly

So just over a week down, and I think I'm still more-or-less on track. Depends how difficult the masts are, I suppose!

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

Some more good progress tonight. I added some fictitious framing and other detail to the undersides of the foredeck overhangs where the ship's boats are stored, since it was all flat and I can see some scant evidence of stuff being there in pictures. I also fitted the boat cradles (since they'll be easy enough to paint in place).

On the main deck I shaved off the mine rails where they cross the join in the two parts, and on one side took one rail back past the battery switch hole. I've filled this in, re-filled the big join, and sanded it all back and tomorrow I'll reinstate the missing rails with plastic strip. I didn't think it was possible to get a good join by sanding around the rails.

I also boxed in the support tubes inside the hull and did some miscellaneous sanding and cleanup. None of it very exciting but it's all getting closer to having the decks painted and installed. I'm thinking I might join the foredeck and main deck before fitting the whole assembly into the hull, since it will allow me to clamp the joint properly.

Still need to drill out the superstructure portholes too

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

Here's the result of the work on the decks:

I finished the sanding today and added the deck rails back in. Not much happening since I went for a run at lunchtime, maybe tonight...

Will

[Will Vale]

I spent a while this morning drilling/filing out all the superstructure portholes and windows (since the bridge windows are moulded open I figured I didn't have a choice for the rest. It does bring the thing to life rather.

I also did some cleaning up of the deck join and around the rails, and got a first coat of primer on. This evening I've been cycling between the thin CA, accelerator, and airbrushed decanted primer to get all the joins between the deck and the superstructure tidy. I've seen a lot of really good ship models with visible joins here and it does spoil the illusion somewhat. Especially in 1/200!

Not that I'm claiming these are perfect joins, but they're OK I only realised after taking these pics that there's still some swarf left on most of the portholes - I did clean it all out, or thought I had. I think I will ignore this since in many cases it's clean enough to be a rim for the glazing.

The detailed overhead looks a bit better in primer too:

With that out of the way I preshaded the decks with NATO black:

and applied a few thin coats of my teal grey mix. Which ran out, but I managed to reconstruct it (and this time made nearly a full pot!)

Hopefully you can see that the preshade is still visible. It actually puts back the gap at the bottom of the walls, but in an "it's meant to be there" way. I'll need to retouch the preshade on the deck after I've masked the walls or there'll be a weird effect from the overspray of the lighter colour.

There's some naff paintwork on the other side of the foredeck where overspray created a really rough surface around the passageway opening. I didn't spot it until I was applying the topcoat, and my fix was a bit cack-handed so I need to let it dry overnight and do some sanding to restore the finish. Could be a lot worse!

I'm soon getting to the point where I need to plump for grey or green decks - the recommended colour is green, the preserved ship appears to have grey decks but it's not conclusive. I don't have any in-service pictures where the decks are visible. Anyone know what the right answer is?

Cheers,

Will

[Bengalensis]

Great detail work, and now comes the paint, this will be very interesting to see evolving.

[Will Vale]

Thanks! I seen to be missing an update I thought I posted earlier - maybe I didn't hit "Post"??

I fixed the grainy paint by removing it right down to the plastic with lacquer thinner and finding that the plastic was grainy underneath. I'm not sure if this was some artifact of construction or if it just came that way, but I've sanded it flat (ish) and reapplied the various paint layers.

Then I masked the superstructure, applied more NATO black around the bottom edges where overspray had killed the preshade, and sprayed the deck. I dithered for a bit about making a custom mix but ended up going for Field Grey since that always looks pretty green to me, and the colours I've seen in pictures suggest a dark grey with a green tint.

It turned out to be pretty green While I thought about what to do I brush-painted the various moulded-on deck bits and touched up various masking problems. Unusually I managed to get on with brushing the Tamiya paint - not perfect results, or easy, but good enough.

Then I had to make my mind up about the deck. Rather than remask and mix a darker colour I brushed on three or four layers of a filter made from Feldgrau oil paint, which dulled the green a bit and darkened things too. I quite like it now, though it should probably still be darker:

I added two extra layers between the mine rails, and one fewer layer on the foredeck in front of the breakwater/bulkhead thing to make it look a bit more varied.

Then I noticed that some paint had chipped off the hull so I touched it up and applied two coats of gloss varnish (Alclad Aqua Gloss, which went on orange-peely like it always seems to). While it was in the airbrush I thought the decks were dry enough from the filter and sealed those too to prepare for weathering.

So here we are:

I'm not quite decided about the order of construction. I think I should probably weather the bits which will go under the overhanging deck edges and matte varnish them, then glue the two decks together and fit the whole lot into the hull. That way I won't need to apply any vertical pressure to the lower deck.

But my heart says to get the decks stuck into the hull right now! Then I can slide it into the bath and get Mrs. V. to smash a bottle of something over the bow

Hmm...

[edit] Pants, just noticed that the grey boxes I spent a while painting don't seem to be there (or not all there, or not solid depending on the box) on the preserved ship. Were they present in service? I don't know!

Will

[Will Vale]

I was applying the scant few decals last night and didn't have any problems with the hull numbers, though they are a bit thick. I went to add the little stars which go at the bow and one pinged out of the tweezers! Never had that happen before, I didn't know the carpet monster liked decals??

On the hunt for a replacement, all my other Russian stuff is the wrong size or doesn't have any spares. I'll see if I can find some in town on Thursday.

Will