Chinese destroyer "Anshan"

[Will Vale]

Decided on affirmative action and added some extra plastic strip inside the hull to make a gluing surface for the deck.

and then I've gone and fitted it in place - Revell Contacta on the plastic strip and Tamiya Extra Thin touched along the seam (generally at the bitts so it won't matter if it damages the paint).

It seems to fit OK, I'll need to tidy up a couple of gluey spots but that's not a bad result. Fingers crossed it doesn't all pull apart over time.

The upper picture is the first in daylight for a while, so you can see what the colours might look like.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

So here's the deck in place:

Quite a good result although I have a couple of small paint scars to deal with, and more worryingly a wobble along the bottom edge where one of the clamps was. Not sure if that was my fault or not, since it didn't happen on the other side. I think it's going to be really hard to fix so it might be better to e.g. hang a tyre off the side at that point to disguise it?

I want to get the next deck on, and I've cut a blank for the bulkhead but I really ought to add the life-rings first since they'll be fiddly to get at.

So I buckled down tonight and attacked 2 x Sprue C which have all the wretchedly small parts on with their flash, ejector pin marks, mould lines, and large sprue attachment points:

There's some swarf which needs to be cleaned off the reels, but I already cleaned the bitts and life rings with Extra Thin. Oh, and the horrible ejector pin marks on the reels can hopefully be ignored since I want to wrap them in thread.

Unfortunately the Beast That Lurks Below has claimed a life ring for its own, and no spares I hope I might be able to find it in the daytime. It also tried for half a dozen of the ventilators but I managed to retrieve them from its hairy maw before it was too late...

Looking at the remaining time a bit nervously now, but it's still conceivable that I could finish this month.

Cheers,

Will

[snapper_city]

Coming together well.

[Will Vale]

Thanks Mark!

Had another good session on it tonight cleaning up some more tiny parts - the cleats for the deck, and the anchor chain chutes. Trumpeter had these placed as ventilators in the instructions but I have some good pics of the foredeck now so I know how they should relate to the windlass/capstan thingy. I also discovered I painted the base for this the wrong colour - it should be black and somewhat rusty...

I then gritted my teeth and attached slices of 1mm plastic rod to the 36 mushroom ventilators to represent the handwheels, and also cover up the 36 sink marks on the mushroom heads With that out of the way I got some primer and paint on:

Some more colour to come but that'll be brushed on.

The less good mushrooms can go on the as-yet-unassembled upperworks where it'll be easy to sand the handwheels down a bit once they're fixed in place. The good ones can go on the decks and a couple of spots on the bits of superstructure I've painted already.

I also found some possible replacement star decals by paying 5 NZD for a little plane. I was feeling quite clever since the size is bang on, but now that I see the close-up they're not a patch on the kit star. Maybe I should just apply it to one side, or try and make a mask?

Hopefully I can get some of these bitts (hohoho) installed tomorrow!

Cheers,

Will

[snapper_city]

How many star's do you need?

Edited May 15, 2014 by snapper_city

[Will Vale]

Matching pair, but they need to be ~3mm high.

The problem is that the kit ones are really nice - dark and gold edged - so maybe I should just fit one and leave a pale patch on the other side?

W

[snapper_city]

I guess unless you can replicate it somehow???

[Will Vale]

I found the decal! On the floor on the other side of the room next to my desk chair, still half off the backing paper. Thankfully it went on OK, the adhesive was still there.

I also fitted my new bulkhead, which is basic as you like but will be in a dark corner:



And finally I started working on the deck fittings. I thought attaching them would be more fun than cleaning them up, but it was a pain. Shaky hands meant lots of slips and resultant paint damage, so I'll have some touching up to do. I maybe shouldn't have removed the location pegs but it looked like the mould lines would be likely to stop them sitting flat.

At least they're on now:



For light relief I thought I'd have a go at painting some trompe l'oeil handwheels onto the plastic rod I added to the ventilators. Some of them came out well enough to use, I need to do some more when the light is better.



Who needs etched brass!

Will

[snapper_city]

Like. This is really coming together now. Looking forward to seeing it all together.

[Bengalensis]

Amazing that you found that decal! This is looking seriously good.

[Will Vale]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately there's one final twist in the decal saga:

I did four hours of enamel washing and cleaning up tonight so I could attach the foredeck. All went swimmingly, I thought I'd hold it in place with masking tape like I did for the main deck. You can probably see where this is going...

Shifted a bit of tape and thought "what's that on it?" and realised I'd pulled up part of the hull number. Ulp. Looked forward to where the tape at the bow went over the star decal (the one I lost and found again) and of course when I removed it as gently as I could the decal came with it and was firmly embedded. I'd varnished over it but obviously not enough to protect it against lifting. I would've sworn but what's the point?

I can probably hand-paint the missing bits of the number, but I'm back to looking at my dodgy replacement decals. Stupid because I did the same thing (with less damage) on the Tu-160 and I should know by now to fold the tape over when it has to pass over decals!

Oh well. Pictures tomorrow of the shaded superstructure, red + white lifebelts etc.

W

[snapper_city]

What a nightmare. Hopefully you can find a result.

[Will Vale]

Nothing done yet today but I did take some pictures. The deck is in place but not cleaned up and retouched yet.

I did some simple fading on the rear deck but it's not too obvious with the gloss still on:

And here are the life rings and the detailed overhead - not much visible, but better than bare plastic with bits sticking through:

I had a bright idea to soak the Tamiya tape in water and recover the decal, but it had shattered so it didn't work. Will try next time this happens though.

Will

[mick]

great work

[PlaStix]

That is looking very smart. I'm sorry you had problems with the decals, especially the one you lost and found! I must admit that once I've got a few coats of Pledge on I tend to assume the decals are staying put - won't make that mistake again. Thank you.

Kind regards,

Stix

[AdrianMF]

Sorry to hear about the decals. If it's just a plain red star, I found it was quite easy to make a mask by cutting regular masking tape stuck over a picture of a star. A quick spray of red and you're done!

Ships aren't my thing (and big models are a bit of a no-no for my wife, too!) but I am enjoying this build. Thanks for giving us such a clear narration.

Regards,

Adrian

[Will Vale]

Thanks for the interest! I'm a bit of a ship novice although I have built a couple of subs, so it's interesting figuring out how to do things.

I did some details today - added putty to almost everything round on the C sprues since there are pin marks in all the gun barrels, davits, etc. etc. Putty all the things!

Then I cleaned up the mortar-like things on the rear deck (Depth charge launchers? They look a bit small for that - smoke maybe?) drilled out the barrels and added wire handles per the prototype pictures. I ought to drill them out further since the real ones look like dustbins - very thin walls.

I also added some simple detail to a bulkhead which looks busier in real life - not sure what it's for - maybe rear gunnery control?

The things which look like cold frames had very heavy moulded porthole frames which were off line, so I removed them and added canvas covers from foil, as per the preserved ship. I think I missed some swarf.

Finally and most interestingly I got the bridge together - it'll need filling and cleaning up since the fit wasn't great, in particular I'll need to trim the side walls. And with that done I cleaned up the gun director tower and added some detail to the director itself. Some from the kit, some I'd removed to sand it properly, and some new bits:

The kit's radar dome was a bit small so it was good to make a new one - I turned the dome bit in my drill (always wanted to say that!) so it's a bit rough, but was fun to do. The extra grab handle on the front is legit but the one on the back isn't on the preserved ship, only on a picture I have of #104. But I like it

I also made the shutter mechanism from a sliver of Evergreen strip cut lengthwise, and some stretched sprue.

I'm sort of hoping I can get most of the remaining cleaning and construction done this week so I can paint at the weekend and assemble next week, we'll see if this plan bears fruit.

Cheers,

Will

[Will Vale]

A bit more done tonight. I looked at the rear mast - it was bent, didn't have any rake, and the yard wasn't accurate so I've made a new one from brass. No plans I'm afraid, just eyeballed from references:

I used the tip of the kit mast with a new yard from stretched sprue, added a platform and railing, and made a collar at the base to set the rake. I've also started on the superstructure railings.

It's a bit rough and ready but probably better than what was provided. I think I need to cap off the tube thing since the end is open, but I don't know for sure.

I think I have *just* enough railing to finish the ship. Not sure about time though.

Will

[Will Vale]

Didn't do much yesterday apart from a bit of railing because I needed a break, but tonight I cleaned up the bridge and funnel cap "spider", added the front peak to the funnel cap and then filled lots of seams and sanded them down again.

With that out of the way I added railings to the remaining upper decks. The railing I've got in my spares box is rather agricultural and maybe 25% over scale for this ship? It looks to scale out at about 1m high. But it is nice and thick and hard for me to stuff up.

It's also rather short on stanchions as you can see! I noticed a gaffe I made yesterday on the rear gun platform where I'd taken the railing past the ladders without a gap. I was able to cut out the upper two bars and add an offcut in to make a new stanchion on each side:

So I guess I might want to repeat that for the various corners which didn't get a stanchion? Not sure if I can be bothered

It's difficult to strike a balance with this build - there's quite a lot to do with adding and correcting details, thinning parts and all that sort of thing, but it's never going to be a really high-class ship model given the source kit and paucity of period reference. But it is giving me a lot of practice in things I hadn't done much before (like bending railings to fit) and it's been quite fun too.

Primer tomorrow hopefully, so I can see if my sanding is as tidy as I hope it is. Plus I need to fill the gaps around the foredeck (glued down but not dry in the above picture) and paint it in-place.

Cheers,

Will

[snapper_city]

Really coming together now...

[AdrianMF]

It's the finishing bits and bobs that always seem harder than the main body of the kit. Keep slogging - it's looking good!

Regards,

Adrian

[MikeR]

Coming along rather nicely!

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Soviet Type 7 and 7U destroyers.

Mike.

[Will Vale]

Thanks folks!

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Soviet Type 7 and 7U destroyers.

Uh-oh - someone who knows the type Feel free to point out details I've missed, although it's a bit late to deal with big shape issues.

The main mast parts were more useful than the rear mast, and cleaned up OK. I gussets, added bracing for the yard and platforms from stretched sprue, replaced some moulded antennae. beefed up the too-small radars and ran cables to them. Plus railings which were a complete nightmare. Dropped or unstuck so many times, they're on now but not very tidy...

I opted to use the inaccurate bracing between the legs because it was neater than any replacement I might've made.

I also added framing underneath all the bits of superstructure deck and filled/cleaned up the foredeck. Oh, and added some wire bracing to the antennae brackets on the bridge sides.

I stopped at 2.30am last night after what might've been an hour trying to roll a "globe" antenna from wire. Will try again today, I nearly had it and then it fell apart.

Will

[Will Vale]

Did some more work on the mast since I discovered from another view that the lower bracing on the yard actually belongs to the platforms behind the mast. Easy enough to fix.

I moved the topmost platform aft and added a lantern and another antenna from a disc of stretched sprue drilled and placed over more sprue with a styrene gusset. I also thinned down the radar face and lifted it up a bit compared to the kit part.

While I was at it I removed the front two antenna mounts from the bridge to match photos (which looks much better, why didn't I do this earlier) and added antennae to the other two. I also drilled out the horn (?) removed the from the funnel and fitted it under the bridge windows.

The final piece of the mast is this wretched double-loop antenna, represented by Trumpeter as a solid beachball. I had a few goes last night at bending one from wire, and thought I might get on better with more stretched sprue. I managed to make one but it wasn't very round, this is my second try.

I made a coil by wrapping the sprue around some brass tube and heating it/cooling it to semi-set the shape. Then I cut down one side to get circles and fitted one to the end of yet more sprue facing up.

I've just joined the ends of the second circle to the bottom, once that's dry I need to attach the loose ends to the top. The size of the sprue is a nice balance between workability and appearance (overscale, obviously) but even when heat formed it tends to uncurl which puts tension on the joints.

Cheers,

Will

[snapper_city]

Almost paint time...