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HMS Sheffield, Falklands 1982


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G'day people,

I have started this little fella. The kit includes some PE so that should add to the fun trying to add the railing to such a small kit.

I finally got the hull halves together. The hull is split into upper and lower hull sections and includes a blanking plate for the people that wish to build the waterline option.

I chose the full hull build and found the fit, especially at the bow and stern was less than great and needed some filler to avoid a nasty step at the join.

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I also replaced the prop shafts with plastic rod to avoid trying to sand the mould seams. The four round 'bits' (sorry, I am a jet guy) which I think are some sort of ship stabilising system were added after opening holes in them and thinning their edges a bit.

Incidentally, Dragon's instructions would have you join the upper and lower hull section in the last step once every thing is together, This is utter madness so I will be jumping around a bit with regards to sequence and building this as a series of sub-assemblies. I used a mix of Tamiya hull red and flat red. The Tamiya hull red is a very dark red, almost a plum shade and needed to be warmed up a bit with the addition of a little red. I will add a little subtle weathering before masking this section off for the black waterline mark.

I have also assembled the rear superstructure section,

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This is a neat little assembly and went together without any problems. I have also started to assemble the forward superstructure,

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The upper bridge section and exhaust stack are just dry fitted here but it gives an idea of how well the parts fit.

I also made a start on some of the fittings,

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I couldn't decide on which position to have the missile launcher in so I built two versions (the kit supplies three units, two are surplus), and I will decide which one to fit later on.

The bits so far,

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Edited by Pappy
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G'day and thanks for the link.

WEM's PE looks pretty nice and if I was building the kit again I would certainly opt for it, but I will stick with the kit supplied PE for now as I don't want to break the momentum by having to wait for the PE to arrive.

Meanwhile I have started on the Lynx.

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Two are supplied in the kit due to the duplication of several of the ancillary fitting sprues. I have started building up the second Lynx as well, albeit slightly modified,

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cheers,

Pappy

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Looking good. Did your kit by any chance come supplied with two identical sheets of PE?

Regards, Ross.

G'day Ross,

Only the one sheet I'm afraid.

Did Dragon release boxings with two PE frets inside?

Meanwhile I have finished the two Lynx. There were only enough decals for one helicopter, so I have opted for the folded version.

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Sorry for the crap pics, these things are tiny and very hard to take decent pics without silhouetting them. I had trouble with the decals conforming, probably due to the small diameter of the tail boom. The dark blue paint was fully glossed, and Micro-Sol/Set, and Mr Mark Softer had no effect. I eventually used a coat of Future and this worked. As Future dries, it shrinks and pulls the decal down with it. It worked well in this instance even though you can hardly read the 'ROYAL NAVY' legend on the tail boom.

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy
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G'day Ross,

Only the one sheet I'm afraid.

Did Dragon release boxings with two PE frets inside?

cheers,

Pappy

Hi Pappy, the one I got had two sheets, but this was most likely a mistake made during packaging. It did come in handy though, as I managed to lose some of the tiny mast parts to the carpet!

Ross.

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Hi Pappy, the one I got had two sheets, but this was most likely a mistake made during packaging. It did come in handy though, as I managed to lose some of the tiny mast parts to the carpet!

Ross.

Hey Ross, If you have the helicopter rotor parts spare I would be happy to pay for the postage........

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Hey Ross, If you have the helicopter rotor parts spare I would be happy to pay for the postage........

I'll have a look when I get home, should be able to get back to you on that tomorrow.

Ross.

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I'll have a look when I get home, should be able to get back to you on that tomorrow.

Ross.

Cheers Ross, i would appreciate that

Your model, but the Type 42s could only operate one Lynx anyway; the Type 22 had a 2-Lynx hangar, but the 42s only room for one.

I understand that the Type 42 only had one embarked helicopter, my intention was to build the two helicopters in two different states, then pick the one I liked most to use on the ship. I have opted to use the version with the folded tail, but I would like to have a version 'flying' off to one side to give the display a bit more interest. Out of interest, what does "WAFU' stand for?

cheers,

Pappy

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G'day people,

A good deal of progress today.

The majority of the paint is on. The hull was masked and sprayed, only the small deck fittings were picked out with a brush. The forward superstructure was initially sprayed black and the vertical ID stripes masked off. Once the superstructures were sprayed light grey, their decks were brush painted as I didn't feel like masking around all the little greeblies. The two superstructure assemblies have now been attached to the deck and the model awaits decals.

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This has been the largest amount of brush painting I have done in a while but I am reasonably happy with the results,

cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy
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Looking lovely.

Opinions vary re WAFU. The official explanation is that it is an old acronym for Weapon And Fuel User, and that it appeared on lots of inter-War forms so ended up being used as shorthand for a Naval Aviator [of any sort; Pilot (which I was), Observer, Aircrewman, engineer - anyone who was anything to do with aviation]. The unofficial explanation is that it stands for Wet And F*cking Useless, which is ho most Fish'eads would describe their aviator brethren.

Take your pick. It just means flying type person!

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Looking lovely.

Opinions vary re WAFU. The official explanation is that it is an old acronym for Weapon And Fuel User, and that it appeared on lots of inter-War forms so ended up being used as shorthand for a Naval Aviator [of any sort; Pilot (which I was), Observer, Aircrewman, engineer - anyone who was anything to do with aviation]. The unofficial explanation is that it stands for Wet And F*cking Useless, which is ho most Fish'eads would describe their aviator brethren.

Take your pick. It just means flying type person!

Ahh gotcha,

In RAN parlance, aircraft maintenance types are 'birdies', although I have heard the pilots referred to as the 'seat stick actuator', all in good fun!

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Well, the easy part is now done.

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G'day people,

I have applied all the decals to the ship. These went down pretty well compared the the aircraft decals and the helo deck and front gun turret ring decals settled down nicely after a couple of coats of Micro Sol/Set.

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Disappointingly, Dragon did not include a decal for the Union Jack ID marking that was painted above the bridge. I had a rummage through the spares and quite fittingly found one in the 1/72 Airfix Lynx kit. The decal sheet was very badly out of register and I needed to cut it down to fit, but considering the circumstances I am pleased with the result.

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The ship's boats have been fitted

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Now for the part I have been avoiding, the dreaded PE rails

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cheers,

Pappy

Edited by Pappy
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Unless you are going to depict her in harbour or at anchor, you should lose the two flagstaffs fore & aft - jackstaff at the bow and the ensign staff on the flight deck. They're only fitted when the ship isn't actually doing anything!

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Unless you are going to depict her in harbour or at anchor, you should lose the two flagstaffs fore & aft - jackstaff at the bow and the ensign staff on the flight deck. They're only fitted when the ship isn't actually doing anything!

I came to the same conclusion after I sprayed and decaled her too!

I think it is too late now so I will leave it alone as a repair would only create damage and learn for next time,,,,

That's looking the business.

Thanks very much

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Incredible detailing for something so small! I'm not a boaty person by any means, but this is pretty impressive stuff.

Still at a loss as to how you get the tiniest details painted looking so crisp on something so small, even when magnified with the macro! Good luck with the PE rails...

PM inbound.

Cheers,

Dean

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Well done so far!

Good luck with the PE.

Incredible detailing for something so small! I'm not a boaty person by any means, but this is pretty impressive stuff.

Still at a loss as to how you get the tiniest details painted looking so crisp on something so small, even when magnified with the macro! Good luck with the PE rails...

PM inbound.

Cheers,

Dean

Thanks very much fellas. Dean, if you saw this thing up close I don't think you would call it crisp!

I have made a start with the PE rails at last. I sprayed the railings the hull colour after first bending them to shape. They made need a touch up later, but that is preferable to painting the whole thing in situ. As I have said, I am mainly a jet guy so I am probably doing this completely backwards to how the ship folks do it, and they are probably all laughing themselves silly, but this is what makes sense to me.

I started with what I thought would be the easiest ones first, the ones for the helo deck,

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I don't know if there will be enough PE railing to be accurate as the Dragon instructions seem to be at odds with the painting guide (which is a more detailed and better drawing), so I added some railings to the stern deck (below the helo deck). I think these should probably be a little further out, i.e closer to the edges, but I am happy to leave them where they are.

I thought it would be better to add the railings from the 'inside' first, as that means there is less chance my clumsy hands will butcher the main deck railings whilst I work over them. With that in mind, I added the railings around the search radar,

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Lastly, the railing sections on the deck next to the boat davits,

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Phew, I think that I have earnt myself a malt!

Main deck railings tomorrow, and if there are any left overs, I can add some more railings here and there,

cheers,

Pappy

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