Revell 1/72 Flower Class Corvette with GLS Sets

[kpnuts]

A-mazing work.

[Rob 1]

I'm enjoying this build, particularly the level of close up detail that can be added (and is being expertly added) in this scale, which we can only dream of in 1:350.

[Gimme Shelter]

Hi again Warren

This is looking very good indeed since I last looked your build up - your attention to detail is quite amazing

[warreni]

Looking nice Warren. The boat is looking good with addition of that PE set. Btw, are you going to put any crew on this boat?

Thanks for that.

If I can find some crew I may. They are the sort of thing that can be added later.

[warreni]

A-mazing work.

I'm enjoying this build, particularly the level of close up detail that can be added (and is being expertly added) in this scale, which we can only dream of in 1:350.

Thanks again guys.

I still love 1/350, but this is definitely an interesting diversion. Just takes a long time to build.

Cheers

Warren

Hi again Warren

This is looking very good indeed since I last looked your build up - your attention to detail is quite amazing

Thanks mate. It is like building lots of kits then putting them all into the one finished item.

Cheers

Warren

[Enzo the Magnificent]

I'm quite envious of the quality of this build! Superb.

[warreni]

I'm quite envious of the quality of this build! Superb.

Thanks Enzo!

[warreni]

I stopped vacillating and decided to make a start on these floater baskets' rope wrapping. This is going to be the most difficult and slow process of the whole build I think. The rest of the ship will probably be finished well before I finish these four carley floats. First up I glued one end of the twine to the raft..





Then I will put spots all along the length and let them dry until I can mate the ends. I think I should have done this before putting the slats in but we shall see.

While waiting for the glue to dry I put the ship's wheel in place on its mount..



The mount is a 3D printed item and it came out very rough as you can see. It looks worse in this photo but I am not sure why this resin was used rather than the one that gives a smooth finish. It will be very hard to see once it is in place anyway.

Then I started on the second dinghy. I painted the interior in dark wood brown then decided to remove the ends of the floor slat assembly rather than try to bend it in one piece which led to much swearing and cursing last time. So here is the one piece turned into three..



That's it for now. I have to go to work unfortunately..

Cheers
Warren

[Niall]

The 3D print could be done in the Frosted Ultra Detail but it would be about twice the price.

I thought it would not be visible enough to be worth the expense of that material. Also that print seems to be rougher than others I have had done in the Strong White Flexible material.

[warreni]

Maybe they did it in the el cheapo stuff.

[warreni]

Well, it is time for another update.

I have done a little more on the floats, but I am not happy with the way it is coming out..



It is fine and dandy to be gluing the 'rope' in place but there is no way I can make the vertical pieces look even close to scale, and nothing annoys me more than having big, chunky out of scale bits.

Next up is a view of one of the lifeboat chocks that have four pieces that need to be laminated together..



I have seen how good most GLS resin stuff is and I think that rather than laminating lots of flat, brass bits together it may be better to do one resin bit.. but I have no idea how hard that would be so I suppose I will just use the brass bits and be happy... and stop whinging..

After getting a bit disillusioned with the damn floats, and all my public clamoring for more updates (brush the tickets off yourself Warren ) I decided to reduce the amount of sub-assemblies lying around the shipyard and get them onto the hull. After rescuing the hull from the 'shelf of doom' (echoee creepy voice) I started adding bits and bobs. The first was the bridge deck and it proved to be an instant problem..



I read later in the instructions for the plastic model that those side supports for the bridge needed trimming 'as necessary' and that wnet for the PE bits as well. First off I tried gluing the supports under the deck and then putting it all in place, but the supports ended up being at least 4 mm too high for the job and the deck wouldn't settle on the top of the wheel house without much force being used. That told me that as soon as I removed the force it would pop off again. so I removed the supports, epoxied the deck in place and started trimming the supports. Much cutting and lots of swearing later I had the supports cut down to size, lots of girders popped of the CAed one but the supports and seck were in place.

Hints for the uninitiated, trim the supports BEFORE you go soldering/gluing them together. It will save much angst later.



Oh and one other thing, I must have done something very wrong in a former life as my supports went no where near lining up with the holes in the deck where they were supposed to sit. I have no idea why. :-?

The Oerlikon stand proved to be bothersome as well as I couldn't get the base to sit on their supports with the supports glued in place. SO I removed two of the supports and glued them to the base THEN glued the base to the remaining two supports on the deck. More than one way to skin a feline..

Here is another piccy showing the supports in place,and the non-aligned holes..



Next I decided to work from the centre outwards on the deck and started gluing the pipe railing in place. This was easy with 0/4mm brass tube I had lying around from my piplane turnbuckle days.



With those in place I decided to add a few pieces of splinter padding.





Then yet another problem reared its very ugly head, I have not got enough of the 3ft pipe rail stanchions! Argh!! I bought an extra pack just in case the ones supplied with the deck kit were not sufficient but it seems I have either misplaced four of them or I just miscounted. Anyway I will have to order another pack next week. Until they arrive I have more than enough other parts to attach, and those painful floats to finish.. and the depth charges and racking, and the lifeboats.. Will this build go into its second year?

Stay tuned for further developments in the Flower Saga...

Cheers
Warren

[warreni]

OK. Here is another assembly not mentioned in the GLS instructions, and I can't say I have seen it in any photos, but I am putting it in anyway. See that gap at the top. As I found later it shouldn't be there. Luckily the item was just sitting there at the time and I did a dry fit with the funnel assembly..



And here is the 'fettled' assembly.. notice the gap has gone..



And finally I got the funnel etc in position..



I then dry fitted the chocks and they fit so well I immediately attached them..



And this is about where I am up too..



Still haven't ordered the extra stanchions...

Cheers
Warren

[Popeye the Sailor]

silly me.........read through the entire log, and didn't push the like button till it was too late! no matter.........I used them all up for today very nice build Warren. I'm very impressed with the use of P.E. having not really gotten into it myself. it adds an astonishing amount of detail........you've done so well the ship looks fabulous!

[Chango]

Warren... I may be wrong but I don't think there should be a big rope circling the tops of the carly floats anyway. I know it appears often on models but the real-life floats I've seen have several wide flat vertical straps circling the rectangular float and holding on the rope drop basket inside the float and a rope on the outside perimeter to grab onto ( there are a couple good pics on this forum post: http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?fid=102&cid=101&tid=2960&sc=20&pg=1&x=0 )

It looks like that would be much easier to reproduce too; maybe with tamiya tape for the straps and thinner string for the ropes or something similar..

BTW grea work! I've been following along and always enjoy seeing your progress! Looking forward to seeing more.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Chango

[warreni]

silly me.........read through the entire log, and didn't push the like button till it was too late! no matter.........I used them all up for today very nice build Warren. I'm very impressed with the use of P.E. having not really gotten into it myself. it adds an astonishing amount of detail........you've done so well the ship looks fabulous!

Thanks Mr Popeye Sir!

[warreni]

Warren... I may be wrong but I don't think there should be a big rope circling the tops of the carly floats anyway. I know it appears often on models but the real-life floats I've seen have several wide flat vertical straps circling the rectangular float and holding on the rope drop basket inside the float and a rope on the outside perimeter to grab onto ( there are a couple good pics on this forum post: http://www.ptboatforum.com/cgi-bin/MB2/netboardr.cgi?fid=102&cid=101&tid=2960&sc=20&pg=1&x=0 )

It looks like that would be much easier to reproduce too; maybe with tamiya tape for the straps and thinner string for the ropes or something similar..

BTW grea work! I've been following along and always enjoy seeing your progress! Looking forward to seeing more.

Hello there.

I saw that as well and it is VERY tempting to fob the external rope stuff off as a certain time period fitting. I am sure the floats would have been replaced every-so-often anyway just because they would deteriorate in the sun and with salt water on them all the time.

We shall see..

Cheers

Warren

[Spud]

Looking good Warren!

[warreni]

Thanks Mr Spud.

Here is another small update..

Continued on the ropes on the floats.. yeah I know not all carley floats have the ropes on them, but the picture I have of the Snowberry has them and until I get upset with them I will continue. First the inner one if in place..

Then the bottom one has been commenced..

Next up I painted the fret from the Depth Charges Set..

Lots of bending etc there. I forgot I will be doing some soldering with this fret so they will need painting again. Oh well.

Then I continued with the second dinghy..

And just for fun I thought I would do one of the kits plastic liferafts just to see how good it could look..

This photo makes it look like I am a hopeless painter (which I am) but each of those dashed squares on the mat is 5mm on a side so this is a pretty tight macro shot.

That's it for now.

Cheers

Warren

[Popeye the Sailor]

gee.......I wonder how easy it would be to trim off all the rope detail and replace it with thread? time consuming, I'm sure, but that pattern look really neat.. I do all of my life preservers on my wooden builds. I wouldn't call that being a hopeless painter......it's a rare thing to be able to capture the depth, with molded detail. it would be a pain to scribe out the separation between two aspects, such as these..I'm sure modelers have thought of it........I'm sure some have done it.

looking forward in seeing those charge launchers come together

[warreni]

gee.......I wonder how easy it would be to trim off all the rope detail and replace it with thread? time consuming, I'm sure, but that pattern look really neat.. I do all of my life preservers on my wooden builds. I wouldn't call that being a hopeless painter......it's a rare thing to be able to capture the depth, with molded detail. it would be a pain to scribe out the separation between two aspects, such as these..I'm sure modelers have thought of it........I'm sure some have done it.

looking forward in seeing those charge launchers come together

What would be good would be to have a more scale appearing thread/ I think this is a bit too thick.. or maybe I am..

Would you believe I am actually toying with building another one of these...

[davecov]

Coming along really well, Warren.

I had the same dilemma with the thread supplied with my Carley Floats -
http://www.davecov.net/modelling/models/pictures/ships/GLS_Corvette_PE/Misc/GLS_Corvette_PE_Misc_0005.JPG

I think it is way oversize but I am living in the hope that painting it might help the thread to disappear a bit! If not then I will have to replace it all which will not be easy as it has been superglued all over the place!

Dave

[warreni]

Thanks Dave.

I got an email from Mr Parkins (yes, THE David Parkins of GLS fame) wondering why on earth I was gluing the rope to the floats.. I replied that I had no idea how else to do it and I am hoping he may elaborate on an attachment method sooner than later.

Only small stuff today. I built one of the ladders for the side of the boiler room, filed in a cutout used for the kits ladder and painted a heap of stuff. I will post the pictures tomorrow as the camera is in the hobby room still.

Anyway, that's it for the moment,

Cheers

Warren

[warreni]

Can anyone tell me what colour the inside air intakes were on the Snowberry?

[davecov]

Good question, Warren, but not a straightforward answer!

Looking at photos in the Anatomy of Ships book on Flower Class Corvettes, John Lambert's Warship Perspectives and his Shipcraft book on Flower Class Corvettes, the inside of the vents on Flower Class Corvettes appear to be different colours at different times, ranging from black, dark grey, light grey and white - and possible some other colours! Some ships have the same colour as the overall colour scheme and some ships changed the colour during their lifetime. Some photos also show the vents in shade so that might affect the perceived colour!

A few pictures of Snowberry taken in January 1942 after her second refit appear to show the inside of the vents in a lightish grey, same as the overall colour scheme. However, other pictures taken in May 1943 after her third refit when she now has the three-tone Western Approaches camouflage scheme as shown in the Matchbox/Revell kit, the vents appear to have remained in the same grey as the earlier scheme and are not repainted white like the camouflage.

You really need to find a photo of Snowberry at the time in her career that you are portraying her and make an educated guess. Personally, I would go with light grey 507c.

Dave

[warreni]

Thanks for that info Dave. Only problem with photos of the Snowberry in action is that I have not found any colour ones.. educated guesses are fine and it leaves lots open to interpretation. And that will do for now.

It is time for an update.. lots of photos but not much text. I am up to the lots of fiddly bits... painting bits and pieces or preparing parts for paint.

The Snowberry had four hose reels around its two 16 foot lifeboats and brass replacements are provided in the Dinghy sets. First the frame..

Then we have the rest of the parts for each reel..

And I forgot a picture of the completed reel.. Oh well.. Next up was one of the numerous ladders, this one using roand stock rungs rather than the step type..

Then you juggle on the other side..

Trim the rungs to the right size and laminate the outer part of the vertical part in place and it ends up looking like this after you paint it and put it in place with its hand rails..

Yes I forgot an intermediate photo. But I did take one of the spot where I had to fill a notch in the plastic parts where the plaxtic ladder goes..

Scrap plastic and a bit of filler is all you need. Then I made some eyebolts for the funnel support rigging.

Then some more eye-bolt brackets, this time in brass and used with the dinghys..

That;s it for now.

Cheers

Warren