HMS Renown (1942)

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

To be fair, the absolute last thing I needed was another ship project on the go, but I got talked in to it through a Facebook group I co-admin which initiated a group build themed on the Battle of the Atlantic. Being an admin, I thought it bad form not to join in, but realised that finishing a ship would be good for me so decided a fresh start with lowered aspirational standards might actually help.

I therefore took a bit of a detour on the way home from Duxford in July and dropped in at Hannants in Lowestoft. In retrospect, there are postal companies available which would have saved an enourmous amount of time droning down mile after mile of the dullest roads in Britain, but never mind.

It's the Trumpeter 1942 boxing. The mouldings are quite nice on the face of it:

I raided the stock room for White Ensign Models PE747 to go with, and also got some brass barrels, masts and yardarms from Master to go with.

The Group Build kicked off on 1st August.

Being Trumpeter, it doesn't take too long to find an issue. The upper and lower hull halves are different lengths. Just blending in the prow or stern didn't seem clever as the torpedo bulges don't line up either.

Anyway, I set about spraying the deck. All paints are my own, perhaps/hopefully obviously.

I started removing moulded ladders which will be replaced by photo etched parts later.

The moulding on B turret barbette shows poorly aligned tooling.

I decided it would be easier to just sacrifice the ventilators to get the barbette cleaned up properly

Then I replaced them with Evergreen strip.

I intended to display this model in a seabase, but I just don't feel right about using waterline plates, so I decided to address the hull, by sawing it in half.

The width of the razor saw blade almost cured the alignment issue, and some wet and dry on a flat, hard surface did the rest. The halves were rejoined and glued to the upper half.

The seam was filled and sanded

The hull was then sprayed 507C thinned with cellulose thinner for maximum drying speed, then masked with Maskol before painting on Western Approaches White and B5.

Tonight's exercise is to remask and hopefully get the MS1 and MS3 colours on.

Tonight I have:

The hull camouflage was completed:

Then the underwater hull was painted in the Royal Navy's anti-fouling red colour and the boot topping painted on.

Building up superstructure prior to camouflaging it:

I took a break and painted the Walrus cockpit areas (not the glazing!!) black and the rest of the fuselage silver. When the Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey goes on later, this gives a sort of illusion of not being a solid blob of plastic.

I made a start on a sea base. This is my first attempt at this particular technique.

And a wee bit more superstructure assembly and I'm calling it a night.

[LE BOSCO]

HI James

Nice start I like it

keep the way

cheers

nicolas

[Thom216]

Lovely work. 700 is not my favorite scale, , but you're crackin at it!

[rollsroyce]

Hi James

Wow. Was all this done in one session?...... Love the camouflage patterns on this battle cruiser and you have done a cracking job, really neat and looks just the part.

Maskol looks like the way to go to achieve this instead of trying to cut loads of complex shapes from tape. Be very interested in how you will bend the steps in 1/700th. I am still struggling in 1/350th and they are twice the size.

Thanks

Guy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi folks,

1/700 isn't my usual scale, but as above, I'm pretty bad at keeping up the momentum to finish 1/350 ships as the detailing is so much more indepth.

It's not all one session! That would have been a marathon. I started on Monday evening last week and have tried to do an hour or so a night. I think so far it's gone thus:

Monday 1st August - sprayed decks C01 Teak, washed with Tamiya IJN Deck Tan then Tamiya Earth Brown by brush, then a final wash of sprayed thinned Colourcoats ACRN10 Dark Earth. Steel decks masked and sprayed RN01 507A Dark Grey

Tuesday 2nd - Steel decks masked and sprayed RN01 507A Dark Grey. Brush painted bits, ventilators, turret barbettes etc on the decks. That was boring enough. Sawed the lower hull in half. Fixed the B turret barbette.

Wednesday 3rd - Glued the hull back together and filled with Squadron green putty. Spent the modelling time that evening with my youngest daughter who wanted to do some of her Airfix Hurricane.

Thursday 4th - Sanded the hull join, sprayed hull RN03 507C then masked for RN10 WA White, finally masking over the WA White and spraying the B5. Demasked, and left it to harden.

Friday 5th - Masked and sprayed RN06 MS3, then masked and sprayed RN04 MS1. Demasked, went and got a beer.

Saturday - had to go to B&Q to buy materials for Sovereign's new paint shop (we're taking lid spraying and tinning in house) - had to build an extractor, loads of shelving and do some wiring etc. Masked and sprayed RN19 Anti-fouling red and then C02 Black for the boot topping. Added some superstructure at the stern and painted MS3 and MS1 camouflage.

Sunday - Added B5 to rear superstructure, sprayed the aviation hangar interiors C03 White and assembled other superstructure above. Made a mess with some Styrofoam and PVA glue!

[foxy]

Busy little bee you are James.

Nice work on the ship to mate

foxy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Tonight has been a bit of a disappointment. I started off by giving the sea base another lick of PVA. I think it might work, but it's going to take a few coats.

I then set about the rear superstructure, looking to build that up and get on with some PE. I then promptly broke the mainmast parts when trying to pick them up!

I did try gluing it back together, but that was a disaster. It broke again. The plastic seems really brittle, or maybe I'm having a bad night. Who knows ... ?

Philosophically, I believe it's better to not try and fail, than to try hard and still fail only now you're knackered and everyone can see that despite your best efforts you've still stuffed it up. So I gave up and got the brass tube out of the drawer.

I measured the hole spacing on the kit part the tripod mast sits on and copied it by drilling plasticard and using blutac to generally frown upon movement.

A replacement mainmast was fabricated thus, only when I soldered the brass starfish platform on I managed to get it about 15deg askew in planform so had to desolder it melting all the solder and re-kitting the whole mast etc etc etc. Long story short, I've wasted the whole night making a mast. And it doesn't even have the Yagi aerial on it yet.

[rollsroyce]

Hi James

That was a busy week.. Even though tonight might not have gone as well as you would have likes you have at the end of the night a splendid looking solid brass mast. Also it wont snap when you are getting close to the end.... I haven't mastered soldering yet... I definitely need a lot more practice before taking on a mast and starfish. Well done.

The sea is looking good from the angle you have taken the picture from.

Tuesday tomorrow.. Just remember the boom town rats. "I Don't like Mondays"

All the best

Guy

Guy

[beefy66]

I go on holiday and when I get back I find this build you are going at some speed with this James looking forward to more all looking mighty fine from here

Beefy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I was out at the club meet last night, so progress was limited to attaching the yard arm to above mast. Still, it's better than the "nothing" I achieve most nights!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Tonight I worked on the quarter deck and mainmast. There are still railings and ladders to go on, as well as secondary and AA guns (which are painted and can't be handled just yet).

I also fired some paint on to the base.

[Col.]

This one is looking great Jamie. You seem to be forging along at a steady pace with visible progress at each update.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Thanks Colin I'm trying to do a little bit every evening where possible. I've also given up on trying to "optimise" sub assembly and spraying - it's not like I don't have access to plenty paint to waste cleaning out the airbrush!

The observant may notice a little trail sprayed off the port quarter. To try to bring this to life a little, I intend to pose the port crane slewed out to recover the Walrus taxying alongside

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Another hickup - my youngest daughter managed to trip and headbutt the wheel of our pickup truck. One trip to the doctor and some superglue later...

So tonight I only had time to do some work on the water, using artist's acrylic gloss gel and some cotton wool.

The hull will get packed in with more eventually, but I'm not ready to commit yet.

[Col.]

Ouch! Not a good way to start the weekend. Hope there's no lasting ill effects to your daughter Jamie. I live in utter terror of Iona doing herself a mischief but such are the joys of parenthood.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

They're chaos Colin!

Penny seems fine. The Doc wanted us to try waking her up after 20mins sleeping to check she came to normally. She was duely tested and met the performance standard. A bit of CA on her forehead and she'll be back to her usual self tomorrow I'm sure!

[beefy66]

Taking shape now James hope the wee lass is OK after her bump

like you base the water has come out great

Beefy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I seem to get less done at the weekends!

I built up X turret before breakfast using Master barrels. Note the difference in length compared to Trumpeter (as well as the crisper and more accurate shape)

Mid morning I discovered that the research upon which the paint guide I was using was based had been superceded. Reviewing black and white photographs, the new wisdom made a lot of sense. I was therefore faced with a choice of living with it, or backtracking to fix it. I chose the latter. The pattern is the same, but 2 colours had to be changed with 1 colour which only appeared on the starboard side being eliminated.

Most of the day however was spent outdoors doing a variety of things. I even got some of my old MG welded up:

[rollsroyce]

Hi James

The sea is looking really good especially when you have that lamp light reflected off it. Brave putting that mast on now. If this was my build it would have been bent to oblivion by now.

Cheers Guy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Guy - I figure it's safer on the model where I know where it is! I try to work upwards and outwards on ships. I shouldn't need to go too close to there again. Main deck railings and things would get mangled though. The next priority is to get the forward superstructure camouflaged I think.

I've been following your Mikasa build buy the way - it's excellent work!

[Rob 1]

That's looking good so far. The modernised Renown has to be probably my favourite looking R.N. ships ever, such a shame there's no 1:350 offering.

[Col.]

Good work correcting the scheme Jamie. I'd not have known but you do and the 'live with it' option always annoys me until such time as I fix it so suspect it would do the same to you.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I've had hardly any time & motivation concurrently to do much the past week, but got a little done yesterday:

I made a start on railings and ladders on the quarterdeck where I shouldn't need to be in and about too much now (there's only the PomPom and Vickers mounts to go in).

I then changed out the remaining 15" barrels and assembled A & B turrets. The funnels were up next. I don't own any PE bending tools whatsoever. I just never got round to buying any. I use knife blades for folding and picked up this tip in a magazine a very long time ago, and tried it on my first ever PE experience which was an Eduard set for the 1/72 Hasegawa SBD Dauntless complete with dive brakes. I was delighted with that model at the time, but looking back my gluing of PE was rough. Anyway - to curve PE parts I roll them with a round handle against a cushion of kitchen towels. It works for single and double curvatures - although the latter involves progressive stretching of the material in the centre without stretching the edges.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

That's looking good so far. The modernised Renown has to be probably my favourite looking R.N. ships ever, such a shame there's no 1:350 offering.

I agree - there are many gaps in the market for Royal Navy subjects. I think Repulse was beautiful too but in a completely different sort of way. By 1941 they looked so different that it's hard to believe they were sisters!

Good work correcting the scheme Jamie. I'd not have known but you do and the 'live with it' option always annoys me until such time as I fix it so suspect it would do the same to you.

Indeed Colin - it would have hacked me right off every time I looked at it! There wasn't really a choice to be made there - my character made it for me!

[Stew Dapple]

That really is looking rather lovely now Jamie

Cheers,

Stew