Trumpeter 1/200 H.M.S. Rodney with Pontos PE

[warreni]

I have been away from blogs for a while and have only just started again. I started the Rodney a few weeks ago and thought I would post the blog here as well to gauge the interest in this subject.

 

Have spent a few hours in the hobby room and got a little further with the pom poms. First photo shows the stages of adding a part to the front of the platform.

 

 

Self explanatory? Good. Next is the main part of the gun assembly with the barrels in place.

 

I thought I was going to have to modify one of the longer barrels as I had miscounted the short ones and thought I was one short, but all was well and I ended up with an extra long barrel. Then I started adding platforms to the base of the gun assy..

 

Unbent one on the left, bent one on the right. And here it is attached to the base..

 

 

Then I did the same bending with the platform on the other side..

 

 

 

Then there is a little box that goes on the front of the platform with some plumbing..

 

On the opposite side is what looks to me to be a gas cylinder of some sort mounted in some brackets, and here are the various PE and turned brass bits that go to make up the little assembly..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I will get a chance to put them together tomorrow and load another update.

Bye for now,
Warren

Edited June 16, 2018 by warreni

[robgizlu]

Neat and exquisite.  I was a fan of your Corvette build - looking forward to seeing this unfold

Rob

[beefy66]

I see you still have the gift of very neat PE work those Pom Pom barrels are looking rather good

 

And thanks for the step by step on this one will bookmark as i have this kit and the Pontos AM

 

looking forward to following along   

 

beefy

[morty_3333]

Hi Warreni !

Great start on the Rodney!

Double-interested in Your build as I am doing a Hood with a Pontos set on here, and My Father-in-Law was on the Rodney August '37 to August '38 (no pics unfortunately)

 

Like Beefy above,I will bookmark this Pom-Pom build for future ref.

Following along..(#on the crest of a wave#.....)

 

Keep Sticking!            Cheers,  Pete

Edited June 16, 2018 by morty_3333

[warreni]

Slowly but surely getting there. Yesterday I got a bit done. 1st up was a little frame for the front of the guns which only needed a few easy bends..

 

 

After attaching it to the frame I added the cylinder to it. That's it on the right of the base. I also added the front shields..

 

 

Then I bent the main mount for the guns and placed it on the base..

 

 

Then this afternoon I decided to add the railings at the raer of the base. First they had to be curved then attached..

 

 

And I forgot another set of tools I use for PE. These items are used to curve parts by either just wrapping them around the various dowels or placing the part in the aluminium forming tool. Sometimes to get a good curve you need to anneal the PE. To anneal PE you heat it until it changes to a rainbow colour on the surface then let it cool down in the air. Don't whatever you do plunge the hot metal into water as it will just make it stiffer than it was beforehand.. 

 

Cheers
Warren

[warreni]

On 6/16/2018 at 6:55 PM, beefy66 said:

I see you still have the gift of very neat PE work those Pom Pom barrels are looking rather good

 

And thanks for the step by step on this one will bookmark as i have this kit and the Pontos AM

 

looking forward to following along   

 

beefy

Hi beefy.

 

Thank you and welcome aboard.    I am glad the step by step stuff helps. PE is such a fantastic addition to any 1/350 and above kit I now use it in every ship I build.

 

Cheers

Warren

[warreni]

On 6/16/2018 at 7:23 PM, morty_3333 said:

Hi Warreni !

Great start on the Rodney!

Double-interested in Your build as I am doing a Hood with a Pontos set on here, and My Father-in-Law was on the Rodney August '37 to August '38 (no pics unfortunately)

 

Like Beefy above,I will bookmark this Pom-Pom build for future ref.

Following along..(#on the crest of a wave#.....)

 

Keep Sticking!            Cheers,  Pete

 

Hello Pete.

 

Welcome aboard the good blog HMS Rodney. 

 

I am fascinated to read that your Father-in-law was on the Rodney. What ship was he on during the war?

 

Let us hope the wave doesn't break any-time soon.. 🍻

[beefy66]

2 hours ago, warreni said:

Thank you and welcome aboard.    I am glad the step by step stuff helps. PE is such a fantastic addition to any 1/350 and above kit I now use it in every ship I build.

Thanks Warren it does help a lot to have someone who can explain it step by step makes it sound so much easier that way  

 

beefy

[morty_3333]

Hi Warren!

 

#Hello Pete.

 

Welcome aboard the good blog HMS Rodney.  

 

I am fascinated to read that your Father-in-law was on the Rodney. What ship was he on during the war?

 

Let us hope the wave doesn't break any-time soon.. #

 

Thanks for the reply!

During WW2 My Father-in-Law served on  HMS Protector:-

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Protector_(A146)

 

HMS Drake:-

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Marshal_Ney

 

After the war He served on HMS Triumph:-

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Triumph_(R16)

 

HMS Vanguard:-

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_(23)

 

And HMS Implacable:-

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Implacable_(R86)

 

......before being de-mobbed in 1952.

 

Keep Sticking!  Cheers,  Pete

 

 

 

 

[warreni]

Just a very quick one. If you glue all your PE together but decide you are not happy with it but it is too delicate to crack apart, or there is too much glue there, never fear you can take them apart easily. No need to buy that debonding agent either! Just go to your local pharmacy/supermarket and but some nail polish remover. Not the woosy one with no acetone in it but the powerful stuff. Put some in a small container, preferably metal or glass as it may dissolve some types of plastic, then put your parts in it. Leave them 5 or 10 minutes and when you remove them you will have no trouble taking them apart without lots of damage.

I was not happy with my first lot of magazine assemblies so I gave them the acetone treatment last night..

 

 

 

 

And this one was damaged previously but I am going to fix it before I glue them together..

 

 

Cheers
Warren

[Bugle07]

Excellent step by step guide, pen and paper at the ready for notes if you don't mind!

 

Going to enjoy this!

 

Geoff

[warreni]

6 hours ago, Bugle07 said:

Excellent step by step guide, pen and paper at the ready for notes if you don't mind!

 

Going to enjoy this!

 

Geoff

Of course not Geoff.

Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy ythe journey.

[warreni]

And here are the finished magazines..

[warreni]

Here are the Hataka paints I need for the camo scheme on the box cover..

 

 

From the left..
MS1 RN Blue-Black
507C RN Light Grey
MS2 RN Dark Grey
B5 RN Dark Blue

 

The only teensy weensy problem is that if I paint the model in this camo scheme I need to camo the deck as well. This would not normally be a worry but the Pontos detail set comes with a lovely wooden deck and it would be a huge waste to paint over that.

Next option would be too use a little artistic license, saving myself lots of time, and not camo the deck.

And the final option would be too paint the ship in the colours it was in when it took on the Bismarck, which IIRC is 507B grey. Only problem then would be that I would have to leave off many of the lovely radar items installed after the Bismarck action.. which again would be a waste of all that lovely Pontos PE.

Luckily I don't have to make a decision as yet.

Next up is a photo of the pom pom assemblies before I made a big decision..

 

 

Notice how many of the magazines are not lined up properly on the breech assemblies? I did and it drove me to remove all the magazine assemblies and replace them with the plastic kit ones which I lined up very easily, and with a lick of paint they will look fine.

Finally, the aftermath..

 

 

After doing all that yesterday I decided to sort out all the turned brass bits and pieces and seperated them into seperate resealable bags. Will make it much easier to find pieces as required.

Cheers
Warren

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Warren,

 

I've recently been part of a research team and we produced these papers. You may be interested in having a read prior to committing to paint.

 

Hataka Royal Navy paints are copies of Snyder & Short colours; even down to exact replication of the product names we used to have - even those which proved a bit incorrect. As a consequence, they've copied everything that is amiss with Snyder & Short.

 

This affects Rodney because the Snyder & Short derived B5 is a country mile off, and also the whole 507B thing can now be demonstrated to be a big misunderstanding too.

 

On the Pattern 507 greys:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0730/0927/files/Royal_Navy_colours_of_World_War_Two_-_The_Pattern_507s_G10_and_G45.pdf?6399082584985931582

 

On B5:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0730/0927/files/Royal_Navy_colours_of_World_War_Two_-_B5_and_B15_c6b7e32d-4433-497d-abfb-1e94c54cf9ea.pdf?6772372709227877314

 

On the 1941-1943 disruptive pattern Standard Camouflage Colours:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0730/0927/files/Royal_Navy_colours_of_World_War_Two_-_Standard_Camouflage_Colours_1941_to_1943.pdf?4510537543498049762

 

And finally, this document describes a medium grey for emergency use. I cannot prove, but have a hunch that past writers have heard about this mix, but not known about everything referenced in the papers above, and then applied "logic", done the old 2+2=5 and concluded that Pattern 507B must have been a medium grey between 507A and 507C - which is simply incorrect:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0730/0927/files/CAFO1112_Camouflage_of_Sea_Going_Ships_Policy_June_1942.pdf?11210309288652758831

 

These are all free to download. You may or may not be happy to learn this, but I figure you've got so much money sunk into this model already that I should tell you before painting when you can chose whether or not to do something about it. After you've painted it's far less potentially helpful, except to someone else!

[warreni]

Hello everyone.

Next up in the fabulous Rodney show is the construction of six small winches. Each winch in just over 10mm in length and abut 5mm in length but they have more than 15 parts in each of them. First step is to glue too pieces of PE together to form the base of the winch..

 

 

After this you need to assemble the motor from two pieces of PE and one of the plastic kit parts after you have put two small bends into the ends of the motor assembly..

 

 

 

Then they get attached to the sides of the kit's plastic motor..

 

 

As you can see the PE parts increase the detail markedly. Next you need to curve some PE to place over the outside of the motor. To make it easier to curve this slightly thicker PE you need to anneal it first. This is done by heating it until it changes colour. See the one on the left has changed to lots of colours..

 

 

After that you can curve them much more easily using the curving tools I showed earlier and you get a cover for the motor that goes on the outside and adds more detail to the little winch.

 

 

Next is what looks like some sort of control item part way along the shaft which gets folded in half and the threaded onto another plastic piece from the kit and after adding a couple of tiny spacers the whole lot gets pushed through the motor and attached to the base plate.

 

 

The you find the brass winch pully, trim it up a little and add it to the plastic part..

 

 

Next up is an assembly that folds up into a couple of boxes on a bracket that pipes go into from the base.

 

 

You attach that and the little control wheel to the control piece in the middle and the box to the end of the motor..

 

 

Next up you cut the tiny pipes off and add them to the box and base and it is finished. The pipes are a little two dimensional but I am sure it won't be noticeable once the winch is attached to the deck.

 

 

This item is a great example of how PE can enhance the details of an item far above what can be provided by just plastic parts.

That's it for now.

Cheers,

Warren

[beefy66]

Looking great Warren nice details 👍🏻

 

beefy 

[Bugle07]

Mini marvels there!  

Geoff

[warreni]

Back again to update everyone for today. Yes I had a day at the bench as I have had salmonella food poisoning for the last week but haven't told anyone except my Wife that I was unwell, Problem is I wasn't getting any better so I went to the doctors. Feeling much better and don't have to attend the throne every hour or so. Has a day off work and decided to make the most of it at the bench.

I continued on following the instructions and folded up one type of the numerous ammo boxes and lockers..

 

 

Next up were the 0.2in Quad Vickers guns. Oddly Pontos provide no brass for this in this set but the HMS Hood set has four of them provided. I put them together except for the PE..

 

 

Then looked so lame I decided to have a look online and Shapeways have beautifully printed sets inline. I ordered a sit and we shall see how good they are. I didn't do anymore on the plastic ones. Shame on you Pontos for not providing at least brass barrels!

 

Will continue tomorrow.

 

Cheers
Warren

[warreni]

Next are the 13 20mm cannons. The basic parts are as shown here..

 

 

But there are a further three parts you attach to the base of the gun..

 

 

 

I started with the cradle and shield..

 

 

I added the shield to the support arms like so.

 

 

 

Then it was the gun's turn.There are a few really tight bends that require a bit of lateral thinking to get them right, like using a knife as a support..

 

 

 

 

Next you add the barrel, which is actually hollow..

 

 

 

Then the base assembly was added to the cradle and left to dry thoroughly.

 

After that the gun assy was added to the cradle.

 

 

 

Last but not least was the magazines. This required annealing to make it easier to curve. After annealing it it was curved using a steel rod from my bending kit..

 

 

 

 

 

And you end up with 13 little snails..

 

 

With that done I started on the4.9 inch guns. First you modify the kits plastic breech assy..

 

 

.. and base assy..

 

 

.. which you attache to the gun assy..

 

 

Then you glue the Pontos brass barrels in the hole provided by Pontos.

 

 

I wish all plastic manufacturers would do this with all their guns. Makes it easy to line them up correctly. Then you bend and attach some more PE to the gun..

 

 

And yet some more PE is glued together to replace the plastic piece you removed before.

 

 

 

And that's it for the moment.

Cheers
Warren

 

[beefy66]

Really nice details on those guns and stands great step by step for me to follow along  

 

Cheers 

beefy

[warreni]

No worries. Glad you are enjoying the ride. 

[Bugle07]

 great work on those pieces of art!

 

Agree with you on the 4.9" guns, really sensible of them to have drilled out breaches for the barrels. 

 

Geoff

[warreni]

Thanks Geoff, 

Got a bit more done yesterday on the 4.7in mounts. Here is the gun cradle bent as required and the side panels fitted,

 

 

Then I attached what looks like a motor to the front of the base.

 

 

And attached another couple of parts to the cradle, the 'L' shaped parts.

 

 

I also attached a few more pieces which are too small to really take good photos of, then I found a mistake in the Pontos instructions. They show pictures of this mount with some sort of turret around it whereas the Rodney didn't have the turret assembly IIRC. Maybe they just copied the Nelson instructions for this part.

Anyway, until later today,.

Warren

[warreni]

OK it is your turn for some input.

The 45 ft motor launches used on the Rodney, and probably lots of other large ships as well, were the thwarts wooden finish or painted?