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

[warreni]

I'm baaaaack...

I was going to put up a video but I think it may be too large for the site. Oh well. I started on the ship's boats and began with the 45' launches. Each had to have a few small pieces removed from the top of the boat and the rudder and prop removed from the bottom..

 

 

 

Then the PE started and I bent up the floor as directed..

 

 

One of the side pieces broke off bu that was OK as you won't see it after everything else goes on. Then I placed the thwarts assembly in place..

 

 

These are the bits I was asking about, whether painted or stained timber. Then I painted what I think are the wooden parts of the boat pieces..

 

 

And this is how they one looks with the floor and interior of the boat painted.

 

 

That's it for this weekend.

Cheers
Warren

[warreni]

Anyway, a quick update.. Did some more work on the 45' launches..

Only got a few minutes this afternoon as I had house work to do before my Wife got home from work.

Cheers
Warren

[Bugle07]

Hi Warren, I think Boathouse 4 has a couple of these 45' on display in Portsmouth Dockyard.

 

Had a hunt online but murphys law, no chance of a view of the bottom boards, thwarts were varnished wood on all displayed.

 

These are museum pieces so no promises on authenticity. 

 

Even if they were painted, wouldn't it wear off with use? They'd soon look unsightly due to Jacks stern being plodded on them. Can't see any ships skipper going through the regular hassle of  having a dodgy looking whaler when a good staining  would do the job with no poor results that would need correcting.

 

Just re read that last paragraph, I really could go to town on the innuendo, but won't....

 

Geoff

 

 

[warreni]

On 7/3/2018 at 4:40 AM, Bugle07 said:

Hi Warren, I think Boathouse 4 has a couple of these 45' on display in Portsmouth Dockyard.

 

Had a hunt online but murphys law, no chance of a view of the bottom boards, thwarts were varnished wood on all displayed.

 

These are museum pieces so no promises on authenticity. 

 

Even if they were painted, wouldn't it wear off with use? They'd soon look unsightly due to Jacks stern being plodded on them. Can't see any ships skipper going through the regular hassle of  having a dodgy looking whaler when a good staining  would do the job with no poor results that would need correcting.

 

Just re read that last paragraph, I really could go to town on the innuendo, but won't....

 

Geoff

 

 

 

   I think I am over-thinking the boat painting. Will just do light grey on top and dark greu on the sides, except of course where they need to be wood finish. The 45' launches interior isn't much of a problem as the 32' one goes on top of it anyway.

[kpnuts]

Looking great mate

[warreni]

Hello everyone.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates but much of the build has been concentrating on getting little things done that were not very exciting to describe. So I am going to give some overall photos of completed stuff, like steam pinnaces and lifeboats, and then get back to the more in-depth stuff as various people have requested.

 

Just to go against all I just typed here are some piccies of the steam pinnace construction. First you need to remove quite a bit of detail from the deck including the aft cabin..

 

 

Then I placed the PE deck on the plastic piece and found I had to remove even more plastic. I highlighted the excess with a black marker then cut it out.

 

 

 

Then I glued the deck to the deck and trimmed some more plastic..

 

 

After that I started folding the PE that makes up the rear cabin,

 

 

And glued it to the PE deck..

 

 

While I let that harden I decided to constuct part of one type of gun directors used on the Rodney..

 

 

Then after that the instructions suggest you build some hose reels. These are supplied in the Pontos set using turned brass and PE for the end pieces and frames.

 

 

To cut the turned brass pieces I used my trusty No2 knife and just rolled the reel putting downward pressure on the reel until the blade sliced through. No dags that way you would get using end cutters.

 

 

Each of the reels is made up of five pieces

 

 

And there are three sizes that use the turned brass parts.

 

 

There are other PE parts to make further reels but you have to use plastic for the spools of the reels and there is no indication as yet as to how many of the smaller reels you need in either the Pontos or Trumpeter instructions so they can wait until I get to that part.

Next up I started on the six 5 inch turrets clustered at the rear of the model. Both the plastic and brass parts are almost identical, but the brass parts are slightly longer. As you can see even the plastic barrels have hollow ends.

 

 

 

I debated as to whether to bother using the brass barrels as I really dislike adding the barrels to plastic bits as it is rather difficult to get everything lined up properly. But I said to myself, "Self, this is the only HMS Rodney you are going to build so why waste good brass barrels?" So I sliced off the plastic barrels very carefully,

 

 

Drilled holes in the plastic to receive the brass barrels,

 

 

And glued the brass to the plastic.

 

 

I set them aside to harden and started on the turrets themselves. First up you needed to remove fine plastic detail from the roofs of the turret.

 

 

Then I added the PE roof to the turrets,

 

 

.. drilled 0.5mm holes in the plastic through the holes in the brass and then added the PE doors to the back of the turrets.

 

I separated the periscope poles using the same knife method I used for the hose reels (there are 6 on each turned piece of rod) and then folded up the PE periscope parts that attach to the poles.

 

 

These are about 1 mm in size after bending and to allow easier bending I annealed them before trying to bend them. Pontos supply extras of all these tiny parts in case you stuff one of them up, or the floor monster spirits one away.

 

That's all for now.

Cheers
Warren

Edited July 10, 2018 by warreni

[Bugle07]

Great stuff!

 

I can see why you hesitated with the brass barrels, those Trumpeter ones aren't bat at all. Glad you did tho, and your reasoning is spot on.

 

Still trying to build up the courage to put the barrels onto the Flyhawk 1/700 HMS Legion...

 

Geoff

 

 

[warreni]

9 hours ago, Bugle07 said:

Great stuff!

 

I can see why you hesitated with the brass barrels, those Trumpeter ones aren't bat at all. Glad you did tho, and your reasoning is spot on.

 

Still trying to build up the courage to put the barrels onto the Flyhawk 1/700 HMS Legion...

 

Geoff

 

 

Lol... Geoff, I think that barrels for 1/700 are probably more difficult than the larger 1/200 barrels. 

 

Good luck mate

 

Warren

[warreni]

Hi All.

Time to continue the blog. First up I continue with the six smaller turrets. Each has a couple of periscopes on the roof. The mast looks like this..

 

 

And after you have added the top parts..

 

 

After that some doors on the back of the turrets and a couple of different types of ladders, depending on where the turret is located..

 

 

 

Then each of the rear turrets have railings around the top. To bend the feet I used my larger bending tool..

 

 

That also comes with a large blade for bending long things. After bending they got placed on the tops of the turrets..

 

 

 

Next on the agenda is the crane used for lifting the Walrus's onto and off the catapult. This is the sprue all the crane bits comes on..

 

 

After removing the crane I started on the bending process..

 

 

 

 

After that you need to construct the base of the crane..

 

 

.. modifying plastic parts and attaching PE as you go..

 

 

 

 

One more set of tools I forgot were my set of drills ranging from 0.1mm to a bit over 1mm in 0.1mm increments.

 

Very useful. Then you started attching the plastic bits to the crane's base..

 

 

And some drums and the centrla support..

 

 

After that you start with the rigging for the jib you constructed earlier..

 

 

 

Then all was going smoothly until a mini disaster.. I dropped the crane body and these bits decided to eject themselves..

 

 

I got a bit surly after that as it had taken me ages to do the rigging and I didn't seem to be getting anywhere with it. But after about three hours of fiddling I finally got the crane to the point where I could attach the jib..

 

 

Then I installed all the rest of the bits and ended up with..

 

 

.. which isn't exactly as it is in the instructions but I found it almost impossible to do some of the rigging the way described, or shown at least, so I did it my way and kept my sanity instead. Probably give me another one to build and it would go together without a hitch.

 

Next job is to build the catapault located on one of the main turrets starting with this..

 

 

 

And that's all he wrote for the moment..

Cheers all
Warren

[warreni]

Thanks everyone   &:)

Now for an update on the week that was..

I continued with the catapault and the first thing I did was finish the two ends..

 

 

Fundly enough the Pontos instructions don't show the ends fited to the catapault. I assume they might go elsewhere. Next I started on the catapault body..

 

 

Then started adding bits and bobs..

 

 

Until I ended up with this ..

 

 

Then it was on to the next part of the instructions which cover the construction of the main turrets. These are nice and satisfying to build in 1/200 as they are nice and chunky. Again, the Trumpeter barrels are awesome for plastic barrels but I will be using the brass ones from Pontos. As you can see the brass barrel is notably longer than the Trumpeter barrel..

 

 

I cut off the plastic barrels..

 

 

.. but when I went to drill the holes in the plastic parts for the brass barrels I found I had no 2mm drill bits. Will have to buy a few tomorrow. Next up I started preparing the turrets for brass. First I removed the plastic pieces on the turret base that needed removing..

 

 

The plastic detail on the roof of the turrets is as good as the brass details, but there are a few items missing from the roofs so I sanded all the details up the polished the plastic to give the CA glue a nice smooth surface to attach too...

 

 

All done..

 

 

Then When I went to the post Office this afternoon there was a box from Shapeways waiting for me and four quad Vickers guns were waiting for me..

 

 

Can't see much detail yet but should be fine after a coat of paint.

That's it for now.

Cheers
Warren

Edited July 20, 2018 by warreni

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Warren, apologies I did receive your email. I'll try to get something pulled together over the weekend for you if I can regarding the colour profiles. We've been working on Prince of Wales first but that is maturing nicely.

[Clogged]

Fanatastic account of your build so far.  Great detailed photos. Will be very useful for people following on after you doing this build.  Keep up the good work.  I'm tempted at doing a 1/200 scale ship but where would I put it!!

[warreni]

12 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Hi Warren, apologies I did receive your email. I'll try to get something pulled together over the weekend for you if I can regarding the colour profiles. We've been working on Prince of Wales first but that is maturing nicely.

Thanks Jamie.

 

8 hours ago, Clogged said:

Fanatastic account of your build so far.  Great detailed photos. Will be very useful for people following on after you doing this build.  Keep up the good work.  I'm tempted at doing a 1/200 scale ship but where would I put it!!

I try to please, 

 

[beefy66]

Great job so far some of those parts like the catapult look like small kits on there own 

 

beefy 

[Terry1954]

Very interesting build with some excellent photos and details. Stirs the grey matter to try a large scale ship. Will watch this one progress with relish!

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Terry

[Kris B]

Super details and work with PE.

[warreni]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

 

Well it has been a little while but you would think I had done nothing going on the five pictures I have to upload. I got this for my Birthday from my lovely Wife..

 

 

I also got a 1/1 scale VW Golf Cabrio but I won't post a picture of that.     Anyway, I have one important thing to say before anything else, Mr Kim at Pontos, your barrel support solution is hopeless in reality. Try slipping a small brass rod through at least four thin pieces of brass and one breaks away everytime. It looks lovely..

 

 

.. but it isn't workable. One solution maybe to make the attaching part of the brass barrels smaller and thus allow you to pass a single length of brass rod through the brass. Better still make a resin [art to replace the brass.. or something milled from a solid block of some material. So I removed all that lovely brass and decided to iuse a hybrid of kit plastic and the brass barrels. Here are the plastic bits minus the one that goes on the end AFTER you put the plastic rod through all the barrel holders..

 

 

And it comes out looking like this..

 

 

Here the plastic cement is drying to hopefully line up the barrels. I used some other brass parts that were supposed to be for something else but it hides the interior of the turrets..

 

 

So that's all for the moment.. but it may not be the end of the turret saga as I might have a go at soldering those pieces together.. but not today..

 

Cheers
Warren

[warreni]

Okey dokey.

 

I went back to the bench today and was busily gluing PE to the main turrets when I realised Pontos had failed to point out that the 6 in turrets only had one periscope each. I found this out after going to build six more periscopes only to find I could only build one more with the parts I had left. The other thing that got me is that Pontos showed you had to drill two holes in each turret which is incorrect. Only one hole is needed on the outside of the turrets depending on what side of the ship they are on. There are small caps supplied to cover the holes so I attached them and this is how they look now..

 

 

Then I got around to doing the other two barrel installations. If you remember I posted a picture of how the method looked I used, but I then decided to add some pieces of sprue between the guns for added support..

 

 

Some pieces of sprue from the kit just happened to be the right size and I flowed extra thin cement into the nooks and crannies to make sure the bar it immobile. Don't worry the barrels can still be moved, but I don't think I have ever intentionally moved a barrel in 30 years so I may just glue them as well. We shall see..

 

Cheers everyone
Warren

[warreni]

Back again.

I finished off the basics of the main turrets..

1...

2...

3...

 

I know they might be A, B and Z but that is not important. Then I continued on the Walruses (Walri?)

 

 

and the engine pods. Looks a bit like a piglet..

 

 

 

Next it was on to the hull. First drilled out over two hundred port holes and then I removed a few mould seams and attached the hull strakes..

 

 

Big but not too hard using Tamiya Extra Thin cement. Lastly I attached the prop shafy supports and rudder..

 

 

That's all for now.

Cheers
Warren

[Hewy]

Just looking at some of those pe parts.  The hand rails around the turret and The crane especially, really well done. 

Glynn 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Hewy

[warreni]

On 7/31/2018 at 2:57 PM, Hewy said:

Just looking at some of those pe parts.  The hand rails around the turret and The crane especially, really well done. 

Glynn 

Thanks Glynn. 

[ArtickWarspite]

A really interesting and exciting build. What you have done so far looks absolutely amazing. The PE just adds so much!

 

Can't wait to see more!

[warreni]

Hello again.

 

It would appear I have missed a few updates but here is the latest.

 

Sorry for the lack of updates but I have been otherwise occupied for about a month. First going to Vietnam and then having my parents stay with us.

There is not going to be much text in this update but lots of piccies. First up are some of the PE wind deflectors around the bridge ..

 

 

Then more shots showing the superstructure under construction..

 

 

 

 

 

And a structure with a platform that goes on top of the bridge area..

 

 

This is actually completely different to the one supplied in the kit. Then another view of the slowly growing Walrii..

 

 

A signaling light

 

 

Some binoculars (just squint a bit)

 

 

One of the radars..

 

 

Detail inside the funnel..

 

 

More funnel..

 

 

A gun director

 

 

 

Some structures on the base of the funnel

 

 

 

Nav lights on the funnel

 

 

The superstructure base finished..

 

 

And that's it for the moment.

Will post more frequent updates from now on.. I hope! 

Cheers

Warren

[Courageous]

So much detail in your build, and as for that PE... 

 

Stuart

[beefy66]

Up to your usual great standards on the PE 

looking very neat Warren how are you finding the Pontos stuff to work with 

 

Keith