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Building Dragon's 1/350 USS Gearing (1945)


warreni

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'ere we go 'ere we go 'ere we go..

Roll up roll up to see a build of a subject you don't see built too often, Dragon's 1/350 USS Gearing (1945) using a Big Ed detail set just for fun!

Here are some piccies!

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And now the contents of the Big Ed set..

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And the contents of the kit box

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Aaaand that's it for now...

Might even get to start tomorrow..

Cheers
Warren

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7 hours ago, beefy66 said:

What about Rodney  :hmmm:

 

beefy

Didn't you read my post in that blog Mr Beefy? Can't go any further until I get the right paints for the camo scheme I am doing.

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Hi Warren yes I did read the other post but I went to this one first and then had a panic but Rodney is just on hold so that’s OK

please carry on sir I promise to read it carefully from now on. :whistle:

 

beefy 

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Thanks guys.  :)

 

Welcome to the first actual build installment.

 

Of course with a ship this detailed there is no way you could build it without instructions. Whether or not you choose to follow those instructions is entirely up to you but Dragon would have you build lots of fiddly little assemblies before you start on the

hull etc. Seems pretty sensible to me and like all Dragon instructions I have seen they could best be described as 'busy'. This is Step one...

 

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and a closer view..

 

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If you are not paying much attention you can miss out whole assemblies very easily.

For some reason Dragon have decided economise on their instructions and you get a scabby A4 sized sheet as shown on the left.

 

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I go to the Eduard website and download and print the ones there which are nice and colourful and very much easier to read.

 

Unfortunately there are many tiny plastic parts that are just too small to manipulate even using fine tweezers. An example are the ammo drums on the 20mm cannons. Once you remove them from the sprue they become impossible to clean up properly so I gave up and built the cannons sans magazines.

 

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There are a number of other PE and plastic bits that are just too small so the parts will just have to do without them. Luckily there are only 10 of these, not 57 like the USS North Carolina.

Here are some photos showing the duel 39mm Bofors..

 

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Then it was on to the 5 in turrets which were not too jard..

 

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Then another assembly I have no idea what it is supposed to be..

 

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I got a few other things done but forgot to take photos of them.

 

That's it for now

Warren

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

 

Bugle07, this is about as close as you can get to a Dragon kit..  :)  Excellent moulding and fit is there kits.  PE supp;ied as well but no railings.

 

I finally got a bit of time to do some construction of the Gearing. I am still on Page q, Step 1 of the admittedly confusing instructions. It is very easy to overlook things but if you mark stuff off as you go you are fine.

First up I decided to exchange the plastic radar aerial for PE from the Eduard kit.

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After one or two bends, and the inevitable breaking of the PE part, I used the plastic part as a mould for the PE..

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I then used a piece of brass rod behind the screens to glue the two pieces together. Then I added the Dragon PE sides to the aerial and found it was way aver-size to actually fit in the mount. All that fiddling and now it doesn't even fit the mount... I went back and added the sides to the plastic one and continued...

Next I glued the two plastic pieces together to make the radar hut and added the Eduard antenna mount to the roof.

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Then I added the antenna and mount..

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And finally that was Step 1 all done! Next Step, a lot of stuff for the mail deck and actually glueing the main deck in place. First up the depth charge droppers. Glued the two halves together gazing in awe at the Dragon moulding..

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Then I formed up the Eduard PE to put on the mount and thought to myself, wait a sec, this adds no detail at all to the mount. I changed my mind at that point and am going with the plastic part.

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Then it was off to the paint booth to spray the Lifecolor 20D deck blue on the decks, surprisingly..  :)

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I gave them another coat this morning and that is the state of play at the moment.

Cheers everyone
Warren

Edited by warreni
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2 hours ago, Courageous said:

PE has its faults (doesn't like being folded) and it's not always an improvement.

Carry on sir.

 

Stuart

Normally yes, Especially when you have to work out which is front and which is back,, and this is steel PE not Brass so less forgiving.

 

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Thanks everyone.

Some more progress. I started on the hull and painted the upper part Haze Grey. Then I attached the prop shafts and rudders.

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Next up I went to attach the very fiddly prop guards and discovered there are no plastic alternates to the PE. Luckily they supply moulds for you to bend them around, but as usual the Dragon instructions are wrong..

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The instructions guide you to sprue D for the moulds as you can see above, but they are actually on F...

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Unfortunately this is pretty common for Dragon. You would think pre-production reviews would pick these things up but unfortunately they don't ever seem to.

Oh well, that's it for the moment

Cheers
Warren

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Can anyone recommend a method of removing old paint from an airbrush tip? I thought I had removed it all but Life Color can be a pain to remove. Water doesn't wok, or thinners... will acetone do the job?

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6 hours ago, warreni said:

Can anyone recommend a method of removing old paint from an airbrush tip? I thought I had removed it all but Life Color can be a pain to remove. Water doesn't wok, or thinners... will acetone do the job?

Hi Warren I use an old cleaned out Tamiya pot filled with acetone strip the air brush down in to bits and let it soak overnight then give it a good scrub with a small pipe cleaning brush that normally gets it as good as new.

Also started to use those anti bacterial wipes on the needle to clean that.HTH

 

beefy

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Hello everyone.

I cleared the nozzle using acetone. But the Australian distributor for H&S stuff couldn't be bothered emailing me back about a coupls of new nozzles. Rude sweetheart.

Was very busy with 1/1 vehicles on the weekend but found time to finish the painting of the hull and glue them together..

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A few runs due tp using second-hand tape (yes sometimes I am scabby) but nothing a few brush strokes didn't fix.

Then I made a start on the decals for the decks..

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Don't worry, they aren't silvered just a bit glossy. A coat of matt clear should fix that.

That's it for now
Cheers
Warren

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6 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Those decals do look scary...

 

Stuart

They are Stuart, but with nothing else on the deck it makes it much easier. Will have to use some other glue beside plastic glue on the fitting as it could affect the decal.

 

Cheers

Warren

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