Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941

[Fritag]

I'm a few pages in now, and just popped back to say that this is simply a breathtaking thread.

 

I'm rather in awe of you historical knowledge Crisp, plus that of your several notable contributors; I'm gonna have to read it all more than once, and probably take it a bit more slowly, to get the most out of it.

 

Some fantastic photographs too.

 

I'm also rather in awe of your PE handling skills Crisp,  Do you take sub-contract work?

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Thanks, Steve.

 

PE handing skills are relative; LOTS of patience, plan ahead and a logical approach are key - so you ought to be a natural (and I know from other threads that you are).  

 

I am really trying to improve my soldering technique (using assorted spare PE bits and “mules”, well away from Ark at this stage!)... drawing on the expertise of @hendie and @The Baron.  Most of the stuff you see here is glued (the exception being the large piece of brass fitted yesterday under the seaplane crane), but I want to get to the point where the majority is soldered. Tony’s Anson / C-119 and Alan’s ridiculously gorgeous Pullman show what can be achieved; the rest is practice and perseverance.

 

As for historical knowledge, for me one of the biggest joys of a build like this is the research.  I knew vaguely about Ark 3, obvs (having served in her Grand-Daughter), but until recently I definitely fell into the trap alluded to a few pages back, of thinking (if I thought at all) that early-40s carrier ops were just like late-80s carrier ops, only with biplanes.  The more I read, the more I have come to realise how wrong that view is - and also just how much we later Naval aviators owe in gratitude to the pioneers of the 20s-40s, when they were basically making it up as they went along and learning from their mistakes.

 

But the sea hasn’t changed, and a Sea King flies at roughly the same speed as a Swordfish, so I think I can can picture all too easily what it must have been like to operate right on the edge of the weather limits.

 

You’d think that as we get further away from the war, less new stuff would emerge, but if anything it’s the opposite.  Where until recently I’d have had to spend days at Kew or the Museum of the RN to look at original material like Ark’s log books, now I can read them on line after 2 clicks.  That, and the proper, dedicated research of people like @iang (who knows more about Ark 3 than I ever will, and has probably spent several years acquiring that knowledge) only help to fill in the blanks.  

 

And you can never have too many reference photos, even (especially!) if your subject has been at the bottom of the Mediterranean since 1941!

 

But thanks for the compliments; I hope you’ll stay to watch this grey monster evolve further.

 

 

[hendie]

6 hours ago, Fritag said:

 I'm gonna have to read it all more than once, and probably take it a bit more slowly, to get the most out of it.

 

if you can make some crib sheets to pass around while you're at it Steve, that would be appreciated.

 

Just in case there's an exam at the end

 

 

@Ex-FAAWAFU, yes I'm still around Crisp - just taking in the view and enjoying the sea air.  oh, and the banter.  and the history lesson.  

 

4 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Tony’s Anson / C-119 and Alan’s ridiculously gorgeous Pullman show what can be achieved; the rest is practice and perseverance.

 

I can't speak for Tony, but what presents itself in a photo for the BM masses, and what stares back at me when I put the soldering iron back in it's cave may be two entirely different creatures!

That's the great thing about solder - a few scrapes with a blade here and there, a swipe of a file, and a little tickle with wire wool, and it's amazing how easily it all cleans up. The wire wool especially is a must have tool when soldering as I'm just not that good at controlling it.

In reality there are only a very, very few instances where I need to be soldering with any degree of accuracy. and hey! sometimes I get lucky

 

 

[Fritag]

19 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I hope you’ll stay to watch this grey monster evolve further.

Definitely.  Be a privilege.  Don't think I'll be contributing much, if anything, beyond a 'Like' here and there.  But I'll be lurking 

 

14 hours ago, hendie said:

if you can make some crib sheets to pass around while you're at it Steve, that would be appreciated.

 

Just in case there's an exam at the end

 

Wot - and betray my irremediable dimness and thorough misunderstanding you mean?  I'm the kid at the back of the class that isn't put forward for the exam.......

[Modelholic]

' I'm the kid at the back of the class that isn't put forward for the exam......'

 

At least they let you in the class!

Tom (from the corner of the main hall)

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

For no special reason this evening I decided to put aside the hull for a few hours and go back to the island - specifically the bridge.

 

You might recall that I paid host to Commander Cock-Up, bending the brass for the wind deflector plates the wrong way and ending up with a lot of separate pieces as it fell apart when I corrected it.  [See, Steve; take your time and plan ahead - this is one of many examples that have taught me this!] 

 

I was always reasonably confident that it was fixable, and after today’s efforts I’m certain.

 

When you last saw it (to my amazement, in July) it looked like this:

 

This evening I have fitted the back plate that sits behind the wind deflectors / forms the front wall of the compass platform (scratch built from a piece of brass sheet), and then fettled that front bar - a piece of Tetra loveliness that I hadn’t trashed! - which holds it all together.   The port side is now almost complete.

 

Seen from above, you can see the compass platform more clearly (with its duckboards, which are a nice touch), and also see that the next task is to fill in the sides, both of which are missing.

 

Apart from the front of the bridge with the wind deflectors, this is all dry fitted.

 

Seen close up it looks somewhat crude, but as a recovery from inept disaster, it’s getting there - and seen from any distance it’s fine.  I’m  happy.

 

More tomorrow 

 

Crisp

Edited September 11, 2019 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Fritag]

13 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

See, Steve; take your time and plan ahead - this is one of many examples that have taught me this!

Yes I saw the ‘I learned about flying from that’ earlier post   I was pleased to see you were only human......

 

13 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Seen close up it looks somewhat crude

Does it heck........

[ArnoldAmbrose]

13 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Seen close up it looks somewhat crude, but as a recovery from inept disaster, it’s getting there - and seen from any distance it’s fine.  I’m  happy.

Gidday Crisp, I think any recovery, regardless how minor, is a positive. From inept disaster - a giant feather in your cap. And if you're happy, that's all that matters. Keep up the good work. Regards, Jeff.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

1 hour ago, Fritag said:

Yes I saw the ‘I learned about flying from that’ earlier post

God, I’d forgotten that phrase!  I used to love reading those articles (and, like everyone else, mutter a silent prayer that I’d never have to write one.  Alas, the prayer didn’t work!)

[Terry1954]

17 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

God, I’d forgotten that phrase!  I used to love reading those articles (and, like everyone else, mutter a silent prayer that I’d never have to write one.  Alas, the prayer didn’t work!)

I used to read those as a keen Air Cadet then one day, on my second ever solo flight (as a mere light aviation flyer), I had one!

 

Still makes me shiver to recall it but boy did I learn!

 

Terry

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Update one for tonight (might be more later) - further progress with restoring the bridge wind deflectors.

 

First the port side, started last night.  Having rebuilt/reinstalled the vertical ribs and the horizontal bar across the top/front [this isn’t terribly easy to describe!], I needed to reinstall the curved sections that sit between the ribs.  The posh roller tool thing really came into its own, because I can be sure of a consistent curve.

 

You can see them here; each plate curves inwards (away from you as you look) towards the top of the wall. I assume this forms some kind of Venturi in real life; at 1/350 size it just looks funky!  

[Incidentally, don’t worry about the apparent drunken angle of the Admiral’s Bridge structure above - it’s just perched on top]

 

The structure in the centre was apparently where the chart table was, presumably protecting the chart from the weather. 

 

Contrast the port side on the right of picture (now complete on the section you can see - more still to do on the sides) with the starboard side on left of picture; ribs and horizontal bar fitted and being left to cure.  Curved plates probably next week.

 

And here is a photo of the posh PE bending job.  The second largest rod gives the perfect curve for this purpose.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

Edit:  no further update - I have done some more work, bit it was mostly cleaning Merit detail (weld lines etc) off the island and drilling new scuttles; not wildly photogenic.

 

More next week.

Edited September 12, 2019 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Martian]

That work on the island is quite stellar. It has the Martian seal of approval.

 

Martian 👽

[Ripaman]

That bridge is looking good Crisp are you going to solder it 

 

Regards

Richard

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

No, because it’s too adjacent to kit plastic and I don’t want to risk melting anything.  It’s currently glued, and when everything is in place it becomes very solid (though extremely fragile as it builds up); once it is complete I can do some fettling and filling - even just primer will sort things in some places.  Also, bear in mind that the entire island in current form (i.e. pre mast & funnel) is about an inch tall and ½” across; you are seeing it very magnified.

[beefy66]

Stunning details and interesting history just finished Mike  Rossiters book while on holiday in Malta what a life she had in such a short time

 

I can see I will need to get more practice with PE before I attempt this one.  

 

Beefy 

[TheBaron]

That island is a feast for the eyes Crisp: the amount of positive and negative detail you've squeezed into such a small region is utterly compelling. You won't regret that PE rolling set. I've a non-posh version and find it invaluable for curvature of all kinds.

On 9/10/2019 at 5:20 PM, hendie said:

can't speak for Tony, but what presents itself in a photo for the BM masses, and what stares back at me when I put the soldering iron back in it's cave may be two entirely different creatures!

 He's not wrong you know. Any excess solder is impressively easy to spruce up with a  file and W& D to a final polish should the need arise. 

 

[Chewbacca]

Some really excellent brass work going on there. 

 

How do you select which radius to use on the PE bending tool?  I can see it for something that needs, say a full 90 or 180 deg bend but for something like those deflectors it must be very difficult to get it right first time and as everyone knows, PE is not very forgiving to multiple bends

 

On ‎12‎/‎09‎/‎2019 at 12:56, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

God, I’d forgotten that phrase!  I used to love reading those articles (and, like everyone else, mutter a silent prayer that I’d never have to write one.  Alas, the prayer didn’t work!)

I've yet to write mine.  When it happened, we all agreed that none of us would write about the incident until all had retired from the Service and one is still hanging on in there!

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

7 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

How do you select which radius to use on the PE bending tool?  I can see it for something that needs, say a full 90 or 180 deg bend but for something like those deflectors it must be very difficult to get it right first time and as everyone knows, PE is not very forgiving to multiple bends

Brass is more forgiving with curved bends (as opposed to a bend at a joint).  The Tetra brass is well designed, in that areas which you are supposed to curve are sort of scalloped out on the non-visible side, making them easier to curve without annealing. 

 

But the honest answer to how I select is by eye - though if I am in doubt I go for the larger rod first, on the grounds that adding a bit more bend is a lot easier than trying to take some away.   

 

The posh device also has a soft pad on its underside (though you can equally well use a mouse mat, if anyone has those nowadays); rolling something in a soft surface allows you to control how far you take it, up to and including a complete circle.  It’s a bit of an art, but once learned you can control it pretty well - practice with endless amounts of brass runner helps!

Edited September 15, 2019 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

7 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

...one is still hanging on in there!

Might his initials be BK?

[Terry1954]

That bridge really does look the biz.

 

Top job evolving there.

 

Terry

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Relatively short update this evening, but quite a lot of fiddly work; I've started to rebuild the hawse pipes (bigger and turned through 90 degrees).  Rolling out thin sausages of Milliput and then coaxing them into a reasonable shape - lots of sanding in due course once cured.

 

Here your first view of the port bow with its single hawse (everything has been starboard til now):

 

...and here the starboard bow with the double hawse.  Note also 11 new scuttles, the lower set replacing the weird slots caused by Merit’s mould, shown a few pages ago (you can see the old openings filled underneath the brass).

 

Incidentally, the bow is the worst bit of Merit’s model - the only bit where I think the shape isn’t quite right (in comparison with the builders’ drawings, it’s a bit too upright and doesn’t flare quite enough at the fore peak around the anchors, and the cable deck openings are slightly wrong.  Hard to illustrate and even harder to correct - I don’t think it is worth the work.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

Edited September 16, 2019 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

You might be able to see what I’m

on about with the bow in this picture:

 

Merit’s bow is a straight line from the forepeak right up to level with the cable deck openings.  If you look above, the builders’s drawings show that it actually started to curve well below that, level with the hawse pipes.  Rather harder to see here is the fact that the furthest aft fo’c’s’le opening should be longer than the others, whereas all 4 of Merit’s are essentially the same size.

 

As I said before, it would take a lot of work to fix it, and I don’t think it’s worth it: the difference is fairly subtle.

[Terry1954]

I can just see the difference in the curve from your last picture. Even if you got the curve to conform to the profile (using maybe a fillet of plastic, a very subtly fine one at that) then there would need to be much bulking out of the bow to get that faired in appropriately. I agree that is a relatively large amount of difficult work in profiling (say) milliput to blend the upper front bow in again, for such very little gain - it's hardly noticeable.

 

I honestly don't think any of us would ever have noticed, had you not mentioned it ................. even me!

 

Terry

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Courageous]

9 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

a lot of work to fix it, and I don’t think it’s worth it:

 

9 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

relatively large amount of difficult work in profiling (say) milliput to blend the upper front bow in again, for such very little gain

The 'law of diminishing returns' I'm afraid, a law I often follow.

 

Stuart

[ArnoldAmbrose]

18 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I honestly don't think any of us would ever have noticed, had you not mentioned it

Gidday, I don't think I would have noticed either, and as you say, a lot of work for minimal gain - if it were possible. And if you make a hash of the bow trying it would be VERY noticeable. I'd leave it alone. HTH. Regards, Jeff