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Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941


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Well, it’s done.  On numerous occasions during this build I haven’t been 100% complimentary about Merit, but I have to say that for a kit this large the fit is excellent; I’ve seen far worse at a tenth of the size.

 

Bow / stem - the disparity in fair lead sizes is because I haven’t fixed the port one yet.

50665989916_94d3366d11_b.jpg


Stern - the lined trapezoidal part is separate, so again good work:

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And then three with the flight deck perched on top, just cos I can (& you won’t see this again for a while, since there’s a lot to do before the roof goes on:

50666067027_aaabd74992_b.jpg 50665244513_99712790a7_b.jpg 50665989906_a97183df7d_b.jpg

 

Giddy stuff in a glacial build like this!  All your fault, Giorgio!

 

More soon
 

Crisp

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3 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Giddy stuff in a glacial build like this!  All your fault, Giorgio!

Hey, who's building a ship in the first place? :rofl:

 

Looking blooming marvellous,  I reckon :worthy:  :clap: 

 

And I wish I had a fit like that on my current aircraft build...

 

Ciao 

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WOW WOW WOW!!!!

The never ending work on the sides' PE seems to have come to an end!!! I admire your patience and precision!!!

The hull looks great andIthinkafterso much work, you eeded to see something bigger coming together!!!

She looks great!!!!

Well done!!!:clap2:

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Congratulations Crispin, looking really good (nice knees too), in the words of the legendary Norman Ough,  "There is more work in one side of an aircraft carrier of this size than in a whole battleship model" being a fellow traveller on this long and lonely road I agree wholeheartedly with him, I can only think that you must have the patience of a saint wot with all those scuttles, but it will look even more spectacular when you get some paint on it, inspiring stuff !

 

Cheers

 

David

 

 

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1 hour ago, Dancona said:

...it will look even more spectacular when you get some paint on it...


The concept of paint - apart maybe from the odd squirt to check seams - still feels a long way off, and the heavily weathered scheme I am planning in my head (based on the awful state of her paintwork in the numerous photos of her sinking later the same year) is not going to be simple.  None the less, I know from past experience that these long and (frankly) tediously repetitive detailing sessions (Sea King rivets, Ark Royal scuttles etc.) really do pay off when the paint goes on.  You spend months looking all-too-closely at a blotchy, pitted surface covered in bits of filler, glue (not yet cleaned, but it’s not CA so scrapes away nicely with one of those wooden nail thingies), resin and brass... and then suddenly a coat of paint pulls it all together and it stops looking like a building site.

 

But not for a long while yet!

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She is looking magnificent now things have come together, and as you say, really quite an enormous model. It must feel great to have reached this point, despite a having a long way to go yet.

 

Terry

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6 hours ago, Massimo said:

The never ending work on the sides' PE seems to have come to an end...

By the way, Massimo, not even close.  There are still 15 or so walkways / catwalks, ammunition ready-use lockers for the guns, the guns themselves, searchlight platforms, contents of the boat bays & hull galleries, davits, 8 x w/t aerial masts, traversing gear...

 

The scuttles are done, but there’s a lot of brass still to be added to the ship’s sides.

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Next silly game... reinstating her distinctive (and visible even from a distance) welding seams.  Step forward the Slater’s rod recommended by @perdu a few weeks ago (for a different purpose).

 

I have been a bit worried about whether this will work (might it look rubbish?)... but I think it’s going to be OK, especially under paint in due course.  You want it to be there when you look for it, but not in your face when you don’t (if that makes sense).

50672930796_bc4945e67b_b.jpg

 

More soon

 

Crisp

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Rods look good to me, Crisp - I can paint them as welding seams when they get.... painted :D

 

OK, OK, I'll get my :coat:

 

How did you laied them down? Scribing reference lines to align them properly?

 

TIA

 

Ciao 

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38 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Step forward the Slater’s rod

Good call I think. It worked for me on the Vosper Oerlikon bandstand treads on the infamous Vosper thread (remember that one @Courageous?). In this scale, with enough liquid poly, but not too much, I reckon it will look the part.

 

I must confess that when you first started this mega detailing on seperate hull sides, I'd never seen that approach before as so often we see "bang the hull halves together" and then add detail subsequently, but this is convincing me that your approach is very viable.

 

Most impressed.

 

Terry

 

 

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The decision to detail the hull halves was largely dictated by the sheer size of this thing.  Eventually - now! - you need to put it together so you can sort out joins and fit things that cross them (like the DG coil), but trying to line up & fit 500-odd scuttles on a complete hull that’s over 2’ long would just be much harder, cos there was a lot of measuring and marking things in pencil.  
 

There’s also the challenge of how you hold it as more and more delicate items are added.  At the moment I can lift and position the hull using those robust stiffening bulkheads inside it, but obviously the time will come when that won’t be viable.  At some point I might glue something to the underneath to act as a handle (I don’t care what the bottom of the ship looks like, since it will be invisible under a raging Atlantic).

 

Ship models always involve a lot of planning, in my experience - way more than aircraft - and as @Dancona has pointed out via Norman Ough, carriers are massively more complicated than they initially seem!

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1 hour ago, giemme said:

How did you laied them down? Scribing reference lines to align them properly? 

A combination of measurement & pencil marks to decide the position, then tape the rod in place, adjust until it looks right - then use capillary action to add some TET.

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2 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

carriers are massively more complicated than they initially seem!

OH yes I, am learning about that at the minute  :doh: you know the deal seems like a good idea at the time  :rage:

 

looking great BTW  👍

 

Stay safe 

beefy

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I’m almost certain that the kit is based on Morskie.  It depends on how worried you are about accuracy of detail: Kagero  are a lot more accurate, in my opinion - based on my interpretation of photographs and the partial builders’ plans that are available 

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That hull looks splendid - if not downright monumental - in some of those recent photos Crisp. 👏 Reminiscent of some of those epic shots of her being built at Cammell Laird.

On 02/12/2020 at 20:46, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

as @Dancona has pointed out via Norman Ough, carriers are massively more complicated than they initially seem!

Well, I guess if one will feel compelled to shove airfields around oceans...

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45 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Well, I guess if one will feel compelled to shove airfields around oceans...

Tis the only way my man, if you have a desire to win of course...........

 

Terry

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More weld seams on starboard side.  Not got much done this weekend - real life stuff in the way - but still a little more midships...

50687981527_f66240f3c0_b.jpg

 

... and for’d:

50687981532_b82f1d240f_b.jpg


Under paint after clean-up, I reckon this will work.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

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