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Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941


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19 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

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

… but as you did mention it, you *could* go the Fritag route of either (1) buying a new machine to bend time and fixing the Merit pattern or (2) making your own bit of etch with the correct profile and then building up to it in Milliput. Mind you, Steve would probably be upset at the lack of turnbuckles on the rigging wire of the aircraft and that kind of thinking causes unrest. Rioting in the streets even.

Edited by Kirk
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On ‎15‎/‎09‎/‎2019 at 15:27, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

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!

Thanks.  I've used the latter technique for bending thin plasticard but I can see it would be easier with brass that wouldn't be trying to revert to its original shape.

On ‎15‎/‎09‎/‎2019 at 15:29, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Might his initials be BK?

No, MG

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Thanks, everyone!

 

Tonight’s update, concentrating on the starboard bow once more.  You last saw it with a couple of circular carbuncles to start replacing the hawse pipes.  After 24 hours of curing, the Milliput sanded nicely (though it has to be said that the angles involved did not make it easy).  

 

The splodge of filler above & to the left of the for’d hawse is still drying, so looks rough [it was a scuttle that ended up in a bad place!]  Otherwise I’ve added a further 14 brass scuttles, which means the first few frames of the bow are now done (at least until we get to the gluing stage).

48750996576_e067a68261_b.jpg

 

And here, just for giggles, the same with a couple of blu-tac’d anchors in roughly the right place.

48750670903_f687dc940e_b.jpg

 

Coming together slowly. Happy.

 

Crisp

 

[Incidentally, most of this is glued with Gator’s Grip, which is my PE glue of choice.  One of many reasons I love this stuff is that it’s easy to clean up - and those close-ups don't half show that it’s needed!]

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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1 hour ago, Chewbacca said:

Thanks.  I've used the latter technique for bending thin plasticard but I can see it would be easier with brass that wouldn't be trying to revert to its original shape.

You should try it; once you’ve cracked it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.  

 

As for MG, I hadn’t realised they were still in.

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Last update for this week; the bow is pretty much done.

 

Today I have added about 20 scuttles (of 2 sizes - that row of 6 close together at bottom left are 0.7mm, where the rest are 1.1mm).  

48761407292_c346b9b2b1_b.jpg

 

Also had a “well, duuuuh!” lightbulb moment about the ladders.  I’ve been faffing around with tiny drills (including the statutory bit snapping, which seems almost unavoidable with 0.2 drills)... then taking about 15 goes to get the rung into the hole & glued.

 

But then I thought “hang on, all I’m looking for is an even set of raised lines that look like a ladder... so why not just glue a short length of rod in place?”  So I did - see the two rectangular openings under the aft-most fo’c’s’le opening.

 

So just to give an idea of how far we’ve got: you can see the bow is done, and the midships section around the Carley floats and seaplane crane... but still the gap between to fill.

48761001483_3a4be9bd99_b.jpg

 

And then the stern section.

 

And then the port side!

 

Still, we’re getting there.

 

More next week

 

Crisp

 

P.S. You might also be able to see that I’ve done more sanding to refine the hawse pipes.  Still not quite there, but improving - plus lots of it will be invisible behind the anchors. 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Good afternoon

 

I have just acquired the British Warships book and the volume on HMS Victorious courtesy of Abebooks.

 

Together with several volumes in the Anatomy of the Ship series in my possession, these books make some of armament arrangements on the KGV class easier to model.

 

Thank you for enlightening me as to their existence.

 

Gooney Fan

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10 minutes ago, hendie said:

 

I think that's about the only term I understood in that entire post.   'oh, that and 'ladders'

Previous post rephrased in @hendie-speak.

 

Final update for this week.  The pointy bit at the front is nearly finished.

 

Today I have added about 20 windows.  Most of them are very small, but 6 are even smaller.

 

Also realised I’ve been a muppet, wasting time with teeny drills.  They break.  A lot.  But I don’t really need a teeny hole.  I can glue some sticks on and they look quite like a ladder in this scale.

 

Just to show how much I have done: the pointy bit is finished, as is the bit in the centre around the giant rubber rings and lifting device for floaty-aircraft...  but there’s a gap between the two. 

 

Then I have to do the back end.  Then the other side.

 

You might also see that I have sanded down the two polo mints near the pointy-bit-at-the-front (which represent the large fat drainpipes which contain chains which have tent pegs on the end).  The tent pegs will obscure a lot of the polo-mint-drain-pipes.

 

 

 

HTH.  Cxx

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2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Previous post rephrased in @hendie-speak.

 

 

:rofl2:

 

 

 

 

see, now that wasn't hard was it ? and now everyone understands what you're talking about!

 

*edit*

 

Seriously though Crisp - that made my day - thanks!

 

 

Edited by hendie
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On 9/19/2019 at 9:55 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

(including the statutory bit snapping, which seems almost unavoidable with 0.2 drills)

I have a 'cemetery box' of said truncated items (in the vain hope there'll be a use for them at some unspecified future date) that does my pretence at craft no credit at all. Having the pillar-drill thingy for the Dremel has however reduced casualty rates *slightly*.

 

As ever this lesson in naval architecture continues to enthrall Crisp.

 

Understood the bit about ladders.

 

 

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I occasionally keep the odd one if it hasn’t  broken right at the top; the short ones can be useful for clearing out swarf from holes.  

 

(My phone tried to insist that meant to say “dwarf”.  Never tried it, but who knows?  Maybe it’s a good dwarf-clearer too)

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On 9/20/2019 at 6:05 PM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Previous post rephrased in @hendie-speak.

 

Final update for this week.  The pointy bit at the front is nearly finished.

 

Today I have added about 20 windows.  Most of them are very small, but 6 are even smaller.

 

Also realised I’ve been a muppet, wasting time with teeny drills.  They break.  A lot.  But I don’t really need a teeny hole.  I can glue some sticks on and they look quite like a ladder in this scale.

 

Just to show how much I have done: the pointy bit is finished, as is the bit in the centre around the giant rubber rings and lifting device for floaty-aircraft...  but there’s a gap between the two. 

 

Then I have to do the back end.  Then the other side.

 

You might also see that I have sanded down the two polo mints near the pointy-bit-at-the-front (which represent the large fat drainpipes which contain chains which have tent pegs on the end).  The tent pegs will obscure a lot of the polo-mint-drain-pipes.

 

 

 

HTH.  Cxx

 

Classic....🤣

 

To ba fair... thanks for that, I am up to speed now.😉

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If you lot think I am doing the rest of this build in Jackanory-style English, you can think again!

 

The model is up in London and I'm at home for the weekend, as normal, but I have been experimenting with preparing masks for the 15 Stringbags (lots of discussion of schemes earlier in the thread, for any new joiners).

 

I put a couple of Trumpy / Merit Swordfish runners on my scanner, took a pic and then traced round the images in real size.  This pic, which shows where I've got to, fits onto a sheet of Tamiya "masking sticker" and would fit 12 aircraft.  The plan is now to add the lines for the various schemes (A & B camouflage for mainplanes, and the assorted S1E / TSS and squadron demarkations as discussed a few weeks ago.  With a fresh scalpel blade I can then cut out each mask.  I've done similar stuff before and it works a treat.

 

Masks for 11 Stringbags

In parallel, along similar lines, I'm designing some home-brew decals.  The Merit originals provide a decent basis for size, but otherwise leave a lot to be desired - some register issues but also missing roundels and no codes at all; the codes will be tiny in this scale, but definitely legible (I mean the "A4C" type codes, not the airframe registration, which even I think will be too small!).  Since I know the code for all 15 of my strike aircraft, why not make them authentic?  The airframes still in S1E (which will be the majority of them) still seem to have had the code on the underside of their upper mainframe even in May 1941, according to some IWM photos I have - which adds to the fun...

 

As for the ship's deck markings, she didn't have very many by the time of the Bismarck action.  Merit's are pretty much made-up for any stage of her life, but I think the plan is to do what I did in my Ark 5 build, namely mask the lines and spray them.  It sounds a hideous job, but actually it's not that hard, and it gives you way more flexibility when it comes to weathering the flight deck (of which there will be a lot).

 

More actual modelling later in the week.

 

Crisp

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Everyone has days like this!  You know the story; where you actually end the day with fewer parts attached to the model than when you started?  Where everything you touch either slips or breaks?

 

Bitter experience has taught me that the only thing to do in these circumstances is to stop and step away from the model before you really do some damage.

 

So very little to show you this evening; one picture, in fact, taken after a productive 20 minutes (which then segued seamlessly into 60 minutes of Klutz).  
 

We have a ladder below where the accommodation ladder will be:

48784317462_f3f400a873_b.jpg

 

Other than that, I confined myself to doing safe things that couldn’t do any damage - mostly tidying up stray glue etc around the bow and doing some micromeshing.

 

I’m adding a new football ground to my list tomorrow - I’m a life-long Forest fan, and they’ve been rubbish for so long that since the last time we played Arsenal away, the opposition have had time to build a completely new ground.  So I and a lot of Nottinghamians (Forest have sold almost 9,000 tickets, apparently, which ain’t bad for a midweek away game when we’re probably going to lose!) will be spending tomorrow evening having a party at The Emirates Stadium.

 

So nothing more til later in the week

 

Crisp

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Thanks.  When I started this my (first!) plan was to replace the scuttles above the hull chine (the prominent “knuckle” part-way up the hull, Hendie) and leave the ones below - my reasoning being that the places where Merits scuttles are missing or placed wrong are all above the chine.

 

But as I went on, I realised that just looked crap.  Once you commit to doing some of it, you have to do all of it.  [See also 1/48 Sea King rivets]

 

It’s taking a while, but it will pay off in the long run.

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Totally agree that all this "piddly" detail will pay off in the end. I like to strive for such detail in some of my own builds which partly explains why they take such a long time. It probably also explains my slight tendancy towards insanity! 

 

Loving the way this build is evolving.

 

Terry

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15 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

above the hull chine (the prominent “knuckle” part-way up the hull, Hendie)

 

ah... I knows what a chine is Crisp - I remember that form my 'wheels, tires and brakes' training back at Halton

 

I'm still trying to figure out what Elon Musk had to do with this and why the Tesla emblem is plastered on both sides   :hmmm:

 

Nice scuttling though.  Lots of effort but will be worth it in the end

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A little more progress with the Stringbag masks.  

 

Screen Shot 2019-09-29 at 19.51.16

 

The position of the roundel and serial varied from squadron to squadron at this stage of the war, as did the scheme (even between airframes on the same squadron) and the position of the demarkation between upper and lower colours on the side of the fuselage - see the first few pages of this thread.  I am therefore planning to do specific masks for each aircraft - more to help me keep track of where I am than anything else.  

 

I’ve started with the only cab for which there is a clear photo taken during the Bismarck attacks - A4C/V4298 of 820 NAS, Gerry Woods’ aircraft (see pages 1-3 of this thread), which was a brand new Blackburn-built aircraft painted in TSS (Sky undersides and Dark Slate Grey / EDSG uppers), including the “dip” of the upper colours down to the lower wing which was characteristic of all so-called “Blackfish”.  The roundel & serial will be decals, but marking their position here helps me to design it all.  

 

The square shape on the upper mainplane is the dinghy stowage, which often stood out (though probably not on this aircraft, because it was new) because it had to be regularly re-sealed when the dinghy was removed for servicing.  

 

I’ve just noticed that I have the EDSG / Slate the wrong way round on the tail.  Which kind of illustrates the benefit of doing this.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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