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Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941


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This might appal some of you, particularly if you are used to models with pristine light wooden decks.  But (as ably demonstrated in @Dancona’s Victorious build), soaking wet teak is a very different colour.

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Assorted slips added, plus the 3lb saluting guns.  Final 3 hawser reels tomorrow, then this will be put carefully away for a while, until the hull is ready to receive it.

 

Crisp

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Wonderful two inches of miniscule pleasure Crisp, b..... lovely.

 

(and to my shame I find myself getting less interested in the details I need for my builds, I fear I am drying up)

 

I loved the video, these films are great recruiting aids for Nautical Helo pilot fan clubs


I am hooked

 

Bitts, the weird triangulish looking dooberries on the decks by the chains?

 

Still learning

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Those chains look stunning would that be a dark oil wash on the decking then it looks much better than the lighter ones I have seen.

 

beefy

 

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Bill, bitts are THESE.  Often also called bollards, though strictly I believe a bollard is a SINGLE post, and bitts in pairs - though the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, no less, often used “bollards”, so it’s good enough for me!

 

The triangular things are called a “deck clench”.

 

The solution to the deck colour had been staring me in the face all the time - it’s an AK product called “Dark Wash for Wood Decks” (bit of a clue there!), which I’ve owned for aeons.  Enamel, applied with a large brush undiluted on this occasion, so it was a bit of an act of faith - I’d sealed the deck with a matt  coat a few days ago following someone’s excellent advice in this thread.  Eventually the whole lot will get a semi-gloss coat to emphasise the wet look.  
 

It’s a bit of a dramatic change, but I think it works.

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6 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Bill, bitts are THESE.  Often also called bollards, though strictly I believe a bollard is a SINGLE post, and bitts in pairs - though the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, no less, often used “bollards”, so it’s good enough for me!

Every time I read your works Crisp, I learn.

 

Which is why I indulge in the fantasy of nautica of which I know nozzings.

 

Thank you 'shipmate'.

 

Also for the clench, makes one's trousers scrunch up even thinking of the word.

 

 

:(

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On 6/29/2020 at 10:14 AM, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Thank you; a mixture of Shapeways (bitts / bollards), Tetra (the 'wooden' deck, the ladders, doors, & assorted yet-to-be-fitted slips on the anchor cables), Merit (the styrene, obvs, including the capstans / cable holders), Northstar (parts of the hawser reels), MicroMaster (the 3lb saluting guns) and of course the yxmodel cable itself, which is a work of art.   6 suppliers for one section of the ship which is about 2" long and will be very hard to see; bonkers when you think of it like that, but it keeps me happy!

If you're planning to depict specific a "moment in history" when the Ark is ultimately finished the whole ship needs to be as true to life as possible so the attention to detail makes sense. 

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11 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Bill, bitts are THESE.  Often also called bollards, though strictly I believe a bollard is a SINGLE post, and bitts in pairs - though the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, no less, often used “bollards”, so it’s good enough for me!

Having to search & replace my entire blog narrowly avoided 😌

Edited by foeth
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Today I went back to the flight deck.  First my initial effort at the accumulator for the barrier cylinder has been nagging at me; I was never fully happy with it (felt rather crude) so have replaced it: this is better, I think (a L’Arsenal resin acetylene cylinder, adapted to add height).

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Then I added the rollers by the two bomb lifts ahead of the island, using 0.33mm Nickel silver rod - Gator thin still not fully dry here:

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Then... tadah!!  Some of yer actual paint.  I thought I'd give this Stynylrez that everyone raves about a whirl (though what a damn silly name) in an initial prime coat of the flight deck.  The white is there for a reason that will become apparent in due course.

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Still drying here, and will need a second coat anyway, but seems OK.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

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Teeny tiny parts and Stynylrez - what's not to like :D 

 

Nice work Crisp.

No, great work, let's be honest.

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Lovely work and following your build with lots of interest, Crispin. 🙂

I think Stynylez primer is really good, but it can be a problem cleaning out the airbrush afterwards. So when I've finished the spray job I immediately clean the brush without delay.

Also, I use a higher pressure than my normal when spraying it (so I normally set to 2 bar minimum). The stuff seems a little thicker than my usual paint mixes and I had problems with it coagulating in the air cap. The problem disappeared at higher pressure.

 

Pat

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OK, so why the white primer on a deck that will be bronze green?  Because it’s still possible in her later life to see ghost markings from her pre-War guise; I’ll prime again in a darker colour, then paint in thin layers.

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Here, for instance, with some Skuas in 1940, where the original overpainted broad stripe down either side is clearly visible.

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More soon

 

Crisp

 

P.S. I have no idea why she had the odd off-centre stripe on the round-down, but it’s clearly visible in both builders’ drawings and some early photos, like this pre-War job:

Ark Royal with 2-Squadron range of Swordfish & ?Nimrods?, pre-War


...and here, in April 41 according to the IWM, you can still make out the ghost of the landing circle:

Ark Royal from above, April 1941

 

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If you take into account the extent the island protrudes into the flight deck is it still off-centre (i.e marked half the usable width abreast the island)?

Tom

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2 hours ago, Modelholic said:

If you take into account the extent the island protrudes into the flight deck is it still off-centre (i.e marked half the usable width abreast the island)?

Tom

 

Interesting idea; not sure - I'll measure later.  To the naked eye in that shot looking along the deck that certainly looks plausible.

 

But if that were its purpose, why do it only on the round-down (which was not designed for aircraft to touch; the purpose was to manage airflow/turbulence)?  The two broad stripes are (according to the builders' plans) 21' either side of the centre line (of the deck, that is), and the arrestor wires and landing circle are clearly set up on the assumption that an aircraft would be landing centre deck.   According to David Hobbs' wonderful book about the inter-War FAA, most pilots who'd grown up with inter-War aircraft viewed arrestor wires with a certain amount of scorn; in their eyes, a proper pilot could land without needing them.  None the less, the landing circle (centred on No 2 wire, as it happens) seems to have been the aiming point for the discerning 1930s aviator!  Heavier aircraft with faster landing speeds - e.g. Skua instead of Baffin, Fulmar instead of Flycatcher - probably swiftly put paid to that attitude, but the fact that the landing circle lasted as late as it did (the drawings are stamped 15 August 1939...) is evidence of the inertia inherent in design.

 

Besides, it's easy to get into the modern mindset, where we picture arrestor wires run out to their full extent after catching an F4 or a Tomcat.  Even No 8 wire (the furthest for'd) is still well short of the island - not to mention the barrier, which itself is approx. 25' behind the island proper 

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I have absolutely no idea what most of the nautical and aviation terminology means, nor any basis of understanding in which to grasp the context, but I thoroughly enjoy reading all this discussion nonetheless!

 

I think this thread will have advanced my aircraft carrier knowledge immensely 👍

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While waiting for the Alclad black to cure & listening to the football, this evening I was working on the port hull piece, getting it ready for the lengthy process of adding half a million scuttles.  It’s pretty much ready to go now and, joking aside, I’ve learned from the experience of the starboard scuttle-a-thon, so hope it won’t be quite such a saga.
 

Anyway, this was mostly cleaning up moulding gates etc., when suddenly I realised I could do something for the very first time on the build.  These photos are likely to be the last time you see her like this for a fair while, too.  I think they’re the ship model equivalent of putting the fuselage together fir the first time and running around making whoosh & dagger-dagger noises.

 

They do, however, illustrate that Merit’s fit is very good; this is just dry fitted and, as you can see, this is not a small model.

 

Anyway, here’s a sneak preview of a fairly distant future!

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More soon

 

Crisp

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