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Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941


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12 hours ago, giemme said:

I think I've said this before, but anyway: I truly admire your patience,  Crisp! :worthy:

 

Ciao 

What an accolade!

I had asked Giorgio if he could bottle some of his patience for me.

Perhaps I've now found a local supplier? :D 

 

Admirable Crisp, great stuff.

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14 minutes ago, CedB said:

What an accolade!

I had asked Giorgio if he could bottle some of his patience for me.

Perhaps I've now found a local supplier? :D 

Most definitely, Ced - Crisp is in a totally different league :D 

 

Ciao

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7 hours ago, BlackAck said:

If anything goes wrong at this point in this build, progress will have been, dare I say, scuttled...

 

I'll see myself out...

 

Yes, do scuttle off, please

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Things get a bit more complicated midships, partly because there are several boat / crane / Carley float platforms & partly because Merit haven’t got it quite right (their boat bay platform is too long which throws everything else out if not fixed - happily it’s easy to do).  


[Edit: to be clear, all that’s wrong (both sides of hull) is that the platform itself extends too far forward of the hull opening, judging from photos and plans.  All I have done is remove c.0.25 cm & sand it clean.  Otherwise there isn’t room to get all W/T aerial / DG coil / ladder etc fitted in the space, which is what made me look more closely at it.  Definitely not a big deal.]
 

First up fitting the Carley platform, part brass part styrene tube.  Black (primer) WT aerial balanced in position to get relative positioning right.

50606341066_87e231544c_b.jpg 50606341046_dcd5e5cc2a_b.jpg

 

Then the support struts underneath the boat deck, with scuttles interspersed (inevitably!).  Still 3 or 4 to do, but getting there.

50606341076_aea2761b42_b.jpg 50605597833_11980e7ecf_b.jpg


Kagero drawings of her in 1941 absolutely invaluable; streets better than the Morskie on which I am almost certain the kit is based.

50605597863_99ab67d58c_b.jpg

 

More soon

 

Crisp

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2 hours ago, CedB said:

Oooh, brave man, those are very sticky out bits. 

 

Careful now :) 

Not really; they’re underneath platforms which stick out maybe half a centimetre from the hull.

 

Unless you mean the W/T aerial, in which case there’s no way that is getting glued any time soon - and even then only the fixed support structure; the 8 aerials themselves will be among the very last things added to the build, in a future that is still a very, very long way off!

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Lovely neat work and as ever, admirable attention to detail.

I envy you your sticking power - having lived with County Class Cruisers for 8/12, I'm sickof them;)

I'm conscious that you are already 18/12 into this - Respect!

Rob

Edited by robgizlu
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3 hours ago, robgizlu said:

I'm conscious that you are already 18/12 into this - Respect!

...and there could easily be another year to run, I reckon.  To be fair, once the scuttles are done I won’t be far away from being able to button the hull up (famous last words), and the island is probably 75% done.  
 

But there’s the minor matter of the Swordfish, figures, remaining weapons, seascape, paint job...

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8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

But there’s the minor matter of the Swordfish, figures, remaining weapons, seascape, paint job...

Guts of a fortnight to go then?

 

(Seriously disciplined work on those support struts btw. 👏)

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As a minor point, the very detailed latticework "very sticky out bits" which Crisp has so admirably crafted are not the W/T aerials themselves, merely the masts to which the aerials were attached.  The curved upper/outer ends were attachment points for wire aerials strung from one mast to the next, or to the deck edge.  Although showing a different ship, Ross Watton Anatomy of the Ship: The Aircraft Carrier Victorious (Conway Maritime Press,1991) has a good drawing of the set-up.  I suspect Crisp is well aware of this: more superdetailing (in a year's time)?

Edited by Our Ned
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Victorious is much better documented than Ark, with both “Anatomy of the Ship” and “In Original Builders’ Plans” books available (I have both). Though obviously there are some differences, the Illustrious design was in many ways an “Improved Ark Royal”, and this evidence of state-of-the-art late-30s British carrier design is invaluable - particularly in the details of how arrestor gear and ‘accelerators’ [catapults] were configured / equipped & similar.  I have some Ark builders plans (from a sister book that covers a number of RN WW2 ships - British Warships of the Second World War, by John Roberts), but coverage of the port side in particular is scanty.  

 

Also, though the Navy was clearly proud of her and publicised her quite a lot (judging by the number of photos), she was only around for 3 years, 2 of which were in wartime when detailed photography was illegal!  There is also the issue that plagues almost every ship modeller, in that even in 3 short years she evolved continually - a weapon moved here, a Carley float added there - so you have to be careful with ref photos (especially if, as I am, you are trying to depict a very specific moment in her life).

 

Anyway, @Our Ned is right to call out my inexact terminology (but he’s also right that I already knew).  The W/T aerial wires will indeed eventually be strung between Ced’s ‘very sticky out bits’ (fnarr).  In fact if I were a betting man I’d say that might well be the absolutely last thing to be added to this model.  The wires strung between the lowered pylons are also the reason why @Bigdave22014’s magnet idea is probably impractical.  She will be on a large-ish base, and probably under a cover; that should minimise risk of damage if ever transported.

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Scuttled-up-large as far as the front of the armoured belt...

50614656511_bd6fb8112d_b.jpg 50614656526_396325a576_b.jpg 50614656506_09efaa77ca_b.jpg 50614765917_2ab55321c4_b.jpg

 

“Only” the bow section to do now (but that’s the most complicated section, obvs).

 

Working tomorrow evening, but more soon

 

Crisp

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3 hours ago, Modelholic said:

So was (to)"Scuttle"

'Sink the ship by opening the scuttles and letting the wet stuff in'?


Originally, yes... kind of.  The original definition of a scuttle was just a hole - pretty much any hole - in a ship or boat. Then it became a verb... “to make a hole in a ship or boat”.

 

The “sink by making a hole in a boat” becomes pretty obvious after that - but scuttling any ship that’s even remotely modern would be done by opening the sea cocks (designed to let water OUT in dry dock), rather than anything to do with my kind of scuttle.

 

Scuttle as in coal scuttle come from a totally different route; one is Old Norse, the other Old French

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