Revell 1/144 Flower Class Corvette + Pontos Photo Update

[longshanks]

Great Progress, looking good!!

 

Kev

[Gisbod]

Quick question.. 

 

MicroMaster saying they’re unable to post during the lockdown (NZ) - if I buy something (depth charge rails) from shapeways, is it the same product? Are they US based? And do they order from NZ or will they have the product available? 
 

Guy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Guy,

 

That's an original photo. As you probably surmised modern "colourisations" are worthless as references and arguably misleading since they are simply whatever the responsible party imagined.

 

As for Shapeways - you'll receive the same design but the material it's printed in won't be quite as good. Just so you're aware the Shapeways resins need UV light to cure and it can take a couple of days to cure fully. If not cured then it will still leech a chemical which will prevent numerous types of model paints from curing. As Shapeways need to print on demand (they don't stock anything) they don't fully cure stuff. A couple of days in direct sunlight will do the trick. There are Micromaster parts from Shapeways used on my 1/350 HMS Imperial D09 build thread on here.

[Iceman 29]

1 hour ago, Gisbod said:

That’s a great picture! Thanks Jamie. Do you know if it’s a post coloured photo or an original? Will definitely go with that.

 

 

Here’s where I’m at - I’ve decided to prime as I go along - just a Halfords rattle can which is super easy to use and produces a fine finish. As much as anything, it ties the PE together and hopefully, makes it a bit more secure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the part count of the 2 pounder. Took me the best part of the morning to get this together!

 

 

 

 

But turned out nicely! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve also done the 20mm Oerlikon and these are real gems. Much easier to construct than the 2 pounder and didn’t take long at all. I can’t see how they could improve on these. I’d be interested to see a 3D printed one as a comparison?

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

 

Nice pieces. Perfect job.

[beefy66]

15 minutes ago, Iceman 29 said:

Nice pieces. Perfect job.

My thoughts exactly

 

beefy

[robgizlu]

26 minutes ago, beefy66 said:

My thoughts exactly

 

beefy

And Mine

Rob

[stevehnz]

Me four. I'm beginning to think the pontos set might be compulsory for one of these kit, it looks fantastic. Some of the etch looks thicker than I'm used to seeing with etch, is it or are those double layered, I'm thinking the edges of the 2 pdr gun shield for example?

Steve.

[Gisbod]

Thanks for the encouraging comments! 😊

 

7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Some of the etch looks thicker than I'm used to seeing with etch, is it or are those double layered, I'm thinking the edges of the 2 pdr gun shield for example?

Steve.

 

I think it’s just the macro photography Steve, but some parts are doubled or even quadrupled up in places. Yes, ‘an out of the box’ effort would be a poor relation to the Kit + Pontos. Although I have no experience of naval modelling, even I can see it’s a Rolls Royce of a set. Are there any other manufacturers that would compare? I’m thinking of my next build already!

 

Basically, the whole kits been replaced! I’ve hardly looked at the kit instructions yet.

 

 

 

 

🤪 Obviously, mine won’t look quite like that!

 

 

 

Guy

[Gisbod]

Quick question:
 

What colours should the Hedgehogs be?

Guy

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Guy, you’re making a brilliant job of this.  My only bit of advice would be to scan the instructions into your iPad (other brands of tablet are available, kids).  The Tetra instructions for their enormous detail-up set for Ark Royal 3 are also loose sheets, & they get a lot of handling; they’ll soon start to fall apart.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

39 minutes ago, Gisbod said:

Thanks for the encouraging comments! 😊

 

 

I think it’s just the macro photography Steve, but some parts are doubled or even quadrupled up in places. Yes, ‘an out of the box’ effort would be a poor relation to the Kit + Pontos. Although I have no experience of naval modelling, even I can see it’s a Rolls Royce of a set. Are there any other manufacturers that would compare? I’m thinking of my next build already!

 

Basically, the whole kits been replaced! I’ve hardly looked at the kit instructions yet.

 

 

 

 

🤪 Obviously, mine won’t look quite like that!

 

 

 

Guy

 

You wont be far off...

 

If you like this set you'd enjoy Infini Model's sets also, and perhaps also Tetra Modelworks although they focus on different scales. Pontos is moving in the direction of larger scale sets and more recently again into their own injection moulded toolings. Most of Pontos Model's sales volume is in fact designing and manufacturing detail upgrade parts to be sold by the base kit OEM.

[Gisbod]

8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Guy, you’re making a brilliant job of this.  My only bit of advice would be to scan the instructions into your iPad (other brands of tablet are available, kids).  The Tetra instructions for their enormous detail-up set for Ark Royal 3 are also loose sheets, & they get a lot of handling; they’ll soon start to fall apart.

Thanks Crisp, 

 

Great idea! The instructions are very good, just I’ve got sheaves of paper all over the bench, so that should work a treat.

 

 

 

@Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies 
 

 

Cheers Jamie, I’ll have a look at those. 
 

 

 

Bit more of the fiddly bits done today. The amount of parts in the winch gear is insane! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hedgehog - colours for the missiles (?) anyone? Definitely pushing my limits on PE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love these hatches, they look Uber cool...

 

 

 

 

 

This raised deck section (above) has loads of fiddly details to add, I was going to paint first as the top part is dark grey and the sides mid grey, but I’m tempted to make the whole section and a) keep it all the same colour or b) try and airbrush around the detail, but not too worried about being too exact, just a kind of blend.

 

Thanks,
 

 

Guy

 

 

[Gisbod]

Just out of interest...

 

What’s everyone’s favourite ever naval kit? In terms of quality and impressive kit/ extras available, rather than your favourite type of ship...

 

Guy

[Courageous]

W   O   W where's the plastic!

 

Stuart

[robgizlu]

16 hours ago, Gisbod said:

Just out of interest...

 

What’s everyone’s favourite ever naval kit? In terms of quality and impressive kit/ extras available, rather than your favourite type of ship...

 

Guy

TBH - probably the Revell Flower that you are building.  The Base kit is cheap and broadly accurate - it's small enough to easily display and there are now a fair amountof aftemarket goodies.  The variation amongst the boats you can build is very wide

A close second as a base kit with NO extras really available is the hugely underated Airfix ASR launch - again- so many possibilities to build from the base offering.

 

You are doing real justice to that Pontos set - admire your crisp etch work.  It really looks 1/72.  

And your rate of progress is hugely enviable!

Rob

[robgizlu]

On 4/2/2020 at 7:48 AM, Gisbod said:

Quick question:
 

What colours should the Hedgehogs be?

Guy

 

 

I don't think many are going to argue with Black or Dark green - a web search will heavily hint at those colours

Rob

[Gisbod]

2 hours ago, robgizlu said:

TBH - probably the Revell Flower that you are building.  The Base kit is cheap and broadly accurate - it's small enough to easily display and there are now a fair amountof aftemarket goodies.  The variation amongst the boats you can build is very wide

A close second as a base kit with NO extras really available is the hugely underated Airfix ASR launch - again- so many possibilities to build from the base offering.

 

You are doing real justice to that Pontos set - admire your crisp etch work.  It really looks 1/72.  

And your rate of progress is hugely enviable!

Rob

Thanks Rob, 

 

I do like the bigger scale, 1/200 & above, just for ease of use! There don’t seem to be many 1/144 kits around? I know of the Revell US destroyer, nothing else? It seems like a great scale. I’ll definitely check out the Airfix offering - although that must be an old 70’s kit at the least?

 

I have looked at the Revell 1/72 Corvette, but that seems super old now?

 

 

1 hour ago, robgizlu said:

I don't think many are going to argue with Black or Dark green - a web search will heavily hint at those colours

Rob

 

 

Ah Thanks again, I’ve seen some brightly coloured pictures, but I guess these are modern offerings...

 

 

Guy

[robgizlu]

2 minutes ago, Gisbod said:

Thanks Rob, 

 

I do like the bigger scale, 1/200 & above, just for ease of use! There don’t seem to be many 1/144 kits around? I know of the Revell US destroyer, nothing else? It seems like a great scale. I’ll definitely check out the Airfix offering - although that must be an old 70’s kit at the least?

 

I have looked at the Revell 1/72 Corvette, but that seems super old now?

Guy

The Airfix kit has some serious flaws and a 1979 vintage but is till a corker IMHO

The Revell (formerly Matchbox) 1/72, I think harks back to 1973?  Considering that - it's not half bad.

To bring it up to a reasonable standard you'd need some if not all of "Great Little Ships" sets by David Parkins that will set you back close to £500.

It seems to be an epic build.  Mine is sitting in the cupboard awaiting my retirement/dotage (Covid willing) and will feature as HMS Mignonette

You'll find lots of builds of it here and elsewhere on the web of variable finesse. 

The Revell 1/144 offering is a lot more manageable in price and size - You can build more (HMCS Eyebright still lined up for a 2020 RJM build)

Rob

[Richard E]

12 minutes ago, Gisbod said:

Thanks Rob, 

 

I do like the bigger scale, 1/200 & above, just for ease of use! There don’t seem to be many 1/144 kits around? I know of the Revell US destroyer, nothing else? It seems like a great scale. I’ll definitely check out the Airfix offering - although that must be an old 70’s kit at the least?

 

I have looked at the Revell 1/72 Corvette, but that seems super old now?

 

There are some submarines and "little ships" in both 1/144th and 1/72nd scale

[Niall]

Hedgehog bomb colours is either blue or light grey. Some sources say that live bombs are blue and training ones are grey, other say the opposite!

 

Are you still making this as HMS(not HMCS) Heather? If so there are some changes you will need to make - from bow to stern.

1 - The 4" gun platform is a tub with solid bulwarks.

2 - The HFDF antenna is not on the front of the bridge but on a short mast amidships

The transverse bulkhead in the wheelhouse in the kit is a mirror image of what it should be.

4 - The Carley float(Liferaft) mounts are different to the kit. There should be a Dan buoy hoist under this.

5 - The splinter shields outboard of the pom-pom tub are slighly different to the kit parts. There should be a pair of Dan buoys mounted on the railings inboard of the top of these splinter shields.

6 - These seem to be only 1 depth charge gun on each side of the ship.

7 - There should be a stair on the port side of the superstructure, near the rear, instead of the ladder at the rear. There were possibly more Dan buoys on the inside of the hull bulwarks.

8 - Aft of the superstructure these is a minesweeping winch, 2 otters(grill shaped devices used with the minsweeing gear), 2 minesweeping floats and a roller unit between the depth charge racks. In addition the kit depth charge racks are wrong for HMS Heather, they need to be taller.

 

Most of these parts are available from my Shapeways shop -

www/shapeways/shops/nmp

 

 

[Graham Boak]

Blue has been the colour for practice weaponry for quite a long time now, whether it goes back to WW2 I'm not sure but I strongly suspect so.

[longshanks]

Is this any use...

 

 

Kev

[Gisbod]

@robgizlu Thanks Rob, I hope there’s more to build than the same kit! Lovely as it is 😊

 

@Richard E  That’s a great link, I should have thought of looking there! 
 

5 hours ago, Niall said:

Hedgehog bomb colours is either blue or light grey. Some sources say that live bombs are blue and training ones are grey, other say the opposite!

 

Are you still making this as HMS(not HMCS) Heather? If so there are some changes you will need to make - from bow to stern.

1 - The 4" gun platform is a tub with solid bulwarks.

2 - The HFDF antenna is not on the front of the bridge but on a short mast amidships

The transverse bulkhead in the wheelhouse in the kit is a mirror image of what it should be.

4 - The Carley float(Liferaft) mounts are different to the kit. There should be a Dan buoy hoist under this.

5 - The splinter shields outboard of the pom-pom tub are slighly different to the kit parts. There should be a pair of Dan buoys mounted on the railings inboard of the top of these splinter shields.

6 - These seem to be only 1 depth charge gun on each side of the ship.

7 - There should be a stair on the port side of the superstructure, near the rear, instead of the ladder at the rear. There were possibly more Dan buoys on the inside of the hull bulwarks.

8 - Aft of the superstructure these is a minesweeping winch, 2 otters(grill shaped devices used with the minsweeing gear), 2 minesweeping floats and a roller unit between the depth charge racks. In addition the kit depth charge racks are wrong for HMS Heather, they need to be taller.

 

Most of these parts are available from my Shapeways shop -

www/shapeways/shops/nmp

 

 

 

 

Thanks Niall, yes I am still going for HMCS Heather, and that’s a very helpful list, although, as I stated in the beginning, It’s going to be a fairly generic Corvette and I’m not too worried about total accuracy (apologies to most here...).  That said, do you have a 1/144 set of depth charge racks? I might need those as I’ve had a play with the Pontos ones, and lovely as they are, they may be too difficult (for me) to get to the standard I envisage.

 

 

Thanks to @Graham Boak and @longshanks for the hedgehog info, and the picture Kev is just what I was after!

 

 

Here’s today’s progress. I’ve decided to build as much as I can - then paint, and having fixed these many small brass pieces, I’m really glad I have done. It would have been a bit of a nightmare to do it post painting (for me at least). Also some of the containers have 4 tiny ‘feet’ as attachment points that have very little hold - at least the paint will help here too.

 

As an aside, after priming, I put the gun deck down on the window sill to dry and later found it to be welded in place! I had a hell of a job to release it. So primer may be my future glue of choice! 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Just one further thing - the nuts for the brass display stands have been epoxied in place.

 

 

 

 

Guy

Edited April 3, 2020 by Gisbod

[beefy66]

Bloody Hell do you ever come up for air  

 

Amazing and Astonishing pace of build and so very clean photoetch work that winch looks like something I served my apprenticeship on but in a bigger scale If i,am not mistaken they were made at Clarke Chapman Gateshead you might want to put some grease on the fly wheel makes it run better 

 

beefy

[Niall]

My 1/144th scale DC tall rack(The stern will need to be modified to make them fit - see my 1/72nd build in the link Robgizlu posted earlier in this thread) -

https://www.shapeways.com/product/Z2ATG6Y56/144-high-dc-racks-depth-charges?optionId=65003241&li=shops

 

One other point, the light at the rear of the superstucture, was only fitted to Flower class ships which were fitted for towing, so is right for HMS Bluebell(one of the options in the original  Matchbox 1/72nd scale kit!) but not for Snowberry or HMS Heather.