Revell 1/144 Flower Class Corvette + Pontos Photo Update

[Richard E]

4 hours ago, Gisbod said:

Re. my silkscreen Ensign, lovely as they are, they’re all too big

 

I think they’re designed for RC boats perhaps... How does everyone depict flags in this scale? A decal seems not ideal? And if a decal is the only option, how do you apply it to look natural?

There's an on-line tutorial from Archer Fine Transfers which suggests making a flag using aluminium or lead foil which may give you some ideas. 

[Gisbod]

2 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

How about one we can recognise from Confidential Admiralty Fleet Order 679/42 (Plate 57)

Plate 57 gives the above as 507A, 507C and MS4A. Sometimes the CAFO679/42 patterns have been used but colours substituted. I don't see any reason to doubt that HNoMS Potentilla isn't wearing the design as drawn. Ok, so she served for the Norwegians but built in Renfrew and launched in December '41, commissioned January '42 so right in the sweet spot of the Standard Camouflage Colours being into full-swing use but without much reason to worry about them being substituted for G&B series paints mid '43.

 

Notwithstanding, I personally would be inclined to think HMS Heather (K69) there would be in the same colour palette but with an adjusted pattern. The upper part on the funnel could be a mid-light tone like MS4.

 

Thanks Jamie, that’s very helpful...  Any idea / best guess as to the colour demarcations on the port side? The photo I have just looks uniform dark grey camouflage?

 

 

@Richard E  That’s useful, ta Richard 😉 I’ll have to do some experimentation... I still find it odd that’s there’re not some aftermarket flags out there, you’d think it would be a big market!

 

 

 

I reckon I’ve (really this time) nearly finished everything I can on the construction pre painting - the last being the mast. The crow’s nest is quite challenging as it’s a tapering cylinder - it’s not perfect, but for my limited experience here, I’m not too disappointed.

 

 

 

 

And finally, big moment in the build, some primer on the hull! I’ve used Tamiya Fine White Primer (rattlecan) then I’m going to do some pre shading with black before the colours finally go on. The idea is to get quite a cartoony look that will (hopefully) fade to a subtle mottled finish.

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t intend to weather a great deal, I want her to look relatively clean.

 

Final questions!

 

1. Red or Black for the lower hull?

2. Colour of the lifeboats/ dinghies (2 types) (are these Carley floats?)

3. The Navigation light boxes by the bridge - would the interior of these be painted red/ green in addition to a coloured lamp?

 

Cheers,

 

Guy

 

 

ps I’m already salivating over what my next build could be! Bad habit of mine, I really must focus on finishing what I’ve got first!

 

 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Just now, Gisbod said:

Thanks Jamie, that’s very helpful...  Any idea / best guess as to the colour demarcations on the port side? The photo I have just looks uniform dark grey camouflage?

 

Hi Guy, those CAFO679/42 designs were to be symmetrical.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

6 minutes ago, Gisbod said:

1. Red or Black for the lower hull?

2. Colour of the lifeboats/ dinghies (2 types) (are these Carley floats?)

3. The Navigation light boxes by the bridge - would the interior of these be painted red/ green in addition to a coloured lamp?

 

1) Evidence suggests black for these corvettes was the norm

 

2) Normal practise was to all this sort of stuff the same as the background colour of the ship. This is a Carley Float

 

3) I can't say for definite, but whenever I've gone looking for this detail on my own subjects for models, they have been painted camouflage colour and have relied entirely upon the lamp to shine red or green (if the lamps are used at all - usually ships were blacked out in war time though which probably doesn't surprise you! ).

[Gisbod]

That’s brilliant Jamie, you ought to start charging! 
 

 

re the camouflage, the picture here isn’t symmetrical?

 

 

 

 

Guy
 

 

 

 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Guy,

 

We might be talking at cross purposes but what I meant to articulate was that CAFO679/42 provided a catalogue of standard camouflage designs for various classes of small ships in different operating areas, and they were provided as single elevations only depicting one side with an overriding explanation that they should be applied to both port and starboard sides symmetrically/as mirror images. I.e. the port side would be the same design as the starboard.

 

Designs that were created otherwise were sometimes symmetrical and sometimes different port and starboard.

[Richard E]

6 hours ago, Gisbod said:

 

@Richard E  That’s useful, ta Richard 😉 I’ll have to do some experimentation... I still find it odd that’s there’re not some aftermarket flags out there, you’d think it would be a big market!

 

To offer an opinion: due to its finish and weight an aftermarket fabric flag would probably just look like a very small fabric flag rather than a true scale representation of a 1/1 scale flag whereas a decal mounted in a foil panel would probably give a better scale depiction of a flag blowing in the wind.  

Edited April 9, 2020 by Richard E

[Gisbod]

11 hours ago, Richard E said:

To offer an opinion: due to its finish and weight an aftermarket fabric flag would probably just look like a very small fabric flag rather than a true scale representation of a 1/1 scale flag whereas a decal mounted in a foil panel would probably give a better scale depiction of a flag blowing in the wind.  

Yes, I guess that’s true.. I’ll have to experiment.

 

 

So, first stage of the painting. As I mentioned earlier, this bit looks cartoonish but it will blend in with subsequent coats...

 

 

 

 

Everything else is just low/ highlighted 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guy

 

 

[Niall]

On the hull below the waterline, it seems that RN ships(HMS and flower names) were black and Canadian ships(HMCS and Canadian town names) were red.

 

According to references(I can't remember where now) I saw when I built my 1/72nd scale model of HMS Heather the dark colour is brown(Revell 86), Although when I painted the hull I had not seen any photos of the ship, which means I am now not so sure.

 

HMS Potentilla is a non-typical flower, she seems to be a prototype for the Modified Flower, as she has the steeper sheer to the focsle, no outer supports for the bridge, radar ofset to starboard, the lack of tall cowl vents around the funnel, pompom positioned at the end of the superstructure, but with the tall depth charge racks more common on early ships.

[robgizlu]

Nice pre-shading and welcome to the Twilight Zone of Flower Camoflage designs!!

 

Thanks for the tip re Red anti-foul for Canadian ships Niall - useful.

Rob

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Re. Potentilla it's a toss up between incorrect config for a fairly certain camouflage scheme that was coherent versus a known fit and a camouflage scheme that was debatable. The colour artwork above triggers a lot of suspicion for me, as does the suggestion of brown on the hull - because brown was not a colour used by the Royal Navy typically and to mind comes only the short-lived failures that were the home-made Flotta schemes which were intended to conceal whilst sat anchored in Scapa Flow that were ordered to be discontinued because they were ineffective.

 

To be more direct, any use of brown on a disruptive pattern camouflage scheme I'd presume to be completely incorrect unless someone could produce compelling evidence in support of it.

 

I can't say I've seen anything in support of red hulls on these besides the modern preserved examples. There are plenty photos of corvettes in sizable swells and they generally don't show a demarcation below where the boot topping should be as is normal on other classes which did have red hulls.

 

Here's an alternative more typical corvette in Plate 57 camouflage - HMCS Bittersweet:

[Gisbod]

Thank you all for the input,

 

I think I’ll just, again, go with a fairly generic scheme for this one. I’m sure I’ll become more afflicted with accuracy as I build more ships! 
 

(yet) another question!

 

The bags (?) around the bridge - what are these? Defence against splinters perhaps? And what were they made of? They look like canvas bags? Colours? The Revell kit has these if desired...

 

I’ve got the first colour down on the hull, I’m waiting on a delivery of some wide (50mm) masking tape to hopefully make the demarcation between colours easier.

I’ll post some pics later.

 

 

 

Guy

Edited April 11, 2020 by Gisbod

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The bags are indeed splinter protection / attempt to deenergise relatively small arms fire. E.g. if a U-Boat was caught on the surface they'd usually open up with their 20mm AA gun(s) and the command of the little Corvettes were fairly exposed on the lightly constructed open bridge.

 

They're fabric bags. I'm not actually sure exactly what was inside them but usually the outside of them would be painted over to match the ship's camouflage.

 

Are you going with 507A, 507C and MS4A then? It's as good as any and since it's in a primary source reference it doesn't suffer from the interpretations of people long after the event without a sound understanding of the paints themselves

[Gisbod]

1 hour ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

.Are you going with 507A, 507C and MS4A then? It's as good as any and since it's in a primary source reference it doesn't suffer from the interpretations of people long after the event without a sound understanding of the paints themselves

Basically, yes, but I am using what I’ve got in the paint cupboard - MRP mainly. Just trying to match. I always feel colours are a little subjective anyway as weathering/ fading must affect them so much .

 

That said, for the next build I will definitely be ordering some of yours Jamie as they get such a good press on here! I would have done for this, but I couldn’t wait to get started...
 

I decided to try the wooden deck out on the bridge and watched your video on the subject - glad I did too. A good tip to gloss the area first. They don’t half stick though don’t they? An edge merely brushed the plastic and that was that - welded on - not quite aligned, but you can’t actually notice, just a good lesson learned! A large deck area without obvious alignment holes must be a ‘mare!

 

 

Guy

 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Don't underestimate the bluish caste the 507s have... not sure if you've seen or read our papers on these paints yet but the WWII era 507s were made from white pigments tinted with a premixed blue-black pigment oil paste. The blue-black paste itself was made from black and ultramarine.

 

People unfamiliar with RN paints tend to lean towards modern American-style neutral greys or are bum-steered by Airfix/Humbrol's green and yellowish grey call-outs. It just doesn't look right.

[Gisbod]

 

9 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Don't underestimate the bluish caste the 507s have... not sure if you've seen or read our papers on these paints yet but the WWII era 507s were made from white pigments tinted with a premixed blue-black pigment oil paste. The blue-black paste itself was made from black and ultramarine.

 

People unfamiliar with RN paints tend to lean towards modern American-style neutral greys or are bum-steered by Airfix/Humbrol's green and yellowish grey call-outs. It just doesn't look right.

 

 

 

Thanks Jamie,

 

I've probably made that mistake already on the light grey! It’s all a learning process...

 

Did a bit more work/ paint on the superstructure as I’m still waiting on the masking tape, the bridge is almost done, goodness I love those wooden decks, they really bring the model to life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in,

 

 

Guy

 

[PF Naughton]

Hi,

Your build is looking great.  I had a chance to visit HMCS Sackville last year in Halifax and it amazes me realizing that I can see details in your build that I remember seeing on the actual ship.

Pat

[Richard E]

On 3/29/2020 at 10:30 PM, Gisbod said:

Thanks Richard. 
 

Yes, good point. I had thought of this but I didn’t know if it was hollowed out or meant to be like that?

 

 

Guy

 

On 3/30/2020 at 12:56 AM, robgizlu said:

I agree very neat work indeed.

It might be difficult to drill the stove pipe now it's fixed.  An tenative is to paint the tips black at completion.

It's looking tremendous 

Rob

 

15 hours ago, Gisbod said:

 

A very effective finish on the stovepipe chimney Guy and excellent detail on the bridge, particularly the compass binnacle.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Richard E

[Gisbod]

Thanks Pat, that must have been fun 😀

Ah good spot Richard! Yes, I took Rob’s advice and it looks better than drilled I think.

 

Don't look too closely at the binnacle though- you may see an aircraft symbol on the compass! 

 

I decided to make it a ‘waterline’ - but I think I went too far?

 

 

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

[robgizlu]

Nice job on all the sub-assemblies (You can tell an aircraft modeller )

I really like your Semtex shade - it's all looking terrific and I really think you've done that Pontos set huge justice.

Rob

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

She's maybe riding a little low on the water right enough...

[Gisbod]

1 hour ago, robgizlu said:

Nice job on all the sub-assemblies (You can tell an aircraft modeller )

 

Rob

Thanks Rob, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult! 🤣

 

 

Guy

[Gisbod]

Morning all,

 

Sorry not many updates, but I have been beavering away at my Corvette. I’m actually, pretty much, finished. I’m just waiting on my masks for the hull K69...

 

I’ve rigged with Uschi, but I’m not a huge fan as it looks uneven to my eye. Are the Infini rigging spools better quality? Or have I just got a bad batch?

 

 

 

 

Hopefully, I’ll be ready to photograph her shortly and post her in the finished builds!

 

Re the ensign, the video with the foil is using dry transfers..  will that work with a decal? Worried about it cracking with bending...

 

Lastly, I’m keen to improve my equipment- photo etch wise or any other gems that help with a ship build.. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

 

Guy

[Clogged]

I like Fine EZ line but you still need to be wary of twists.

[robgizlu]

On 4/12/2020 at 6:58 PM, Gisbod said:

Thanks Rob, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult! 🤣

 

 

Guy

A compliment 

 

4 hours ago, Gisbod said:

Morning all,

 

Sorry not many updates, but I have been beavering away at my Corvette. I’m actually, pretty much, finished. I’m just waiting on my masks for the hull K69...

 

I’ve rigged with Uschi, but I’m not a huge fan as it looks uneven to my eye. Are the Infini rigging spools better quality? Or have I just got a bad batch?

 

 

 

 

Hopefully, I’ll be ready to photograph her shortly and post her in the finished builds!

 

Re the ensign, the video with the foil is using dry transfers..  will that work with a decal? Worried about it cracking with bending...

 

Lastly, I’m keen to improve my equipment- photo etch wise or any other gems that help with a ship build.. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

 

 

Guy

I don't think the Infini is any different.  The thing to remember is that all of the lycra-type elastic threads (I stand to be corrected) are essentially FLAT tapes rather than round cords.  As Clogged says - occasionally twisting presents a better aspect.  It's most apparent with the EZ lines that is a lot thicker.

As to tools - I think if you work with photo-etch - sooner or later you need one of these https://www.modellingtools.co.uk/hold--fold-tools-90-c.asp though your etch bending has been so accurate I assumed you were using one already.  Good tweezers are essential as is (at my age!!!) an Optivisor.  Though I say again - if you've managed without these to date - it begs the question.........

Keep up the good work

Looking forwards to the RFI

Rob