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1/350 HMS Kent County Class Cruiser 1941


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2 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

We have purchased a Cricut Maker. It occurred to me that it's now possible to make vinyl camouflage masks for warships. Would you like to be a guinnea pig?


I’d be really interested to see how you get on with that. My wife has a Cricut and it has crossed my mind to use it for masks

 

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Excellent progress Rob.  My modelling's slowed a bit in the last couple of weeks while I wait for some epoxy to finish off the last bits of BULOLO's base and some information to progress the Wasp build.  Oh and a 1 : 1 sportscar restoration that my son and I started about 3 weekends ago!

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Fantastic progress Rob. I'm with you on adding the hatches, pipes and "clutter" seen in these old photos. In this scale they add much needed visual realism, especially to vertical faces, even if not perfectly to scale.

 

These new RN cruiser releases from Trumpeter are tempting me much, esp this class, Dido and the C's. I've also a long term plan to build a post war 50,s era HMS Birmingham (Southampton class) in 1/350. A close older relative served in her. I don't fancy hacking around with Belfast so keeping fingers crossed that Trumpeter might be tempted to do the slightly smaller Southamptons. Who knows?

 

I must pace myself on ship builds though as I've just ordered the new Atlantic models 1/350 Type 15 Frigate HMS Relentless!

 

Terry

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Chewbacca, Terry - Thanks

 

Progress has been slow - too much sun and cycling!  (And belated Borgen!!!)

Still nil from Micromaster.co.nz and Northstar (With the deck platiing!!:owww:)

Postal services are clearly stretched.

All a bit frustrating

So here's whats new

I did receive a shipment form Shapeways and in truth it'll probably be my last - the difference between the Micromaster Shapeways and Micromaster.co.nz is frankly irreconcilable....

 

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However the (considerable) clean up is made easier by a Micromaster tip - namely ....

 

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Despite this - the surfaces are covered with a fine powdery layer that needs careful scaping off with a No 11 bade reverse side - utterly tedious.

The good news is that the "Splinter bags" unavailable on Micromaster.co.nz were relatively "clean" and here they are...

 

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Work continues on the bridge superstructure components....I'm a slow worker :blush:

 

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I was dreading the compass level bridge windscreen but it turned out OK

 

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The Control director and type 284 radar in the WEM set is a little narrow in breadth.  I tried fitting the kit part which is OK width wise but sits too high, so this will need to come off.

 

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C'est la vie, tant pis.

 

And then to my lasting shame, I found myself doing this Friday night - a) Because i was supposed to be on one of these in June, b) I'd had too many evening beers to do any "serious" modelling and c) I'm using this to test some resin seascape bases.  And the truth was it was just delightful to build something in 24 hours!!! :lol:

 

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More soon - hull painting imminent.

Rob

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Blimey Rob,

 

Your PE’ing is utterly flawless! Great job. 
 

I’m sure your splinter protection bags are ice cubes. They might melt.

 

Re your Cruise ship - The joy of going to the model shop on my bike in the morning - buying a kit and finished and painted by tea time...
 

Guy

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Good to see you pottering on with your usual finesse ......

 

6 hours ago, robgizlu said:

I found myself doing this Friday night

 

I did wonder where you were going with this :blush:

 

Pure escapism at its finest :thumbsup:

 

Stay safe 

 

Kev

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10 hours ago, robgizlu said:

 

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Its all rather excellent Rob, but that one is my favourite area.

 

What scale is the cruise ship, and who make it?

 

Terry

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Really enjoying watching this come together Rob, I've been a bit potty about the Counties since I read "The Kings cruisers" by Gordon Holman as a  school boy, probably 50years ago, I ended up with it when the school sold it in an sale of old books. Being a librarian had its perks. An Airfix Suffolk followed & along the way I picked up the Raven & Roberts book, grist to my mill. :) I'm impressed the difference the etch makes to these builds, I can see another museum quality work in the making here. I can't begin to imagine building something like this myself just now, maybe come retirement in a year or so, meantime, I'll eaves drop on builds like this. :)

Steve.

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Rob, with a bit of luck your Micro master order may arrive soon, got my first one since their lockdown yesterday, and still waiting for another one.

After reading this whole thread, I feel a County class build coming on, but mine will be 1/700. I will be using your build for reference.

Keep up the excellent work.

Mick

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11 hours ago, smyfe said:

Rob, with a bit of luck your Micro master order may arrive soon, got my first one since their lockdown yesterday, and still waiting for another one.

After reading this whole thread, I feel a County class build coming on, but mine will be 1/700. I will be using your build for reference.

Keep up the excellent work.

Mick

Mick - Your words worked magic - a parcel arrived today :penguin:

 

14 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

What scale is the cruise ship, and who make it?

 

Terry

Terry - it's a Revell 1:1200 "Twin pack" of Hurtigruten ships, MS Midnatsol and MS Trollfjord.

 

12 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Really enjoying watching this come together Rob, I've been a bit potty about the Counties since I read "The Kings cruisers" by Gordon Holman as a  school boy, probably 50years ago, I ended up with it when the school sold it in an sale of old books. Being a librarian had its perks. An Airfix Suffolk followed & along the way I picked up the Raven & Roberts book, grist to my mill. :) I'm impressed the difference the etch makes to these builds, I can see another museum quality work in the making here. I can't begin to imagine building something like this myself just now, maybe come retirement in a year or so, meantime, I'll eaves drop on builds like this. :)

Steve.

Thanks Steve - they have that fetching between-wars quality to their shapes that I find attractive.  As to museum quality..........:blush:  Pressure's on then :whistle:

 

Guy and John  - Thankyou.  

 

19 hours ago, longshanks said:

Good to see you pottering on with your usual finesse ......

I did wonder where you were going with this :blush:

Pure escapism at its finest :thumbsup:

 

Stay safe 

 

Kev

Kev - we'll see how the resin base comes along - the hair-dryer certainly didn't work for me as it does for Kostas (No surprise there then!)

Rob

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On 17/04/2020 at 17:10, robgizlu said:

Unlike previous builds I've given thought to the base first (versus last) and as stated previously this is going to be a static full hull display.  I'm not good enough with sculpting seas to do this justice and really haven't got the space.

As always bases are from naturally... Just Bases.  Paul is a splendid Fella.  Pedestals are hard to come by and these are sourced from China on Ebay.

 

I wanted to be able to mount the ship back and forth so I glued the nuts on the inner hull.  it can screw on and off and in the meanwhile the plastic kit supplied stand will suffice.

 

And planning ahead - these arrived from Name it.  Great plaques at excellent value and I'm in live with their photo plates

 

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Just a quickie - it's Scapa Flow, not Scarpa (sorry)

On 17/04/2020 at 17:10, robgizlu said:

 

 

 

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28 minutes ago, Alpha Juliet said:

Just a quickie - it's Scapa Flow, not Scarpa (sorry)

Maybe if you had been reading the whole story then you would have seen the correction on page 5 to Rob's dyslexia?  :whistle:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/5/2020 at 6:14 PM, Alpha Juliet said:

 

Just a quickie - it's Scapa Flow, not Scarpa (sorry)

 

Thanks AJ - I plead fatness, drunkenness and stupidity :confused:

 

So as Beefy has written in his Fletcher thread, our Micromaster order finally arrived 7 weeks after ordering.

 

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I remain as delighted with Simon's work as I am underwhelmed by the Shapeways offerings.

 

The detail is just utterly joyful :yahoo:

 

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And in terms of delivery - I still await a North Star Models order which is now into it's 9th week.  From the FAQ section on their site I gather this is not unusual.  Highly frustrating particularly with the diamond deck plate now being a serious rate limiter.

 

And Profile Morskie have failed to deliver 2 orders one of which was made on April 13th.  I've never ordered from them before and it took 3 emails with a gentle enquiry as to whether I should seek a refund from PayPal for them to reply to suggest they will remail me the order?  Has anyone else had difficulty?  I note the web site suggests that the book sales are winding down.  I am aware that there is some criticism about their accuracy and the penchant for Trumpeter to replicate their inaccuracies?  We shall see whether nooks on Naiad, colombo and Calcutta ever arrive.

 

In frustration, I trialled the "Fretecetera" deck plate which is OK but not really a close match.  First off - I soon realised the best way to cut it was not scoring but with Photoetch "Huron" cutters making sure that the ends never "close" which crimps the metal.

 

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It's OK but I'll wait for the moment to see if the Northstar is truer to the original diamond plate.  There's some Aber 1/35 on the way as well so we'll see.  If not then this will have to do

 

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I've guessed at the length of the anti-slip areas using the previous wartime pic as some sort of pointer.

 

So here are some vanity shots before painting proper commences

 

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And finally .....primer!!

 

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And MS4 Colourcoats.  And what a pleasure it is to use Colourcoats after acrylics for MS Midnatsol.  One aspect that we never really stress is how much quicker it is to clean the airbrush, the enamels are considerably kinder than acrylics.

 

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And some of you might already have seen this little diversion.  In place of my actual trip and as a proof of concept test for resin bases, this is how Midnatsol turned out

 

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I'm a huge fan of Kostas Katseas's bases, who has really mastered using casting resin.  I'm going to try this technique again for HMS Penelope, The plastruct edges were supposed to come off but I poured too much resin in.  Otherwise, it was actually quite straight forward.  If you try it, as he says - Don't touch the resin surface with your finger tips for at leat 5-6 days or it will mark!

 

I read this in the last 10 days.  It's in A5 format and at 205 pages is an easy read.

 

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I have no background in things naval or indeed naval history.  This is a good primer - it moves along at a fair lick and given the size, the subjects are covered in broad brush strokes with insufficient time for great detail.  However it's provided me with a time line of RN history through out the war years that's been really useful.  Others have criticised Redford's denigration of the RAF, though I thought he was very reasoned.  I hadn't realised how under-resourced Coastal Command had been and how crucial this was for the Battle of the Atlantic.  The other thing that came home to me was the sheer scale that the Navy had to encompass fighting on so many fronts and geographies, truly  a "World" war for the RN.  The final reminder was just how Many ships were lost - utterly shocking really, both military and merchant vessels.  Thoroughly recommended if you are a relative newcomer to naval hstory (like me).  I bought mine 2nd habd from Amazon for a few pounds.

 

And intrigued by a recent on the site - I bought this from Amazon - once again for a few pounds.

 

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Colour film!!!  Washed out and aged but Colour!!  Loved it.  One half is original wartime footage and the remaining hour is of a gunnery exercise from HMS Birmingham that @Chewbacca recently mentioned in a thread.  I found it fascinating with Birmingham using 2 Seafires as spotters.  I'll be getting more from this series.

 

Thanks for looking more soon

Rob

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Those Micromaster turrets and other bits are a class well above the Shapeways stuff  👍

 

Nice to see you getting some paint on her and some good tips regarding the reference material will have to look into these you can never have enough reference  :book:

 

Stay Safe

beefy

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That Micromaster stuff truly looks the business. I reckon I could get some of those boats and do a micodiorama :blush:

 

Vanity shots are a requirement of our trade, they are also Inspirational . Remember they don't fly 

 

2 hours ago, robgizlu said:

Midnatsol

True escapism at its finest 

😎

 

Kev

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2 hours ago, robgizlu said:

And finally .....primer!!

 

DSCF9382

I've been using One Shot recently, and it really does go on well. I plan to use it on the Vosper, but then with Colourcoats on top of that. I assume that all works ok, i.e. enamels over acrylics?

 

Those Micro Master parts look superb, I can see some of those in my future!

 

HMS Kent is looking splendid.

 

Terry

 

 

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Rob, she's looking brilliant. Just had my latest Micro Master order drop through the door. Just so anyone who is tempted by these parts, until lockdown my orders normally arrived in 10-12 days.

Mick

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I used to order a bit from North Star but they don’t ship to Oz anymore as their mail service takes about 2 months to get here. The profile Morskie stuff arrives in 2 days (PDF)! 
 

really nice work to date, I’ve also ordered up from NZ for my Kent. Looking forward to seeing yours painted up. 

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That is looking truly brilliant Rob, the printed stuff from MM is just delicious. :)  Something about the lines of these ships is so appealing & I can see this build catching that so well. :) 

Steve.

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18 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Super exciting! :D

 

MS4 is a funny colour. It's clearly a subtle greenish grey in reality, but render the colour-coordinates on screen and most see a sandy beige from the result.

Jamie - you aren't wrong - spraying up a large area really shows up it's greeness - I love it!

 

15 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

I've been using One Shot recently, and it really does go on well. I plan to use it on the Vosper, but then with Colourcoats on top of that. I assume that all works ok, i.e. enamels over acrylics?

 

Those Micro Master parts look superb, I can see some of those in my future!

 

HMS Kent is looking splendid.

 

Terry

 

 

Terry - It's my go-to primer.  Alclad is good and I understand the devotees but it's such a faff to use.  The one thing I can't abide with the One Shot is that awful pouring nozzle :owww:

I prime everything - there's certainly a stern direction to do so for the 3D printed parts.  Never had any problems with enamels over Acrylic, and I've used this process since I started using Colourcoats.

13 hours ago, smyfe said:

Rob, she's looking brilliant. Just had my latest Micro Master order drop through the door. Just so anyone who is tempted by these parts, until lockdown my orders normally arrived in 10-12 days.

Mick

Thanks for that Mick - I concur - my first order came pre-Covid and took as you say no moe than 10/7.  NZ was locked down until the end of April and then the package sat with the airline so there' certainly no fault directed at Micromaster.

 

12 hours ago, Gisbod said:

Looking fab Rob!

 

The lifeboats look amazing.

 

Guy

Thanks Guy

Hope the move is going OK and that things settle down job-wise.  I've been following the new about BA :confused:

 

10 hours ago, RGL said:

I used to order a bit from North Star but they don’t ship to Oz anymore as their mail service takes about 2 months to get here. The profile Morskie stuff arrives in 2 days (PDF)! 
 

really nice work to date, I’ve also ordered up from NZ for my Kent. Looking forward to seeing yours painted up. 

 Thanks RGL - hope to see your Kent - are you fretting (like me) about the anti-slip or letting it ride?

 

8 hours ago, stevehnz said:

That is looking truly brilliant Rob, the printed stuff from MM is just delicious. :)  Something about the lines of these ships is so appealing & I can see this build catching that so well. :) 

Steve.

Thanks Steve.  I so agree about the look of these vessels - don't know what it is but I find them very appealing.  The contagion has spread as I'vebecome bewitched by the C Class which Trumpeter are due to release imminently :lol:

 

Thanks for looking and commenting all

Rob

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