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HMS Ark Royal IV circa 1977 scratchbuilt 1/1250


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Been a while away from here, just busy with models. Seems that most have found more time to get to projects what with all this lockdown stuff. Has made little difference to my daily routine to be honest,and where I am has been barely touched,it seems,by World events.So far. 

 

Started on this thing more years ago than I care to remember,certainly more than 15 years since I first "laid down" the hull. Has gone in fits and starts over the years,and been rebuilt and hacked about continuously. Anyway, might be on the home straight with it now,so thought I'd show some of it. Entirely scratch built,don't use 3D printing etc, never have and never will. If I can't make it it ain't worth doing,though I am sure many won't agree. That's ok. So all my own bodges,mistakes,errors and cock ups. 

 

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These photos date from 2013 and show the hull construction, mostly plastic card but with a lot of Milliput,a method I tried this one time for a hull this complex,and though it "worked" I went back to traditional methods after and have only used millput for shaping hulls,sponsons etc and not hulls. It is actually a hollow hull made from a plastic card inner and Milliput over for the shape. It will eventually be cast in metal and building a hollow hull that doesn't warp or distort is more difficult than it might at first appear. It has moved on quite a bit now,though nothing changed until 2018,when I thought it was about time it got finished.

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10 minutes ago, Gorby said:

Wow, that's stunning work! 

I'm a scratch builder myself, but I fail to understand how you could make quality parts that small.

Wow! - ditto on Gorby's comment - I'm in awe of the detail at that scale...

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Thanks.  Moving on to 2018 I finally bit the bullet and decided to finish this thing. One day.  So the bridge was finished and cast,and the etch test fitted-some of the main bits anyway,there's quite a lot of it.....I am no draughtsman and had to redraw the etch 3 times, each time paying to have it etched (not that expensive, really) and the photo tool and set up (quite expensive for very short run things). The real ship is a bitch to model,with a hull shaped by a committee of madmen high on some sort of glue,and this just kept stopping me from getting a real "bite" without just hitting a wall and putting it back in  a box. Many times.  

 

So 2018 sometime, bridge in place and hull detailed a bit,with the first version of the boats fitted,mastered in plastic and cast in resin.

 

hull 2018 a

 

hull 2018

 

Still looking like a dogs dinner.

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I think your interpretation of the phrase "dogs dinner" is different to mine, your attention to detail at this scale is truly remarkable, I will be happy if I can get close to this in 1/200 !

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Sorry, when I said "dogs dinner" I wasn't being self effacing just saying that my builds are usually much "cleaner" and more streamlined than this dogs dinner.Which it is. But it did start looking more like what I wanted once I got to building a couple of bridges. This is a metal casting with the etch added. Forgive the rough look,this was the first try,and in my haste I used a can of white primer,instead of the normal grey,and worse,the tin was almost empty,so it has a spattered pebble dash look that is the paint and not the casting or etch. It had to be simplified a bit in 1/1250 but I tried to incorporate as much as I could,they are "interesting" to put it mildly when assembling. It was starting to grow on me,that was in 2019,until I got bored with it and it went back in the box.....

 

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The reason I'm posting this here is to try and make myself finish the *****ing thing once and for all. Hopefully it'll come out of the box now and get done,as I really love this ship and want a model of it,one day. 

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On 7/29/2020 at 12:56 PM, mollythedog said:

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If I could achieve that in 1/350, I'd be extremely pleased...........

 

If I could achieve that in 1/700, I'd say you are having a laugh..........

 

I doubt I could ever achieve that in 1/1250.

 

Brilliant!

 

Terry

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Very impressive, as always. The detail and blemish-free finish on the island with the PE attached is just incredible.

 

I was considering having a go at a 1/1250 Ark Royal myself but now I'm wondering about just selling a spare kidney or child to be ready to buy one of your eventual production cast versions!

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Thanks for all the encouraging comments. As I have said on a number of occasions,the size of the model doesn't really apply,if you want to make something then just treat it as "blocks" and scale accordingly, whether 1/200 or 1/1250 makes little difference,except of course that in larger scales you can work in much more detail. But a model is a model in the end. Except when it's a dogs dinner that is. 

 

The thing continues to fight me, even just trying to photo a hull proved beyond my lighting and photo set up,it is just a teeny bit too big to really fit the background. Apologies for the grubby mitts, I have been rebuilding the front end of my wifes 1972 Honda 350K and the sludge from the front fork oil and rock hard steering head bearing grease won't come off. Another reason to avoid models for the moment,as oily or greasy hands destroy paint finishes. 

 

So here is a hull casting, one piece and in metal. It has been fettled a bit,but not much,and primed and blown over in a top coat. My old camera decided not to allow me to reset depth of field hence blurry ends, but you get the idea. The model dates from so far back that I have almost no constructional photos so these will have to do. 

 

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I also got a header notice the other day going on about postings for WIP of RFI that had no photos, not sure why that was, maybe I hadn't posted enough,or maybe it was just a generic thing. I am sure the mods will red flag me or something if it applies....

 

mtd

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Yep - everyone got the memo to not post something like ... ‘I have some photos and will post them soon’ 

 

I have a screenshot of the message. I’ll post it soon. 🤪

 

In any case I don’t think it was anything to do with you in particular. I am loving this thread BTW!

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