Conversion Airfix 1/600 HMS Warspite to HMS Queen Elizabeth 1941 ish

[Shockwave Rider]

Prolog.

 

Avert your eyes from this build sequence if you are expecting a super accurate construction, replete with oodles of PE and resin goodies whose collective worth is sufficient to pay off our National Debt. This WIP is for us mere mortals, where all is well and good where measurements have a tolerance of roughly 0.5 mm or the vessel looks right when viewed from a distance of 3 feet or more.

 

First some history: I started this model in my youth when dinosaurs walked the land. The fledgling internet was still a decade off being invented. Heck Tim Berners-Lee was still at Queen's college, Oxford! All I had to work with were a few grainy, low resolution images found in publications like Jane's Fighting Ships, borrowed from my local library.

 

To me, back then, HMS Queen Elizabeth, after her 1941/43 refits looked far more modern and snazzier than HMS Warspite. The latter still retained her side hull sticky out guns, and appeared too old fashioned. Ironically, in my dotage I have come to like the older style battleships, even pre Dreadnought ones with their mixed calibre main batteries and side hull sticky out guns.

 

Ah, the foolishness of youth. I looked at these few images at my disposal, and decided it would be simple task to convert the Airfix HMS Warspite to HMS Queen Elizabeth. Just fill in and build up the hull where the sticky out guns are. Mess about with the midships structure. Add the turreted secondary armament. Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, HMS Queen Elizabeth, done.

 

I started the project. Stopped the project. Concentrated on things like getting my A levels, girls, getting my degrees, girls, starting a career, wife, continuing career, children, etc, etc, etc.

 

Roll forward several decades. I knew this build was somewhere in my stash, and came across it when I sold said stash; remember the children in the list above - now the rugrats need university fees paying. No way could I include it as part of my sale.

 

Anyway, being a tight fisted (fiscally prudent) Yorkshire man, I couldn't bear to throw the kit away or buy a newer uber expensive modern kit. Instead, I decided to complete the conversion - but on a shoestring.

[Shockwave Rider]

Enough of the prologue, on with the build.

 

Firstly, I must admit that this juncture, I have made a reasonable amount of progress in the conversion; with many a disaster I might add. I wanted to make sure my strategy was at least halfway sound before I made a complete fool of myself in this forum.

 

Over the decades that this kit served as loft insulation, I had a dim memory and recurring nightmare that my initial stab at conversion was a disaster. The exact details were shrouded by the mists of time.

 

A truly gruesome sight met my eyes on opening the box, and the kit saw the light of day for the first time in over 40 years.

 

It seems I tried to use something like P-38 or P-40 to build up the hull sides; only not very well. Further, it looks as if I had a considerable disaster with some liquid cement. No wonder I packed this kit away and turned it into loft insulation.

 

There now follows an X-rated series of photos to show the grisly starting point.

 

 

 

A close up of the mess. The inexperience of youth meant I didn't put masking tape down to protect detail on the torpedo bulges.

 

 

 

I can only assume I had a disaster with liquid glue. This alone would put me off building the model.  I'm a little baffled as to how I did this.

 

 

 

Isn't it funny how our expectations change. Back in the 1970's this sort of fit of parts, with glaring sink holes was quite normal. Of course, my added touch is a disaster with liquid cement and finger prints.

 

 

As you can see, I have completely put the bridge together.  A right pain when I discovered that I had to hack the thing around as the bridge of Warspite and Queen Elizabeth are quite different.  In any case, the fit of parts and mouldings are quite dreadful.

 

First job was to make a stab at cleaning out whatever filler I shoved onto the vessel. Out with sandpaper and knife to clear out the mess.

 

 

Looks a little better. At least the hull doesn't jar on the old eyes as much.  Note my crude attempts, decades ago, to cut the hull down to waterline.

 

 

 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Excellent! 
 

Watching with enthusiasm as you attack this thing.

 

Perfect? Probably not.

Entertaining? Definitely yes! 👍

[Alpha Juliet]

Wow - that's some work you've given yourself!

[Seahawk]

Watching with interest.  Like you, I have a quite a fleet of 1/600 (Airfix) and 1/500 (FROG) kits from the 1970s: all started, nearly all stalled at main deck level.  The really advanced ones have the main deck painted.  Anyway, looking forward to seeing this one progress.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Shockwave, this kit was the first that I did (OOB) when I re-took up the hobby about 25 years ago. All my builds were OOB back then. I have three more I think, in the stash. One is missing a couple of 15-inch guns and a turret, given to a fellow modeler at a model show here (WASMEx) a few years ago. They were surplus to requirements as I plan to convert the ship into the carrier HMS Eagle sometime in the future. I also used the superstructure (and a Repulse hull) for a whiff I called HMS Reliant. The other two - who knows, but you've given me an idea here.

       Your first paragraph in the opening post suggests to me you are a modeler with similar ideas to myself. While I now modify most of my builds in some way and try to be as accurate as I can I am no rivet counter. And PE is way beyond me.

       I've also found that the quality of some Airfix model ships is not the best, but they suit my budget and skill level, so that is an observation, not a criticism. I think I'm going to find this conversion of yours very interesting, and with your style of narrative, quite entertaining.

       Oh, and BTW, a couple of years ago I finished a conversion on an Airfix 'Rommel' kit into HMAS Perth II - a conversion I started forty years earlier. So you're not alone in the "Let's not rush things" category.        Regards, Jeff.

[Shockwave Rider]

Let's start with the excuses. Flag them up early in case the build goes hideously wrong.

 

I last built a ship about, Oooo, I dunno - 40 years ago. The then newish Airfix HMS Belfast. Since then, I've done nowt but planes and tanks.

Scratch building has been confined to small items e.g. blade aerials, when I can be bothered.

 

Reference materials have been gleaned from t'internet: rardp excellent build in this forum; some neat plans I found on the Greenwich maritime museum site (grainy, cluttered with fittings, not reduced very well to be web friendly), a couple of other builds, and small photos.

We continue the build with PLAN A

 

There wasn't supposed to be a Plan B, therefore no need for a Plan A. These things happen, so one with Plan A.

 

I thought briefly of building up the hull round the sticky out guns emplacements with plastic. That thought lasted all of a millisecond. Back to my original idea of using filler.

 

I had some Squadron putty. Ancient stuff, two unused boxes sitting in a cabinet. Unfortunately, the white stick had gone completely hard; like rock it was. Both boxes had to be binned; sob.

 

I then moved onto Apoxy Sculpt. Marvellous stuff. Two part filler. Stays workable for up to 2 hours. Can be easily moulded and smoothed with a wet finger. Cures in 24 hours, whereupon it sands easily and beautifully smooth.

 

Only problem is, the stuff is about 15 years old and it's white component was going hard as well. However, a year ago I did manage to dig out some of the white stuff with a screw driver it successfully mixed with the grey compound, to produce a pliable filler that duly hardened. I repeated the procedure, with added water to make the mixture more pliable.

 

I decided I needed a template, so scaled the indistinct plans I got from the Greenwich maritime museum website images such that it fitted the Airfix Warspite. I knew the beam of the Airfix Warspite (45mm) and simply fiddled with FastStone's resizing tool to make the resulting print have the same beam.

Then it was a case of roughly cut out deck plan forward of the hanger; stick to piece of mount board; trim back to the deck pattern; clamp onto model; stuff filler into gap.

This all worked rather well, even though the filler squeezed under my template. I was quite chuffed.

 

Next day I fetched the model and looked at the filler, prodded the filler, pushed the filler (which went squidge) and left a finger print. Hmmmm, the filler was supposed to be rock hard.

 

The surface of the filler was hardening. I thought perhaps the water I'd used to soften the stuff simply needed a day or two to evaporate from beneath the crust

 

A week later --- the filler was still soft!  Bugger!!  I had to dig it all out and figure Plan B!!!

 

Here we have a deck plan, scaled to fit the Warspite, printed on a cheap laser printer and stuck to a piece of mount board.

 

After cutting out the deck pattern, plus bits to fit around capstans and bollards, it is placed onto the Warspite to give a true idea of the task ahead of me.

 

Does Warspite's bum look big in this photo? Comparing against indistinct plans from the maritime museum suggested yes. I had to have a go at re-profiling it, but first, I stuck a strip of plastic card on the inside of the hull, behind the slot.

 

The deck plan was then clamped to the vessel, and Apoxy Sculpt shoved into the hull sides. Nothing subtle about this build.

 

 

A gory aft end

 

The rather fetching canopy Airfix built into the aft end, also meant the hull chamfered down a bit, necessitating large amounts of filler to build up.

 

Forward side elevation

 

My cunning plan appeared to be working

 

Disaster! The Apoxy Sculpt still hadn't cured, even after a week near a radiator. You can see how much the stuff had oozed under my deck plan. The strategy would have worked had the stuff cured.

 

Sigh, nothing for it but to clean up the hull, yet again, and move onto PLAN B.

 

[Shockwave Rider]

While PLAN A was curing (or not as was the case), I set about the forward superstructure. I think it was about this time that bumbling Boris blinked and got bounced into announcing the 2nd lockdown based on dodgy data: for which Whitty/Valance and Imperial college apologised. Sigh.

 

Now, bear in mind I was still under the impression that I could use the bridge as moulded by Airfix. The same applied to most of the stuff aft of the bridge e.g. hanger. Hang my head in shame - being an engineering type, and quite used to working off plans, especially seeing as I did A level Technical Drawing. Do they even offer tech drawing any more?

 

I did notice, fairly early on, that there was a kink in the forward superstructure.

 

 

Then I noticed summat wasn't quite right. The bridge as moulded by Airfix didn't really fit the new forward structure with the kink in it. The bridge of the Warspite was roughly the same shape as the Queen Elizabeth, therefore apart from a few minor details, I would expect them to have the same dimensions - particularly their widths.

 

After much scrutiny of fuzzy plans and photos of rardp's excellent build, the penny finally dropped. It appears that the bridge of Queen Elizabeth is narrower than Warspite's.

 

Nothing for it but to hack bits off the bridge. Actually, this is where my gluing of the bridge together was a blessing, as I had a nice solid box structure.

I squinted at these plans.

 

I peered at various build photos and these plans, before finally estimating how much I had to shave off the sides of the bridge. Add a millimetre for the thickness of plastic card, and I think it came to 2.5mm to remove for each side.

 

 

It's a shame I didn't have these plans, at the time, as I could have got a more precise measurement. Sigh. A slight problem with these plans I purloined off the internet, is that they include ships fittings, which kind of clutters everything up. Still, mustn't grumble. At least I have some plans, though losing my eyesight squinting at them.

 

 

After measuring off how much to remove, it was a case of clamping the bridge in a vice and having at it with an Xacto saw. Yes, that really is a wood working bench vice.

 

 

The missus was out, enabling me to purloin the dining room table for my nefarious activities.

 

 

Now I simply had to cut up some plastic card, and stick the stuff on. I have a feeling the card is about 0.25 mm too thick.

 

 

Note I have not tried to prise the various upper bridge pieces apart. The glue had set quite solidly.

 

 

 

Now it was a case of sanding smooth. One major snag, apart from guessing the width of the bridge, is the poor fit of parts. Look closely at the front and back of this structure. The parts bend inwards. I had to slap on a fair amount of filler to sort it out.

 

 

After a bit of sanding, I ended up with this.  Sorry about the fuzzy photos

 

 

Still a bit of clean up to go, before I start on the upper parts of the bridge; which I noted had differing shapes for the hanging off bits.

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Shockwave, after all the trouble you're having with the hull filler, have you reconsidered using styrene to fill in the casemates for the sticky-out guns? I like what you did narrowing the bridge structure, and am still enjoying the conversion. Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

So many aspects of this project remind me of my own efforts. 😀

Am enjoying this.

 

 

[Shockwave Rider]

 

With the abject failure of PLAN A, we consign it to history, and after a bit of counselling/liquid (aka alcoholic) therapy, move swiftly to PLAN B: use Acryl Red to build up the hull sides where the sticky out guns are - casemates is, I believe, the technical term.

 

Acryl Red is a funny old 'filler'. Described by 3M as a glazing putty, you often get it from automotive accessory retailers (but not Halfords), plus some craft and spray suppliers.

 

I have a love-hate relationship with this stuff. It's surface dries very quickly, as do thin layers. Thick layers take a bit longer to dry: days if very thick.

Being a 'hot' putty, it will bite into plastic forming an excellent bond; but it will also melt and deform plastic if you apply too much in one go. Been there, done that, seen it, binned the model.

 

When dry, it is quite hard, but easy to sand. My biggest bug bear: you get small cavities forming within the filler, which get exposed as little holes when you sand back. I can't work out if these cavities form because I do not shove the stuff into hole hard enough or if in the act of drying, small air bubbles get trapped in the filler. Which ever it is, I know there will be a fair amount of touch up to follow.

 

My first task was to reduce the amount of filler I had to use; partly to reduce costs, partly for structural integrity. Grabbing a random piece of sprue, I hacked it crudely to sort of fit the widest part of where I needed to fill in. I then slapped a bit of Acryl Red in, and added some left over plastic card to the sides to give them a little strength.  Looks like I'll also have to rebuild the breakwater, having sanded its edges away.

 

 

 

For the major part of fill, I slapped on firstly a thin-ish layer of Acryl Red to form a protective skin on the model's plastic. When dried, I could really gob the putty on thickly, say as much as 6mm in places, building up the stuff by trowelling it with a wooden coffee cup stirrer.  I did this by eye, and also 'moulded' it a little by pushing with my fingers. The surface of the putty dries so quickly, you can do this finger moulding after a couple of minutes. Also, by pushing hard, I hoped to squish out some of the cavities.

 

 

Sorry about the fuzzy photo. I discovered that I hadn't actually taken any photos of Acryl Red plastered up the sides of the vessel. Didn't really want to bore you too much.

 

 

I also took the opportunity to address the stern and disaster areas midships. I was to discover subsequently that I didn't have to add filler midships. Could have saved myself a lot of bother; as you will discover in future, mildly interesting posts.

 

 

Then it was a matter of leaving well alone for a couple of days to let the putty dry out thoroughly, before attacking the hard putty with sanding sticks and wet'n'dry wrapped round cylindrical pencils.  The latter to form the curved chamfer near the bows.

 

I was surprised at how little time it took to sand back and profile the putty. No more than about 15 or 20 minutes. There were, inevitably, flaws: those blasted holes caused by cavities, and where I hadn't built up the putty sufficiently i.e. deck edges; which looked as if they had been nibbled by a hoard of rabid, starving rabbits.

 

There followed a couple of iterations of building up the corners of the infill, extending it further towards the bow, then sanding back when dry. All this sanding was done by eye, following the lines and curves of the hull. This proved surprisingly accurate, as was evident when I offered up my template, which I previously made out of ship's plans and mount board. I think the port bow needs a bit taken off it.

 

OCD enthusiasts might quibble about the odd few places where the profile were 0.25 mm to 0.5 mm adrift of alleged 'accurate' plans. Not me, man. If it looks right and sits right, by golly it is right. Heresy, I know; lock me up in the deepest dungeon of the Tower of London, and throw away the key.

 

 

Still lots of clean up to do. Sharpening the bow a little. Filling in some of the cavities. Oh, and where the putty had cracked a little due to me mauling the model when fiddling with midships. Still the theory was sound.  I also have to redrill all the portholes, after painstakingly drilling them out early on.  I will talk about the stern in later posts. Did Warspite really have a much rounded bottom than Queen Elizabeth or is the bulbous stern an aberration of the Airfix mould maker?

 

You might be wondering why I've only posted photos of the front of the vessel. Spoilers, as River Song would say. I've been working midships, and will leave that story, with many a twist and turn and DOH, for another day.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Shockwave, the 'sharp end' has come up really well. It looks like you're on a winner with that red stuff. Regards, Jeff.

[Shockwave Rider]

As we start the next, mildly enthralling, section of this conversion, bear in mind I haven't a clue what I'm doing - just making things up as I stumble along. This strategy is somewhat compounded by a mantra of IT bods: never, simply never, under any circumstances RTFM. In the context of this build, I didn't pore over what scant plans I had. Fun, isn't it?

 

I had just completed one iteration of shaping the forward section of the hull and stern, and repairing some bits around X gun, when I consented to look at reference material for the new shape of the aft forecastle.

 

Hmmm, it appears I have attend to major surgery of the aft deck to accommodate the aft secondary batteries.

 

Double hmmm, it appears I didn't have to make good damage around X gun - bugger, that was a waste of time and filler.

 

Triple hmmm, it made sense to hack the aft forecastle now, rather than fully contour the forward hull section and risk damage to it whilst I mauling the kit attending to the aft section.

 

I noted from plans and photos that I could use the existing catapult as a handy guide for cutting - sweet!

 

 

 

It was then simply a case of marking off where to cut and having at it with a combination of very sharp, thin scriber and good old Stanley 9mm craft knife.

 

 

 

Next, a replacement deck was cut from a scrape piece of 1mm plastic card. Note the nifty strategy to use the hull sides to support the card. I was quite proud of that! I actually thought ahead.

 

 

All I had to do now was figure how the sides of this newly shaped area looked like (not clear from plans or photos) and, more importantly, how to make it.

 

 

At this juncture, the world is rosy and bright, construction was proceeding well. Yes, it was made triply more difficult because I had glued most of it together, but what could possibly go wrong?

 

 

I leave it as an exercise for readers to spot where my strategy and thinking for this part of the conversion went awry.

[Chewbacca]

Watching this with interest as I love to see what one can do with those old Airfix 1/600 ships.  With a bit of work, they can be made into quite realistic representations and I like the way you're approaching this.

[Shockwave Rider]

Cripes! So many people interested in this conversion. No pressure, then.

 

A quick question, if I may: What colours do I paint this beastie?

 

Light grey, dark grey and a blue grey is my vague, MK I eyeball reckoning. I sort of like Xtracrylix, but will happily dive into War Hammer, Revell, Airfix acrylic paints.

[Shockwave Rider]

Another Plan B.

 

I like a Plan B. There is always a Plan B.

 

Feeling rather chuffed that my strategy of cutting the aft deck worked, despite the process being made infinitely more difficult by me partially building the thing, I set about drawing up some plans to fill in the bit I'd hacked out.  As I pored over schematics and build photos, I began to notice summat odd.  There wasn't sufficient space for the secondary battery and the various bits of superstructure.

 

After a couple of hours of poring, there followed several minutes of swearing. It appears that HMS Warspite's catapult is further aft than HMS Queen Elizabeth. This is an assumption on my part, but it does look from various plans that HMS Warspite's hanger was built fully aft of the funnel, whilst HMS Queen Elizabeth's hanger wraps around the funnel.

 

I had to hack away a further 8mm or so deck.  There followed a reasonably fraught period of careful cutting, especially around the catapult, as I intended to keep and use it. This is the result...

 

 

The eagle eyed among you might have noticed that the catapult looks a trifle odd where it protrudes beyond the sides of the cut out. Two rails can be seen clearly on the right hand side of the cut out, i.e. there is clear space between them. The rails on the left hand side of the cut out has a solid bit between the rails.

 

Simply, I obviously hadn't glued properly the port side of the ship, therefore bits of the deck were not cemented thoroughly with the hull, and so parted company.  Hence the rails came away cleanly.  The starboard side still had a bit of hull firmly attached. This was to cause problems later on.

 

 

My plan for the catapult was to thin the rails a little - easily achieved by a flat file between them; trim off the excess deck, then glue the catapult back into the slot I have cut in the hull. Simples, yes?

 

In the meantime, I cut another piece of plastic card to fit the big hole I now had.

 

Now onto how to sculpt the superstructure sides where the secondary battery goes. I hit on the plan of using two pieces of mount board, cut to shape and glued together. This sandwich came to a thickness of about 3mm, which fitted into the hole I'd cut.

 

 

The first problem is that the AmTech hold punch I used had a chamfer on the outside. I guess the idea being it is used to cut discs cleanly, not holes. This meant a lot of filler to shape the area properly.

 

The second, rather more serious problem with using mount board - it is made of paper.  I like using wet-n-dry sandpaper and sticks, which means using water to wash away dust. Only adding water to mount board causes the paper it is made of to a) expand, b) deform and c) come to pieces.

 

I thus had to avoid using too much water (I wiped the part down with a damp cloth) and also sprayed the part with Halfords primer to offer some sort of protection.

 

After a lot of sanding, filling, more sanding, checking surfaces were square, I had a part which I could slide into the deck cut out to form the superstructure.

 

More on this sad saga later.

[Shockwave Rider]

Morning, folks,

 

A question for the experts, if I may. Does anyone know what happens behind here?

 

 

Looking at a couple of 1/350 builds and some Trumpeter kit instructions, it looks as if the area is all open.

 

 

This seems a trifle odd to me. Why go to all the trouble of building this tower bridge and then leave this area open.

 

Some vague Admiralty plans I have suggest that the area pointed to by the red arrow is actually walled off, leaving a passage way allowing personnel to easily cross from port to starboard, and vice versa.

 

Many thanks,

Angus

[Shockwave Rider]

Hmmm, no Queen Elizabeth experts, I see.  Anyway, moving swiftly on to yet another PLAN A.

 

My original, cunning plan, was to use the existing catapult as a basis for the rather more interesting one on HMS Queen Elizabeth. This did present a few challenges fitting it with the new deck arrangement. The part, as hacked, was quite thick, and would have required a sliver of plastic to be inserted between it and the new, lower deck.

 

Fate intervened, quite handily as it turned out. Due to my youthful folly, I had glued the deck of the vessel to the hull. This resulted in a bit of the hull still being attached to the catapult - whose rail over hung the hull sides.  After thinning the rails (with a rectangular file), I set about trying to remove this itinerant piece of hull.

 

Yep, you guessed it. Ping went the over hanging rail complete with tiny bit of hull, straight into the gigantic maw of the carpet monster. More on this creature later on.

 

In the event, I wasn't too upset.  Trying to marry the existing catapult to the hull and lower deck, and modify the 'hangy over the hull bits' to match that of Queen Elizabeth would have been a lot of unnecessary effort. Therefore it was a little bit of a relief to gird my loins and set my wee little brain to scratch building the catapult.

 

Thus, the filling in of the gap was now much easier. I simply sandwiched three pieces of 0.5mm card cut to shape.

 

 

In the photo, above, you can see the new insert for where the catapult would have gone, also the mount board insert, complete with copious quantity of putty (due to the hole punch I used. This latter part was simply slid into place from underneath the hanger.

 

Now a view from above.

 

Now with everything in place, but not yet glued.

 

 

I would have saved myself a lot of effort, had I studied carefully various plans that I had. But as an ex-engineering type who never read the manual, it was a case of why change the habit of a lifetime? Which brings us to Plan A, as identified in the previous photo.

 

I had (and have) blithely assumed that a) The Airfix kit is very accurate, and b) I could use the hanger as is. Hence I could build the new midships structure around the existing hanger.

 

Nooooooooo!

 

The penny finally dropped. Queen Elizabeth's hangers were much wider than Warspite's and, due to being wrapped around the funnel, had an insert in the middle.  Sigh, the hanger had to go.

 

Out with an Xacto saw to perform a preliminary hack.

 

 

Now to remove the stubs. I started with a craft knife, but this proved too difficult. The kit's plastic, although soft, is amazingly thick.  A bit of lateral thinking ensued, and I reached for my track cutter.

 

This made short work of the stubs, but still left some delicate cleaning up to do - made all the more problematic by the partially constructed kit, my cut outs (which weakened the structure - it didn't half wobble as I hacked the hanger with the saw, even though I had, by now, stuck the lower deck in place), and the thick plastic.

 

More lateral thinking ensued, and I raided my woodworking tool box for a 6mm chisel.

 

 

A combination of chisel and craft knife worked quite well in removing the last, stubborn bits of hanger. Some elbow grease and 140/240 grit wet'n'dry followed to clean the area up.  Note that I had left some of the old deck moulding in place to use as both a guide and support for the new midships structure.

 

Now back to the carpet monster.  This is a truly creature.  Remember that insert I had carefully crafted from two pieces of mount board, then filled and shaped with putty, before waterproofing with Halford's grey primer?

 

Yep, I lost it. Somehow the carpet monster has it. I turned the whole house upside down looking for the thing, but somehow, this piece some 32mm x 45mm x 3mm got gobbled up by the carpet monster!

 

After several cans of liquid therapy, I decided to make a new one out of 3mm foam board.  This kind of worked, and yet it kind of didn't work.

 

It was certainly easier and quicker to shape roughly, but you know how when you put poly cement onto expanded polystyrene and the plastic just melts into a blob, well when I put Acryl red (my hot filler) into the sides of the part...well it kind of ate the foamy bits and sunk.  Even Halford's primer had a good nibble at the foam.

 

However, all was not lost. The foam was protected by the first coat of primer and/or filler, thus the application of more filler proved quite successful.

 

Even with all my, self inflicted, disasters, I have to confess this scratch building lark is quite exciting and edifying. I can see why modellers get hooked on it.

 

 

 

 

 

[Chewbacca]

On 11/12/2020 at 11:30, Shockwave Rider said:

I had (and have) blithely assumed that a) The Airfix kit is very accurate, and b) I could use the hanger as is. Hence I could build the new midships structure around the existing hanger.

 

The penny finally dropped. Queen Elizabeth's hangers were much wider than Warspite's and, due to being wrapped around the funnel, had an insert in the middle.  Sigh, the hanger had to go.

 

Golden rule of scratchbuilding when using a kit as the basis: "Assume that the original is wrong" (especially when the original is Airfix 1/600 dating from the 1960s).  The number of times that I have assumed that the kit is a good start only to discover halfway through that much of what I thought was right isn't and I have to cut away much of what I have already done.  I cite for my evidence in that BELFAST to GLASGOW, FEARLESS to INTERPID, SUFFOLK to DORSETSHIRE

 

On 11/12/2020 at 11:30, Shockwave Rider said:

Now back to the carpet monster.  This is a truly creature.  Remember that insert I had carefully crafted from two pieces of mount board, then filled and shaped with putty, before waterproofing with Halford's grey primer?

 

Yep, I lost it. Somehow the carpet monster has it. I turned the whole house upside down looking for the thing, but somehow, this piece some 32mm x 45mm x 3mm got gobbled up by the carpet monster!

 

That's one scary carpet monster!

[TallBlondJohn]

On 11/12/2020 at 11:30, Shockwave Rider said:

Somehow the carpet monster has it. I turned the whole house upside down looking for the thing, but somehow, this piece some 32mm x 45mm x 3mm got gobbled up by the carpet monster!

 

That's no carpet monster - you have pixies. Very nicely, ask them for it back and leave the room. It will turn up in a few hours in a very obvious place you know you've checked. Be grateful.

 

And I echo Chewbacca's advice - I once converted Belfast, a ship that still exists, to her sistership for god's sake using accurate plans, and the only correct part in the entire kit was the rudder.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 12/11/2020 at 7:30 PM, Shockwave Rider said:

I had (and have) blithely assumed that a) The Airfix kit is very accurate,

Gidday, I learned the fallacy of that assumption a long time ago. A classic example is their HMS Iron Duke kit. A pair of 6-inch guns that were moved from one location of the ship to another are modelled in both locations in the kit.

     Still, I like working with the Airfix WW2 vintage ship kits. I try to get them as accurate as I can now but I don't lose much sleep if I've found I've got minor details wrong.

 

2 hours ago, TallBlondJohn said:

That's no carpet monster - you have pixies.

I think John is right. My carpet monster has baleen, not teeth, and can't swallow such large pieces. Leave out a couple of bickies overnight - the pixies might exchange the 'borrowed' piece for them. (Gee, I talk some drivel! 😁)

 

Seriously, keep on with the modifications, I'm enjoying seeing what you do. Regards, Jeff.

[Shockwave Rider]

 

I wonder if 'losing' parts rather than pinging parts also counts? Some examples: lower startboard wing of a Frog Beaufort, entire wing of Airfix Halifax - can't remember if port or starboard, nose probe and tail of Airfix TSR-2, etc.  It's amazing what disappears.

 

Will let you know if this bribery works!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, that ought to do it. You've chosen well with the bickies. I once lost an entire torpedo. Mind you, it was only 8mm long and 0.75mm in diameter. And I did eventually find it. Plus I lost a stores pylon from a Northrop P-61 Black Widow. It's still lost. Best of luck with the bribery. Regards, Jeff.

[Modelholic]

If the biccies don't work up the ante.

Vodka and mince pies!

I've come to the conclusion that the monsters around my locale are unbribable!

Tom

[mick]

great work