Trumpeter 1/200 HMS Nelson (with Pontos upgrade)

[ArtickWarspite]

First of all, an apology to those who had been following the in progress build. It ultimately got to the point where progress slowed down enough to not warrant an update, plus all the images I had been uploading were disappearing over time. I'm working on getting the latter resolved, though it is yet to happen at this stage. 

 

So, it's been a while since I did an update and well, the update is that the ship is finished. So here it is. 

 

But first, a quick review on my experiences and what was learned during this process to help anyone here who may have an interest in building one of these monsters one day:

 

Trumpeter 1/200 HMS Nelson

Pontos 1/200 HMS Nelson aftermarket set

North Star Models 1/200 figures (A & B)

Brass pedestals & teak base.

Colourcoats enamels

July 2019 – November 2020

This kit was a massive project. Over 1,700 parts, the addition of the aftermarket PE set and the camouflage paint job ensured this project would take well over a year to complete.

 

Quick summary; A challenging build, but a satisfactory one. Plenty of hurdles to overcome, but once you make inroads, it became easier as time progressed.

 

Should you attempt one? Many people have said over the course of the build they felt intimidated by the amount of parts and the complexity of them and therefore would never try it. I would honestly say, if you even were mildly interested in trying one of these one day, and had a basic knowledge of using brass & photo etch- do it. A lot of the build was much easier than it looked, and the daunting aspects of the build were not as tough as originally expected. A builder with limited experience can make this whole Pontos kit shine, and you can use as little or as much of it as you want.

If you want to build the kit only, then even basic modelling skills will make this look good. If you want to try the Pontos set on top, then it’s recommended you have at least a small amount of PE & brass experience.

 

The Trumpeter kit

The kit itself was typical Trumpeter. No flash, good fit on the parts with good detail, though with some of their traditional inaccuracies. Nice of them to supply some PE for it, though this is replaced with the Pontos offering.

The one piece hull design is a great idea, and the deck fit on top reasonably well.  Interestingly, the main gun barrels were much shorter than the Pontos replacements. But on the whole even without the aftermarket kit, these ships carry enough detail to warrant their big size, and make up a good looking build just on their own.

 

The paints

The colourcoats enamel paints came out looking great. The colours feel very accurate, and the blues & greys are subtle enough without being too bright. Admittedly it’s been a while using enamels, but you get past that pretty quickly. I probably could have made things much easier for myself and gone with the 1945 single colour scheme, but that wasn’t visually interesting enough for me.

 

The figures

The Northstar Models figures were highly detailed and carried multiple interesting poses with a good selection of different types of sailors & officers. In terms of 200 scale naval figures, these 3D printed figures are right up there.

There were two let downs with these figures. One was that they were moulded to the casting block way too close together, so cutting one off often took another off at the knees- this was especially difficult when cutting really thin parts as they are very fragile figures.

The other issue was that dealing with Northstar themselves wasn’t easy.  It took about 3 months to get the product. I was told the item had shipped and was given a tracking number which didn’t exist. Then I sent about 8 unanswered emails over a space of 6 weeks with no response. Finally I did get a response saying it was on the way, with the same tracking number- which now worked.

 

Pontos aftermarket set

Finally the Pontos set. Loads of PE, resin and brass. I loved this set- to a point. It amplified everything so much. 8 barreled pom poms with 10 parts in the kit, carried over 30 in this one! The detail was amazing across the board.

Even for a newbie like me, it wasn’t too difficult to use this set- challenging yes, but a set like this can be used competently by someone with intermediate skills. It’s not reserved for the exclusively advanced.

As fantastic as this aftermarket set is, it was let down greatly by one aspect, and this had a knock on effect which ultimately made this set harder than it needed to be- and that was the instructions.

The images were not clear enough- especially smaller images like the jack staffs or smaller parts.

There were no instructions on how to make many of these components- just an end picture, so I had to rebuild segments of things from time to time when it came to fitting them on the ship.

 More than once it called for using the wrong part or wrong railing which was in fact a different number, there were not arrows or diagrams or a process of which parts to use first.

There are also many different parts & accessories which come in the set which are clearly meant to be used for something, but there is no reference to them anywhere in the instructions- text or images. It's like you’re expected to know where they go, which for a ship could be anyone’s guess.

The pieces which are required to do the main battery were very hard to fit correctly. A lot more detail in the instructions were required for this part especially. This was compounded by the brass barrels which made the front of the turrets very heavy making construction harder still. The ammo boxes for the pom poms were also difficult to use so I used the kit ones instead.

 

Anyway, you want images no doubt..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[johndon]

Excellent work.

 

John

[beefy66]

That has turned out great I hope you do get the chance to repost the WIP photos so I can read through the build again and hope to get some where near your excellent build. 👍

 

Stay Safe 

beefy 

[mick]

excellent work

[swralph]

Stunning work all round.😀

[Homer]

"WOW "  Beautiful piece of work well done sir 👏 👍 

[Zigomar]

Excellent work on that Battleship. To my eyes, the figures look undersized when close to the Oerlikon 20mm, otherwise, top Notch.

[GRK]

And which museum is this being displayed in?!!!

[Bugle07]

Really good work! So much great detail to take in, and really like the review of all the components you used.

 

I do like the figures, they add so much life to the kit. Although some of the poses are a bit suspect, most look realistic and animated. 

 

The erk behind the portside crane looks spot on for someone trying to grab a quick smoke to my eyes....

 

Well done!

 

Geoff

[Rod bettencourt]

Wow... that is super impressive. Thanks for sharing.

 

Rod

[robgizlu]

I've only just come across this (missed it previously)

What a wonderful build - beautifully detailed and finished - the crew figures really do set it off.

So much to look at

Congratulations!!

Rob

[Alan P]

What a monster! I could imagine sitting in front of that model for a few hours just taking in all the excellent detail. Must be a really impressive showpiece, really well done 👏 👏 👏

 

Alan

[stevej60]

Magnificent build and quality workmanship all round.

[Papa4ways]

I couldn't see your photos, but this is the Kit that Santa will be bringing me this year, well, I've been told I've got to be good, so I suppose the kitchen sink and dishes are going to play a big part of my life this year

[europapete]

no pics here also. Any chance of reving them? Am intested in the North Star crew for my Hood. Regards, Pete in RI

[Michael Leek]

No images!