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Lockdown modelling... Shout out from belgium


NoisyCricket

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Hi all, 

 

After about 20 years of not touching a model, I'm back! And all thanks to not being able to go outside.  

Currently enjoying 1/600 and 1/700 cheapish ship kits to get some skills going and get back into things. 

 

Not Belgian, just live here. 

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Gidday, welcome aboard. I'm into ships myself, mainly 1/600 Airfix but a few 1/700. Mine are fairly simple, I don't do PE but I like to scratch build modifications. Do we get to see any of your models? Regards, Jeff.

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Thanks! Only 'completed' model so far is the Heller 1/400 Marceau I got to run some tests - I shall endeavour to post an image here later (once ive figured out how) .  Tamiya 1/700 Nelson is painted but as I'm facing a varnish issue I have been unable to finish it.  Painting is also nearly complete on the Airfix 1/600 Belfast, without PE.  

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31 minutes ago, Big Dave S said:

Bienvenue. Whereabouts in Belgium are you?

Land of Beer..... and delicious food.

I live in a town halfway between Antwerp and Brussels.... The beer is of course one of the great advantages of this country 😁.  So much choice! 

 

Nice Leicester Tigers profile pic btw - spent some time there myself, as a student. 

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1 hour ago, NoisyCricket said:

I live in a town halfway between Antwerp and Brussels.... The beer is of course one of the great advantages of this country 😁.  So much choice! 

 

Nice Leicester Tigers profile pic btw - spent some time there myself, as a student. 

Ha! Thanks. De Montfort?

Yeah, Belgian beer: dangerous stuff. Very seductive. Probably a good thing I don't live there.

A tad envious of your situ though.

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12 hours ago, NoisyCricket said:

Hi all, 

 

After about 20 years of not touching a model, I'm back! And all thanks to not being able to go outside.  

Currently enjoying 1/600 and 1/700 cheapish ship kits to get some skills going and get back into things. 

 

Not Belgian, just live here. 

 

Welcome. I came back to it exactly the same way, as did many others I think. I'm currently self-isolating and filling the time by building a Belgian plane (among others).

 

There are worse places to live than Belgium. I used to go there four or five times a year with work, Kortrijk area mainly. I have happy memories of the place.

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Welcome to Britmodeller :welcome: I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

7 hours ago, NoisyCricket said:

I shall endeavour to post an image here later (once ive figured out how) .

To post pictures you need a third party host such as Flickr etc. to host the pictures. Direct upload is not possible.

 

Hope to see some of your builds soon.

 

Cheers

Markus

 

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7 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

Welcome. I came back to it exactly the same way, as did many others I think. I'm currently self-isolating and filling the time by building a Belgian plane (among others).

 

There are worse places to live than Belgium. I used to go there four or five times a year with work, Kortrijk area mainly. I have happy memories of the place.

Nice, a Belgian Spitfire! I believe they used Belgian Spitfires in the film 'The Longest Day' 

Kortrijk is over in West Flanders...  The wife, who is Belgian,  maintains they speak a different language as their accent can be quite hard to understand. 

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5 hours ago, Shorty84 said:

Welcome to Britmodeller :welcome: I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

To post pictures you need a third party host such as Flickr etc. to host the pictures. Direct upload is not possible.

 

Hope to see some of your builds soon.

 

Cheers

Markus

 

Thanks for the heads up... I suppose now I have no excuse 😄

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21 minutes ago, NoisyCricket said:

The wife, who is Belgian,  maintains they speak a different language as their accent can be quite hard to understand. 

 

I think she's right... I speak German and picked up enough Dutch/Flemish from my trips over there to be able to notice differences in accent and dialect.

21 minutes ago, NoisyCricket said:

The wife, who is Belgian,  maintains they speak a different language as their accent can be quite hard to understand. 

 

I think she's right... I speak German and picked up enough Dutch/Flemish from my trips over there to be able to notice differences in accent and dialect.

 

PS I use Postimages for uploading pics,it's easy, free and isn't offline that often...

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As promised, photo of my first attempt Heller 1/400 Marceau:

 

IMG_20210122_231856

 

It's missing the radar, which was very poorly modelled - but I was able to try some techniques out.  Still experiencing some issues with my gloss varnish, so I'm holding off applying it to the Tamiya Nelson and Airfix Belfast I've already painted as I don't want to ruin them.  

 

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Gidday, thanks for posting. She's the ex-German Narvik class Z-31 I believe. I've never seen her as the French vessel though. Looking forward to seeing your other builds, but all in good time. I agree, don't ruin them by rushing, sort out your paint issues if you can. But we could still admire them as is. 🙂 Regards, Jeff.

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7 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, thanks for posting. She's the ex-German Narvik class Z-31 I believe. I've never seen her as the French vessel though. Looking forward to seeing your other builds, but all in good time. I agree, don't ruin them by rushing, sort out your paint issues if you can. But we could still admire them as is. 🙂 Regards, Jeff.

You're right, it is the Z-31, although I know her as the Type 1936A.   A quick Google search reveals we're both right, which means we won't need to challenge one another to fisticuffs on the south lawn 😜.   

Heller has released an interesting kit for this particular model : a combo pack featuring both Z31 and Marceau.  The quality leaves much to be desired however, details are a bit rough, some flash and I didn't care much for the plastic.  I therefore have yet to complete the Z31. 

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Gidday, I'm like my grandfather, he won all his fights by 50 yards (metres now, I guess), in other words he ran like hell. 😁 It sounds a good tactic to me. I've actually done this ship in 1/600, plus Z-25, both converted Airfix Z-28 kits, and the original OOB. They're all a bit crude, and I don't do PE (that's a skill and expense beyond me) but I enjoyed doing them.

     Regards, Jeff.

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31 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, I'm like my grandfather, he won all his fights by 50 yards (metres now, I guess), in other words he ran like hell. 😁 It sounds a good tactic to me. I've actually done this ship in 1/600, plus Z-25, both converted Airfix Z-28 kits, and the original OOB. They're all a bit crude, and I don't do PE (that's a skill and expense beyond me) but I enjoyed doing them.

     Regards, Jeff.

Well, to be honest, cool indifference has kept me out of most fights, perhaps a good degree of laziness as well... 

I'd say it's the enjoyment that counts.  I enjoyed the Marceau as a first build.  On my second build I smacked some PE railings on the Nelson, and found it to be OK, jut definitely still lots to learn.  While I did invest in PE for the unbuilt 1/600 Ark Royal (a childhood build) and 2 tribal destroyers, I won't be doing the same for all my kits.   I value my sanity too much.   

I'm a bit tempted by the Airfix HMS Victorious - LHS is selling one at a reasonable price.  Any thoughts on this model? 

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Gidday, if it's the post WW2 ship then I have it in the stash but have not done it yet. WW2 is my main area of interest. I bought it because it was very cheap at the time. I have a hazy idea of trying to convert it back to her WW2 configuration but haven't really given it any thought. The conversion might turn out to be too difficult. Then again, as I have a couple of post WW2 ships in the stash to keep her company I might do it OOB one day and have a shelf in the display cabinet for that era of vessel.

     I did Ark Royal OOB quite awhile back but did the aircraft (Swordfish and Fulmars) only a few years ago. I put undercarriage and either prop blades or prop discs on them and torpedoes on the Swordfish. The mods were scratch built and average, hardly finesse. This is probably not much help to you though. Regards, Jeff.

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19 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, if it's the post WW2 ship then I have it in the stash but have not done it yet. WW2 is my main area of interest. I bought it because it was very cheap at the time. I have a hazy idea of trying to convert it back to her WW2 configuration but haven't really given it any thought. The conversion might turn out to be too difficult. Then again, as I have a couple of post WW2 ships in the stash to keep her company I might do it OOB one day and have a shelf in the display cabinet for that era of vessel.

     I did Ark Royal OOB quite awhile back but did the aircraft (Swordfish and Fulmars) only a few years ago. I put undercarriage and either prop blades or prop discs on them and torpedoes on the Swordfish. The mods were scratch built and average, hardly finesse. This is probably not much help to you though. Regards, Jeff.

I would imagine that the flight deck would be somewhat difficult to return to its WW2 configuration - still nothings impossible.  Doesn't Aoshima do a WW2 Victorious? 

Scratch-built is of course highly commendable, but it does require some imagination.  I'll have to decide how I do my ark royal when I get round to it.   Currently waiting on an airbrush before starting any more Royal Navy ships - all the paints I bought for have turned out to be somewhat unsuitable for brush painting.  

Are there any images of your Ark Royal? 

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2 hours ago, NoisyCricket said:

Doesn't Aoshima do a WW2 Victorious?

Gidday, maybe but not in 1/600 I would think, which is my preferred scale. My model of Ark Royal was done before I joined Britmodeller so there are no photos on the site, but if you wish I could add a couple here. I didn't want to hijack your thread. Regards, Jeff.

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On 24/01/2021 at 12:51, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, maybe but not in 1/600 I would think, which is my preferred scale. My model of Ark Royal was done before I joined Britmodeller so there are no photos on the site, but if you wish I could add a couple here. I didn't want to hijack your thread. Regards, Jeff.

Oh dont worry about hijacking the thread, always happy to see other projects - especially if I plan to start one in the near future. 

I enjoyed the 1/600 Belfast, but it's quite hard to find ship models in this scale.  1/700 seems to be the most prevalent, along with 1/350.

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Gidday, 1/600 is definitely a dying scale I think, and I would recommend 1/700 to any who are starting off, can handle the smaller size, and think they would like to build up a collection - much more variety. Sticking to one scale has the advantage of being able to accurately compare the size of one vessel to another. In my case I started (restarted) with Airfix because it was what I knew in my youth. The size of the models is more compatible with my average dexterity and the relatively cheap price suits my low income. To each their own I guess.

     Anyway, enough of me prattling on. As requested here is my take on the Airfix HMS Ark Royal. The ship was done OOB quite a few years ago, but without the aircraft. I added those just a few years ago. Sorry about the photo being slightly blurred. I was still getting used to the camera, and depth-of-field etc.

HMS Ark Royal jm8

Here are the aircraft.

HMS Ark Royal jm17 HMS Ark Royal jm16

     As you can see, they're a bit crude, the rondels on the wings are hand painted, and look it. The torpedoes are just 0.75mm styrene rod, cut about 8mm long I think. I removed the great clunky chunks of plastic that were meant to represent wheels and added my own undercarriage to the planes. I actually attached the undercarriage legs to the flight deck first and then lowered the swordfish down onto them. The legs go down past the wheels and into the deck a couple of millimetres, the spacing and correct angles being set by some small jigs I made. I found it easier that way. The Fulmars further astern were done the same way. HTH.

     Regards, Jeff

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20 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, 1/600 is definitely a dying scale I think, and I would recommend 1/700 to any who are starting off, can handle the smaller size, and think they would like to build up a collection - much more variety. Sticking to one scale has the advantage of being able to accurately compare the size of one vessel to another. In my case I started (restarted) with Airfix because it was what I knew in my youth. The size of the models is more compatible with my average dexterity and the relatively cheap price suits my low income. To each their own I guess.

     Anyway, enough of me prattling on. As requested here is my take on the Airfix HMS Ark Royal. The ship was done OOB quite a few years ago, but without the aircraft. I added those just a few years ago. Sorry about the photo being slightly blurred. I was still getting used to the camera, and depth-of-field etc.

HMS Ark Royal jm8

Here are the aircraft.

HMS Ark Royal jm17 HMS Ark Royal jm16

     As you can see, they're a bit crude, the rondels on the wings are hand painted, and look it. The torpedoes are just 0.75mm styrene rod, cut about 8mm long I think. I removed the great clunky chunks of plastic that were meant to represent wheels and added my own undercarriage to the planes. I actually attached the undercarriage legs to the flight deck first and then lowered the swordfish down onto them. The legs go down past the wheels and into the deck a couple of millimetres, the spacing and correct angles being set by some small jigs I made. I found it easier that way. The Fulmars further astern were done the same way. HTH.

     Regards, Jeff

Very nice work on the planes I must say.   I also quite like the colours used : the hull colour especially.  Can you give an indication as to which colour you used for this? I have been using vallejo Hull red but it feels too dark/brown? I wanted to avoid the strawberry red lots of people seem to use.  

The flight is a nice green too.  Ive been debating using a more olive green like you have or a darker green as indicated on the Airfix kit.  Based on my research online, the olive green is more accurate. 

 

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Gidday, my painting methods are still those used in the Dark Ages - Humbrol enamels smeared on with a hairy stick. It was what I grew up with and I haven't evolved.  I use matt paints with model ships. The upper hull is Humbrol matt27 and the flight deck Humbrol matt30. I'm not sure about the underwater hull. I think it could be Humbrol matt70 although Hu73 is close. The instructions which I still have state Airfix colours, not Humbrol so no help there. The aircraft are Humbrol matt30 and Humbrol matt64.

     Be wary of buying Humbrol enamel paints now simply by the colour on the tin. The tin lid colours shown can vary quite a bit, even between two tins with the same number stamped on them. Sometimes they match the paint inside, sometimes not. This inconsistency seems to have begun maybe five years ago. I'm starting to switch to Revell enamels now because I no longer trust what I'm buying with Humbrol. But way back when I did this ship I was happy with Humbrol. HTH. Regards, Jeff.

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