HMS Tiger C20

[Marcello Rosa]

Hi all

 

I am in the process of building the Matchbox HMS Tiger (post-conversion to helicopter and command cruiser). The "in progress" thread can be found here:

 

In this build I am using the Atlantic Models PE set.

 

In case you are also into naval aircraft, I have recently completed another Matchbox kit, in this case the PB4Y-2 Privateer:

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Marcello

Great to have you with us and delighted to see your Matchbox HMS Tiger.

Best of luck with your build and I look forward to seeing it progressing.  

Cheers Pat 

[Rob S]

Built this one too when it was released and have another one in the “Stash”. 

 

Also gave one to a former Workmate who served on HMS Blake (“Snakey Blakey”) from recommissioning to decommissioning.  He was chuffed as he didn’t know a post conversion kit was available. 

 

Will be watching with great interest.

 

[Marcello Rosa]

Hi all

 

Following a concentrated effort, this ship has been commissioned. The only thing I still want to do is to put it on a customised a sea base, which I am considering (looks nice, but takes more shelf space...).

 

The link to the blow by blow report, with more pictures, is here:

 

I attach a picture of the complete model on top of a generic "simulated water" base.

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Marcello Rosa
fixed spelling error

[Marcello Rosa]

And here are a series of stages in the construction. If you have followed the "in progress" thread look no further; this is a full recap only intended for the participants of the Matchbox 50^th Anniversary group build. Although not originally intended, this ended up being a quick build. It took me less than a month, including interruptions for holiday travel and return to work.

 

As discussed in another forum, this kit was a bargain purchase on eBay...meaning that it arrived in a shoe box and without instructions (I found the latter online). I have learned subsequently that this is probably one of the Revell re-boxes, given the colour of the plastic. If anyone knows what were the colours of the original Matchbox plastic, please let me know in the comments.

 

In any case, the waterline base clearly celebrates the origin and the vintage, so I think it is appropriate for this group build (note also the helpful arrow in case you could not figure out which way forward...).

 

 

 

And, in step 1, the hull is assembled.

 

 

One problem with this kit is that the height of the hangar box is underestimated. So, in the next step, I user 2 mm Evergreen strips to correct (red arrow). Also obvious in these pictures is a U-shaped mould sink right on top of the flight deck, which needs to be filled (green). At this stage, the hangar parts are only being dry-tested, but the fit is looking OK.

 

 

I then I spent a few days bending tiny pieces of metal from the Atlantic Models PE set for this kit. Here is the assembly of the Type 965 radar:

 

And the main mast:

 

Returning to the plastic, the next steps involved carefully painting the main parts, including the demarcation between the light grey for vertical surfaces, and green for the horizontal surfaces. I could not find exact references for the colours, so tried to match visually to colour photos of major RN surface combatants of the era.

For reference, I have used:

green:

- Vallejo USAF green 71.124 (5x)

- Vallejo dark slate grey 71.309 (2x)

- Vallejo dark grey RLM42 71.123 (1x)

 

grey: 

- Tamiya royal light grey XF80 (5x)

- Tamiya flat white XF2 (1x)

 

 

With this done, the ship starts to take shape:

 

Took a little detour to work on the Seaking:

 

Then back to the ship; here, starting to fit all other sub-assemblies, from main deck upwards, and from bow to stern

 

The fiddliest job came next: to conjure something that resembled the Seacat launchers. Here the photoetch was OK-ish but not outstanding, and the plastic was hopeless. My solution was to join the centre of the plastic part to the base and rails from the photoetch:

 

and then insert the 8 tiniest missiles you can imagine, 4 per launcher. Each missile required glueing (with CA) 3 small pieces of photoetch:

 

The final result looks like this (look between the aft stack and hangar). At this stage I had also installed the crane, but had the jib back to front. This mistake was pointed out by a fellow Britmodeller, and subsequently fixed.

 

After that, I added the remaining sub-assemblies, rigged with hair, and did a little bit of weathering (not too much; all pictures of the Tiger suggest an exceptionally well-maintained ship).

 

The final result looks like this:

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

Thanks Marcello 

Those work in progress notes and pictures will be really valuable to someone else wishing to build this kit.

Please feel free to post up to 5 pictures of your completed build here in the Matchbox GB gallery section.

You are of course very welcome to build another Matchbox kit in this GB, in fact multiple builds are actively encouraged  

Cheers Pat

[Rabbit Leader]

Well done Marcello, this HMS Tiger model has turned out beautifully and along with that tiny Sea King, this whole package is a real work of art. 

Cheers and very well modelled.. Dave 

[CliffB]

That looks fantastic Marchello .

PE works so well on these small scale ships provided, like you, you've got the skill to the use it!