HMS Rodney Build Log - 1/200

[andyelbac]

I did a few more hours on the hull over the weekend. I'm ready to begin re-drilling the scuttles. I've decided not to do it with a pin vice. I honestly think I will be modelling with stumps for hands if I have to hand drill another 240 holes. As my Dremel is too powerful, even at the slowest setting (the plastic melts), I have ordered a very cheap Dremel substitute from Ebay which I hope will be less powerful. I will test drill through the bottom of the hole first to make sure. Whilst I await yet another visit from the Postie, I decided to revisit the searchlight platform I (almost) completed in an earlier post. At the time I had still to add the ladder rungs using the Pontos drilling template. Here you can see the finished article with just a little more clean up to be done before paint:

With a little more time on my hands I also noticed an issue with the range finder I built earlier. At the time I thought it odd that the Pontos part that fitted to the kit 'ears', the part that sticks out the side housing the optics, looked odd when attached as this photo shows:

It's because the Trumpeter part has a rounded face (unlike the real thing which had a flat face). Looking at the Pontos instructions again, I realised that Pontos supplied 4 resin replacement 'ears' but had failed to number them on their instructions, leaving me to think their photo showed the Trumpeter parts. A quick search through the Pontos pile and I quickly located them. It wasn't too difficult to remove the Trumpeter parts and replace them with the Pontos pieces. Here you can see the Pontos instructions, the resin parts and the corrected range finders:

 

 

 Much better! Whilst I was in the mood for PE I decided to also build the two gun directors. This is made up of four Trumpeter parts. Pontos have you bin two and shave off the moulded access hatches. Then it was a relatively easy job to add the 9 PE pieces to each director. The ladders will be added later when I understand how the dazzle scheme will impact on the superstructure paint finish (I don't want to be masking up with ladders in the way):

That's another 6 5 hours, bringing the total so far to 87.5.

 

[robgizlu]

Consistently excellent work 

Rob

[foeth]

On 5/22/2022 at 4:25 PM, andyelbac said:

That would be very much appreciated.

Alright, I managed to upload one of my frets with eyebrows in 1:350 scale here

 

https://ontheslipway.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/fret11.dxf

 

It's lines only, needs filling etc, and is in my old drawing format (top, bottom, holes, bridge links). The set has large, small and covers, added for someone who made an Ark Royal. Hope it helps!

[andyelbac]

12 hours ago, robgizlu said:

Consistently excellent work 

Rob

Thank you. I'm enjoying the PE (surprisingly) and looking forward to the challenge of the crane.

[andyelbac]

12 hours ago, foeth said:

Alright, I managed to upload one of my frets with eyebrows in 1:350 scale here

 

https://ontheslipway.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/fret11.dxf

 

It's lines only, needs filling etc, and is in my old drawing format (top, bottom, holes, bridge links). The set has large, small and covers, added for someone who made an Ark Royal. Hope it helps!

Very kind of you. I will take a look and see if it will help solve my scuttle shortage issue.

[andyelbac]

I managed to squeeze in another 7 hours work during the evenings this week. Total build time now 94.5 hours. I started to add the Pontos scuttles to the hull:

 It's apparent that even with a much lower powered electric drill some holes have still been larger than I would have liked. I will, unhappily, have to re-plug and re-drill some holes again. This time I will drill them with the pin vice and perhaps drop down a 10th of a mil to ensure the scuttles fit tight. It's not that bad actually as I think only a dozen or so will need doing again. Even though the hull has turned into a bit of a nightmare (partly self-inflicted), I can see that the Pontos scuttles really will add to the end product so I still have some incentive to keep going. I added them using a toothpick. It seemed to work well albeit on the slow side:

One slight irritant though was losing one of the loading doors at the stern:

 I saw it was loose at the weekend but instead of fixing it there and then I left it. The Carpet Monster feeds again! I will have a good scour for it over the weekend (it's a fairly sizeable part) but If I have no luck I'm just going to have to scratch one from the thinnest card I can find. 

As I couldn't stomach spending hours on the scuttles, I took a break and completed the second range finder:

 

 This one sits facing aft and doesn't have the same appendages that the forward facing unit has (some sort of radar?)

[andyelbac]

A few more scuttles added to the hull over the weekend. I wasn't able to get much time in but I also completed what I think is another gun director (corrections welcome)? It sits, according to my Man O'War 3, on top of the Gunner's store on the Shelter Deck, facing forward. The Trumpeter part comprises 4 plastic pieces. You have to shave off the two hatches on the face of the Director and then add a further 12 pieces of PE and 6 pieces of machined brass. It only took an hour and I'm very happy with the result; and yes, I know the Director is not facing perfectly forward but as it's designed to turn I'm claiming I glued it on that way deliberately!:

I'm not sure what the six brass parts on the roof are meant to represent but they look pretty cool. An Oerlikon sits in the tub on top. Apart from the rigging the Oerlikon's will likely be the last pieces to be put in place.

[Faraway]

Your work is so neat, I’m jealous. 

[andyelbac]

13 hours ago, Faraway said:

Your work is so neat, I’m jealous. 

Thanks Jon, but you wouldn't say that if you saw the state of my hull at the moment!

[andyelbac]

More work on the hull last night, replugging my previously replugged holes!😁 I'm veering between despair and perseverance.....I'm not sure which has the upper hand at the moment. But every cloud.... as I was looking at my previous builds in my display cabinets (don't tell me you don't do the same), my eye caught something on the rug:

 Can you see it? Let's zoom in and see what we have:

 Ok, perhaps not the best photo, but it's my missing loading hatch that disappeared from the rear of the hull a few days ago. The Carpet Monster has vomited it up! That saves me a really bad scratch building exercise. Moving on, I decided to have a go at the two Type 281 Radar's with the Type 291 Antenna on top of one. Here's a few photos:

 

 The radar with the Type 291 Antenna on top sits forward on a platform atop the Foremast. There are a few extra pieces of etch to be added which show cabling but those will be added when I add the platform and mast. These were a little bit difficult to bend and very fragile, but taking time, especially when considering how best to bend, really paid off. If one looks back to front when compared to the other, that's how Pontos show them, and with no clear photos to prove otherwise, I felt it best to stick with the Pontos instructions. I also decided to assemble the etched star platform. Unfortunately that didn't turn out too well. There's about 18 separate pieces of etch that make up the platform and as I am pretty rubbish at soldering I decided to stick to CA glue. It was going so well until all the pieces fell off🤨. I'm not sharing pictures of this disaster! What I am going to do is try to assemble it again using MIG Ultra, which will give me more flexibility on the joints. If it falls apart again, then it's heart in mouth time and fire up the soldering iron!

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

It's very difficult for me to accept that the radar mast in the photo above was folded and assembled by human hands. Where did you get those skills? Brilliant workmanship!

 

Signed Astonished of Staffordshire

[Faraway]

3 hours ago, andyelbac said:

The Carpet Monster

I thought I had the answer to this phenomenon.
Remove carpet and replace with  a laminate floor.
 WRONG !

Parts still disappeared when I dropped them, and when I did find the part, you would not believe how far a tiny plastic/PE part can bounce.

Then I had a totally life changing moment, I started wearing one of the aprons I wear when cooking.

Now all dropage gets caught on the apron, well so far they have. 

So, I highly recommend wearing an apron which covers your lap, from waist to knees.

You might look a bit daft, but you won’t spent hours on your knees looking for a piece of plastic/PE the size of a gnats dangly bit.
Jon

[ArnoldAmbrose]

3 hours ago, Faraway said:

Parts still disappeared when I dropped them, and when I did find the part, you would not believe how far a tiny plastic/PE part can bounce.

Then I had a totally life changing moment, I started wearing one of the aprons I wear when cooking.

Gidday, not only parts. Yesterday I dropped a round file, six inches long with a bright red handle on my blue carpet. I couldn't believe it could disappear as it did. Surely not even a carpet monster could swallow that. It's just not possible. I eventually found it hiding on the floor at the back of the desk. It had dropped from a height of about 80 cm and travelled about that same distance to it's hiding place.

     That apron idea is quite a good one. 

 

6 hours ago, andyelbac said:

Can you see it?

Near the end of that black stripe coming in from the left, about 7-0'clock from that big red bit. I don't think you've chosen a good mat for under your desk. Multicoloured like that I would think was designed to camouflage dropped bits.   Having said that, regarding my file above  .   .   .  🙂

     That radar is exquisite, very well done. Regards, Jeff.

[andyelbac]

16 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

It's very difficult for me to accept that the radar mast in the photo above was folded and assembled by human hands. Where did you get those skills? Brilliant workmanship!

 

Signed Astonished of Staffordshire

Thanks! But honestly, all plaudits to Pontos for producing great PE.

[andyelbac]

10 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, not only parts. Yesterday I dropped a round file, six inches long with a bright red handle on my blue carpet. I couldn't believe it could disappear as it did. Surely not even a carpet monster could swallow that. It's just not possible. I eventually found it hiding on the floor at the back of the desk. It had dropped from a height of about 80 cm and travelled about that same distance to it's hiding place.

     That apron idea is quite a good one. 

 

Near the end of that black stripe coming in from the left, about 7-0'clock from that big red bit. I don't think you've chosen a good mat for under your desk. Multicoloured like that I would think was designed to camouflage dropped bits.   Having said that, regarding my file above  .   .   .  🙂

     That radar is exquisite, very well done. Regards, Jeff.

Thanks Jeff, yes, perhaps a psychedelic carpet was not the best choice, although to be honest, I could be working in a class 1 clean room and would still end up on my knees looking for a needle in a haystack!

[andyelbac]

17 hours ago, Faraway said:

I thought I had the answer to this phenomenon.
Remove carpet and replace with  a laminate floor.
 WRONG !

Parts still disappeared when I dropped them, and when I did find the part, you would not believe how far a tiny plastic/PE part can bounce.

Then I had a totally life changing moment, I started wearing one of the aprons I wear when cooking.

Now all dropage gets caught on the apron, well so far they have. 

So, I highly recommend wearing an apron which covers your lap, from waist to knees.

You might look a bit daft, but you won’t spent hours on your knees looking for a piece of plastic/PE the size of a gnats dangly bit.
 

Not a joke boob apron Jon; tell me it's not true! I 😁

[Faraway]

35 minutes ago, andyelbac said:

Not a joke boob apron Jon; tell me it's not true! I 😁

Absolutely NO comment 

[andyelbac]

A  few more hours (in the very early hours this morning). I couldn't face scuttles so took another look at the star platform provided by Pontos. It looks like, apart from a couple of platforms for search lights and 4 barrelled Pom Poms (hmmmm?), the entire mast assembly holding up the star platform is supplied in brass and resin by Pontos. Here's the platform; it's supplied as a mirror image, so you fold it over like a sandwich. 

 

The support bar arrowed above got a little warped when I used my gas torch to loosen the CA glue. Not sure if I will live with it or cut it off and replace...decisions, decisions. Meanwhile, here is another photo showing another platform supporting brace being held in place while the MIG Ultra dries:

 What I like about MIG Ultra is the fact that it is more flexible and offers time to correct before it sets. The downside is the waiting time; about 6 hours for it to cure hard. Still, I think it will likely make it easier to fix the platform without the use of solder. This next picture shows an etch housing that fits on top of the platform. Here it is currently drying after an application of Ultra:

 On top of this housing sits a circular structure. I've no idea what it is. Pontos supply it in brass and resin, as you can see here (a few bits still to add). Also shown is the 'cap' (supplied by Pontos in resin) that seats the three main masts holding up the star platform:

 Another 9 hours logged, bringing us to 103.5 hours.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

10 hours ago, andyelbac said:

On top of this housing sits a circular structure. I've no idea what it is. Pontos supply it in brass and resin, as you can see here

Gidday, I think it's a radar lantern.      That starfish looks quite detailed, and very good. Regards, Jeff.

[Faraway]

10 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

I think it's a radar lantern

Definitely.

Jon

[Bobs_Buckles]

That is some serious etch work! Man alive!! 😮

 

Bob 

[andyelbac]

A little more time on the kit over this long weekend. Not as much time as I would have liked (I do actually have a life buried between bouts of modelling!). I finished re-plugging the scuttles on the hull. I now need to fill in any discrepancies and then file them flush. In a previous post I estimated I had perhaps a dozen to redo. I was slightly over optimistic there; more like four dozen. 🤔 My next step is to make a template to help me regulate the hole positions when I re-drill them. I didn't measure too well when I initially drilled the scuttles out and that's why not all of them were in a straight line. It doesn't help that the hull has various curves along its length, making it difficult to hold a ruler against. Possibly my lack of experience on ship models has left me unaware of any little tricks of the trade when drilling out scuttles.....you know, like measure twice and cut once! I'm going to try and get these finished, ready for priming this week. I reckon the odds are against me but will give it a go. Now for some PE progress. I've been working on the star platform and related parts. As you know, my original attempt using CA glue ended in failure when all the parts fell off. I re-tried using MIG Ultra. Success!:

 I then fitted some sort of room that sits on top of the platform and onto which sits the radar lantern. Pontos supply this with an etched door in it (not visible in the photo). Here it is glued to the underside of the lantern:

 Then with the support braces (12) added:

 Below is a small platform that sits higher up the mast, above the lantern and just below the Type 281 Radar. I have to add an etch railing around this; which should be fun. You're looking at the underside of the platform here:

 Back to the lantern. Here we have added two vents to the roof:

 Moving on; a small,and I mean small, wind director. This sits on a small frame fixed to the star platform. A photo of it whilst awaiting the glue to dry and one in situ:

 

 All good. Now for the bad news. I decided to glue the resin cap onto the bottom of the star platform. You can see a,photo of it in my post of the 1st June. The three main masts that support the star platform seat into the bottom of this part. Despite extolling the virtues of MIG Ultra for its ability to let you move parts around before it sets, for some inexplicable reason I decided to use CA, plus a,little activator......which would have been fine if I had lined up the resin cap accurately. Now I have a problem, which could turn into a major problem. With the cap set slightly off, my masts will not sit straight in their recesses in the deck. Somehow I have to unglue the cap from the platform. I have tried brute force but in reality I can't be too brutal as the star platform is quite delicate  The only answer is to chemically soften the CA  My first thought was to use Acetone. I have some pure Acetone specifically for this purpose, but a quick Google told me that Acetone and resin do not mix well. The solution, I hope, is to rest it in a bath of surgical spirit; rubbing alcohol for any readers following this from across the pond. That's what the last photo also shows; the star platform with the resin cap underneath, sitting in a bath of surgical spirit. I'm going to leave it for 24 hours and keep my fingers crossed that it does the trick  If you know of any other possible solutions, now is the time for any advice!

[andyelbac]

I present to you an autopsy of a star platform:

 Just checked this morning before I start another day of grind at my desk (it's a hard life!). The surgical spirit bath worked a treat,  albeit I now have a deconstructed star platform....again. Does the word 'scuttles' sound familiar? My advice to anyone following this build in the hope of picking up tips for their own big ship build is; do the opposite of everything I do!😎

Good news then. I managed to remove the brass post from the resin mast cap. Worryingly, the cap had turned a little rubbery but has not deformed. Hopefully it will return to it's hard state shortly. A useful note though if you try this yourself; check the resin piece if leaving submerged in alcohol for an extended period. What's up next? Let's build a star platform!

[robgizlu]

Andy - good work all round - you are too quick to beat yourself up.  Or too honest 

 

This might have been the other solution....

 

 

Keep it going - I think your PE work is tremendous

Rob

[andyelbac]

9 hours ago, robgizlu said:

Andy - good work all round - you are too quick to beat yourself up.  Or too honest 

 

This might have been the other solution....

 

 

Keep it going - I think your PE work is tremendous

Rob

Thanks Rob, and nice work yourself! Thanks for the tip as well. Will go get some of Ebay.