HMS Alynbank, Starling Models, 1/700 +++COMPLETED+++

[Bertie McBoatface]

So many little bits! It's worse than MiniArt tanks!

 

 

Would this help your bulldog clip blues? You can bend the bitey edges with pliers.

 

 

[Ray S]

13 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

So many little bits! It's worse than MiniArt tanks!

 

 

Would this help your bulldog clip blues? You can bend the bitey edges with pliers.

 

 

 

Thanks for that Bertie, it will help next time as I have three very small resin steam coaster ships and all three are 'banana' boats which will need straightening. It is funny (well, maybe not!) how I never seem to think of the simple solutions...

 

Cheers again,

 

Ray

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, Ray S said:

 

Thanks for that Bertie, it will help next time as I have three very small resin steam coaster ships and all three are 'banana' boats which will need straightening. It is funny (well, maybe not!) how I never seem to think of the simple solutions...

 

Cheers again,

 

Ray

 

You are welcome Ray. We often miss the obvious because of standing too close to the problem. 'Can't see the forest for the trees.' Don't take it to heart. 🙂

 

Edit. It just occurred to me that you might not need all of that pressure once the resin has heat-softened, maybe a simple clothes peg (the rubber faced kind) would be adequate?

[Ray S]

On 1/12/2023 at 9:46 AM, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

You are welcome Ray. We often miss the obvious because of standing too close to the problem. 'Can't see the forest for the trees.' Don't take it to heart. 🙂

 

Edit. It just occurred to me that you might not need all of that pressure once the resin has heat-softened, maybe a simple clothes peg (the rubber faced kind) would be adequate?

 

No worries Bertie! I tried straightening the bowed deck with some warm (not hot!) water this time and used some blunt-nosed tweezers to bend it back into shape, and it worked quite well once run under the cold tap. There is still some bending, but put it down to battle damage now.

 

As far as the runnel is concerned, it has now been dealt with, and has been filled and sanded back and is much better too:

 

 

It still needs a little work to blend it in. I had three days off from dealing with models over the weekend, due to work and starting the DUKW, but this afternoon I had chance to do some sticking of stuff so I popped on the three different sizes of lockers for the gun platforms fore and aft. Each one had an oval location plug which fitted into oval sockets, and there were three different sizes of sockets so that was pretty simple - each locker fitted absolutely spot on so once more great work Starling Models!

 

 

That is it for now, the next lot (hopefully tomorrow), will centre around adding quite a bit of photo etch to each section, then some more small resin parts. One thing I have found with the resin that Starling have used - it is very easy to cut the smaller parts off the pour blocks with a razor blade, after ensuring the parts are pressing onto some doubled over masking tape to stop the bits flying all the way to who knows where.

 

All the best everyone,

 

Ray

[Ngantek]

really sharp work painting those decks and barriers; I always struggle to get that sharp, what's your technique? The sides look really nice and sharp on this kit.

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

58 minutes ago, Ngantek said:

really sharp work painting those decks and barriers; I always struggle to get that sharp, what's your technique? The sides look really nice and sharp on this kit.

 

 

I'd like to know that too. It is remarkably neat.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Ray, I'd noticed in earlier posts the similarity between the forward and aft 'add on' superstructures. I guess it's logical in that if they serve the same purpose they might as well be of the same design. It must be confusing for sailors coming back on board drunk though, trying to decide which end of the ship is which.

She's coming on very well. Regards, Jeff.

[Ray S]

16 hours ago, Ngantek said:

really sharp work painting those decks and barriers; I always struggle to get that sharp, what's your technique? The sides look really nice and sharp on this kit.

 

 

15 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

I'd like to know that too. It is remarkably neat.

 

@Ngantek and @Bertie McBoatface, thank you very much indeed for those kind comments.

 

It is all freehand, no masking. Leaning on my knee to keep the parts from shaking with my left hand, and resting my right arm on my leg to stop the painting hand from shaking. I tried perfecting the 'opposite shake' trick to synchronise my shakes to produce a null-shake situation, but it did not work too well!

 

The brush by the way is one from an Airfix Starter Set, but has had one of the best points in a brush I have ever had, and it has retained that point despite all the paints it has been dipped in.

 

I have said it before and will do so again, and probably more before this build is done, but the casting on this is superb, Starling Models have really set the quality bar very high indeed, so that also is part of the reason.

 

5 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Ray, I'd noticed in earlier posts the similarity between the forward and aft 'add on' superstructures. I guess it's logical in that if they serve the same purpose they might as well be of the same design. It must be confusing for sailors coming back on board drunk though, trying to decide which end of the ship is which.

She's coming on very well. Regards, Jeff.

 

I inadvertently noticed that too Jeff when the other day I dry-fitted the components and thought to myself that the aft gun deck was too short and got to thinking about how to fill the slight incline that has been moulded into the deck for a location aid, when I realised that it was actually the fore housing after all! And that was without any booze inside this non-inebriated sailor-in-waiting.

 

All the best everyone, 

 

Ray

[Ray S]

I had a good stint at the bench today, and, after painting some Sky onto a Defiant, I settled down into GB-mode again, and picked Alynbank rather than the DUCK as today's order of business.

 

13 etched doors, 8 etched ladders, three resin Carley floats, two paravanes and a spare anchor (now, why does that remind me of Christmas?) were added. The etched parts were fitted using Deluxe Materials' Glu/N/Glaze PVA as none were load bearing and it also gives 'wriggle' time and also has the added benefit of being able to be wiped off if the part slipped during application. The resin bits were CA gelled to the forecastle gun platforms and I trusted to luck to get them in the right place first time (I know, I should know by now...).

 

 

The first four vertical ladders went on well, they were supposed to extend over the barriers, and then be bent later - I was letting the PVA dry here. As luck would have it, the resin bits actually did stay in place when I fitted them with the CA gel, and they look to be not too far out compared to the instructions. The forecastle looks to be like a Steampunk flying boat nose to me from here (or perhaps I don't get out enough):

 

 

You (okay, I) could almost say it was a son of that old Sea Dog Super Marine Stranraer or Walrus. It was fun trying to get the ladders and floats vertical with the rather odd geometry of the part, caused by the huge sheer in the deck of HMS Alynbank.

 

 

At least the detailing is not symmetrical. One more great thing about this kit (tell me to shut up if I keep on heaping the praises on this Starling Models production!) is that there are spare parts for quite a few of the components. That anchor for example is the second of two supplied (only one needed), but the hank(?) broke off the fluke on the first one when I only just lightly touched it. Like a good boy though, I was able to get both parts secured into a plastic bag so they were safe if needed.

 

 

Dry fitted to the deck, the extra detailing is beginning to make the ship a busy place. There is still lots to do on this section, painting all those small details and the main superstructure itself, which will all be 507C, and I will probably pop some Clearfix or Glu'N'Glaze into the scuttles after I have darkened them a bit. I hope doing all that 'off the ship' will make it easier for me and then add the forecastle when the whole lot is done.

 

 

 

Well that rounds off a great day for me, which started when I woke up this morning and found that we had had a slight dusting of snow during the night.

 

Thanks for looking and for the very kind comments,

 

Ray

[TonyOD]

That's looking great. 

 

Cold enough here to snow, sadly not yet. We had a few flakes yesterday, not enough even for a light dusting, but enough to send the kids in the school where I work absolutely bananas! 

[Bertie McBoatface]

51 minutes ago, Ray S said:

benefit of being able to be wiped off if the part slipped

 

I have a feeling that there's a joke in there somewhere.

 

Alynbank is shaping up to be one ugly ship. Great modelling Ray, but the ship itself I would not marry or date.

[JosephLalor]

2 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

I have a feeling that there's a joke in there somewhere.

 

Alynbank is shaping up to be one ugly ship. Great modelling Ray, but the ship itself I would not marry or date.

The counter stern makes me wonder if it was a conversion from a merchantman.

[Torbjorn]

4 minutes ago, JosephLalor said:

The counter stern makes me wonder if it was a conversion from a merchantman.

It’s a merchant hull for sure. And as opposed to others, no names mentioned, I find her beautful in a dignified sort of way 😛

[Courageous]

Great work here Ray, she is shaping up nicely. It isn't very often that one sees a 1/700 ship being built and you're definitely giving me inspiration to get some of my 1/700 destroyers built.

 

Stuart

[Dave Swindell]

15 hours ago, JosephLalor said:

The counter stern makes me wonder if it was a conversion from a merchantman.

Alynbank of Bank Line - ref my post on page 1

[Ray S]

19 hours ago, JosephLalor said:

The counter stern makes me wonder if it was a conversion from a merchantman.

 

4 hours ago, Dave Swindell said:

Alynbank of Bank Line - ref my post on page 1

 

Hello both, this was, according to the instructions, one of three merchantmen that were converted to Anti-Aircraft vessels for convoy protection. The others were Springbank and Foylebank, which was slightly larger. The guide goes on to say that the firepower the ships had was equivalent to a light cruiser. The conversion was done at Harland and Wolff, Belfast.

 

I like the design, it is nicely different despite not being quite so sleek and photogenic as some other ships, but I am sure that was the last thing in the designer's minds.

 

Ray

[ArnoldAmbrose]

41 minutes ago, Ray S said:

The guide goes on to say that the firepower the ships had was equivalent to a light cruiser. The conversion was done at Harland and Wolff, Belfast.

 

I like the design, it is nicely different despite not being quite so sleek and photogenic as some other ships, but I am sure that was the last thing in the designer's minds.

If you can throw the high explosive and metal into the air, and accurately, does it matter if you look good or ugly doing it?  🙂 I don't think the crew of an attacking aircraft would be too critical of the ship's graceful and elegant lines, nor would the crews of other ships in company. 😁      Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

26 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

If you can throw the high explosive and metal into the air, and accurately, does it matter if you look good or ugly doing it?  🙂 I don't think the crew of an attacking aircraft would be too critical of the ship's graceful and elegant lines, nor would the crews of other ships in company. 😁      Regards, Jeff.

 

All true Jeff, but we aren't building weapons here but models. We see so many Spit/Seafires her because they are reckoned to look good as well as being efficient. It seemed logical to apply the same criteria to ships. 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

8 hours ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

but we aren't building weapons here but models.

Gidday, it was the ship herself I was referring to.

And @Ray S you're doing a very good model of her. Regards, Jeff.

[Ray S]

Thanks @ArnoldAmbrose for those kind words, they are much appreciated.

 

Things have been progressing but slowly with HMS Alynbank, due to boring things life life, etc getting in the way. However, I have been able to get a little bit done. Firstly, I finally decided to give my metaphorical backside a good kick, and cracked on with the sea base. I have a set way of doing these, but because this is a Group Build I wanted to stretch my skills. I have read about other modellers screwing their ships to their bases, but I always stuck (sorry!) with using glue. This time though, I fired up the Black and Decker, stood there holding it like some offensive weapon, and drilled man, drilled!

 

Well, to be honest, I got my hand-held twist drill, popped a 2mm hole or two into the ship (underneath where the fore and aft gun decks will go, used them as a guide and then did the same to some MDF where I had marked the ship's orientation, and only then did the B+D get some use, reaming out the underside of the MDF to accommodate a couple of small screws.

 

 

As I have been known to forget things, I also marked on the underside which was front and which was back, as the composition had been very carefully thought out (Harrumph). I then popped some double-sided tape down onto the MDF, and followed that with some over-sized embossed card, which just happens to have a 'calm sea-state' pattern embossed on it, as it does, of course:

 

 

After trimming the card and double-sided tape to size, I drilled holes through the card sea, and fitted the titchy screws just slightly proud of the surface, and then I could look under the ship to line up holes and screws. A minor hiccup here as I found the screws were too wide for the holes, so out came a wider drill bit in two shakes of a lamb's tail, and then they fitted, but there is a caveat:

 

 

The ship screwed down nicely onto the dead calm sea, but I did have to press the ship down to get the screws in all the way, and here appeareth that caveat - fragile resin and hard pressure do not mix well, and one of the ventilation funnels aft was a slight bit of collateral damage. Thankfully it did not break totally, and some thin CA has hopefully secured it, but there is a weakness there, and I must not forget.

 

At this point, I remembered that HMS Alynbank had been on three convoys to Murmansk, and wondered if the dead calm sea state could also be a pack-ice sea state by highlighting the texture - it does not look too far out, but I will do an open sea harbour setting for her to be at anchor as originally planned.

 

In other news, there has been some construction going on, and painting too so the workbench has been a miniature treasure trove these last couple of days.

 

 

Yesterday I picked out a few detail bits with Humbrol 64 as an accent for the 507C - the Carley floats and the spare anchor on the other side, along with those rolled up canvas things along the top edges. The wooden battens in the Carley floats were ColourCoats Teak and the oars Humbrol 110 Natural Wood, but they need retouching (they were teeny-weeney etch pieces). The rudder is on too, that needed a little sanding along the lower edge, otherwise it's level was lower than the hull waterline, and would have been a candidate for pinging into an alternative universe when the ship gets screwed down properly:

 

 

Once that CA had set (along with the glue for the damaged ventilator), I got the main hull painted with thinned ColourCoats 507C. Again I tried something different, and instead of painting along the length of the hull, I painted from top to bottom, in the hope that brush strokes would be less prominent - it looks okay at the moment:

 

 

The fore gun platform is finished as far as Stage 1 in the instructions, and is still dry-fitted. I have some other small stuff to fit on the hull before adding any superstructure, but overall I want to get the hull painted and fitted to the base before then.

 

Well, that is it, a long post for not really much, but it feels like a good progress for me, and it has been fun.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

[Bertie McBoatface]

46 minutes ago, Ray S said:

pack-ice sea state

 

That is a fabulous idea!

[Ray S]

On 1/25/2023 at 5:23 PM, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

That is a fabulous idea!

 

Cheers Bertie, but I think that will be for another day, when I can work out how to do ice convincingly-ish.

 

Having said that, I have started to paint the base, and this is what I have at the moment:

 

 

The three big cannons aimed at HMS Alynbank are the paints I used, roughly Paynes Gray 1 part, Mixing White 2 parts and Sap Green 1 part, then some added water to thin it all. The result is not quite as dark as the photo suggests, but I was thinking about doing it as sea would be seen on a late, dark, cloudy winter's afternoon. I was able to paint the base surface, then the edges, and then the surface a second time over the space of half an hour or so. I will try a thinner, lighter mix next time I get a chance at the bench to break up the surface a little. At least with her being at anchor, I don't need to think about a wake.

 

I then started to add some more resin and etch parts to the hull, namely the ladders that fit onto the swinging booms midships, four winches and the forward anchor winch, most of which have had their paint retouched. It was after I had added the midships ladders that I realised that I had not yet painted the black boot topping, which will need masking. I hope the ladders can take it.

 

 

This is the forward anchor winch, I need to paint it up a bit more to give some wear to it, then there are a couple of anchor chains (etched) to fit into the hawse holes. As with a number of other parts, there is a spare winch, as there was for the aft winches:

 

 

There are another two of these, one either beam midships. These aft ones need a small, thin bar to cross the space between them. They have fitted slightly mis-aligned, so I am hoping one can come out. I fitted them with PVA, so it should be possible. If one escapes, there is always the spare.

 

 

This is the midships ladder I mentioned. Again, PVA glued it so I may be able to remove this and it's brother on the other side before masking for the boot topping. I thought that the one coat of 507C was pretty good yesterday, but a closer look this afternoon suggested otherwise, so it will get another coat tomorrow afternoon.

 

That is it for now. If anyone has suggestions for the sea base colour, please let me know. I am thinking it could be based at anchor at Murmansk, and the overall colour does not look too far out (except it is a bit dark) compared to online images. I am keeping this as overall 507C and not the dazzle scheme shown earlier in the thread.

 

Thanks for looking, all the best everyone.

 

Ray

[Bertie McBoatface]

57 minutes ago, Ray S said:

That is it for now. If anyone has suggestions for the sea base colour, please let me know. I am thinking it could be based at anchor at Murmansk, and the overall colour does not look too far out (except it is a bit dark) compared to online images.

 

The sea has some colours of its own but actually it is pretty much the same colour as the sky. Here's a few photos of the water at Murmansk. Based on these images, anything you do is right at some time in the year.

 

 

This is also going on the Entropy GB thread!

 

The water on that day looks like a holiday in Crete.

 

 

There's your green. And pretty close to black in places. Remember the colour of the sky, if it affects the water, will also affect the ship. If your scenario is the dark of an arctic winter night, the ship's going to have to be pretty dark too.

 

 

I like those blues. Ultramarine I think, which sounds like it was made for the job. Look how bright the upperworks of the ship in mid channel are, and how dark the hull.

 

 

Prussian blue sea shading to orange and I bet that boat is a white one. (Not Murmansk)

 

 

Bluebottle green sea and another white boat is now blue grey. (Again not Murmansk but I don't think it really matters where these pictures were taken.)

 

Paint it the way you like it shipmate. Above all, paint bravely!

 

 

[Chewbacca]

Only just caught up with this and she is looking superb.  I can just about work in 1/600; 1/700 is insanely small especially with all of the detail that Mike gets into his Starling Model kits.  You're doing a fantastic job.

 

On 07/01/2023 at 08:41, Ray S said:

One question someone may be able to answer: if a ship is at anchor, would it use one or both for anchors? My logic says one but I know what I am like.

 

One.  Mertainly for a modern ship (i.e. not a wooden hulled sailing ship), it is not the anchor that holds the ship but the weight of the cable.  The anchor is there to simply stop the cable from dragging across the seabed.  The amount of cable that you put out is dependent upon the depth of water and the ship will then "swing" around its cable depending upon wind, the height of the tide and the tidal stream.  You can guarantee that if you were to put two anchors out, the cables would wrap themselves around each other as the ship swings and then the only option would be to break the cable(s), fit a buoy to the end and let them go.

 

The only time I ever considered using two in 32 years in the Royal Navy was as OOW of HMS ARK ROYAL on contractor's sea trials in November 1984.  On the last night we had anchored off the mouth of the Tyne and had a Force 6 gusting 8 easterly blowing us onto the beach.  About 2300 we started dragging our anchor and because we had only a small ship's company on board with masses of shipbuilder staff, it took an absolute age to get two Olympus engines running (it should have been less than 2 minutes, I think it took over 20 IIRC).  I had the second anchor ready to let go but fortunately we got power in time and we weighed anchor and drove around in a box off the coast all night.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Chewbacca

[Ray S]

Thank you for the advice on seas @Bertie McBoatface (it looks as though I was in the right ballpark, swimming pool or ocean), and for the confirmation of anchor deployment @Chewbacca, along with the story from the Ark Royal.

 

I have taken a little time off from this build as I was struggling with three kits on the go, so decided to complete a kit I was given for Christmas, especially since the giver had asked numerous times 'is it done yet?' (he is not a modeller, as you may gather!). It was the Airfix 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant MkI, which has always been a favourite of mine. Anyway, that was completed yesterday, so...

 

Today I got the boot topping done. Gosh! It had been plaguing my mind for some time before the hiatus, mainly due to how to mask it, and, when the masking came off, would it bring the paint off too? I had read so many horror stories here on good ol' BM about paint lifting with the masking on resin kits despite all precautions being taken, I was scared. However, being a resilient chap, I overcame the difficulties. I had to guess the depth of the boot topping, and that was going to be based on the sizes of masking tape I had. 1.0mm was chosen, so I laid that along the hull waterline, then cut some 6mm Tamiya tape in half to make it 3mm and butted that along the 1mm stuff, then removed the 1mm tape to leave the area that needed painting. A good rub down with a cocktail stick and then I painted the topping with Revell 9 Anthracite acrylic and gave it a couple of coats.

 

Then the moment of truth:

 

 

 

All the 507C stayed in place (so did the etch boarding ladders on the swinging-out booms), and I only had a little paint bleed forward on the starboard side, which I can hopefully deal with another day. The rudder has fallen off (it did so on the 26th January, so that did not last long, did it?), but at least I know where it is. I must remember to paint the boot topping on that too before I reattach it.

 

The ship is now ready for attaching to the sea base, but I will see about repainting that tomorrow or Thursday using some of Bertie's images as inspiration. It is good to be back at this ship now and fully on board with the SSDGB once more.

 

Thanks all for looking, Ray

Edited February 7, 2023 by Ray S
Tidy the post