1/350 HMS BRAVE, WEM, 1991 Op Granby - FINISHED

[Bertie McBoatface]

I can't wait to see how the printing works out.

[Chewbacca]

On 24/01/2023 at 12:03, Bertie McBoatface said:

I can't wait to see how the printing works out.

Me too.  I use an Elegoo Mars which supposedly will print down to 0.1 mm but it's a bit flaky down at those levels.  0.2 mm it's usually comfortable with and quite often depending upon the geometry it'll cope with 0.15 mm.  I've got  fair few bits in here that are down at 0.15 so I'll await the first print run with trepidation!

 

I've done a few more drawings - the Avcat fuel pump, hangar ground power cable drums, the Electro-Optic Sighting System (EOSS), the Glide Path Indicator (GPI) and I've started on the figures.  I won't bore you with more renders.

 

I think it's about time I did some real modelling so I think next I'm going to start fitting the PE watertight doors and vertical ladders that can be primed with hull.

 

Thanks for watching

 

 

[Col.]

On 1/28/2023 at 4:55 PM, Chewbacca said:

I won't bore you with more renders.

Please do!

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 1/28/2023 at 4:55 PM, Chewbacca said:

I won't bore you with more renders.

 

You may as well. The interested ones will enjoy them, you will enjoy showing your work and the rest of us luddites can just scroll past. 😉

[CliffB]

Just catching up and what a fascinating read 👍

[Chewbacca]

On 29/01/2023 at 18:31, Col. said:

Please do!

Well if you insist!

 

RAS roller fairlead.  Annoyingly I had drawn these previously for HMS PUMA, but with ~30 years between the two ships, BRAVE's roller fairleads were a slightly improved design 

 

Helicopter ground power cable storage reels.  This sits just inside the port side of the hangar.

 

Glide path indicator.  There is one of these in the PE but it is 2 dimensional.  Theoretically I suppose I could have built that up with styrene rod but this should offr a more realistic solution

 

Flight deck crew.  If you look back to the photo of the Sea Skua load I posted on 23 Jan, this is my Flight M3 who is guiding the back of the Skua trolley

 

 

Flight deck crew 2.  This is my Flight R1 who is pushing the front of the Skua trolley.

 

And as threatened in my previous post, I have started some proper modelling.  Despite having served in BRAVE for 2 years, I had no idea that there were quite so many watertight doors!  Including the smaller access hatches around the base of the mainmast and the engine intakes, there were 40 of them which took an age to prepare and clean up.  

 

 

 

 

And then the problems began.  if you look at the last photo, you can see a set of vent hatches on the starboard side of the forward hangar bulkhead.  But the instructions suggest there should be another vent inboard from that and clearly there isn't the space.  The locations of all the watertight doors are moulded into the hull and having checked them against the Jecobin plans that came with the kit, they look about right.  

 

I think the issue is that the instructions are really vague.  There are reasonably detailed instructions for HMS BRILLIANT which was the original Batch 1 Type 22 that WEM issued.  And then a very sketchy set of instructions showing the deltas for the Batch 2.  But trying to work out what goes where and indeed and what parts are what on the PE fret given that not all are labelled is proving highly challenging.  I've looked at the instructions for the Atlantic Models BRAVE but Peter has completely redesigned her with very different mouldings and different PE.  Looking at some of the PE suggested for BRILLIANT which I think should read across to BRAVE, I'm not sure that I even have all of the PE needed.  But I do have a spare set of PE from the Atlantic Models BOXER which may provide some of the extra bits that I think I need.

 

Thanks for watching

Edited April 2, 2023 by Chewbacca

[Bertie McBoatface]

17 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

I think the issue is that the instructions are really vague.

 

Maritime kits and badly written instructions go together like burgers and fries. I speak as a one time technical author and have found them almost universally awful. But then, I'm new to the genre and perhaps I've just been unlucky?

 

I liked the renders. Clearly they are tons better than PE can be for representing 3D shapes, and I suspect much easier to use apart from the designing. I'll be very interested to see how well they print.

[Chewbacca]

Think I'm starting to get my head around what PE is missing.  Missing is the wrong word because there is only one piece that should be present and isn't which is the deck lock grid and I have one of those in another PE set,  No, I think I have slowly managed to identify some of the PE that is supplied for HMS BRILLIANT but is not in the supplied set for BRAVE.  It's mainly vents and vent flaps.  I think I mentioned earlier that I have a spare set of PE for the Atlantic Model HMS BOXER that Peter supplied for my HECLA scratch build and from which I mainly only used the flight deck nets and some yardarms.  Unfortunately, the Atlantic Models T22s are new mouldings and all of these vents are moulded into the hull rather than being PE additions so there are no vents in BOXER's PE.  But fortunately, HECLA's Wasp capable deck was a postage stamp compared to the small airfield that I had in BRAVE so I do have a lot of FD nets left over and the grid pattern on the vents in 1/350 scale is not dissimilar to the pattern on the nets.  Therefore, using the Jecobin plans as the master guide, I have cut small sections of FD net to represent the additional vents and added the flaps from 20 thou styrene sheet.  Slightly overscale but passable. 

 

 

 

As an aside, I referred above to the missing deck lock grid.  Technically, BRAVE didn't have a deck lock, she had a harpoon grid and the first thing that the Pilot would do on landing, assuming that he (or she) actually landed above the grid, was to fire the "harpoon" into the grid to lock the aircraft on deck.  That, together with pushing down on the collective into what was know as "Sub-Min-Pitch" which would effectively reverse the direction of the airflow through the disk and force the aircraft onto the deck, would hold it there in Sea State 6-7 without lashings.  The call on Helo Intercom from the Flight Deck Officer would be "328 on deck, Harpoon engaged".  So imagine what happened in 1988 when HMS CORNWALL's Lynx landed on for the first time and that call was made.  CORNWALL of course was the first RN warship equipped with Harpoon missiles.  I gather that her Captain, Chris Wreford-Brown (who had sunk the Belgrano when driving HMS CONQUREROR in 1982) was apoplectic and within a very short time, an instruction came out to say that we had to refer to it as a deck lock not a harpoon!  But I digress.

 

I made a small error with the intake grills in that they are fractionally oversize - probably only about 0.1mm - but it is enough to be noticeable certainly when paint is applied.  I measured them up against the model before fitting but clearly didn't measure accurately enough!  I need to add some filler to fill in the very slight overhang on the port side.

 

 

On the sides of the air intakes there are two angled plates midships.  You can see the port one in the image in the first post with the headdress crest on the side.  The moulding helpfully has slight cut showing where it should fit:

 

 

But it's about 0.5 mm oversize all round!

 

 

So that groove has been filled and I will sand it smooth later.

 

The actual plates include a single very thick central guardrail across the open port towards the stern.  But scrutiny of close up imagery such as this photo here (CUMBERLAND, but she is the same in this area):

 

clearly shows that this is normal guardrail so that was cut away and replaced with spare PE from the BOXER set.  I need to add the walkway that extends beyond that to the engine intakes on either side.

 

I have an issue with a couple of areas of the resin moulding.  The first is the base of the mainmast where there are 16 what look like quite large ladder rungs in four rows of four (but I don't think they are rungs as there is a separate ladder onto that platform).  Rather than supply these as PE, they are moulded on, solid and very thick.  Now the OCD side of me wants to scrape those off and make 16 replacements from Albion Alloys 0.1 mm nickel rod.  But I just know that even if I make a jig, I will struggle to make all 16 of them the same and I think they will look odd.  Plus, I have have been struggling with getting CA to adhere to this resin so each one will need two holes drilling and again trying to accurately drill 32 holes in exactly straight lines I think would risk making it worse than overthick rungs.  So I think I will leave as is.

 

 

Equally the anchor is horrid.

 

 

It should be flush with the hull.  I already have an AC14 anchor drawn in CAD albeit a little smaller than I need but increasing its size will be a two minute job in the software; I am just concerned that I risk doing more damage to the hull cutting away the old anchor and trying to dig out the housing.  So I may well live with this and just thin it down a little.

 

And finally, as Callsign Viper says in Top Gun, "Gentlemen, we have a crisis situation".  I have prepped the first 3D print run in the printer software (Chitubox).  I have cleaned out the resin bath.  I am ready to print...

 

 

But does anyone know where my build plate is?  I last used it in late November when I was printing dockside additions for 1/600 HMS LONDONDERRY and have absolutely no idea where I have put it.  All of the accessories that go with it are where I would expect them to be, but no sight of the plate itself.  So the printing is on hold which may delay the rest of the build.  Hopefully there is enough to do for now to keep progress moving until I find it.

 

Thanks for watching

Edited April 2, 2023 by Chewbacca

[Terry1954]

Fantastic progress Ralph. Love all that additional etch.

 

4 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

 

Shots like that one of Cumberland are invaluable for detail, and indeed final coloring and particularly deck "weathering"

 

Terry

[Bertie McBoatface]

Fascinating thread. Thanks.

[UberDaveToo]

1 hour ago, Chewbacca said:

Think I'm starting to get my head around what PE is missing.  Missing is the wrong word because there is only one piece that should be present and isn't which is the deck lock grid and I have one of those in another PE set,  No, I think I have slowly managed to identify some of the PE that is supplied for HMS BRILLIANT but is not in the supplied set for BRAVE.  It's mainly vents and vent flaps.  I think I mentioned earlier that I have a spare set of PE for the Atlantic Model HMS BOXER that Peter supplied for my HECLA scratch build and from which I mainly only used the flight deck nets and some yardarms.  Unfortunately, the Atlantic Models T22s are new mouldings and all of these vents are moulded into the hull rather than being PE additions so there are no vents in BOXER's PE.  But fortunately, HECLA's Wasp capable deck was a postage stamp compared to the small airfield that I had in BRAVE so I do have a lot of FD nets left over and the grid pattern on the vents in 1/350 scale is not dissimilar to the pattern on the nets.  Therefore, using the Jacamo plans as the master guide, I have cut small sections of FD net to represent the additional vents and added the flaps from 20 thou styrene sheet.  Slightly overscale but passable. 

 

 

 

As an aside, I referred above to the missing deck lock grid.  Technically, BRAVE didn't have a deck lock, she had a harpoon grid and the first thing that the Pilot would do on landing, assuming that he (or she) actually landed above the grid, was to fire the "harpoon" into the grid to lock the aircraft on deck.  That, together with pushing down on the collective into what was know as "Sub-Min-Pitch" which would effectively reverse the direction of the airflow through the disk and force the aircraft onto the deck, would hold it there in Sea State 6-7 without lashings.  The call on Helo Intercom from the Flight Deck Officer would be "328 on deck, Harpoon engaged".  So imagine what happened in 1988 when HMS CORNWALL's Lynx landed on for the first time and that call was made.  CORNWALL of course was the first RN warship equipped with Harpoon missiles.  I gather that her Captain, Chris Wreford-Brown (who had sunk the Belgrano when driving HMS CONQUREROR in 1982) was apoplectic and within a very short time, an instruction came out to say that we had to refer to it as a deck lock not a harpoon!  But I digress.

 

I made a small error with the intake grills in that they are fractionally oversize - probably only about 0.1mm - but it is enough to be noticeable certainly when paint is applied.  I measured them up against the model before fitting but clearly didn't measure accurately enough!  I need to add some filler to fill in the very slight overhang on the port side.

 

 

On the sides of the air intakes there are two angled plates midships.  You can see the port one in the image in the first post with the headdress crest on the side.  The moulding helpfully has slight cut showing where it should fit:

 

 

But it's about 0.5 mm oversize all round!

 

 

So that groove has been filled and I will sand it smooth later.

 

The actual plates include a single very thick central guardrail across the open port towards the stern.  But scrutiny of close up imagery such as this photo here (CUMBERLAND, but she is the same in this area):

 

clearly shows that this is normal guardrail so that was cut away and replaced with spare PE from the BOXER set.  I need to add the walkway that extends beyond that to the engine intakes on either side.

 

I have an issue with a couple of areas of the resin moulding.  The first is the base of the mainmast where there are 16 what look like quite large ladder rungs in four rows of four (but I don't think they are rungs as there is a separate ladder onto that platform).  Rather than supply these as PE, they are moulded on, solid and very thick.  Now the OCD side of me wants to scrape those off and make 16 replacements from Albion Alloys 0.1 mm nickel rod.  But I just know that even if I make a jig, I will struggle to make all 16 of them the same and I think they will look odd.  Plus, I have have been struggling with getting CA to adhere to this resin so each one will need two holes drilling and again trying to accurately drill 32 holes in exactly straight lines I think would risk making it worse than overthick rungs.  So I think I will leave as is.

 

 

Equally the anchor is horrid.

 

 

It should be flush with the hull.  I already have an AC14 anchor drawn in CAD albeit a little smaller than I need but increasing its size will be a two minute job in the software; I am just concerned that I risk doing more damage to the hull cutting away the old anchor and trying to dig out the housing.  So I may well live with this and just thin it down a little.

 

And finally, as Callsign Viper says in Top Gun, "Gentlemen, we have a crisis situation".  I have prepped the first 3D print run in the printer software (Chitubox).  I have cleaned out the resin bath.  I am ready to print...

 

 

But does anyone know where my build plate is?  I last used it in late November when I was printing dockside additions for 1/600 HMS LONDONDERRY and have absolutely no idea where I have put it.  All of the accessories that go with it are where I would expect them to be, but no sight of the plate itself.  So the printing is on hold which may delay the rest of the build.  Hopefully there is enough to do for now to keep progress moving until I find it.

 

Thanks for watching

Many moons ago, the Snapp-on dealer was my friend...

 

...Excellent work by the way.

[Chewbacca]

16 hours ago, UberDaveToo said:

Many moons ago, the Snapp-on dealer was my friend...

As some on here will know, my other passion beyond modelling is classic cars (TVRs) and about 10-15 years ago I started to slowly replace my older cheap tools with Snap On.  Whilst they are eye-wateringly expensive ( I bought my son a ratchet screwdriver from them for his birthday last year.  £150 🤯), the quality is so much better than anything else I have ever used that I can understand why they are the choice of almost all professional auto technicians.  And no, before anyone asks, I don't get get a fee from Snap On!

 

So moving back to the model I thought I would turn my attention to the quarterdeck and transom PE panels.  It's a really clever idea to surround this area with three PE panels to afford the correct scale effect whilst allowing everything to be visible.  It's just a pity that the panels don't fit.  At all.

 

This first photo (sorry about the quality - trying to hold the part roughly in place with one hand while photographing with the other was, er challenging, and I'm not sure I rose to that challenge) shows the port side quarterdeck panel alongside the cut out that it is in-filling. What you can see quite clearly is that it is about 2.5 mm too long and if you look carefully you can see that the angle of the transom is different to that of the hull below - it should all be a seamless straight line.  What you can't see is that it is also about 1 mm too high and that the PE itself is quite thick.  The upshot of that was that although I could cut it down to the right length, with the cut-out angle matching the angle of the transom, reshaping that would be really difficult whilst trying to cut 1 mm off either the top or bottom would be near impossible.

 

 

And so I remade the panel from 20 thou sheet styrene.  If anything this is a fraction too low by about 0.25 mm but I can shim that when I come to put the flight deck on.  Took 3 attempts before I managed to get both the angle of the transom right and the length.  Even though 20 thou is the equivalent of 175 mm in real life or about 7 inches, it doesn't look especially overscale and in fact is only a tadge thicker than the PE anyway - my micrometer is broken so I couldn't measure it but I'd guess about a 0.05 mm difference.

 

 

Now interestingly, both side panels are the same length, despite the fact that the port side panel should be considerably shorter.  No mention whatsoever in the instructions that it would need to be cut down.  The set up for BRILLIANT was different because the flight deck on the Batch 1s was a fair bit smaller because they were cleared for Lynx operations only and therefore both side panels were the same size and together with the transom panel were attached to the flight deck ready to be simply bent into place.  Of course the Batch 1s did not have the towed array on the quarterdeck so the area was a fair bit smaller plus the Batch 2 flight deck was longer and wider at the stern to allow them to operate Sea Kings as well as Lynx and so the issue of different panel lengths for the Batch 1 would not be an issue.  I smiled when I read in the instructions that "some filler might be required".  Yeah right.  Even if I'd managed to use the PE, I can see Vallejo share prices going up because of the amount of their filler that I will need to get a smooth blended look!

 

 

What you can just about see in this photo also is that the towed array fairlead (in the cut out on the port side) is not quite far enough astern.  It probably needs to be about another 1 mm aft as the bottom of it does overhang the transom a fair way.  But I can just see a whole heap of pain if I try to do that so I shall live with that.  I do need to transfer across the specialist guardrails from the PE transom in due course.

 

Thanks for watching.

[UberDaveToo]

9 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

As some on here will know, my other passion beyond modelling is classic cars (TVRs) and about 10-15 years ago I started to slowly replace my older cheap tools with Snap On.

Mine was for working on airplanes, 17 different types, starting with the Cessna O-2A to the C-17A Globemaster III. Now that I'm retired, I only work on what I want to.😃

[Chewbacca]

While I'm waiting for the filler to set before I can sand it back, I've turned my attention to the other resin parts and started to clean them up ready for primer.

 

The moulding block on the funnel was huge and took the best part of 40 minutes to cut through with a razer saw.  I could have resorted to the Dremmel but given that my workbench is in our kitchen, I didn't want resin dust in the atmosphere.  Instead, all cutting was done in a small container of water to keep the dust down.

 

Dry fit of major components

 

 

The age of this moulding is starting to show itself.  Here you can see the mainmast as supplied with a nasty moulding flaw along two of its four sides.  However, this is a 20 year old (approximately) kit and the standards that we expect from modern resin moulding simply didn't exist back then.  This took about 10 minutes to clean up.

 

 

The other issue with the mainmast was the two areas either side (for the life of me I cannot remember what they were for but then as the Flight Commander, I probably never had any need to go there).  The bulwarks are far too thick so I have shaved them down.  On the right (which is actually the port side) is as supplied; the left shows what I got it down to with careful scraping of a #10 X-Acto blade.  Both are now that thickness.

 

 

Now if I remember correctly, that large semi-cylindrical device on the aft face of the mainmast is a cover for the aft diesel exhausts and should be hollow top to bottom.  The obvious thing to do is to cut that off and replace with photo-etch but again, I fear I may well do more damage by trying to cut it away so I may well have to live with that.  But watch this space - I am still pondering.

 

I'm also looking at options for the Cheverton.

 

 

It is a pretty solid lump and shouldbe qute hollow with very visible open for'ard and aft cabins.  At first I did not think this was an issue as I would have expected, in an operational scenario, for the Cheverton (which was effectively only the CO's and officers' passenger transport boat) to have its cover on.  But the only photo I can find of BRAVE's starboard side during this period was taken shortly after the ceasefire in March 1991 and that very clearly shows BRAVE with the Cheverton cover removed.  I have looked at whether I can drill out the cabins but think that would be somewhat challenging.  the only aftermarket Cheverton I can find is from Atlantic Models and the photos on Peter's website are not clear.  I think the cabins are more open but it is hard to say so I have emailed to ask.  The alternative is to spend a few hours drawing one in CAD...

 

[Chewbacca]

On 24/01/2023 at 12:03, Bertie McBoatface said:

I can't wait to see how the printing works out.

I spent an age over the weekend hunting for the 3D printer build plate to no avail and was just about to investigate ordering a replacement when my wife, who had been away for a few days, spent less than 2 minutes looking for it before she said "Is this what you are looking for?" and presented me the plate.  Which was in a most bizarre location that I would never have even thought to look there.  So let the printing commence.

 

The first print run was probably about 40% successful.  The photos below, sorry about the quality, show the twin 30mm guns, the stbd Sea Skuas, the Yellow Veil pod, the HMP and most of the initial run of figures have come out reasonably well.  Some of the others, such as the port Sea Skuas and EOSS, partially printed whilst others, such as the Perry Buoys and Flight Deck floodlights, didn't print at all.  That's not wholly unusual and I have had examples in the past where nothing has printed.  So I shall be cleaning out the resin bath, resetting the supports in Chitubox and having another go.

 

Stbd Sea Skuas (bottom centre)

 

30 mm close range guns (top left)

 

HMP (top centre) and Yellow Veil (bottom centre)

 

But this success was tempered when I got home from work last night to find the small tray containing the various small parts that I had prepped but not yet attached, on the floor and the parts scattered to the four corners of the room.  I can only assume that one of our extremely annoying cats had jumped up onto the workbench.  Fortunately I spotted it before I started walking around in that area and of the parts I have managed to find so far, fortunately none are broken but I have no definite recollection of what was in the tray so I won't know if anything is still missing until I need to fit it.  I think I have everything but only time will tell.

 

I also had a very nice email back from Peter at Atlantic Models saying that he had modified his website so that the Cheverton image could be expanded.  I shall definitely be ordering a set of those as they look so much better than the one I have.  I'm just waiting to see if there's anything else I need (he did say that he has spare decal sets for BRAVE and mine are somewhat yellowed so are currently sitting in a sunny windowsill to see if they can be resurrected) before I put in the order.

 

Thanks for watching

[Alan P]

Steady progress, certainly keeping things interesting with the 3D printed parts.

 

I still don't understand why modellers have cats, as if we can't break enough things ourselves 😂

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, Chewbacca said:

the plate.  Which was in a most bizarre location that I would never have even thought to look there. 

 

Intriguing!

 

Bad luck with the cat attack. I've often wondered how long it will be before my dog chews what she thinks is a stick but which I will know to be a mast. 🐕

 

An ex-mast present for her?

[Chewbacca]

Just a quick update.  Second 3D print run complete and a few more bits printed including the Avcat pump, the RAS roller fairleads and some of the 25 man life rafts though the ground power cable reels and Sea Skua trolley do not seem to want to print at all.  I suspect they may be too fine even though the tubes are all 0.2 mm which should be within the capacity of the Mars.  I've redrawn them both at 0.3 mm to see if that works and will run another print overnight tonight.  But I'm going to have a look at least at creating the trolley using 0.2 mm Albion Alloys nickel rod.  Here's where I wish I could micro solder because I don't think CA will work as the contact points are just so tiny.

 

I also got the first coat of primer on the aft part of the ship so that I could see how well the quarterdeck has faired in.  Still a fair bit of filling needed me thinks though this is perhaps not the best angle to show it.

 

 

There is a nasty scar in the deck midships which this photo does show.  When the primer's dry I need to understand whether that is fully covered by the funnel or not.

 

Thanks for watching

[Chewbacca]

After about 4 attempts, I finally got a Sea Skua trolley to print correctly

 

 

Liferafts, HMP, Yellow Veil

 

 

Stbd Sea Skua, one of the EOSS and the ground power cable reels

 

 

And some of the figures

 

Unfortunately one of the key figures pushing the Sea Skua trolley fell captive to the carpet monster 😒

 

There's another print run just finished with some more liferafts, DLF, navel pipes and flight deck floodlights.  Looks like I will have to do one more after that to print the missing figure

 

Next job is to add some more filler to the quarterdeck panels (and possibly midships deck) and scrape off the mounts for the liferafts to be replaced with the more accurate 3D printed ones.  Then prime the 3D printed parts, PE frets and miscellaneous resin fittings.

 

Thanks for watching

[Chewbacca]

Quarterdeck panels filled, rubbed down and reprimed.  I think they'll work.

 

 

You can also see the port prop guard fitted.  The original WEM kit that this is from didn't include them at all.  I did have a pair in PE from the spare BOXER fret that I bought for HECLA but I thought they looked too 2-D, so these were shaped from 40 thou square styrene rod.

 

You will recall the earlier "catgate" incident when I found a tray of parts spread all over the floor.  Well yesterday morning I came down to find my workbench lamp lying on the floor and BRAVE only hanging on to the bench by dear life.  So I figured I would have to make space to put it away safely when I'm not working on it (or have sweet and sour kitty for supper - my preferred solution but I have been told very firmly by SWMBO that that was not an option).  Anyway, cleared away a shelf in a cupboard above the workbench which will do until I fit the hull to a base as there's only about 1 cm spare either end.  I thought this was a little telling when I put the hull - which is supposed to be flat - on a glass shelf - which I know is flat.

 

 

Perhaps the sea state might have to be a little higher than the millpond seen in the image on page 1.  To be fair, we did have a few days when it got up to SS 4-5 in the NPG so it's not unusual and in a previous deployment out there in HMS BOXER when the Shamal came down from Iraq, I seem to recall we had about 50 kts of wind for a few hours and SS 7.

 

While I was waiting for the second coat of primer to dry, I turned my attention to Larry the Lynx (actually it was known as the FBI - the Flippin' Big Indian).  The basic shape isn't bad although I would argue it has more of an AH 2 pointy nose than a HAS 3 but I can live with that.  What I couldn't live with was the lack of Orange Crop aerials on the nose and fuselage sides, nor the radio aerials on the tail boom.  Also, the port mainwheel had broken off so I needed to replace that and since the remaining stbd mainwheel was in a fore and aft position, I cut that off too and replaced both with thin slivers of 40 thou styrene rod, correctly toed out at about 25 deg (Can't remember the exact amount).  It was done that way so that when the cab was locked on deck with the deck lock, the pilot could turn the nosewheels through 90 deg and then swivel into the relative wind for take off.  I also took the opportunity to add the deck lock from a  1.3 mm length of 20 thou rod and drilled out the exhaust though this photo doesn't show that too well.

 

 

Back into the spray shop this afternoon for the first coat of top coat.  Now, having heard everyone else - well nearly everyone else - rave about Sovereign Colourcoats, I bit the bullet and bought some light weatherworks grey and extra dark sea grey, together with a bottle of the recommended thinners.  Mixed it roughly 50:50 (but I do confess it was eyeballed) and this was the result:

 

 

 

The only way I could get any paint to actually attach to the model was to take the outer castle ring off the airbrush and spray it at about 35 psi from about 1/2 inch range which was what has produced that mottled effect.  If it was a BF 109, I think I'd be quite pleased with it, but it's not and I'm not.  Now, I'm not for one minute blaming the paint.  There are more than enough people on here who get excellent results with it for me to know that the only thing that went wrong here was me.  I don't think it was the airbrush because when I was cleaning it out afterwards just using normal white spirit, I was getting a lovely spread at about 10 psi, so I can only presume that it is the paint mix that was too thick.  So come on any Colourcoats experts, any ideas what went wrong?  Do I need to thin it more than 50:50?  Do I need to accurately measure it drop by drop?  I'll give it a second coat tomorrow and I'd like to get the mix right.

 

Thanks for watching

 

[Alan P]

Great work with the 3D printed parts.

 

Re Colourcoats...not sure what you've done there. 50:50 paint vs thinner is about right (I use slightly more paint to thinner for darker shades). If you're using the CC proprietary thinner (you said recommended, so I'm guessing you are) the problem seems to be either the primer or lack of it, high pressure (35psi sounds way too much, I usually spray at 15-20 with a 50:50 mix) or adding too much paint in the spray mix with your double action airbrush. If you're doing it right, you shouldn't really be able to see the actual spray coming out of the nozzle until it hits the surface.

 

With CC I'd also expect to apply a light mist coat first, then go over it straight away with a wetter top coat.

 

If you're doing all that already, it might be a case of experimenting with the new paint until you get a good result!

[Chewbacca]

Thanks Alan.  I tried at lower pressure first but there was nothing coming out at all.  The more I thought about it last night the more I'm convinced that it must have been my paint mix which I sense must have been too thick.  I really must invest in some droppers to measure this accurately rather than eye balling it.  I shall have another go today.

[Alan P]

9 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

I really must invest in some droppers to measure this accurately rather than eye balling it.  I shall have another go today.

I use the 5ml syringes that come with liquid Nurofen! Easier to mix and clean than pipettes or eyedroppers and they last forever 😉

[Chewbacca]

Well I may have cured most of the problem.  I did a full strip down on the airbrush (Iwata Eclipse SBS) and there was a fair amount of gunge stuck in the nozzle which can't have helped in any way.  So I've cleaned all of that - though why is it whenever you do a job like this, you can never find the airbrush cleaning set - and given it another go.  I can at least now get an even spread though to get it to spray at all the paint mix is way thinner than I would expect for acrylics.  As a result, though it is looking less patchy than before, it's now had at least 4 coats and I reckon at least two more to go before I get the finish I want.  But it does give a lovely finish where it has sprayed okay.

 

In between coats, I have been doing some more CAD.  Realised that I needed a pair of Sonar Type 182 towed decoys to go on the quarterdeck.  They were relatively straightforward to draw although I've just realised that having taken the dimensions from the Jecobin plans, I've just drawn them to 1/192 rather than 1/350 because I forgot to do the scale down.  Doh!  Rather than redraw them again, I'll just reduce them in scale to 55% full size at the print stage.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Chewbacca

[Chewbacca]

So 5 light coats of Sovereign Colourcoats and I think I'll call that as acceptable.

 

I certainly see why people like this paint, because after I realised that it must be much thinner than the acrylics that I usually use and properly cleaned out the airbrush, the finish of this paint is excellent.

 

It seems also to have passed the masking tape test as I took a strip of Tamiya 10 mm tape, burnished it down hard and then removed it without any impact, unliek the issues I had with the last resin kit HMS PUMA when none of the paint was able to withstand the pull of the tape!

 

Since these photos were taken, I've now also masked up for the boot topping, trying to take account of the hogging in the hull, but I think having looked again at some photos, I may have put it too low so I think I will need to lift it by about 1 mm or so.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for watching