Flower class corvette, Scratch Build, 1/600 and Finished

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday guys, thanks very much. Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I've adopted the solid ends approach on wooden ships, filling the gaps between the first and last few frames with balsa blocks. It helps a lot when planking over the extreme curves and balsa sands like a dream, like wiping a cloud away. 

 

Have you considered using gentle heating and pre bending of your strakes? 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

16 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

I've adopted the solid ends approach on wooden ships,

Gidday Bertie, that seems to have worked for me here, too. The bow wasn't bad but I think trying to wrap the strakes around the counter at the stern would have been a nightmare. And the strakes themselves are cut from soft Evergreen styrene sheet and they bent around the hull curve beautifully, once I'd worked out a technique. Heating them wasn't necessary, in this case anyway. I did one on either side of the hull simultaneously so each would counter-act any twisting/warping tendency, but I think the hull is now rigid enough anyway to resist that.

       I decided to cut the 2mm strakes from a sheet rather than use pre-cut strips. It was much cheaper and as I knew I'd have to sand and fill anyway the precision of the pre-cut strips wasn't needed.

I've now done a bit of sanding and then smeared filler on quite liberally. More sanding when it hardens. Not really worth a photo, I think most of us know the procedure.

       Regards, Jeff.

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Jeff

Just had a pleasant catch up, progressing well now and by the sounds of it the hull will soon be licked into shape, Bertie's Balsa segments sound great and certainly will help keep the profile and jive the planking something to go against, I was going to suggest 2 part car filler over here we call in Isopon p38 filler, good stuff but is very dusty when sanding,  stick that in between the ribs and it will have some weight too and be very rigid.

Great work

Chris

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 1/27/2023 at 12:08 AM, bigbadbadge said:

Bertie's Balsa segments sound great and certainly will help keep the profile and jive the planking something to go against,

       Gidday Chris, the frames/ribs are quite close together on this model, it being about 105mm long overall so balsa wasn't needed here. But I have in mind some other ships I'd like to make and if the gaps between frames on them is much greater then balsa in between them would certainly help I think. I'd like to try a destroyer hull in the future, nearly twice as long as this. But I'm not going to even think about starting any others until this build is done.

       I have a very little bit of progress to report. As I said in an earlier post I've started the filling and sanding process. While the filler is drying I've started on the deck houses and such. Well, the aft deck house anyway.

       On top of the block is the hull, obviously, copiously smeared in Tamiya putty, the third lot to date. More sanding tomorrow after it's hardened. In the foreground is the aft deck house, which is an extension of the foc'sle deck really. The arrows point forward so it's around the wrong way right now. It's also upside down (inverted). Due to it having to follow the sheer (upward slope) of the deck it'll be sitting on I've had to modify my procedure a little. The side walls (bulkheads) have been cut and shaped using the same template as the hull below the piece. Those short re-inforcing pieces would normally be longer and fewer. In the photo they're all glued to the bulkheads but only the end pieces are glued to the deck. Shortly after this photo was taken I inserted glue under the middle pieces, turned it right way up then pushed down with a finger in the middle as the glue took hold. It now has a curve to match the hull main deck below it.

       Well that's it for now. I'll start on the bridge structure soon, in between sessions of filling and sanding the hull. So thanks for your comments and interest. Stay safe and regards, Jeff.

[bigbadbadge]

Great to see the hull take shape with the filling. I am always in awe of you model makers making something from scratch.  One day I will do it, I keep telling myself!!!

Great work

Chris

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

One day I will do it, I keep telling myself!!!

Gidday Chris, the best time to start of course, is now! You never know until you give it a go. 🙂 And thank you for the compliment. Regards, Jeff.

[Ngantek]

Really impressive work Jeff. There's always something a bit magical creating such organic shapes as ships hulls from 2d sections. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Smashing progress on this one, Jeff 🙂

[dnl42]

I'm very impressed by this work. Bravo! 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, and thank you for your comments and responses. I've got a little bit more progress on the Flower class corvette. I've added the prop shaft and pretty much done with sanding the hull. It's not perfect but I think it's as good as I'm going to get it. It actually feels quite smooth.

The small hole midway along the keel is where I'll attach her to a building block and later a display block, and the hole at the stern is for the rudder post. The two screws are unused from my Vampire model and I plan to use one of them here.

       And as you can see I've also been working on the upperworks. The long piece is the aft deck house which is in the previous photo, plus there's the wheel house I think that will have the compass platform/bridge mounted on it. Also the casing that will support the funnel, the 4-inch gun bandstand and it's support plus some positioning pieces for the deck houses mentioned.

       Well that's it for now. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and regards to all, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

All of that framing has paid off well. Hard to remember that she's made of flat pieces.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 1/29/2023 at 9:01 PM, Ngantek said:

There's always something a bit magical creating such organic shapes as ships hulls from 2d sections.

 

17 minutes ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

Hard to remember that she's made of flat pieces.

Thanks guys. Yeah I rather enjoy the creation side of modeling. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday All, here's another update of the Flower class corvette. I decided that the next job was to make and fit bulwarks around the stern, bulwarks being those solid metal 'walls' around the stern, extending up from the ship's side. But due to the outward flair of the hull in that area, particularly the stern it required more than just a straight strip of styrene glued to the outer edge of the hull at the deck edge.

       But first, to actually make the bulwarks. They weren't always vertical, but followed the flair of the hull. So I wrapped masking tape around the hull where the bulwarks were required. I started at the break of the foc'sle and moved aft. It took more than one piece of masking tape because as I rounded the stern the tape pointed skyward. In the end I needed three pieces of masking tape but that wasn't a problem. Once the tape was on I marked the inside of it at deck level, then slowly peeled it off again, being careful not to distort it by stretching it. Once the masking tape was off the hull I cut it at the deck level line, then stuck the upper bit to a sheet of 0.25mm styrene. See below.

With a sharp pencil I traced the edge of the tape onto the styrene sheet. This is the bottom edge of the bulwark, obviously. Then I drew another line onto the masking tape, the top edge of the bulwark. At the ends it was 2mm high but increased to 2.5mm around the stern then back to 2mm again. No photo, sorry. Next I cut the piece along both lines to give me the bulwark, then removed the masking tape from it.

 

Now to attach the bulwark to the hull. I did this with short lengths of masking tape, starting at the stern and working my way forward on both sides.

When I was happy with it's position I ran a bead of styrene cement around the inside edge of the hull. The model is wedged between two blocks of wood the keep the bulwarks vertical near the break in the foc'sle. But this join is not particularly strong so I added stantions (vertical posts) to support the bulwarks, and when that was done I added a thin bead of PVA glue around the inside of the bulwark/deck join. This was to fill any gaps that may have resulted from my poor workmanship, styrene cement being no good as a filler. When the PVA glue dried it was the moment of truth - peel off the masking tape. Hopefully the bulwark will stay attached to the hull, which it did this time. But there were still gaps to fill sooo, out with the Tamiya filler. Again.

 

And this is the final result:

You can see some blemishes on the sides of the hull but on the whole I'm happy with how this has turned out. I still have to cut/drill some fairleads and scuppers into the bulwarks. Also I want to drill the hawse pipes and add the anchors before I paint the hull.

       And in the foreground you can see other parts of the model I've made.

So that's it for now. I think this is going to work. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and keep on modeling. Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Neat work Jeff. The bulwarks came out really well.

 

I expect the hull blemishes will disappear under primer and yet more sanding?

[Faraway]

Most excellent. 
Jon

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Guys, thanks for your comments. Although I am extremely modest by nature (yeah, right😁) I sometimes succumb to a little bit of vanity and decided on a dry fit of all that I've done to date. I think most of us do at some point.

       The anchors are glued on, they came from an Airfix Ajax kit. They are too small for a cruiser but they're a bit basic, I might look in some of my 1/700 destroyer kits to see what I have. I might redo the funnel, I think it has a bit too much rake, and that gun tub aft of it will need to be elevated. The crosses on the bridge are the locations of the 20mm Oerlikons. I've also made the rudder and glued it on but it's not very visible from this angle.

       I've drilled then slotted some scuppers (drains) through the bulwarks, four per side. The aftermost set are fairleads I think. The other three sets should be larger and rectangular in shape but I'm going to invoke 'modeler's license' and leave them as they are.

       The hull still has some blemishes but I'm going to leave them. I find that when I fill some in with putty I often create others elsewhere. The inside of the bulwarks and the upper hull has had the first coat of white applied. I'm not altogether happy with it. Most white enamel I buy seems to appear a little 'creamy' in colour, not stark white as on the tin lid. And Revell paints often dry too quickly I'm finding, and I'm getting brush strokes. I'll thin the next lot and see what happens.

       Well that's it for now. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe and keep on modeling. Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

34 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

a little bit of vanity

 

It's not vain to take pride in your work. The ship deserves it.

[Grandboof]

Well done . She looks the part 

Martin H

[Faraway]

Looking very good, I do envy you chaps who can scratch build.

Jon

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Jon ( @Faraway), have you considered giving it a go? It's basically building up techniques and methods, tools and jigs etc, starting simple and learning as you go. There's nothing magical about it. Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

2 hours ago, Faraway said:

Looking very good, I do envy you chaps who can scratch build.

Jon

 

There are two sort of modeller. Those who scratchbuild and those who haven't done it yet.

[Faraway]

2 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Jon ( @Faraway), have you considered giving it a go? It's basically building up techniques and methods, tools and jigs etc, starting simple and learning as you go. There's nothing magical about it. Regards, Jeff.

Jeff. I wouldn’t know where to start, I’ll stay as I am.

Jon

1 hour ago, Bertie McBoatface said:

 

There are two sort of modeller. Those who scratchbuild and those who haven't done it yet.

Actually there are three, you missed those who have no intention.

Jon

[ArnoldAmbrose]

12 hours ago, Faraway said:

I’ll stay as I am.

Jon

Gidday,  👍 

Modeling is meant to be fun. If a modeler enjoys what they're doing then that's all that matters. 🙂 I plan to stay as I am with the scale I model in, 1/600, so I do understand.  Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday All, up to now I've considered the first major milestone when building a model ship is the hull halves joined, the hull painted and the model screwed to it's building block (as I call it). Well, with this model that's the second milestone, the first being actually constructing the hull.

       I've been painting the upper hull these last couple of days and today the lower hull. So this evening I've reached the second milestone:-

       Nearly all model ships I've built seem to have the keel level when afloat (not that I actually float them), with the ship drawing about the same at each end. Not so with the Flower class corvettes. They sit deeper in the water towards the stern. I knew this but under-estimated by how much when I painted the upper hull so there's more white and less colour than I planned, particularly the rear half of the ship. Oh well .   .   .  As you can see, I've got a little bit of touching up to do and she's a bit rough in places but I'm happy with how she's turning out. Of course, the true test will be the next model, in case this one is just "Beginner's Luck". 🙂

       I've started painting the main deck aft, and since the last photo I've replaced the anchors. These came from an E-class destroyer that was included in a Tamiya HMS Hood kit I bought second hand. The previous owner had started but not completed it. I don't think I will either, I'll use it for spares. This anchor is slightly over scale I think but not by much. It's closer and looks better than what I had earlier fitted.

       I don't think I'll alter the colours of the hull any more. This is a generic Flower class corvette, not a specific ship, although I modeled the paint job loosely on HMCS Snowberry. I've also painted the screw and added a shaft to it, made the engine room skylight and done a bit of work on the pompom bandstand, but not worth a photo yet.

       So this is it for now. Thank you for your comments and interest. Stay safe and keep on modeling. Regards, Jeff.