HMS Culloden WW1 battleship

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday All, sorry about the lack of progress here. Just before midday on Friday 22nd here we got called to a bush-fire which kept us busy until it was finally declared secure and out at 7.00PM on Tuesday 26th. We had a busy time of it. Oh well  .   .   .

       I've finally got a bit of progress to report on HMS Culloden. The hull is pretty much painted. What has been holding me up these last few days was masking the boot topping. For a model this size I find it easier to screw the hull to a block of wood then place said block into a bench vise to hold it. The trouble is the bench vice is in the shed. Very hot during the day but not much light (or mojo) in the evening. Anyway, today I got it done.

       Most Airfix ship kits that I've done have one line etched into the hull for the waterline and boot topping. Hood has both, Belfast has neither. Most have the lower line marked, which is the waterline. This kit for some reason has the upper boot topping line marked. Oh well, no big deal.

       And here's the hull painted.

       As you can see, the rudders and screws are also fitted. Actually the rudders need another coat of paint but they'll do now for the photo. I decided to do a cop-out and use the kit screws as they are, not modify or replace them. I'm running behind schedule with this and want to get a move on. I've also been painting more of the superstructure parts so I haven't been completely idle. The Captain's walk at the stern needs to be fitted but that can simply slide in. The casemate 6-inch guns should have been added to the kit deck before gluing said deck to the hull so they can train outboard but I intend to have them fixed (I don't play wars with my ships now, well not often 😁) so they can be added later.
       Well, that's it. I can start painting the upper decks now so hopefully I can proceed a little more rapidly with this. Thank you for your interest and patience with this build. Stay safe and keep on modeling in the New Year. Regards to all, Jeff.

[Courageous]

Looks like you've been a busy man but glad you're finding time to move Culloden along.

Happy New Year Jeff.

 

Stuart

[Rob S]

Great work Jeff. 
 

i must remember to visit more ofter rather than just once a month let alone find the time to get back to my Tiger conversion especially seeing you so kindly mentioned it. 
 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, thanks guys. Last night I slapped on the first coat of paint onto the planked foc'sle and main decks. Today it received the second coat. On this occasion I've used Humbrol Hu93.

       I still have to mask and paint all those deck fittings of course, plus add some around P turret barbette. The barbette will fit into that big hole in the main deck about midships.
       Also shown are the first levels of the fore and aft superstructures, inverted. This is to show that I've added some styrene strips inboard of the sides, to increase the contact area for when I glue them to the decks below. To have a nice sharp demarcation in colour between the deck and the superstructure sides I allow paint on the deck to encroach under the superstructure sides. Unfortunately this will prevent the glue from taking, hence the extra styrene added. I'll probably add even more later. I know, my highly developed sense of overkill.
      Anyway, that's it for now. Thank you for your comments, responses and interest. Stay safe and keep on modeling in 2024. Regards to all, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, today I've been masking and painting HMS Culloden's molded deck fittings plus the three lower barbettes.

I've been doing it in sections. Also, true to my word I've added more internal supports under the lower levels of the two superstructures. I can't help myself with my overkill. 
       You may be able to see some white styrene additions on the outside of the larger superstructure level. These are working chambers for the re-sited 6-inch casemate guns. As built the Iron Duke class had two 6-inch casemated guns under the main deck abreast Y turret. But these were found to be useless in any sort of sea so they were re-sited above and to the rear of the foc'sle deck, where they had aft firing arcs. But the kit supplies guns for both locations, with those guns on the foc'sle deck being able to fire forward as well as aft. So I blanked off the lower guns as they were in reality, and added working chambers to the upper guns to restrict their firing arcs to aft bearings. I did this to my original build of this kit also.
       Anyway, that's it for tonight. I'm off to watch paint dry. So thank you for your interest. Stay safe and keep on modeling in 2024.
Regards, Jeff.

[beefy66]

Great to hear that your safe and well after the bush fire and some MOJO has returned looking great Jeff

 

Do you just automatically add in the supports after a previous experience or just to be on the safe side.  

 

Stay Safe

beefy

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Beefy, probably a bit of both. And also for scratch built deck houses etc the internal bulkheads carefully positioned also act as guides to get the deckhouses/superstructures in the right place. I don't have to worry about that with this model though.       Regards, Jeff.

[bismarck builder]

that's coming along nicely 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, just to indulge myself and get another idea of what she might look like  -

        Everything above the hull decks is dry fitted at present. The paint will need touching up and I'll have to 'busy up' the deck around the midships super-imposed P turret.
       With her twelve guns she would have had the heaviest broadside at Jutland, even greater than the Queen Elisabeth class. I think even with salvo firing (half a broadside, or one gun per turret) it would have been impressive to see.
       Regards, Jeff.

[robgizlu]

Wow - that's really come together - impressive end result on the hull join

Rob

[Rob S]

Excellent work. 
 

Just wondering though how much more different she (it?) would look from the Iron Duke if each funnel was like either Tigers or like the original Queen Elizabeths.  I always thought Iron Duke / Erin etc ‘s funnels looked at bit anaemic. 
 

Edited January 6 by Rob S

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday Rob, many thanks. HMS Tiger being a battlecruiser was built for high speed and hence had many more boilers than Iron Duke, 39 boilers, 85,000shp and 28knts as opposed to 18 boilers, 29,000shp and 21knts. The Queen Elizabeth class were I think the first attempt by the RN of a 'fast battleship'. So Q turret was omitted to make space for more boilers too, 24 boilers giving 75,000shp and 24 knots. HMS Iron Duke was intended to fight in the battle line and slug it out with her opponents, so I guess her funnels reflected her modest speed.

       Again, thank you for your comments and interest. Regards, Jeff.

[Modelholic]

The Queen Elizabeth's used oil fired instead of coal fired boilers.

Tom

[ArnoldAmbrose]

8 hours ago, Modelholic said:

The Queen Elizabeth's used oil fired instead of coal fired boilers.

       Thanks Tom, I'd forgotten that. When looking up the figures for my last post I noticed that she did seem to be getting better value for money, ie almost as much power from fewer boilers than HMS Tiger. Regards, Jeff.

[Rob S]

Airfix announcement this morning that the Iron Duke kit is to be reissued in the “Vintage Classics” Range. 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

22 hours ago, Rob S said:

Airfix announcement this morning that the Iron Duke kit is to be reissued in the “Vintage Classics” Range. 

NOW they tell us! Oh well  .   .   .

I guess that will make it easier for you when you decide to do a seven or eight turret whiff of the ship. 😁

And seriously, it's a pity that Airfix never did a German adversary for her. Thanks for the info. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Further to the above, in my part of the world their Vintage Classics cost about $50 in the shops. For a double-kit whiff this makes it a bit expensive to make a single model from two kits, although the left overs could go into spares or be used to make a smaller monitor-style whiff also.   The possibilities  .   .   .

Regards, Jeff.

[Andreas.R]

Whats about HMS Agincourt?  7 turrets!

[S-boat 55]

39 minutes ago, Andreas.R said:

Whats about HMS Agincourt?  7 turrets!

I know smaller than 1/600 but I believe Flyhawk do a 1/700 Agincourt 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, Andreas.R said:

Whats about HMS Agincourt?  7 turrets!

 

1 hour ago, S-boat 55 said:

I know smaller than 1/600 but I believe Flyhawk do a 1/700 Agincourt 

    Gidday, I haven't looked into it but it could be doable. As a coincidence in 1/600 the model would be almost exactly the size of this whiff. Although she carried 12-inch guns I read that the 13.5-inch turret (initially anyway) was the same as the 12-inch which is why it was a bit crowded. I don't know if Iron Duke being a later class had a larger turret.

P.S. it seems that she didn't.

 

      I've just heard over on the ATF that HMS Ajax is going to be re-released too. Pity that Airfix isn't going to add HMS Hotspur to the list. Although Ajax and Hotspur are simple kits they are great for modifying into other ships. I've done both quite a few times. Ajax OOB, plus modified to HMAS Perth, HMS Penelope, HMS Ulysses (a modified Bellona class) and HMS York. I've done Hotspur four times and intend that the fifth will be HMS Ledbury, a type II Hunt class. When I last checked I had two Ajax kits and one Hotspur in the stash.       Regards, Jeff.

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 31/12/2023 at 10:01, ArnoldAmbrose said:

sorry about the lack of progress

 

There's really no need to apologise. 😁

 

That broadside looks deadly!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, here's an overdue update on HMS Culloden. I've busied up the area in the waist around the midships pair of turrets.

       If you compare this photo with the previous you'll see that the deck fittings under the guns of Q turret are original molded-on stuff but most of those fittings around the super-firing P turret are my additions. The four boats need another coat of paint on their covers, and are just dry-fitted for the photo, as are the two turrets and P turret barbette. Airfix would have me mount the boats on davits just below the break of the foc'sle deck. There's one of the davits on the deck. The davits did exist on the Iron Duke class but were very light-weight and mounted on the bulkhead, not deck mounted with those huge square bases. And the mounting holes were 1mm diameter (one was about 1.5mm) while the davit pins were only about 0.5mm, but then this is quite common for Airfix I've found. I ended up inserting round styrene rods as 'ventilators' into the holes in the decks and relocated the boats to help cover blemishes in my mosaic deck around P turret barbette. Being a whiff this is legitimate of course. 🙂
       Anyway, that's for now, not much progress I know. I've been painting fiddley stuff, not really worth a photo.
So thank you for your interest. Stay safe and keep on modeling. Regards to all, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday All, besides adding another coat of paint to the tops of those boats I've been making HMS Culloden's casemate 6-inch guns today. I decided not to use the kit guns.

       The casemates are from 3.2mm styrene tube and the guns are tapered 0.5mm rod, 6.5mm long. I need twelve of them. You can see the kit guns here also, fourteen of them. They look sort of OK but the sprue gates are thicker than the gun barrels. That and Airfix's annoying habit of attaching guns to runners half way along the barrels makes them a bit of a pain to separate, clean up and use.
       Also in the photo are four paravanes. They're rather crude but I'll use them anyway. I'm attaching rods to them to help with fixing them to the model. And you can see the underneath of P turret barbette, showing the large round tube I've glued to it to help positioning/attaching it to the deck when the time comes.
       And most importantly of all, in the top right corner you can make out my Sunday evening glass of red Cab Sav wine in my usual anti-tippy-over glass. And when that's drunk (which it now is) I might go and pour another. So that's it for now. Thank you for your interest. Stay safe and keep on modeling.
       Regards to all, Jeff.

[Courageous]

The casemates look rather nice, just wondering how you make the tapered rod, stretched sprue?

 

Stuart

[ArnoldAmbrose]

3 hours ago, Courageous said:

just wondering how you make the tapered rod, stretched sprue?

       Gidday Stuart, for a few guns yes but not this many, too hard to get them all the same. For these and the eight 4-inch guns of my HMS Sheffield (temporarily on hold) I've used 0.5mm Evergreen styrene rod. I mark the length of the exposed gun barrel (about 6mm in this case) with a pencil, place a sharp modeling blade about 2/3 of that length and scrape towards the end of the rod. Rotate the rod a little and do it again. I do this all the way round. Then I repeat the process for about 1/3 the length of the exposed gun. After that I fold a small piece of 800 grit sand paper between thumb and forefinger and run the gun through it by pulling, again rotating the rod after each pull through. The end of the gun tends to get sharpened to a point but I trim off the very end to get a nice squared-off gun muzzle. Then cut the gun at it's entire length (including whatever won't be seen inside casemate, gunshield etc, and then do the next. My previous packs of 0.5mm styrene rod were a bit oval-shaped in cross section but this latest pack is much better, is round in cross section as it should be, which make this a bit easier.       HTH.       Regards, Jeff.