The Ship Model Forum

Hi Marijn!
Thank you for your kind words.
Look for new pics in the Completed Models section.
The third ship in the diorama will be HMS Griffin to be built from Niko's Garland kit.
I will start construction of this model in a few weeks.

Beautiful! Congratulations! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

And having seen your stuff in the flesh, I know these photo's don't do the model justice at all, so I'm looking forward to your friends photographs. ;)

Now, what will the other ship in the diorama be?

Steve, pascalemod, thanks a lot!
Martin, please leave this thread here. I am planning on starting a new thread in the "Completed Models" forum with new, better quality pictures to be taken by a friend, who is a photographer. Thank you.

Let me know if you want me to move this over to the "Completed Forum"

Lovely model of a storied ship, built with a great sense of scale. :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

Truly wonderful and inspirational.

Referring to me as an "expert" is a risky proposition, but thanks. :smallsmile:

Your Fuso project sounds most promising. If it turns out anything like Valiant, it will be a beautiful model.

Thank you very much, Dan!
I plan to do IJN Fuso sometime.
I have the prodigious Rainbow Upgrade set and the Fujimi 1:700 kit, which seems to be a good stating point.
I don't when I get to build her, but building a ship with such killer looks is certainly going to be very enjoyable!
I only mention this because you are a well-known IJN expert.

That is one really nice build. Excellent rigging and details.

SG1, Donald, Martin, Szabi,
thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words!
The diorama will feature yet another ship, which needs to be built first.
I only hope her construction will take less time!

Hi!
The result speaks for itself. :woo_hoo:
The many small details and self-construction add a lot to the model.

I'm really looking forward to the finished diorama!

Wow! The end result was worth the journey - what a beautiful model. The figures and the exquisite rigging really cap things off. Can't wait to see it in the final diorama with Barham.

Wow! Amazing model. A crewed HMS Valiant. 19 months of work has yielded something quite special. I especially like little extra details such as the tri-podded movie camera which make this so much more than just a model warship.

SUPER! The rigging is spectacular. The figures' distribution looks very realistic and they are very well painted. A jewel of a model, Congrats! :thumbs_up_1:

SG

Thank you very much, Jim!

Some detail shots:
[attachment=6]mws12.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=5]mws13.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=4]mws14.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=3]mws19.JPG[/attachment]
And some head on and from aft:
[attachment=2]mws15.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=1]mws16.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=0]mws17.JPG[/attachment]
This was the last chapter of the construction of this model which has taken me 19 months. Although very long, compared to the four-and-a-half years for Barham it was relatively rapid. After some time I will begin building HMS Griffin, the third ship of the planned diorama. Being a destroyer, I hope she will be completed in considerably less time than her battleship consorts. I will post better pictures to be taken by a friend who is a professional photographer in the ‘completed models’ section soon.

:thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

most excellent-- and what gratifying result after all that hard work

figures look good-- not intrusive-but complementary . Rigging( very excellent btw !! )
has sharpened up the profile
and gives the model a feel of ... ' edge '!

Bravo !!

JB

The last remaining kit parts, the cranes and masts were added next.
[attachment=5]mws6.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=4]mws7.JPG[/attachment]
Rigging was done combining stretched sprue, Caenis and Lycra. The latter provided the signal halyards (painted light grey-brown and doubled, as on the real ship) and the antennae between the masts (coloured black by a marker pen). Caenis was used only when strength was required, i.e. two strands at the foremast counteracting the pulling force of inter-mast antennae and two lifts of the fore lower yard which is pulled down by ten halyards. The rest is stretched sprue including the rigging of booms and cranes. Pulleys, insulators and helm indicator gear were formed by small blobs of white glue. Finally I added a White Ensign (Hawk Graphics) and signal flags (Five Star) indicating “affirmative” and “I wish to communicate with you via Morse signaling by hand-flags” as a reply to HMS Barham’s signals. The ensign and flags are decals applied on aluminium foil, cut, given a wash of light grey and shaped to give an impression of “blown by the wind”. The ship is mounted on a temporary base until it is ready to be put into the seascape of the diorama.
[attachment=3]mws8.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=2]mws9.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=1]mws10.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=0]mws11.JPG[/attachment]

Hi, fellow modellers!
Here is an account on the finishing steps of this build.
A crew of 87 PE figures were added. I selected them from Eduard (Naval Figures and Royal Navy Figures), FlyHawk, Lion Roar and Five Star sets. All of them were thickened by adding two droplets of gel type superglue to the back and one to the front of their torso according to Marijn van Gils’s method. They were sprayed dark blue then details were picked out by a fine brush. I put them around pom-poms, Vickers quad mounts, signal deck, open upper bridge, CO included.
[attachment=5]mws1.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=4]mws3.JPG[/attachment]
[attachment=3]mws4.JPG[/attachment]
Some other figures populate the catapult deck, six of them trying to turn a Swordfish.
[attachment=2]mws2.JPG[/attachment]
You can see one crew member exiting a WT door at the superstructure under the shelter deck,
[attachment=1]mws20.JPG[/attachment]
two climbing up inclined ladders and one opening the canvas cover in one of the aft HACSs. A group of four men can be found on the forecastle deck on the starboard side of barbette ‘B’, one handling a camera.
[attachment=0]mws18.JPG[/attachment]
The famous film recording the demise of HMS Barham is being shot.

Thank you Martin!