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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 7:55 am 
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Beautiful work again, she is really coming to life. Looking forward to further updates.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 9:37 am 
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You always do such inspiring work.

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 21, 2021 5:45 pm 
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Location: Budapest, Hungary
Pete, Mr. Church and Chris, thank you all for your kind remarks!


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:58 pm 
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I have made a steady progress and would like to show you what I have done:
The foremast has been constructed out of brass tubes from Albion Alloys (of 0.9 and 0.7mm diameter, main struts), brass rod from the Flyhawk (topmast), a modified PE starfish (WEM Barham), brass yardarms for Master Model, PE ladders (WEM) scratchbuilt railing around the platforms (none of the PE offerings seemed fine enough so I resorted to my old method of individually cut stanchions (of scrap PE) and stretched sprue longitudinals attached with Revell Contacta Liquid.
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I scratchbuilt several instruments to be put on the starfish (no picture taken of them – they are too small). The much simpler mainmast has been fashioned out of Master Model brass tapered mast and a yardarm from the same manufacturer, scratchbuilt platform with railing made as described above. A flagstaff and another yardarm at right angle to the athwartships one have also been added.
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With both masts in place:
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:08 pm 
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Location: Budapest, Hungary
During the construction of the masts I faced two problems. The first one is related to the reliability of available sources of information. In my modelling career I found that one can only trust an original photograph when it comes to details. At first (as a kid) I believed that masts, bulwarks and gun barrels were as thick as the kit showed them to be. Later I put faith in the reliability of the photoetched parts – they are there to correct mistakes of the model, therefore they are not supposed to be oversize or contain errors, aren’t they? Wrong. Moreover, even the most respected plans may contain inaccuracies. Now my faith in the original original builder’s plans has also been shattered. I took exact measurements of the position of the mainmast yardarm, which is clearly indicated on the plan and glued it firmly in place in accordance to my measurements only to find on photographs that it was mounted higher up. And they are clearly from the same time period. I just had to fix this. Besides not every detail was indicated on the builder’s plan which is less of a surprise.

My other problem is related to the Type 279 radar array that graces both mastheads. I had multiple choices here: the one from Tetra came out somewhat undersize and clumsy and I preferred WEM’s unit over the slightly larger FlyHawk offering so I chose the one from WEM (I do have a Lion Roar British radar set with a nice representation of the 279, but I left it alone as it is very difficult to obtain this set now. It seems to have been discontinued, like many other Lion Roar PE sets).
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I duly assembled the array and it looked the part on my foremast. However when it was time to add the other set to the mainmast I found to my surprise that although WEM provided two poles they failed to include enough antennas – there are two of them although four are required (two for each set).
This is a part of the WEM instructions:
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An the real thing with parts already removed:
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It is strange that no one seems to have noticed this flaw of the WEM HMS Queen Elizabeth/Valiant PE set (or at least I have not read about it before. As I really liked my foremast radar the only thing I could do was to order another set. So, for the time being the mainmast is unfinished.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:18 pm 
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Next I turned my attention to the ship’s array of boats. I found that at time depicted 45 ft fast motor boats were carried instead of the 45 ft medium picket boats that the kit provided. Two of the former have been prepared, nice resin castings from Admiralty Model Works which only required a minimum of further detailing in addition to their own PE parts.
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The 45 ft motor launch also came from Admiralty Model Works. It is also very nice but I chose to fit the WEM thwarts instead of the original one which gave me some fit issues. All of the open boats had their interiors painted prior to adding the thwarts.
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The 32 ft cutter came next. This also an Admiralty Model Works item with modified interior and WEM thwarts. The rope on the sides has been simulated by adding semicircles of fine brass wire.
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The 30 ft gig is a practically unmodified Admiralty Model Works rendering.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:24 pm 
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The very tiny 16 ft sailing dinghy is the kit part with WEM PE.
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The 25 ft
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and 35 ft fast motor boats
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have hulls from the kit with FlyHawk PE upperworks and some additional details from Scrap PE.
A balsa raft from Combrig (Harbour set) has been provided with some extra details out of styrene rod.
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Seven large and six small Carley floats have been attached to small lengths of stretched sprue and the latter to pieces of cardboard.
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These are lovely 3D prints from Micro Master.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:27 pm 
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The boats all together:
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Some oars (WEM and FlyHawk) have also been glued to a piece of cardboard for easy of painting (the untidy cuts from sprue have since been remedied).
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Some of the numerous boat cradles (Tetra) are shown here:
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Preparing the ship’s armament is my single remaining task before painting can commence.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2021 5:57 am 
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Impressing details as always, outstanding work :thumbs_up_1:


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2021 3:06 am 
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Location: Belgium
Fantastic! Those masts and boats look beautiful! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2021 8:55 am 
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Location: Herndon, VA
I adore this level of insanty.

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1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi


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PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 5:10 am 
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Szabi, Marijn and Chris,
thank you for your kind words!
I am working on the main turrets now and will post pictures once the whole armament is finished.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 10:58 am 
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The alignment on all the tiny PE parts is very impressive - even in close up pictures everything looks straight, not crooked or misaligned. Do you use any aids to line things up, or just a good eye and steady hand? What adhesive do you use for the metal parts?


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 11:36 am 
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JC_4130, I do not use any aids to line things up, I just rely on my eyes and hands as you mentioned. I usually check the alignment of individual parts by eyeballing them from multiple directions and make corrections as necessary.
Most of the time I glue PE parts with normal or gel type superglue depending on the size of surface to be glued and the possible need for subsequent adjustments to be made. Sometimes I glue metal parts with matte varnish or white glue when the joint will not be subjected to significant stress or has to remain more or less flexible.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2022 2:59 pm 
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THis is pretty amazing how lovingly you recreate every detail of the ship.

Do you solder yardarms ot masts or use superglue?

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:57 am 
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Pascalemod, thank you very much!
I try to achieve the greatest realism that I can with the material and methods available to me.

I do not solder yardarms, just file in a small groove in the mast where the yard is to be attached. This and superglue has been strong enough to make a bond strong enough to withstand the pulling power of the rigging in my builds so far.


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 1:42 pm 
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I’d be extremely happy with what you’re achieving in 1/350, let alone at half the size; great stuff!


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2022 4:45 pm 
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FAAWAFU, thank you very much!


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2022 4:59 pm 
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I have finished the preparation of all parts for painting and here is what I can tell you about the work done recently.

The ship’s armament initially seemed easier to construct than other components due to all elements of it being available in the form of high quality aftermarket products. Eventually it proved one of the more challenging chapters of the build. The main turrets came from Micro Master – after a successful application of this manufacturer’s 3D printed turrets in my previous build it was a straightforward decision.
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This set of turrets is even better because they belong to the so-called Premium Collection which displays much finer resolution thanks to a better printer than the one used for the Shapeways Collection. The print lines are barely visible, and besides being spot on in both shape and dimensions, these turrets feature unbelievably fine detail like access ladders that as fine as the better PE offerings and are printed some distance from the turret walls – a feature I have never seen before. There were only two problems with them: first, a poorly defined lower edge at the right part of the back plate.
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This was dealt with by applying layers of superglue to this part and then carefully sanding it flat with an attention to not damaging the access ladder situated there. The other problem is evident from the picture showing the four turrets together - the turrets had drooping barrels. The resin they have been printed of is apparently too soft. This was not really a problem as I would have replaced them anyway with turned brass items. From the products available to me (Tetra, FlyHawk, Master Model) the latter appealed to me the most, this was the one I used. I cut off the printed barrels, drilled open the blast bags,
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which was not very easy because the resin used for printing is remarkably brittle, while, as mentioned above it is also soft. It is strange for a material to have both of these seemingly contradicting attributes. I added some putty to the underside of the blast bags to make them sag more, which in my view adds to their realism. Next I glued in the brass barrels. A and Y turrets were ready this way, but not B and X. They had AA weapon emplacements on their roof. The 3D printed turrets had zarebas for twin powered Oerlikons. This is correct for 1943, but my model depicts an earlier appearance. I regretfully cut off the beautiful zarebas along with the supports around them,
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thinned down the central column and drilled holes in the turret roofs for the new, stainless steel supports which were carefully glued in with all of their tops at the same level.
Then tiny triangular gussets (cut from aluminium sheet, with holes drilled in them) were glued to the outward supports upon which some kind of plates (foldable splinter shields?) will rest.
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The guns will be mounted on circular platforms which were scratchbuilt out of PE mesh, aluminium discs on their top and lead foil strip at their perimeter.
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In the following pictures the finished turrets can be seen:
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 20, 2022 5:09 pm 
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The AA weapons themselves are 0,5” Vickers quadruple machine guns which were assembled from a FlyHawk PE set. They are very intricate and realistic in their appearance.
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The only modification was to run a bead of superglue along the sides of their barrels to make them less flat. I lost one minuscule component and had to scratchbuild a replacement part – it is the one with the black gunsight.
I thought that the 4,5’ DP mountings would be easy to construct for they also came from the Micro Master range. This was not exactly the case. The barrels had to be replaced, this time by turned brass item from FlyHawk. To make them fit I cut off the original barrels, drilled holes into the base cylinder and inserted brass tube (Albion Alloys) of exactly the same diameter as the barrels at their base and glued the barrels into the tube.
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mws5.JPG
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However, to make the base cylinder fit, the inside of the mounting had to be carved out in some cases resulting in cracks on the surface, which were cured by careful application of superglue and sanding.
Some pictures of the DP guns:
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mws12.JPG
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The octuple pom-poms also came from FlyHawk. They are one of the best representations of this weapon. I made minor corrections to them including (but not limited to) thickening the barrels by running a bead of superglue along their sides. The gunsights are overscale but I included them to provide more detail.


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mws9.JPG
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mws10.JPG
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