The Ship Model Forum

No, there are no typos in that title

An alternate title for this post could be "what can I do in a weekend if I really put my mind to it". The answer is take a scalpel and sandpaper to a perfectly good kit to transform it into something else.

Nearly all ship kits aim to represent the subject at some pivotal point of their career: a great battle, some high point of the design evolution or the circumstances of a tragic loss. This is completely understandable, but unfortunately means kit makers and modellers alike often gloss over long and interesting peacetime careers that indeed produced some of the most graceful and aesthetically pleasing versions of certain ships. And so it is that I pick my current subject: not rebuilt, cluttered with AA and overwhelmed by camouflage; rather just an imposing, clean lined battlecruiser proudly flying the flag on a foreign station, keeping the Pax Britannica. The very image of a great Naval Empire in one gorgeous silhouette. And with a name and motto to match that image, here's hoping I do her justice.

Antiquae Famae Custos
"Guardians of Ancient Renown"

Starting point: Tamiya 1/700 HMS Repulse

Work so far:

- armoured belts removed
- scratchbuilt torpedo bulge
- removed shelter and upper deck sections added during Repulse's 1930s refit
- scraped off catapult and a few other superfluous deck elements
- scratcbuilt missing shelter deck sections to restore pre-refit condition for Renown

Next steps:
- small bracings on the torpedo bulge
- drill lower row of portholes
- fill some now unused locating holes in the main deck
- scribe some deck planking where it's missing or was damaged in other work
- carry on up the superstructure!

Sounds interesting, Vlad.

Experimental kitbashing/re-dating are always fascinating to watch.

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

Beautiful! I'll be following this build.

A more elegant weapon, from a more civilized age!

_________________
-- Scott

AH! Old HMS refit.

I'm following this with great interest.

Ah, nice to see these changes. Im all for those also.

_________________
- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

You know when sometimes you need a quick win? I put the hull aside for now and went and built the bridge.

Fortunately for me, nearly all the work is removal of plastic from the existing kits parts. Unfortunately, this possibly doesnt make very interesting viewing. However, I did decide to go above and beyond for the compass platform. My original plan was to use the kit solid windows, but once I had it all cut up I couldn't resist adding the raised compass platform floor, finding some spare PE and leaving it open properly.

There are a couple of small details to add such as an additional control position Renown had on top of the chart office (between the tripod legs) but that shouldn't take long.




P.S. if anyone can tell me what those "bumps" either side of the front of the compass platform are for, I would appreciate it

The 'bumps' contained chart tables. You can find them on many RN vessels of that generation.

So the tables don't take up space on the compass platform itself, are sheltered from the weather but can still be read by looking down into the slanted enclosures. Wow, fascinating! That's the kind of detail that really brings my mental image of a ship's bridge to life, thank you

Moving on to the other end of the ship, I had quite a productive weekend essentially finishing the aft end of the shelter deck and stern deckhouse. Generally, I made some small compromises to maximise re-use of the existing kit parts. Again, most of the work is removing unnecessary material, such as shortening the aft deckhouse. Though in this case there was a bit of additional scratchbuilding, such as the splinter shields either side of the removed midships 4" mount (with adapted PE braces), small shelter at the base of the main mast and the armoured conning tower of the torpedo control position. Some modifications to the mast itself, including lengthening the legs to meet the deck where the aft deckhouse was shortened, and of course adding the main boom.

I also dug through my spare photo-etch box to dress up an area Tamiya has left severey lacking in surface detail, and drilled portholes.

Looking good, Vlad!

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

I had quite a productive weekend again, nothing like spending a Saturday morning drilling, eh? I completed the hull yesterday, ended up having to fill some portholes at the bow that Tamiya seems to have put in the wrong place. Drilled out the lower row of portholes just above the torpedo bulge and added the small plate details on the bulge itself (again, I'd appreciate if someone helped me understand what these actually are). I noticed while doing this that the torpedo tube hatches, that I had so carefully made sure not to damage when removing the Repulse 6" armoured belt, are in fact removed on Renown in this time period and plated over... so I fixed that too.

I also tried my hand at scribing the deck planking where there was none on the kit and is now visible due to not using Repulse's large hangars and sanding off the catapult. I've never done this before, so I tried to keep it light. Won't know for sure how good it looks until it's painted, but fortunately for me this is the boat storage area so it will be mostly covered up anyway.

Today I finished the scratchbuilding on the central shelter deck and bridge. Main elements are the searchlight towers on the aft funnel, the hangar and the additional control position atop the chart house that I missed in the earlier bridge work. Some of the deckhouses around the funnels are recycled from the kit parts (but not necessarily placed where they would have been) rather than entirely scratch build.

That leaves the major components of the model ready to paint! Since questions about build and paint order crop up very often with regards to ship models, I've included an on-off picture. This shows the full silhouette of the complete conversion work on the ship, and the extent of sub-assembly breakdown I would normally work with and be comfortable painting on a project like this.

Looking good. I tend to now paint ALL at once, as airbrush cleaning etc is such a hassle for me. So I have like 3 ships now bunching up in a line.

The amount of changes looks quite reasonable and not to heavy, but will result in a cool unique model. I assume it will be bright almost white bluish grey of 507c?

_________________
- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

Nice work. Keep it going.

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

One reason for picking this exact time period is that the conversion from a Repulse kit is marginally more straightforward than e.g. a WWI Renown or a 1920s Repulse. Those would have required a complete bridge rebuild rather than just sanding some plating off the front; and I could leave more of the conning tower deck and structure underneath untouched, back to and including the pom-pom mounts. I doubt this will be my last conversion like this though, I'm obsessed with the class. How well this has gone, in particular the removal of the armoured belts, has put all sorts of ideas in my head...

I brush paint so that makes life easier, but I do rattle can prime because acrylics adhesion isn't good enough for how much I handle my built kits. This is the priming point, with all sub-assemblies secured in place temporarily to self-mask joining surfaces. And she is actually primed already

And yes, 507C is on the menu as Renown spent a stint in the Med at this time. Another reason for picking this fit, I wanted her nice and bright as you say.

The small plates (which were not that small) were reinforcement structures for the bulges.
[quote="Vlad" Drilled out the lower row of portholes just above the torpedo bulge and added the small plate details on the bulge itself (again, I'd appreciate if someone helped me understand what these actually are).

I thought that's what they might be, but why reinforce a mostly empty structure on the outside? Couldn't they brace it internally?

From looking at the drawings in AOTS Warspite it seems like the bulges were attached to the hull in such a way that the inner, original, hull was not pierced by any new structure in areas the bulges were supposed to protect. So the were 'hung' on the side and supported on the bottom of the ship. I think ( but that is mostly speculation from my side) the designers may have tried to prevent transmission of the shock of the torpedo detonating on the bulge.

So, the rest of the build is fairly straightofrward. "OOB" for lack of a better word, now that all major reconstruction is complete. I'm not planning on doing a super-detail job here, I feel I've spend the effort I wanted on this project where it really needed to be spent and now want to complete it as cleanly and neatly as I can before my inspiration runs out. However, that doesn't mean no more updates. As I said, not doing anything super special but some may find some of my techniques interesting, particularly brush painters.

I always start painting my ships with the deck, and for a wood deck that means getting out my trusty tub of Humbrol 71 for the base coat. I use coloured pencils to make a wood deck effect. First, a fairly even (but not too even) rub with a yellowish ochre colour to bring out the scribed planking. Then more deliberate localised rubs with dark brown and grey; the aim here is not to draw on individual planks, but just to create the overall effect of an itermittent light/dark pattern. As a last touch, since I don't like masking except as an absolute necessity, I use a mechanical pencil to trace the edges of large deck details such as barbettes, breakwaters, superstructure bulkheads and the edges of the wood planked area. This will act as a guide and physical barrier to paint running when I paint these details.

And finally, I use my trusty 00 detail brush (of which I clearly need to buy a new one) to paint all deck details freehand.

I also took the opportunity to paint the boot stripe. This one will be masked to get a straight edge when I paint the hull sides later. Since Repulse and Renown sat quite low in the water after their various 1920s refits, the Tamiya hull is just tall enough that the boot stripe would be showing. So painting it on is necessary despite this being a waterline model.

Damn fine technique, that. Need to try it some time...

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

Ah, yes! The fine painting of a wooden deck has become a lost art! Yours looks better than any wood replacement ones that are on the market!



Bob Pink