Hello everyone,
I'm about to start building the Airfix kit of HMS Illustrious at 1/350 scale.
I actually served on Illustrious as one of her chefs. I wanted to build her but do so in as much detail as possible, like the actual ship.
I have collected hundreds of close up photographs of the ship, including rigging, bushings, wiring, rafts, safety signs (FIRE, AVCAT, AESS etc...), but these things do not exist in the kit. The kit does have rafts, but they are all stuck together in groups of five or six, and that is wrong; on Illustrious herself, every raft is individual to the next one... they are spaced apart.
I haven't started the build yet, I am gathering tools and materials.... I plan to go at a very slow pace with this and I'll be using some very fine parts that are not part of the kit, such as copper wire, plastic sheet, fine strips of plastic, conduits etc..
I haven't made a model in decades! But this will be a labour of love... Any help and advice would be welcome!
By the way, I was inspired by what EJFoeth has done with his HMS Hood project. I've been looking everywhere for shackles and blocks for the rigging at 1/350, and he's done it! That's what I want to do for Illustrious.
Cheers everyone and have a great weekend!