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Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/600
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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:44 am ]
Post subject:  Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/600
Here is my rendition of the Airfix Belfast in 1/600. The kit's molds are from the 70s so it was one of those builds where the basic shape resembles the original, but fit and detail leave a lot to be desired. So one has to look at it as an opportunity for having fun correcting and scratch building to come up with a result that is more respectable.

I chickened out of doing an in-progress thread while I was actually building. I am making these posts with the model already finished. But as the emphasis is on scratch building the bridge, I figured it belongs to this section of the forum. Moderators, feel free to move it where you feel is most appropriate.

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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
I used the dedicated WEM set for the kit. The rest of the changes you see were scratch built.

For this build my main focus was to reshape the bridge, essentially to achieve the transformation shown below of the most prominent feature of the ship, those wind baffles.

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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
So I started to play around with plastic strips, gluing each individual baffle support to a supporting strip of plastic. The first results were not really presentable.

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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
And if you do get them exactly parallel, it really catches your eye:

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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
So I thought, I would scribe parallel grooves on a plastic sheet and cut a strip of it to glue the individual baffle supports into the parallel grooves. Well, my skills proved lacking. I could get them almost parallel, but for the life of me, could not get the distance between successive grooves right.

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File comment: So I purchased a sheet of grooved Evergreen sheet to solve this problem. The first tests were encouraging:
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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
So I took the plunge. I trimmed the kit part the represented the baffles and glued a strip of grooved sheet around it.

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File comment: And then I started gluing the baffle supports. The supports were larger than they needed to be to give space for the tweezers to grab them from a spot that is safely away from where the glue would be. The alternating orientation of the supports was intended to give me just enough space for the clippers to cut the protruding parts.
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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
Then came the sanding to reduce the size and thickness of the supports. Dirty business...

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File comment: Gradually, things started looking encouraging
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File comment: And then the big moment was seeing the effect after gluing the outer strip:
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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
Here is a bird's eye view in brutal magnification shown the detailing of the inside of the bridge. You can also see that I should have gotten the Evergreen sheet with the groves 1mm apart. The one I got had the groves 0.5 mm apart, so I was gluing the baffle supports every other groove. At this magnification the skipped grooves are visible.

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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 9:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
Obviously the bridge took a lot of attention and time and overshadowed the rest of the details contrived and scratch built, of which I do not have that many photos. Here are the antiaircraft directors being worked on.

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File comment: And here is the kit's representation of the radar on top of its tower which goes between the main director and the foremast. This was scratch built with its support being nicely represented in the WEM photo etch set. The radar itself is some scratch railing with white glue for the glass surfaces.
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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 10:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
Another fun mini project was redoing the square windows in the aft superstructure. The first image below shows how softly they were molded, which would have made it really hard to make them look square with just paint work. The second picture shows the workaround. After sanding the walls a bit, three horizontal strips of plastic were glued. The bottom and top cover the length of the walls. The middle strip is done in pieces leaving space for the windows.

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Author:  G.A.G. [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 10:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
Those of you who know the model will notice other parts that were modified extensively but I do not have pictures of how they were. Some highlights you can chase after in the pictures of the finished product below:
  • The secondary battery turrets were solid pieces of plastic. After failing to scratch build a decent version, drilled through them and hollowed them. The gun barrels are stretched sprue.
  • The superstructure under the main mast was scratch built.
  • The boats were hollowed and given portholes.
  • The roofed area under the front director was scratch built.
  • I could not salvage or scratch build the main armament gun barrels, which were hopeless and would stick out as being really out of place. So I chickened out and got brass barrels. I could not find 6in barrels in 1/600, so I got hold of a set of 4in brass gun barrels in 1/400, which scaled to 6in guns in 1/600. I have the forward turrets with the guns elevated in an effort to represent the unique arrangement that results, because the middle gun is pivoting on a different axis than the other two barrels, but the look does not impress it; it feels like it is a mistake...

In any case, I hope you enjoyed the thread. I certainly enjoyed the build. Here are some not very professional pictures of the finished product.

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Author:  Pieter [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 11:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
Very nice bridge work. Notes taken for the Trumpeter '700 version.
Author:  Timmy C [ Wed Oct 26, 2022 1:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
Fantastic work on all those wind deflectors!
Author:  JIM BAUMANN [ Thu Oct 27, 2022 2:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Building (a new bridge for) the Airfix HMS Belfast in 1/
really most excellent and diligent work ! :wave_1: :wave_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

not all that well photographed on the real thing and rarely seen in real life unless overhead!

very persistent and inspiring method.



here is a thought...? for 1/700 scale -- smaller

same methodology-- using brass PE fret waste ( or consistent size strip /' waste for the individual uprights

if the outside " wrap " were made of brass strip?

Bravo trailblazer GAG ! :thumbs_up_1:
JB
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