The Ship Model Forum

@ Pascalemod

Whilst I taper my own masts....

doing ( double ended !) yard arms --repeatable in size and shape- and accurately .... has eluded me !

Master Barrels produce 2 sets in 1/700 and 2 sets in 1/350

( for my Hood model I used the smaller of the large ones (!) from the 1/350 set )


I bought a large amount of yard arms at the Telford show one year


You can buy them from Starling Models ( at about the same price as I paid (!)

https://starling-models.co.uk/en/1350-b ... -no-1.html




meanwhile

review here of 1/700

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/mi ... eview.html

HTH

JIM B

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Top stuff! Wish Id have found them before my Mikasa, otherwise wouldnt have had to cover mine in "canvas"! Thanks!

_________________
- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

some news at last on this project!
gentlemen...I made an error in an earlier update when I said the Burt book contained shipbuilders original drawings of this HMS Hood

the ( new edition) of the Burt book indeed does have good drawings --and some excellent resolution double-page photos

.....but the most excellent admiralty drawings referred to ( which answer sooo many mysteries!) of many RN pre-dreadnoughts
are to be found in this newly published very worthy volume by Norman Friedman

--an excellent ( must -have!) buy for any pre-dreadnought RN fan!




in the meantime

the location of the turrets access steps can be gleaned from some of these ( excerpts of ) drawings at very usable res too!



I made and installed the 2 x large boat booms--which overlap off-set midships on the cradles fwd / aft of the funnels

I spent some time trying to replicate the goose-neck end of these spars-- making the plates of thin paper attached with thinned varnish and backfilled with a drop of CA
I also made and installed the 3" Q/F gun carriage tracks of wire for the fwd and aft fighting tops
-- sprung around the mast at the wire circle split and sealed in place with matt varnish and a drop of CA







The aforementioned Q/F tracks need some carriages...



I made these by bending some boat cradles from my brass stash ( spare Henri iV Combrig PE )



they are very small-(!!! ) - but add a bit of interest to otherwise dull insides of fighting tops


installing the Q/F guns was challenging, insofar as getting them over the rails... and under the deck ....

without damage to gun or rail... ( !!! ):Mad_5:









more soon-

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

She's looking really good Jim!
Those ladders to the turrets look quite weird but wonderful.

That's not much room for installing those guns indeed! What glue did you use?

Thanks for the steady stream of helpful tips,

Marijn

Modelling against the clock now ....-- Telford is looming .... !!

@ Marjinn....

As you know the contact area of many of these tiny guns and other small items etc is very small--
and CA superglue in that type of application , can often be decidedly.... UN-super... not having much " grab "

My favourite concoction for this is to use either:

Thinned white glue, excellent grab --but an unsubtle media ( that dries very quickly ( sometimes too quickly ..)
and this gives insufficient wiggle time

or in this instance where there are no "hanging " loadings I use Humbrol Matt cote varnish ( in the glass jar ) that has had the lid left off for months...
This gives a goooey sticky paste ( can be re-thinned) that has huge instant grab--but can be wiggled.
i will dry out and go hard in about 1 hour or so

on both of the above I then afterwards apply a droplet of the very runny Pacer ZAP pink CA glue on the end of a cat whisker or wire

This droplet spreads wraps around in a thin film and penetrates any small fissures giving a bit of strength to the assmbly

meanwhile....

I added the navigation lights , small strip of paper with a 90 degree bend and with a piece of brass rod for the lantern



and made all the QF guns-of which there were 17 ( !! )

and being dissatisfied with the first set of guns....

I removed and

I remade all the guns that I had previously fitted ... ( !! )







The shoulder pad / aiming ladder crutch on the left side of the gun
( this can also be central and of various shaes and configurations..)

( which on the real thing in 1/1 scale looks a bit like this...



in 1/350 I managed this



in 1/700 I had to simplify-as I could barely see it and certainly could not manipulate it accurately

( WEM handrail cut as per image )




Rather harder were the Nordenfelt 1" machine guns

the real thing came in various sizes with barrel fitments ranging from 4 to 10 barrels.
They could fire 600 rpm (!) and were supplied with ammunition from the vertical hopper toward the mid rear



Fortunately the four guns on Hood had shields in the photos I had -phew!
-allowing me to simplify and not construct all the really hard bits !!!



I selected a piece of elderly PE( :L'arsenal PE ?)



that usefully had what I needed-- etched corrugations top and bottom



These would make the barrels....



the PE shields ( Unknown source ) would hide the rest



Installed they sort of look passably like the real thing in the photos



The work with small guns continued into the three fighting tops,
adding the gaff spars , upper mast rigging spreader supports , davits etc





a lot of time expended on small details, but I hope the collective impression of the ship will reward the effort and time.

The entire ship--being Mediterranean based ship had full sun-awning stanchions set up all round.

The upper fwd and aft bridges also had awing stanchions--but so as to afford a bit of shade overlap the tops of these had an offset






I made these of thin brass strips cut from 1/350 railing PE longitudinals-

-a ready and repeatable source of raw material to work with







More soon!!

JIm Baumann

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Jim, wonderful work of art as usual. I have a question - what colour paint did you use for the
funnels and masts?. Was it your own mix or an available colour?. I only ask as i am looking for
something similar for another project i am planning.
Tim.

Most excellent and educational!!! (as always... )

Many thanks for the thickened varnish trick. That's a very good idea indeed!

Cheers,

Marijn

terrific work mate

_________________
IPMS Fine Waterline Special Interest Group

This is coming along wonderfully!
Hope to see it in flesh at Telford!!

Apologies for indifferent quailty photos in todays update...

my usual " bench " point and shoot had flat batteries so I reverted to another old point and shoot camera
-- which is alas noticeably of a previous generation !
( for finished model shots I use canon Eos 600 D SLR on tripod etc )
but I find the canon too un-handy at the bench when photographing in progress , otherwise I plod on and complete things and fail to explain.
=======================================================================================================

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Onwards....

after fitting ( surprisingly arduously) the deck edge railing of very thin (over-etched ==> makes thiner still )
WEM ultra fine PE and gently depressing some- but not all - of the wire spans to give a gentle droop( as per original photos)

I turned my attention to the awning supporting poles

Hood being Mediterranean based was fitted with a vast amount of sun-awning supporting stanchions, dece eged as well a down the centre-line

these were made from 1/350 P E handrail longitudinals -

that way consistency in size of the material is guaranteed

cutting them from the handrail means that visual measurement is easy when judging cutting between the stanchions to give consistency

Each deck-edge stanchion--whilst mounted in cantilever mountings outboard of the rail -
-nevertheless had a tall supporting strut inboard also!



the same also on the aft deck



Ships boats that were suspended outboard on davits often( but not always) had a " griping" (sp /) spar to which the boat was strapped
against canvas/ rope covered pads

arrowed below





These spars had" stand-offs" in a vertical " V " so that boat would be suspended below the end of the davit concentrically

Making these to scale in 1/700 and not clunky and overscale whilst retaining structural strength was potentially tricky (!!)
so I err... simplified.

Uisng 1/350 hand-railing of appropriate width for correct distance davit spacing I cut some spars integral with stand-offs





Once painted by brush they took on a more circular shape, canvas pads were added with blobs of white paint
( note that in hood these spars varied from natural timber to painted white from year to year !!







The real ship had the boast suspened by ots block and tackles

I took the short cut of gluing the boat to the spar and will be adding the block and tackles afterwards

The full complements of boats is now in place





a few more bits to add and then flatcoat, rig ,(!!) make sea and voila!


My new ship project is looming already-- so Hoods completion will be welcomed!!

more shortly !

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

another small step..

The flat coating-using my trusted Windsor and Newton Galeria varnish
( airbrushed thinned 50/50 with distilled water )
was completely successful ( phew! )



a small detail had been bothering me.... that of the large name letters aft...


when my alps printer was still alive I would have simply made a gold decal, alas my current printers are simply are not good enough

in any case these letters stood a bit proud of the ship.

Handpainting the name ( for me alas ) was out of the question

So I found a 1990's PE set from WEM in my old PE boxes -- in BRASS

The description of the fret ( and / or parts thereon) in those days was etched out-- not relief etch engraved.

alas the lettering:
wHite ensign m0 Dels 1/700 Hms D 0d0

meant I was till missing an O tediously the 0 from the 700 was a noticeably difference font...



I searched all my old PE stash but did not have a second old fret

from an old IJN cruiser GMM set of similar vintage.... in stainless steel there were also more etched thru bits of lettering;



These were slightly smaller still and easier to cut being attached only one side-( so I thought )-but the springy stainless steel
made it hard work , and many letters pinged thru the air--despite being cut inside a plastic bag !!! eh..?!

and H's on that fret were precious ( plenty of O's and even a few smattering D's !!)

once these were cut and retrieved successfully...



I had to paint them

I used Tamiya gold and contrived to stand the painted letters on end with the paintbrush so aid drying and removal from post -it-note




They were attached onto clear varnish ( on the end of a moistened cocktail stick) and then washed gently with thin black to dull down a bit

end result is alas a wee bit over scale...( !!) but the look is -I think satisfactory
and better than not at all



===> onwards !!!

-3 weeks to go till Telford...

no pressure!!

JB

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

I love how you tackled the name on the stern - inventive! Looks great, too!

_________________
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

still intensely modelling to get her completed.... in time for Telford

( now exactly 14 days to go...)

where I to be retired it would be easy...
-alas running my own business it does rather put a aqueeze on spare time --when I am not just simply tooo tired !!

but I have managed 18 hours or so of hold-your-breath-rigging so far....
=======================================================

the first thing that I did was to install the painting 'chains'
( these would be substituted for hemp ropes when funnel painting/ cleaning--but thin chains were roved through the pulleys when not is use as the hemp ripe would rot with potentially disastrous consequences!









The lower shrouds on the real ship were quite monstrously thick cables-- the upper shrouds only slightly thinner !!!







I have rarely made such thick stretched sprue to rig with!

( My method is SbS here )

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37536





The aft boat boom( derrick?) was slightly thicker in diameter than the fwd one
( I guess so as to be able to be lifting heavy steam pinnaces)
As such the the aft boat boom also had additional purchases on its pulley blocks !

These large pulley blocks --for consistency--were made of 1/700 aircraft wheels with the undercarriage struts snipped down so as to be usable as the chain attachments.

The funnels stays were quite nerve-wracking-- as the attachment on the funnel is minimal-
-and the 'landing' on the deck is " blind"



The overall effect was quite pleasing





The awning rigging interwoven by the shrouds was a test of patience

with the foot ropes--made of sprue ( muuuch thinner than PE ) was also testing...(!

fortunately there were only 2 yards that carried them

The signal halyards ( incomplete in the photo ) were made all as 'twin' lines




At the rate I am going I guess another 10-15 hours of rigging...

More soon

Jim Baumann

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

This is mad and completely wonderful!

I really wish one day you'll do a dry dock diorama of one of these early Victorian battleships!!! This thing has such tiny free board I wanna see the lot that is hidden beneath the waves!

_________________
- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

@: Pascalmodel

drtdock eh...?

have a look here-- not mine-- but Italian e-chum built it!

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html
=================================================================

meanwhile....

We are getting there....

The rig is now completed...--phew!

intense and careful study of the photos available eventually revealed where the bracing lines for the yards went

aft- it was -sailing ship style to the gaff-- was a ' discovery !

The Ensign was made by crumpling an old DunAgain Decal, and then washing in white and painting in crease shadows



fwd ...-- the yard braces went to the upper fighting top.
All the sun awning rigging was done around the perimeter as well on the bridges and fwd and aft supports




The ships boats slung outboard had canvas straps-- these were made of ' flat'-stretched sprue in brown plastic
The advantage is that one can -by softening the stretched sprue with liquid cement--
get the sprue " canvas " straps to follow the ' kinks and angles of the boats
to give them a taut look-

(alas -often these straps on models look too loose / and sagging ==> - and therefore not fulfilling their function. )




the remainder of the rigging was merely slow and tedious- !




The firs coast of wet-on-wet sea paint have gone on



more coats and layer today hopefully

JB

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

One thing that has puzzled me for a long time, Jim, is the stacks of PE frets you must have. How the heck do you find anything in them - and why does one have these stacks of them, they are not cheap ... ?

The one, who struggles just with a few internal struts in a funnel at 1:160 scale only ...

_________________
Eberhard

Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)

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Fantastic work Jim! She looks beautiful!

And I guess she will be ready comfortably in time before Telford.
I wish I could come over to see here there in the flesh...

Will the Bretagne still be your next project?

Cheers,

Marijn

@ wefalck

hahah! its a relic of my somewhat less discriminate buying pattern over the last 25 years...
and whilst modern PE frets for large 1/350 projects ARE expensive per se

my stock--albeit considerable ( !) was monetarily much less than nowadays
and in any case-pro-rata --- brass is much cheaper than beer or petrol !
...==> that is how I sell it to myself!

Much of the OLD( 1990's ) PE is unusable for ' modern' / ' fine' modelling

BUT can supply the raw material for a number different aspects of re purposing
( awning stanchions from handrail, aircraft wheels for pulleys-- even the lettering .

Much old girder work PE can be reused

etc etc

@ Marjin...

YES !

cheers
JB

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com