WEM H.M.S. Barham 25.11.1941.

[zs180]

With the deck fittings ready for later painting I turned my attention to the superstructure. For some reason I decided to move from aft to fore, so the bulkhead on the after end of the forecastle came first. This I took from Artist Hobby�s excellent WWI Warspite set. When one side was glued to place I recognised that something was wrong. The bulwark of correct height was higher than barbette X. Measurements confirmed that the kit�s barbette is not high enough. I went on to correct this flaw by cutting a disc from the Trumpeter kit�s respective barbette, glueing it on top of the existing one and sanding the side flush, which was no easy business as the PE bulwark on one side was already in place.

After attaching the other bulwark I replaced the nameplate with one indicating �Barham� from another, really crazy set of Artist Hobby containing nameplates for most important British ships and more hundreds of individual letters.

Next I attached reinforcing ribs cut from aluminium sheet to the backside of the bulwark and a piece of sterched sprue on the top edge.

[zs180]

I went on to detail the after superstructure. In the Profile Morskie plan there is a structure on the aft end whose outline is not confirmed by any other source. Therefore I didn�t accept if and came to a solution which is mix-match of information from various sources and probably not correct at all, but I just couldn�t do any better from what I had. I cut off the bulwarks deeming them too thich and replaced them with aluminium sheet. Sanding them flush with the sides of the superstructure was tedious.

I embellished the superstructure walls with everything necessary

and glued other fittings like two beautiful fresh water tanks from Artist Hobby to a piece of cardboard dedicated to this deckhouse.

I used the ammo boxes for the 0,5� quad AA mountings form the FlyHawk Warspite set despite these having some issues. First, there are only six of them and I will need eight. Second, their shape is rectangular cuboid which is incorrect. The top should be oblique. I cut one from the sheet, glued it to a piece of aluminium sheet, marked the outline, removed the PE part cut out and folded to get an additional box. I modified the PE part to alter its shape and attached a PE hatch on top.

This update has obviously become too long and detailed. I just wanted to show that not all time has been wasted in the past few months.

[MartinJQuinn]

Insane. Simply insane amount of detail. I am humbled by your tenacity and talent.

[JIM BAUMANN]

that is really flying along and taking shape !

very nice indeedy!

JB

[marijn van gils]

This update has obviously become too long and detailed.

Not at all! I read every word with great interest!
Please keep up the great progress and detailed posting George.

Cheers,

Marijn

[ModelMonkey]

Amazing! Superb PE work, simply wonderful.

And your English skill is excellent (thank you).

[zs180]

Martin, Jim, Marijn and Steve - thank you very much for your kind words.
It is fun to discuss problems occuring during the build and to find solutions with Richard Price who is currently building the very same ship, albeit in 1:350 as a most respectable conversion involving much scratchbuilding.

[J. Soca]

Hundreds of little parts there.. I'm looking forward seeing it finished




Jose

[LE BOSCO]

HI ZS

no progress on your insane project ? Eagerly awaiting a new progress (Even a small )
cheers
Nicolas

[zs180]

Jose, thank you very much!

Nicolas, thans for the continued interest. Now, here's a small update for you (and everybody else).

Sometimes it�s harder to proceed with a build if you get additional information during construction. We�ve been through several discussions with Richard Price who builds another, most spectacular Barham about the possible layout of the after superstructure. This led me to rebuild mine to a certain degree. I added a small extension to the port side of the AA platform made of aluminium sheet, then I changed the front face altering the position of the port side vent exhaust (a change possibly necessitated by the fitment of the aircraft handling crane). This was based on a picture found in the Raven-Roberts book about British battleships.

Next a light mesh platform was constructed the exact shape and size of which is not deducible from the available sources, one can only be sure that it was there.

I�m certain that this final configuration of the after superstructure isn�t 100% correct but I�m not willing to spend any more time on refining it. I think we (Richard and I) still did our research more thoroughly than the maunfacturers of existing kits of Barham.
I plan to deal with the funnel and its surroundings as the next step, but my building process will be temporarily suspended because of a holiday trip to the US.

[RichardP]

Like. Lots.

[EJFoeth]

Me too.

[marijn van gils]

Me three!

[LE BOSCO]

Me four
Nicolas

[Joe Simon]

That is very impressive!!!!

[chewitt13]

I have just spotted the build,the attention is superb,love all the hatches and the extra detailed,that you have added,l have that super upgrade from Flyhawk, highly recommend. I did a quick build of Barham in happy times 1937,l used the trumpeter kit,with very little changed,there is one mistake l made,but it was too late to change the mistake. Can you spot it

[zs180]

It's really flattering to recieve positive comments from some of the best modelmakers!
Thank you very much.
chewitt13,
mistake? Maybe the mainmast starfish position and direction - very nice and clean build, though.

[chewitt13]

Thanks ,anyway ,it would help if I put a finished picture to see the mistake She should not have the pom poms beside the bridge works until later.

[zs180]

Well, no update for three and a half months...
In summer there is so much to distract you from modelling...
But I may be forgiven for not progressing with my build when I went to see things like these:

[zs180]

Anyway, there is some - if not much - progress to report...

I started to detail the superstructure �aft-and-fore� and that means that the bridge will come last. However there was one flaw of the kit which I had to correct upon recognising in order not to damage tiny details to be added later. When I temporarily put turrets A and B on their barbettes just to see how they look it became apparent that the top of barbette B had a slope towards the back � this was the second barbette of the kit with an inherent flaw!
I chose to correct this by glueing a thin strip of aluminium sheet to the circumference, but only to the after half, then applying a generous amount of green putty followed by careful sanding which led me to an acceptable result.

I went on to detail the funnel base. First I had to remove a block from its starboard side by cutting it away piecemeal.

The boiler room vents on the side of the funnel base presented a problem as they did not protrude from the surrounding surface. After some deliberation I decided to glue strips of aluminium sheet to the sides of the base and mate them to pieces of PE containing mesh of appropriate size cut out FlyHawk�s Hood upgrade set (this I bought just to be cannibalised so I could do the barbarian act described above without feeling any remorse). I carved a shallow recess to the locations where the actual mesh would go and coloured it black before adding the PE pieces thus preventing them from being clogged with paint during the subsequent painting process.

There is a small deckhouse with an oblique roof situated between the two funnel apertures � this was too small and its walls were not perfectly vertical. I cured this by adding layers of styrene sheet to the deckhouse until the desired size and shape was obtained. Later I added some detail to this deckhouse.