Thanks for your interest in my humble work.
I have been quite busy lately, with work and family problems - life is not always pink.
I have been painting many of the finished sections, and have already built the bridge, which was more complicated than I thought. I will try to take a couple of pics and will upload them tomorrow.
Very best regards,
Willie.
Willie,
Sorry to hear that you've had work and family problems. I hope they are being resolved and that everything or everyone is well or getting better.
We are all just glad that you didn't die, or something, before finishing this beautiful build. Is that being too, selfish on my part? But, I'm sure you know what I mean.
NukeMM wrote: We are all just glad that you didn't die, or something, before finishing this beautiful build. Is that being too selfish on my part? But, I'm sure you know what I mean.
Nuke, I know very well what you mean -- this feeling is also very familiar to me
I have already built the bridge structure, which was far more complicated than I thought at first. The piece containing all nine windows is wider than the width of both bulkheads, so it could be filed down to size erasing part of the window -- with a horrible effect afterwards -- or the whole thing had to be reshaped, which is what I did. At the same time, the plant of the bridge is false as the model is fully omitting two 90� turns in the stb. bulkhead, which had to be provided as well.
The main problem is that I cannot use putty to close the seams, as the only within my reach is Tamiya, and it is too liquid and simply a nightmare to me to use.
My solution was to add pieces of styrene strip to the top of the bulkheads (red arrows) to widen the structure and as you can see the measures are precise enough so that the seams (green arrows) are completely filled, and no filing, sanding nor putty will be necessary.
I have already added some more elements to start with the detailing, and it is at the moment like this :
I have already painted most of the minor elements to check whether they are correct or not :
Some other details are finished as well :
I hope you like it, and very best regards,
Willie.[/size]
Last edited by Willie on Sat Oct 12, 2019 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
Hi Guys,
Looks great Willie!
Stay with it and please know that we're your friends here. You're efforts on this project will definitely motivate someone!
Is that Neutral Grey you're using on the already painted pieces?
Tony
"You guys make this hobby fun!"
"Some of my dearest friends I have made right here on Modelwarships"
Tony Bunch wrote:Is that Neutral Grey you're using on the already painted pieces?
Hi Tony,
I am not sure. It the traditional Humbrol matt#64, which is the closest match to the Spanish Navy light grey. The deck is Humbrol matt#79 and the lighter grey for the ECM is Humbrol matt#147.
The colours do not look very real because of the light I am using for the pics.
Very best regards,
Willie.
Last edited by Willie on Sat Oct 12, 2019 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
Well, I received the Academy Kit of OHP Class FFG-7 on X-mas eve. VERY NICE!!! I've had some time to check it out. Been working on the Resin kit from YMW to convert 'Rubin James' into 'Doyle' and update her. Alot of trouble spacing vents and hatches while using current photos. But, I've now found the problem.... check the photos below...
The stack housing is a good reference.
After thinking about it over the weekend, I'm going to continue with the YMK kit and use the Academy kit for parts. I've got too much time in it to start over, plus the plastic kit has some drawbacks also. Like the rounded boxes and the plastic railings.
Bob W
Attachments
This is an older shot, look at the foward end of the hanger. Mainly the break where the deck house starts to angle in.
A side by side of YMW resin kit and the upper deck from the Academy FFG-7 kit. You can see that the YMW's is about 1/4" too short.
This week I finished the main stack paint.
What was already done was this :
What had to be achieved was this :
I had the idea that the paintjob would not be too difficult. I painted before anything else the main body in grey and the cover in black. But to paint the silver was simply impossible without ruining the black below. Furthermore, I realized that the exhaust tubes are not vertical, but all of them have some degree of inclination inwards, and some of them were not in the correct position either. �!#grrrr*?�� .
So I had to erase all the tubing and star again, making the two thick tubes with carved sprue. I painted them all attached to a sprue line, applying the silver with dry brush.
Very best regards,
Willie.[/size]
Last edited by Willie on Sat Oct 12, 2019 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
Hi Guys,
Stay with it Willie!
This model and you will be going places.
I just picked up the Academy 1/350 FFG-7 kit. It's not bad. What's with those vertical bands near midships? Kind of reminds me of the gross external hull details that Panda offered up on their initial DDG-51 series and that Dragon decided to leave as is.
I did notice that the Academy kit offers a superior Mk13 missile launcher, (compared to the WEM DDG kits'), and some other details that could be used elsewhere.
Happy Sunday Go Chargers!
Tony
"You guys make this hobby fun!"
"Some of my dearest friends I have made right here on Modelwarships"
I have just finished the fore mast, with the cable trunks, ladder and secondary elements. It was not necessary to use PE�s before because PE�s turn regularly to flat many elements that should be round, so it is more realistic to make these elements in stretched sprue. With ladders it is just the opposite, i.e., stretched sprue makes round what should be flat, so I had to use PE, because the ladders I used to build in 1/240 do not fit this smaller scale.
It is now like this :
It is ready to paint.
Very best regards,
Willie.[/size]
Last edited by Willie on Sat Oct 12, 2019 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
I have already finished the masts, which are complete except for the radars and the side arerial cables. The radars because they are not made yet, and the cables because they have to be placed at the very end of the construction.
A couple of general views of the masts :
The paint job was probably the most complicated thing to do and even to plan, because -- as I found no way to fix the masts to anything that would not cause damage when taking it out -- I had to take the pieces directly with my fingers, painting in sections and letting it dry before attaching the following section to be painted, and so on.
With so many little corners to paint there was no doubt whatsoever that the brush would touch somewhere else at any moment, so the paint had to be thinned to a 50% this time, what doubled the number of layers to paint.
The platforms are finally like this :
The cables and the cable trunks are actually more than twenty, so at this scale they had to be reduced to a scheme that makes them recognizable without letting the whole lot to look like a thick painted mess. I think you know what I mean.
They are like this :
And a dock view would be like this :
I think it is reasonably OK, so I hope you like it.
Very best regards ,
Willie.[/size]
Last edited by Willie on Sat Oct 12, 2019 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).
that is one stunning piece of work.....i'm currently finishing a plug for a 1/48th scale FFG hope to start making the mold by next week will keep everyone advised.....joe
Just received my Academy 1/350 OHP in the mail today. It looks like a pretty nice kit, and has been reviewed in other places, so I won't spend much time on those details covered elsewhere. Several of my thoughts on a glance at the instructions and the parts sprues, in no particular order...
1) There are pieces included for the long-deck frigates, both a flightdeck with outlines for the RAST system, as well as the plug for the stepstern and relocated aft capstan, and the angled stern extension...so why not just include a scale SH-2, and decals with additional names and numbers? Then you'd be able to model nearly every hull built.
2) All current U.S. service FFG's have a stern flap, or "ducktail" installed to improve fuel efficiency (I'm not sure about others). Does anyone have a good picture of one out of the water to help with scratchbuild?
3) Probably not a big deal at 1/350, but the rudder is not located on the centerline (actually about 2' to starboard), allowing for pulling the shaft without having to remove the rudder as well...so for those that want to be hyper-accurate, fill the locating hole in the hull and move the rudder slightly.
One more observation, and then a question...
1) Willie was speculating a number of posts ago about the louvered intakes that are located port/starboard just forward and above the helo hangars. Those are actually the intakes for the gas turbine engines. The louvers are intended to make the intake air change direction upon entrance so that large drops of water/sea spray/FOD will not be sucked into the intakes. Inside the intakes (and not visible from outside) there is another 90 degree turn intended to accomplish the same thing, and then the intake air has to pass through "demister" pads, which look like green brillo pads, which removes smaller particulates and moisture. All of this is intended to remove the FOD hazards from the engine, as well as remove as much moisture as possible for the dual purposes of corrosion control and anti-icing.
2) Has anyone heard anything about a possible aftermarket conversion for the RAN FFG's with the 8-cell VLS, and other upgrades?
. 
