Calling all Oliver Hazard Perry-class FFG fans

[carr]

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[carr]

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[Christian Bruer]

Hi Bob,

very interesting photos, thanks for sharing!

[Willie]

Hi all after the long absence since last February,

And here we are again...

This week I was doing a couple of unpleasant things : I closed the hull, and it was not pleasant because there was a big gap, almost 1 mm., between the breakwater and the deck that could not be closed forcing the breakwater because it would be badly bent. I filled it with some stripes of strectched sprue soaked in glue, let it dry completely, cut the exccess with a blade and finished it with fine sandpaper. It was excellent, without a trace of gap or joints.

The other thing was the flight deck that I wanted to refine making good use of the reasonably big scale. The lines and equipment are no problem at all --only that the center line is for whatever reason displaced almost two feet to port-- but there is a big number of drills that are troublesome. apparently they are distributed following a fixed pattern, but if we cross a couple of pics it is clear that not of them are, because of the towing tracks.

I used this pic for doing the basic scheme :

And the scheme was basically like this :

And I completed it with this pic that shows the places covered by the Seaking.:

The general pattern is then like this :

The pattern must be 4mm. squares that suits perfectly to a 1/300 scale. It has some mistakes that I think are minor and that I hope will go unnoticed when the deck is painted.

I will make the drills when I have the handle I have ordered, using the plan attached to the deck.
It is necessary to observe that this pattern is valid for a Spanish FFG Santa Maria-class, and is not valid for an American FFG O.H.Perry, because the drilling pattern is quite different, as can be seen in a pic of USS McClusky :

And that�s all for today.
Very best regards from Spain,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all,

As the handle for my drills has not arrived yet I thought I could make the capstan and the cable accessories, because these are thing that i can do with knife and file.

This is what had to be made :

And this is what I made :

The chain boxes are a bit too large, but I have to adapt to the chain, that in this scale is a bit complicated to find.

Very best regards,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all,

The work for today was to start the chopper and to finish the fo�cas�le. This fo�cas�le is very poor reg. details, and it needs to be completed as much as possible, to give it some smart appearance.

The fo�cas�le itself is like this :

The frames are made with Evergreen stripes, so that all of them are even, retouched with fine sandpaper. The process is quite boring, because, as all frames are to be seen together, they allow no mistakes, and the joints have to be exact. It was finished like this :

The macro pics show that not all frames are at even, so they will be retouched again.

The forepeak towing guide as a headache. It is one of those things that go unnoticed if they are well done, but will ruin the bows line if they are not, because there is no other detail to mask it. This is what had to be done :

I drilled a 1mm. hole, and made it wider with a file. Then I carved a piece of sprue till it was more or less the shape required, fixed it in place with lots of glue, let it dry for a whole day, and finished it with file and sandpaper. It is now like this :

I know it is not perfect, But I don�t want to temp fate...

I hope you like it, and very best regards,

Willie.[/size]

[GTDEATH13]

A muchawaited update... Awesome work as always... Especially with the towing guide... Very ingenious method...

Looking forward to more pics and updates...

P.S. Are the photos taken in Malaga harbour? It looks like the new part/extension of the harbour to me, after the lighthouse and the arena area... Really love Malaga... My favourite spanish city...

[Willie]

Hi there GTDEATH13 and all,

Thanks for your kind remarks.
And yes, it is M�laga although these two specific pics were not made by myself. Your eyes are as sharp as can be for recognizing M�laga in such tiny details.

Very best regards from Spain,

Willie.

[Willie]

Hi all again,

I have drilled today all the holes on the flight deck, using as a pattern the original plan --well, actually a copy-- carefully cut and placed on the flight deck as precisely as possible, then drilling directly through it :

The drill is a 0.6 mm. which is the most accurate I could find, and the result, after retiring the pattern, retouching each drill and refining with sandpaper is like this :

I think it is quite recognizable, and once painted in dark grey and with the white markings, all the little mistakes will go more unnoticed, I hope.

Very best regards from Spain,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all once more,

Yesterday�s work was the chopper, that in these FFG�s of Spanish Navy is a Sh 60 sea Hawk. This type :

This is what the kit offers, with some obvious mistakes :

The first thing to do was to cover all windows and doors, and to close with plastic the gap between the tail and the fuselage. The rotor can be used if it is thinned with sand paper, the mechanism is detailed and an axis put in place, taking care that it is pretty horizontal so that it can be set in place on the helo without further problem. As can be seen in the shadows, this one is quite well equilibrated :

As to complete the rest, it is necessary to say that the models in the Spanish Navy are not the same versions as in the American Navy, so it is necessary to be careful with the pics to be used as a model. Awaiting for the final painting it is like this :

I hope you like it, and very best regards from Vigo,

Willie.[/size]

[Sauragnmon]

Absolutely massive details so far, Willie. Beautiful work on that chopper.

[Willie]

Hi all again :

Yesterday�s work was the screw. It is a delicate point, because there are usually no pics of this area for obvious reasons, but I was lucky enough to find somewhere two quite clear pics.
This is what has to be reproduced :

The pieces in the box are basically correct, but some details have to be added anyhow, and the usable elements have to be detailed as well. The shaft has a quite steep falling angle, and the support has to me modified accordingly, and the rudder has to be balanced to rectify the angle of the hull bottom. Quite simple.
The blades of the propeller have to be thinned, but there is not plastic enough to make the tips as they should be. I don�t think I am able to make a new propeller from scratch, so this time I will leave it as it is now :

I hope you like the overall view, anyhow.

Very best regards,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all,

Some friends in the Spanish forum and Tony Bunch in this thread made me see that the prop in this model is to rev. in the opposite direction, and not clockwise, as it should... and they are right...

So after this fiasco I had to revise the entire prop. I tried first to cut a whole blade set in a single piece using a yogourt container, but no way, those blades were not to be identical in all the years of my life :

I tried then a second solution, that is to make each blade independently, cutting a pattern and reproducing it the necessary number of times until I had 5 more or less identical. I used this time Evergereen strip :

I managed to make this :

This prop corresponds quite nicely to the original piece, whose diameter we are going to assume is the correct one :

Compared with the first attempt I think it is quite more acceptable :

I managed to give the blades some curve, which makes them a bit more realistic, as can be seen in the original pics :

I made a correction to the rudder as well :

And as for now, with everything in place the result is like this :

I hope you like it, and best regards from Spain,

Willie.[/size]

[Neptune]

Very impressive work you did there Willie. Love this thread, you have a lot of skill!!! Strange with a rudder off-centre... But well seen and corrected.

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Willie,
Nice job sweet-heart!!!
In the words of a famous prophet whose name escapes me, "If first you don't succeed, try, try again".
Succeed you have my friend!!
The SH60 is too cool for school!
Tony

[orb]

Fantastic work, Willie. Great to see all your efforts paying off so well.

[Cadman]

Wow, Willie, that is an incredible difference. Glad you fixed the props, they look much better than those in the kit.

[navydavesof]

Willie,

Wow, some great posts and craftsmanship here! What kind of camera do you use for your tight close-ups?

[Willie]

What kind of camera do you use for your tight close-ups?

Hi Navydavesof and all,

Thanks for your remarks. My camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7, quite a compact thing, but very good, IMHO.

And something else I have tested : the prop has resulted to be hydrodynamic --or aerodynamic at least, when blown at at a close distance !!!!:

Very best regards,

Willie.[/size]

[pingjockey]

Looking great Willie!