All craft groupbuild Dec '09 - Jan '10...

[aleccap]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2538/423 ... ed99_b.jpg
Weathering now going on, heavy in places that will mostly be removed as I go, I'm not bothering with PE around the bridge just on and along the main part of the ship.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/423 ... 358c_b.jpg
This is the first time I have touched this model all year.

[Timmy C]

This is the first time I have touched this model all year.

You crack me up, Alec. Yahagi's looking good - I would use a darker shade of green for the plane, though, unless it's just the camera playing tricks again.

[aleccap]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4033/423 ... ba98_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2748/423 ... e908_b.jpg
Slowly beginning to down scale the weathering with some wash, the rust rather bright requires a tone down or two, and my first S.O.S on this site as I've run out of my rigging nylon, cannot remember where I brought it from or what its called, just fingers and toes crossed someone does.
A bit more rail gone on, also I'll have to darken the area around the deck where the stack is, way to clean.
Timmy C - I have a Panasonic Lumix F-Z8 it takes cracking good photographs and never a problem, I none to sure if my eyes are getting better or worse, on my last model someone suggested I drill out or black blob paint the main guns, I thought that was a little strange, then again I've forgotten things like most, there was my model, guns tipped in black paint, on the site photo it looked untouched, then oddly enough I then noticed the main search-light, I used something caled chainmail silver, and that didn't even show up, the orange rust isn't that bright, it is on the photo, the aircraft is a dull but bright green, now that shows up and that's now been toned down.

[Timmy C]

San Diego was finished yesterday at the last minute before leaving my house to hand it over. Some quick shots below - was not very happy with the rigging. The sagginess of the middle 4 horizontal runs was the result of the outer runs being pulled taut (the outer ones being the ones done last).

[reigels]

I've been enjoying a few days off work to spend some time on my my 1/700 Kamikawa Maru to Kagu Maru conversion:

At this point the major scratchbuilding is done, but not much will be glued in place until after painting.

High points so far:

• New hatches and bulwarks installed,
  Scratchbuilt deck house. I'll use the kit part for the front face with some modifications.
  New funnel scratch built and copied in resin.
  New cargo winches scratch built and duplicated in resin.
  New anchor windlass, although I'm not thrilled with it and may replace with a copy of a 700 Liberty Ship cargo winch depending on how it all looks with the front gun's bandstand in place which should hide most of it.
  New bollards have also been cast, but are not shown in place.

Overall I'm pretty pleased. Any feedback or constructive criticism is appreciated.

[Kym Knight]

Hey Timmy, what was the rush to 'handover'? BTW, excellent job on build.

Scott, great bit of scratch-building. I sure wish somebody would release a few of the maru's in 1:350.

I up'd the pace a bit today and have completed all the major structures (except the mainmast) and some of the deck detail. Secondary guns, mainmast,rest of deck detail and rails tomorrow.

[Timmy C]

Thanks Kym - it was meant as a New Years/Christmas present so had to be done by the 31st.

[Quincy]

Timmy, Scott, and Kym well done!!!



Bob Pink.

[aleccap]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2794/423 ... beec_b.jpg
With little or nothing to do, the port side rail still wet with glue, no rigging as I've run-out, some D.I.Y flags and a made up one from Mr Jim B, this will stay on the shelf until my rigging arrives.
Both aircraft finished and although don't really require a tone down, I gave both a black wash.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/423 ... f3f3_b.jpg

[Quincy]

Yahagi looks good Alec!



Bob Pink.

[Timmy C]

Looks much nicer now, Alec!

[GTDEATH13]

Timmy I love the water...

Alec... Practice makes perfect.... The weathering is supeb, as well as the pe work... A really impressive result....

Now it is time for my update...

After much research and thinking and scheduling I decided that if I wanted to build a Greek fletcher right out of the box from the Revell Zerstorer kit it could not be HS Velos, that I set bout building at first. So after a little research I came up with two possible ships, both of which were ex German fletchers that where sold to Greece right after their lease ended. Those two ships where DD 500 USS Ringgold and dd 516 USS wadsworth. They became Zertsorer Z-2 and Z-3 consecutively, and right after they became HS Kimon D42 and HS Nearchos D65.

My main problem with this choice is that I will have to paint the decks, which was not planned at first and that I do not have the decals for the pennant numbers, but I will think of something...

Here are some pics of what I have done in the past two days:

The whole ship has been primed and painted grey and I also painted the vents black, as well as the funnel caps, the main mast and the directors antenna, as indicated by the usual painting practice of the Hellenic navy at the beginning of the '80s... The deck retained its German colour... That will be painted with Humbrol enamel No 27 (sea grey)

[GTDEATH13]

the most tedious task of the build is placing the rails. I have added them prior to painting, as I wanted to use liquid glue for plastic in order to ensure a more permanent and tighter fit. It took me about four hours to install them all, but the result is really satisfactory... Do not ask me how I am going to put the black nylon thread...

I also assembled the main guns, the 3" dual mounts, the torpedo tubes and the ships boat:

Close up pics of the main turrets and 3" mounts:

I hope to have painted them by midnight today...

Greetings from
Greece and happy new year to all....

[aleccap]

Thank you for your kind words, we have all done very well with this group build, just a thought - considering these finally completed models are aiming towards the gallery, poor old Sean will have his work load encreased 10 fold -

[Charlestonguy]

More work on the Hunley. Spent time reading and working with a couple of CAD artiest on the spar rigging. I was trying out some ideas they had on the spar, most of the drawings looked good on paper but didn't work out so well on the model. A lot of talk has been going on about the pad eyes and how they were used for the spar. The first picture was one idea that was proposed.
Like I said it looked good on paper but failed to keep the spar from oscillating. Then it dawned on me to use a yard for support. So I made a yoke that could be added without any trouble and bingo it worked.
I'm working on a paper that will give the details of how it works, and of how the spar was moved up and down by Lt Dixon on his finial mission.
For the boat details I used the laser scan and xrays taken of the boat in Charleston.
As far as I know this is the most accurate version to date. No one knows for sure how it was rigged, but based on the evidence so far this maybe the most plausible.
Whatever the outcome I spent 3-4 days of research to every one day of model building., the kit was easy, but the study was by far the most fun.
I hope to have better pictures for you soon, but these were the best shots I could get to you for now.
Nice work Alec and Kym, you guys are the bomb!

[ajkochev]

Progress on the scratchbuilt Kitakami is slow but sure.

[reigels]

Looks good.

Are the funnels made from brass tube? If so, how did you form them to shape. (If not, how did you make them?)

[Quincy]

Looks superb AJ!




Bob Pink.

[ajkochev]

Looks good.

Are the funnels made from brass tube? If so, how did you form them to shape. (If not, how did you make them?)

They are brass tube lightly pounded on a concrete floor with a rubber mallet until the right shape then cut. While not that noticiable in the photos, the one in the front is a smaller diameter just like the real ship had.

[Phantom Bill]

My scratch build on the Tatsuta is moving along, but I ran into a delay on the hull. I thought I had the beam profile acceptably sanded, then added the hull palting and paint. Before adding portholes, I added thge 2 fwd semi-turrets and dry-fitted the bridge (75% complete). It just didn't look right...using the 1:700 Tenyru as a guide, my hull is 4mm too wide each side on the fwd third of the hull. I'll go back to the wood shed & get the taper right, then repaint & back on track. After following the I-53 zuchini sub saga, I figure I can spend a few extra minutes to make it look right.

More photos to follow soon.