Majestic Class light aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne

[Wayneb]

Hello all,

I�m starting a build log for my next project the Majestic Class light aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne which was in service with the Royal Australian Navy from 1955 until 1982. I am mainly an armour modeler and as such will need a bunch of help and I hope to get that here.


To build the project I will use:
Heller 1/400 Colossus/ Arromanches
WEM 1/400 Colossus PE
Gold Medal Models 1/400 Naval Ship
L�Arsenal 1/400 Bofors Twin
L�Arsenal 1/400 Bofors Single
L�Arsenal 1/400 S-2 Tracker
L�Arsenal 1/400 Sikorsky / Sud Aviation HSS-1 (Wessex)
ARIA 1/400 U.S. Navy Aircraft (Sea King)

For the Skyhawks I have 2 lines:
Corsair Armada�s 1/350 A-4 Skyhawk: at 350 they should only be ~12% too large. Is that I deal breaker? I have no idea, yet. If they end up looking too big I have a line on an old Revell 1/400 scale USS Enterprise which has about 12 x 1/400 Skyhawk shaped blobs of plastic.

Reference material:
Topmill Publishing, Aircraft Carriers and Squadrons of the Australian Navy
Australian Naval Drawings: HMAS Melbourne (II) - Aircraft Carrier post 1971 - profile, upper decks & sections
HMAS Melbourne Deck Detail http://www.filefront.com/13817114/HMASm ... etail.pdf/
Phil Thompson�s epic 2000 page long ~2 GB .pdf file dedicated to the Skyhawk in Aust service � Thanks buddy! http://www.aussiemodeller.com/pages/dis ... forum.html
And about every photo and YouTube video I could find with Google

Only half of the stuff has arrived so far but here it is:


Apparently the Majestic class is basically a strengthened version of the Colossus class with almost identical hull shape. Major medications for the Melbourne include: angled flight deck; new island; new radars; new mirror landing system; catapult, enlarged elevators; extensions at the rear of the sponson upon which the island is located; extension of the stern flight deck round down, flight deck extensions on either side near the arrestor wires and a host of other minor tweaks. Despite the length of the above list there really aren�t any super hard steps above as the basic shapes to be scratch built are simple and the colossus hull is the right basic shape!

Inspiration for the build came from Wikipedia which had the HMAS Melbourne as its homepage a few months ago, the announcements of further delayed the 1/350 Majestic project from OzMods http://www.aussiemodeller.com/pages/dis ... forum.html.

So here goes. A few photos of the basic hull being cleaned up. I needed to sand off all the raised detail as most of it is in the wrong spot and will interfere with my re arranged bofors sponsons. I was sad to see the panel lines go but oh well.

I have closed up holes not needed and opened up new holes. The hull needs a bit of filler and sanding to get clean lines




In these shots you can see some basic shapes I am adding to visible bits of the interior. I might even pose the front elevator in the down position!



That�s it for today. Can anyone suggest what colours I should paint the interior deck and bulkheads?

Suggestions for useful aftermarket products welcome as after all I am an armour modeler and suggestions for good reference material or techniques also welcome. Thanks in advance W

[HMAS]

Will you model her with HMAS Voyager in 1964 or USS Frank E Evans in 1969?

[Dave Rowe]

Hi Wayne
Sorry I cannot offer any assistance regarding the Melbourne but I will be following this thread. I've been toying with the idea of building the ship myself, so I'll be making notes as you go if you don't mind

Cheers
Dave.

[Cliffy B]

Looking good so far man. May I ask, where did you obtain the plans for her?

[Sr. Gopher]

I haven't seen many Australian carriers built. I'll be watching this with a close eye...

[HMAS]

Looking good so far man. May I ask, where did you obtain the plans for her?

Plans are still available from the DoD or the RAN website best to google the Royal Australian Navy & hunt from there, I've forgotten which section has what .

[Wayneb]

Dave,
Your HrMs Karel Doorman R81 has been a great source of inspiration for me in deciding to tackle this project. Although I think our end products will be very different! Keep up the good work buddy!

Cliffy,
The plans came from a few places. There are some good plans amongst the gigabits of files at: http://www.a4ghistory.com

The best above view plan came for free at: http://www.filefront.com/13817114/HMASm ... etail.pdf/

And I purchased a plan from http://www.ranhistory.org/drawings/stor ... oduct=1311 these guys seem to have plans for sale for allot of ships. Including FFGs as I see you have one on your building list.

Cheers

W

[Dave Rowe]

Thanks mate, looking forward to your next update.

[LE BOSCO]

Hi Wayne

Your mounting is also a source of imspiration as that of the Dave
It is rare to see three mounting's of the same base at the same time in a forum, for three different models!
Nicolas

[Dave Rowe]

Yes it's good to see three so different builds of the same kit.
Wayne I gave this link to Nicolas, it's a Dutch site about the Karel Doorman. This particular section has plans of the various decks and it might be helpful for adding some extra detail to the bow or stern decks.
http://www.vlaggeschipsmaldeel5.nl/html ... p.html#top

Dave.

[Wayneb]

Dave

Wow thanks so much for this link. Provided right at the right time too. I now going to town on the visible sections of the ships interior. And your site has convinced me to mount the fwd elevator in the down position.

Thanks

Wayne

[robsergar]

Wayneb: you can post a full scan of the linedraw/plans of the Colossus? you show it in your first photo.

I want to draw a complete plan of the 25 de Mayo (ex HMS Venerable)

Thanks in advance.

Sergio.

[Cadman]

Wayneb: you can post a full scan of the linedraw/plans of the Colossus? you show it in your first photo.

If those are copyrighted plans, then no. The only reproductions allowed are those for the purpose of a review to show potential customers what they are getting.

[Wayneb]

Hi all,

My HMAS Melbourne moves forward. I guess all can see that my work is being influenced by Nicolas� Arromanches and Dave�s Karel Doorman. I�m picking up allot from watching your builds fellers.

First shots below are the weather decks which I plan to paint and glue onto the inside hull on either side of the ship. Many of these provide stowage for the ships boats. I added some basic detail in them from PE ladders and scrap bits of plastic. The location of the ladders is based on the plans available at: http://www.vlaggeschipsmaldeel5.nl/html ... p.html#top I can not attest for the accuracy of the other details but hey, most of it will be hidden when assembled and I just wanted to add the impression of detail.




Cable deck? Anchor deck? Details. Based on plans from the above.

Quarterdeck:

The roof of the quarterdeck:


Hanger deck and forward elevator
I also built a basic hanger deck. I am going to glue in under the flight deck so that it hangs in the empty space between the weather deck inserts pictured above. A few issues though:
1. There isn�t a lot of room in the ship. I build the weather decks first. I made them to scale depth based on some plans I have but that does not leave much room from the hanger once the weather decks are on either side�.. I had to make my hanger deck a bit thinner than it should be. I�d advise anyone else using this approach to be careful not to make the weather decks too deep and leave room for the hanger.
2. I could not find many good shots of the elevator. I was not sure how many chains are used to rise and lower the elevator each side. It could be 3 or could be 4, I�m not sure. Frankly I think different ships of the colossus, majestic class may have had different elevator layouts anyway. Frustrating!

The first shot below shows that when I originally cut the elevator hole it was about 2 or 3 mm to far back. Hence the styrene stock in there bringing the hole further forward.


And the hangar deck detached from the flight deck ready for painting and fitting out.


Hope you like the shots. It's time to paint these interior details. Can anyone help with advice on the deck and bulkhead colours. Bulkhead are white I think. I guess the wooden decks are tan but what about the steel decks? Gunship grey or similar dark grey???

Cheers

W

[gtbred]

like your shots. but can't help you. i think kiddiecurrie can, he was in the royal navy. anyway i'm planing on doing her in 1/350. but not as Melbourne.

[LE BOSCO]

Hi Wayneb

great job! y like it

I work also on the decks (!passageways?)And I can say to you that your work is very convincing !!!!!!

bye
Nicolas

[robsergar]

I found some stuff of the HMAS Melbourne:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=bengello#g/u

The owner of this photos is http://www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/

[navydavesof]

Wayneb,

Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome!

I cannot believe how great your hanger looks. I have been thinking about how to do a below-decks hanger, and man-o-man you have done a shockingly good job with your hanger. Do you have any extra pictures of the individual assemblies?

Thanks so much for posting your work on this bad boy. You have given me such additional inspiration for my own upcoming below-deck hanger. I really look forward to more of your posts on this project!

-navydave

[Ramjet]

Hello.
I just found this forum while researching the HMAS Melbourne [II] and I'm about to start drawing up a set of plans to build at 1:72 scale.
The finished model will be the display for a number of plastic aircraft kits. That's the plan...
My son is old enough to want to build things with me now, and his grandfather served on the Melbourne.
Nothing to show as yet, but thought an introduction would be in order.

I work in 3D with Solidworks and have vowed to learn Blender as well.

Cheers,

Dave B

[Ramjet]

I have attached a photo of a deck plan I acquired from the Naval Drawings Office some time ago, with a couple of reference drawings of the fresnel landing system.

I hope this can help someone.