WIP HMS Renown (1942) White Ensign Models

[Bill Livingston]

Thanks Filipvs and Kostas...

I have had another go... Painted a mix of greens, black, dark blues and greys over the original wake and then redid the white... but much less this time.

I have coated it with varnish and will top up the remaining foam with more touches of white once totally dry, but within the current new wake line... I think this looks a bit better, what do you think?





Thanks guys... but if I could this a bit better still, let me know!

[MartinJQuinn]

I like it - very nicely done. Personally, I'd leave it as is for now and move on to the next part of the build, or that Hood you mentioned.

[Bill Livingston]

LOL!!! Yes... I know.

I DO have a tendency to get bogged down with things I want to get right and keep going at it when cant quite 'nail it'...

I think its close enough now... I suppose I'm marking time until the bits I need get here...

[Christian Bruer]

Hi Bill,

looks fine so far!
There is only one to comment, the wake is to white admidship on port and starbord (only my opinion, noticed that first in the top view).

[Bill Livingston]

Hi Christian...

I thought that too at first and was very cautious when painting that section... but there are a couple of photo's of Renown at speed in Raven/Roberts British Battleships of World War Two... the wake is pretty close to the aerial view and for some reason there is a LOT of white water amidships... I copied that pretty closely.... The wake disappears out of the top of the photo in the book and I had to guess what would happen there, along with looking at wakes of other battlecruisers... If anything there is too little white now at the stern according to the pictures, but it is much better than I had it before I started correcting it today... So progress made... thanks guys

(Hope my paint and extra PE comes toorrow so I can finally stop obsessing about this and move onto something more exciting! ).

[Christian Bruer]

...I thought that too at first and was very cautious when painting that section... but there are a couple of photo's of Renown at speed in Raven/Roberts British Battleships of World War Two... the wake is pretty close to the aerial view.....

mmhh, you're right, I've taken a look to my Ravens/Roberts too. Anyway, it looks a bit ro prominent in the photo?!

[roy allen]

Hi Bill
your water is coming on, like the dark colour very effective.
As you know i have this kit in my stash(really trying to reduce it and not add to it)there is one really annoying part about it however and thats the hangers.
I feel it should have had the option to have them open or part open with p/etch doors.


Roy

[Bill Livingston]

After off board poking by Jim B I decided I ought to post an update on Renown...

Well, I had a bit of a wait for some bits but in the end Jim sent me a couple of tins of 507C and the extra PE set arrived so I was able to get on a bit more. Not done much because it has taken an awful lot of time to clean up and detail all the small parts. The bracket under the bridge platform was cut from a spare catapult support and some extra ladders where fitted all around the bridge at the rear of the decks. You cant see them at the moment (maybe never will be able to...lol!) and I still have a bit more to do. The mainmast has been built and painted as well...

The HACS platforms have been done, including the ladders up to the platform and hatches where appropriate. These still need painting 507A, but the camouflage is painted on now.

I have also finished the base and think I will leave it as it is now. Anyway, here are some updated pictures. I think I am on the last stage now as far as assembly is concerned. I still need to glue all the main assemblies, but most just need a little bit of further detail before then...









Comments welcome....

[MartinJQuinn]

I really like that last photo - very sharp!

[Bill Livingston]

Thanks Martin

OK... got quite a lot of detail stuff done over the past couple of days. All the HA/LA guns have been painted following careful masking... very happy with them all. Also done all the rafts and so on... in fact, all the resin pieces are now painted and ready for additional detailing. I have done very little PE as yet and NOTHING is glued in place apart from the hangar to the hull. Even the rafts are held in place with blu-tac just to check the alignment of the camouflage.

Anyway, rather than detail everything I thought I would just post a load of pictures. Need to start on further detailing and adding bits and pieces to the sides of the bridge before gluing the rafts into final position. Once done I will weather all the superstructure (thats hy the barbettes are a different tone to the turrets for example... all the turrets need a coat of future, a wash and then a matt coat to bring them all in place in terms of appearance. Really happy with the way this is turning out. It's slow... but it isnt the easiest kit to paint and there have been a few things I needed to add... But as this is only the second ship I have built in the last five years or so I am more than happy... If anyone is contemplating a new model, I would thoroughly recommend a WEM HMS Renown

Anyway... a series of pictures for those interested...

























Bill...

[Sr. Gopher]

He's BACK!!!

[johndon]

Looking very nice indeed Bill.

John

[JIM BAUMANN]

Looking very very crisp.

Its neat and edgy!

I know you said its all placed on and held in place with will-power and blu-tak....

Just checking .... angles of funnels to each other/ horizontal in this pic..?

are the funnels seperate?--or are they part of one of the castings?--I cannot recall from mine..

[Bill Livingston]

No... they are just sitting there Jim... Not glued... the forward funnel sometimes sits forward when one of the brass rods I used for the platform supports isnt engaged in the holes drilled for them... I didnt notice it before I took the picture... But no, when all is glued I will try to get them all level... I still need to add the pipes for the sirens and the sirens themselves... plus I wanted to leave the rear funnel off so I can put in the rigging between the two and then pull it tight before glueing, hence the rear funnel not glued in place yet either...

Thans for the comments though... and your help with the paint when WEM had run out!

[Blackbrazen]

That's looking really good, Bill! Lovely to see the seascape finally finished...can't wait to see the next update!

[Bill Livingston]

Thanks Blackbrazen... How is your coming along? On the camouflage painting? Good fun isnt it...?

Dont worry, its worth the pain eventually... although I was close to throwing it at the wall a couple of times!

Anyway, started detailing the bridge with some PE from the WEM set and a lot of bits and pieces of brass wire, plastic rod and anything else I could find. For example the WEM PE part for the angled ladder tripod on the roof below the hacs tower was too soft to attach rigging to later, so I cut off the angled ladder and used some brass rod for the main upright and added the ladder later... it took a bit of fiddling to get it square and had to poke through the rear of the hacs tower with a needle to get it in place... which of course you cant see! Bit of a struggle at 700 scale and the camera and monitor combination shows all the flaws under this sort of magnification... but in 'real life' I'm pretty pleased with it. It looks a lot 'busier' in real life too... probably the angle I have shot it at... you cant see a lot of the ladders and the railings and the windows and doors on the rear of the superstructure. Still quite a bit to go before this sub assembly is finished... and I want to get a bit of rigging in place before I lose access to the rear of as well. But I will get on with it again tomorrow. Anyway, a couple of pictures.

(The coin = 1p or 1c for a sense of scale)







Glad I havent glued any of the superstructure in place yet... that detailing would have been a nightmare to do if I had... I like getting up and close and moving things around under my lamps... but I am coming to the point where I am going to have to start assembling, so I meant to complete each sub assembly completely and then fix it in place so it stays safe.

Still got quite a lot to do on the bridge yet... and then I'll glue everything together and coat it with Future, do some light weathering, especially on the rafts, add some bits such as ropes and oars in the rafts and then matt coat the whole thing and glue it in place on the hull... then I can move onto the rear superstructure

Bill

PS.. Forgot to add this picture earlier...



I cut some railing stock down to use as a frame for the rear of the director. The real thing was an open, but complex frame, with the front surface covered by canvas screens... the frame appears to be black or dark grey in photo's with the front canvas painted... What I have is oversimplified, but its a tiny part. I have painted the framing and the interior of the frame black, so drybrushing in a dark grey will highlight the framing and add a little bit of extra detail to the rear surface to be discovered if anyone has the eyesight or the curiosity to look. Probably another waste of time in 700 scale, like my platform and ladders behind the hanger... but at least I know its there!

[Bill Livingston]

Continued with the detailing of the Admirals bridge.

There are three binoculars each side on a raised platform and two range finders (I think!) on each side of the Admirals bridge. The WEM set provides for these, but they are flat bits of PE. Luckily, I have two sets of PE, and, as these are binocular, there should be doubled up... so despite the fiddling around I decided to use all of the PE bits and make 'double' versions rather than a flat PE. Having done it, I think it is worthwhile and makes the whole platform look much better. Again, obviously, with this sort of magnification it looks pretty crude, but then again I am no Jim B, so anything that looks good to the naked eye or reading glasses is more than good enough in 700 scale!

Anyway, a collection of photo's so you can see the stages...


The bino's for the look outs... three each side. These were mirror image on the PE set so, happily, the thing link between the two parts was about the same width as the gap between I wanted so I cut them out carefully and bent them round the back of a knife blade... Painted them 507C and then painted the seats brown leather and the binoculars themselves black. I made 'paint bridge' between the two halves to make them look like bino's..


Not sure what these are... maybe rangefinders or something... I am sure someone will tell me... any, these were flat parts so I glued them either side of a fine piece of rod and painted them as I thought fit...


The Admirals bridge more or less finished. I should add some crew at some point...


Just placed on top of the signal deck (which is next to be detailed). I still have to detail the compass platform (forward) as all I have done so far are the screen and the rails.


View from the other side... looking nice and busy now! Once I get to the next deck down and add the searchlights and signalling lamps and so on it will look even busier!

(Now I have posted the pictures I can see the binoculars/rangefinders are not upright... wonders of monitors and photo's miles bigger than the real thing! Better correct them while the white glue is still soft! )

All a bit slow and fiddly.. but I think it will be worth it in the end. I'm enjoying it immensely, which is the point after all...

[Bill Livingston]

Thanks for your comments...

OK... did a little bit more detailing and fitted a couple of things together. Looed at the plans to see if there was anything obvious I should add to the next platform down once I had added the Yagi antennas to the tubs. I modified the larger ones as the smaller pairs were next to impossible to fold AND get straight... Just too small to be neat. I cut down one of the sets from the spare set and they look FAR neater. WEM should keep all their yagi aerials to the same pattern... much easier and neater.

After doing that I decided to add three flag lockers to the signal deck. I glued some mesh to a thing pice of plastruct and then chopped it to the right size after airbrushing... You can hardly see them, but when you look at them in situ they look pretty effective... you can see what they are anyway...!


The centre long thing is a bit of plastic with the mesh glued to it just after airbrushing... This was then chopped up to make the flag lockers.


You MAY be able to see them in this photo! You can see I have added the starboard pillar under the yagi aerials and the decks are all glued onto the superstructure now.

Not a huge update... but took bloody ages and I am determined to keep up the momentum, and posting helps!!

[Quincy]

Bob Pink.

[Bill Livingston]

Thanks Bob

Okay... managed to do quite a lot of extra detailing on the bridge superstructure and then weathered it with a raw umber wash.... Still needs matt coat and a light dry brushing... which will both lighten the tomes a little but I am very pleased with the way it is looking. You can see the difference n colour on the parts that have been weathered and toned down a little... the hull and deck have been, as has the superstructure. The turrets, mast and funnels still need finishing, so they are still in raw paint.

Added navigation lights by cutting a small piece of PE platform and bending it at right angles and inserting a brass rod in the corner. It's too small to see properly, even in these pictures, but it is roughly the right size and form of the original. Probably not worth the effort in 700 scale, but it adds to the "busyness" of the whole thing. I have also added a host of other little bits and pieces and then used decal strip cut very finely for the bridge slotted windows... complete pain at that size and took a lot of fiddling to get level and even all the way round... but managed it finally and they look pretty good too... I was worried about them before, I needn't have really. Still loads to do... but I thought I would take a couple of photo's as I am going to be busy for the next few days. I have tried to show the form of the seascape so you can see the depth of the bow wave... If you look at the previous photo's you can see the overall seascape, but nothing up until now showed the depth of waves I had tried to create... Still a long way to go but I'm learning and I'm enjoying it... and thats what its all about









Apologies for the lack of depth of field...