This evening I started on the rear deckhouse and having already painted the radar office, was going to refit one or two of the legs that had fallen off and glue it in place, when I decided it looked pretty rough. It wasnt square, it had a weird texture on all the surfaces and looked a little small. I had also fitted the PE doors a bit off square but most of all, the walkway around the radar office looked much too narrow. I decided to make my own from scratch. I printed off another 700 scale plan, cut out the plan view of the radar office and glued it to a piece of 0.4mm styrene sheet. I cut it out and fitted six brass 3mm legs. This formed the raised platform. The office was a short length of square section styrene square rod of precisely the right size which I just happened to have in my stash of bits.
As you can see below, it looks a lot sharper than the original part and is the right size too... much happier
Here it is dry fitted, although I must have knocked it during the pictures as the front end lines up perfectly, normally. I will add the ladders and the railings later after I have airbrushed the platform separately and then glue the radar office itself to the platform and add it to the rear deckhouse (which looks decidedly crudely painted under this sort of magnification!) I have yet to detail the rear deckhouse... I have several grilles to add to the vents for instance, some stove pipes and so on, and that bit of ladder needs to go... (what was I thinking!!!
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Very slow progress, but not much more to do and the closer I get to completion the more ambitious I get with it... but I am really enjoying it...
(And yes Jim, I HAVE straightened the rear nearside leg on the platform once I noticed it wasnt perfectly straight when I looked at the photo on my monitor
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Another reason why its worth buying the WEM kits... not only do they have great kits, the service is second to none!!!
