Gun Cruiser Group Build

[MartinJQuinn]

Great work Matt!

[taskforce48]

Great work Matt!

Thanks Martin!

Nice bit of scratch work on that gun director and fighting top Matt!...what did you use for the window frames?

Thanks again Dave! The window frames are 1/192 PE ladders that I stole from another kit.

Been working on the catapults this morning, hopefully some pics this evening of a finished product.

Matt

[drdoom1337]

Matt,

I ordered a 1/700 Prinz Eugen from Tamiya with both Flyhawk sets. I'm growing really impatient because it still hasn't gotten to my house!

Jon

[EN2Boger]

I started The Baltimore this morning (1/700) but now Im stuck on paint

Edit: Found out she was Measure 21 during 1943



Now I just need to get a hold of some deck blue.

[Cliffy B]

Are you using enamels or acrylics? If acrylics look for Pollyscale paints. They have the entire line of USN camo colors. I don't know what stores you have local but HobbyTown USA carries Pollyscale. They have a store locator on their website. Just an idea.

[EN2Boger]

Im using Gunze Sangyo Mr.Colour

[taskforce48]

I ordered a 1/700 Prinz Eugen from Tamiya with both Flyhawk sets. I'm growing really impatient because it still hasn't gotten to my house!

Jon

Ought to be a nice build, there is an out of the box build at my LHS and it looks pretty nice as is. The Flyhawk sets really ought to make it pop. Waiting can be the worst part of our hobby.

I started The Baltimore this morning (1/700) but now Im stuck on paint

Edit: Found out she was Measure 21 during 1943

Might I suggest you add a little white or very light grey to the paint you are using for the 5-N and use that for the vertical surfaces. In 1/700 20-B can very dark and 5-N would look good as a substitute. Just a suggestion and it might get you rolling without having to hunt down more paint. Plus if the paint isn't 100% the same around, that's fine as 5-N was very prone to chalking and fading anyway so you have ready to go weathering.

Matt

[Quincy]

Matt has a very good suggestion for the 20b deck blue. Another simple way would be to spray the deck 5N , and lighten it with pastel chalks of light grays. If you make a mistake, a cloth or tissue soaked in water will get rid of the pastel chalk, and then you can try it again.




Bob Pink.

[Bob Cicconi]

Matt's Chicago looks awesome! The scratch-built director looks really nice!

[EN2Boger]

Might I suggest you add a little white or very light grey to the paint you are using for the 5-N and use that for the vertical surfaces. In 1/700 20-B can very dark and 5-N would look good as a substitute. Just a suggestion and it might get you rolling without having to hunt down more paint. Plus if the paint isn't 100% the same around, that's fine as 5-N was very prone to chalking and fading anyway so you have ready to go weathering.

Matt

If I get what your saying, instead of painting all the vertical surfaces just with 5N, Mix a little gray or white into it, then shoot the vertical surfaces and just shoot 5N on the horizontal surfaces?

[taskforce48]

Pretty much. It's referred to as scale effect. Most things as they are viewed from further away tend to get lighter in tone vs. close up. In a sense since 5-N is lighter than 20-B, it should be ready to sub for the deck color and with a little white mixed in it should make the out of the bottle 5-N a shade or two lighter. The thing about 20-B was it was also easily faded with the sun always beating down on it and the constant foot traffic, so you could almost get away with just painting the whole thing one color and through weathering achieve a nice difference in shades like Bob P. suggested.

HTH
Matt

[EN2Boger]

Thanks, that makes sense now, back in the box she goes until monday when i can get some pastels.

[JTninja]

Past the point of no return...1 Gun port down, 1 more to go, then I get to remake them!



Also started on rear gun mounts and the metal walls on the gun deck. They were too short compared to railing, so they're being rebuilt. Dont have much experiance scratch building, but so far so good!



Going to start working on scratch building the main and rear superstructures tomorrow.

[taskforce48]

Past the point of no return...1 Gun port down, 1 more to go, then I get to remake them!

Go JT...Go! Looking pretty good there, are you planing to do her in her dazzle?

Matt's Chicago looks awesome! The scratch-built director looks really nice!

Thanks, I am just glad that I only have one to build

Here is where I stand with the catapults and will probably remain in this state until next week. My spruced(or should I say evergreened) up version with a kit supplied one. An interesting feature that I found while doing this is that both Port and Starboard Catapults are the same, not mirrored like the kit would have you build them. It will require some careful adjusting on the kit now as the PE was designed to be reversed and fit around the deckhouse on the Starboard side but that is a matter for another post.

Hope you enjoy and looking forward to what the next few days bring everyone!

Matt

[Bob Dedmon]

Here is the latest update on my 1/700 Chicago January 1943

Bob,
She sure is looking good! I thought some of these parts were small in 1/350, but in 1/700 I would be bald in no time.

Thanks Bob, Yeah 1/700 is a pain but space is premium. I have the initial water laid down and drying next is to dry brush the wave action into it. I'm going to attempt to show her in a hard port turn to evade torpedoes ala that last fight. I started on the tripolds last night, the aft tripod legs are in now it's time to finegle them to get the fighting top on properly. The forward tripod seems to be a pain...I measured the legs out perfectly and they won't meet up properly at the top...to bring them in I think I'd need to extend them about 1 CM. Another slight problem with the forward tripod is that the starboard leg is being pushed by one of the upper levels of the superstructure. In the past I routed the shielding in that area to permit a better fit. I haven't done that yet but I may to try ot get a better fit. I'm toying with the idea of including crew figures (for the first time) but I started figuring requirements based on the conditions and came to a total of around 110 figures minimum (6 each for the 40 MM mounts, at least 5 each for the 5" guns, 1 for each Mk 51, and 2 each for the 20's). If things go well I should be finished with her in a couple weeks provided CinC House lets me.

[EN2Boger]

Picked up some Gray Tones Pastels this morning, waiting on the 5N to dry on the deck, then I will go back and lightly cover it with the lightest gray I have.

[EN2Boger]

well I lightened up the deck, does it look okay? This is the first time using pastels for me. Nothing has been sealed yet.

[Quincy]

Looks fine to me.




Bob Pink.

[taskforce48]

I think it looks pretty good, it depends on if you feel there is enough of a tone difference between it and the the 5-N on the hull sides.

Matt

[NukeMM]

well I lightened up the deck, does it look okay? This is the first time using pastels for me. Nothing has been sealed yet.

You may find that after a clear coat (gloss or flat) that your gray pastel effect will disappear. With an airbrush, it either disolves the chalk or it blows it off of the surface; I'm not sure which. Maybe both.

I've had better luck adding dark pastel to tacky-dry acrylic painted surfaces and lightly swirling or brushing it around, than I have with adding lighter pastel colors before applying clear coats.

The lighter (or darker) pastels can be added after all of the clear coats are done.