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PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:49 am 
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I thought I had a Hood topic somewhere, but I suppose it died of old age :heh: ? Anyway, no reason to open a new one and continue with some progress. Mainly verbatim blog posts, plus some work-in-progress shots for blog posts that aren't quite done yet! Should you not be familiar with my project, I've been working on a Hood model in 1/350 the past 10 years under the 'leave no detail behind act' of 2000. Every bit on the ship is modeled as well as I am able, which results in wonderful parts to build but it takes forever. The post below is on flag lockers; you could add a plastic block or you could spend 40 hours researching, designing etched parts, folding, soldering and so forth. Keeps me busy...

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This is a nice image from the Seaman's pocket book of a few flags used by the signalmen, reproduction of the 1943 version. I thought it would be a nice idea to add some colours to the flag lockers.

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Here's a pic I took of HMS Belfast's flag locker. The text on the top row is hidden in this image but reads P1 to P9 plus P0 for a few naval pendants. Most ships carried several of these lockers and images of HMS Hood before her final reconstruction show as many as 6 flag lockers, afterwards at least 4. The HMS Hood site even shows a flag locker in the wreckage but of a different type, which I cannot trace to any location at the moment. I did find images of the four flag lockers of the standard type as on HMS Belfast.

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These are the small models. Note the larger openings on the one-but-lowest row. They worked out quite nicely (which isn't a surprise as these are the second version after ironing out a few minor design errors).

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Here you can see what flag goes what cell of the locker. As each cell is about 0.3 by 0.3 mm there is no room to paint anything but solid colour.

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So I made a small colour map with the dominant colour. Yellow & red flags become orange, green & white become light green, blue & white become light blue, blue & yellow become green. Red & white may become pink so I decided they are folded such that only one colour shows. If adjacent colours are the same the flag will be 'folded' differently as well to keep the appearance of variation; the flags with more than two colours allowed for some variation.

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I prepared some styrene strip (Plastruct) and added some colour. Here you can see blue, red, and black 'flags'. These are for the one-but-lowest row, wide openings. For the other flags I painted the tip of the strips. These were cut to size with the chopper and inserted with tweezers. Sometimes they didn't fit and had to be removed. Sometimes they could only be removed by drilling them in with a 0.3mm drill and carefully removing what's left. I had one drill broken and the tip couln't be removed; the end of that flag locker. As the strip/rod of Plastruct or Evergeen is never exactly constant in its dimensions, some strips fit better than others so they were fixed with a drop of varnish. More strips lie on the floor than fit in the lockers. T His was a good reason to stop my attempt to add some striping to the 'flags' to add even more detail.

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The flag lockers were taped with their backs to styrene sheet and filled carefully. Minor damage to the base coat of the lockers is visible but I like the result. These will be added to the model after general painting to avoid embarrassing errors with masking...


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 12:30 pm 
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This impressionist modeller once again shakes his head in a mixture of disbelief, admiration and well-meant ridicule. :thumbs_up_1:

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:36 pm 
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You are a lunatic. And I mean that in the best way possible :)

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:47 pm 
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Woooooooow! Talk about well executed. Hats off to you sir :thumbs_up_1:

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:14 pm 
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Simply marvelous.

I believe your first WIP post is here: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=33891

I could have sworn there was another one not too long ago focused on the searchlights. Maybe that was in the main forum.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:14 pm 
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Ah there is was... :thumbs_up_1: I've been posting separate posts thinking my blog would be a nice replacement but that doesn't really work for the forum. The searchlights are easily repeated (arg 2010!). I'm planning to start painting the 4" guns first. I have to be sure the paint won't come off the PE too easily (steel PE, not brass) and once that is done I'll give them a base layer of Humbrol.

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The lantern is mostly made up from etched parts with one large to-be-rolled strip and some additional detail parts.

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The rolling took some testing (made a few test lanterns first), but worked out well in the end. A stepped end cap was made with the lathe later sanded down to give the lantern its curved back.

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The top detail has a small positioning block for the exact positioning (see top image, center, repeated on the rear surface of the detail part), the side parts are aligned on the lantern's inclination axis. A small jig was made to hold the lantern in place while gluing the front detail into position.

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The parts on the side really add a lot of wonderful detail. The parts were first rolled into shape and then added.

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And here are the completed parts. Some brass wire (0.1) is added to the lantern top. The searchlight can still rotate for ease of painting. I doubt the inclination axis (i.e., small brass wire) will be visible after painting as a) the searchlights were usually set looking downward and b) I think I'll add some glazing material to the PE front.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:56 pm 
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Those searchlights look amazing. I will have to keep an eye on this WIP.

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:51 am 
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... Tamiya surface primer fine ( grey or white ) it works perfectly on steel PE, I used it on my Ford Gt and I'm using it for my Porsche 917 both had thick steel PE.

I'm one of your fans, keep us updated! :thumbs_up_1:

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 2:12 am 
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But that primer comes in large cans; I only want primer I can apply with pin-point precision. Plus, Humbrol normal paint adheres very well but the steel has to be clean. Jim gave a tip to treat the part with CA accelerator first so I'll try that. When that last hurdle is gone I'll start priming the details with Humbrol.

I also tried Humbrol primer, but I find it a bit inconsistent; sometimes it flows beautifully and then it starts to sputter. I tried Vallejo primer, a primer everybody likes, but I do not understand why people like it. Too thin for close-up priming and doesn't stick well to brass. I ruined my pompoms with that primer and they very cleaned with detergents before painting. The Vallejo didn't stick to PE, resin, or styrene. So, new UP launches coming up including photo-etch set #4...

On my painting to-lean list is
- proper treatment before priming
- proper varnishing of the WEM paint
- hairspray technique for paint chipping
- learning hairline detailing/preshading
- correct procedure for decks and bulkheads (oils/drybrush/wash/filter etc)


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 4:48 am 
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Humbrol do an enamel primer that comes in small tins , i have been using this through my airbrush with success recently. :thumbs_up_1:



Sorry just noticed you have tried this :doh_1:


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 10:54 am 
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A minor update on the secondary guns. Very old and I'd rebuild them except that I'm happy with most aspects... Note the chairs and other details, all over 5 years in place already...

Image

The only parts left were the two steps in the floor, a bit of detail to the roof and the fuse setters. These fuze setters are drawn out in great detail on John Lambert's plans, except those arent the fuze setters you are looking for. The top two images show the fuze setters of the 4" guns as on board HMS Hood. Note the different material of the etched parts; the brass part was present on an earlier set but proved to be too difficult to fold. A 0.1mm change here and a different material there and the part now works. The guns themselves fit in the fully detailed shield but need to be painted separately before assembly.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 2:34 pm 
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HI EJFoeth

"a minor update" a great work :woo_hoo: much details, in so little space ,congrats
best regards
Nicolas

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 3:39 pm 
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Thanks! We should exchange tricks ;)


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:38 pm 
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I've recently bought a new airbrush and started to experiment with painting. I thought I had the proper wash/rinse/primer order figured out but the primer didn't hold well and the UP launchers and cordage reels are now ruined. I blame the Vallejo primer that doesn't adhere to the Alpaka (neusilber) nor to the resin I used. Vallejo primer doesn't spray as well as basic Humbrol enamels that give better adherence and scratch resistance; why even use a primer? Back to the etch.

I copied the ruined parts to a new fret and made some modifications.

Image

(Click to go to blog with higher-res image)

This time I was prepared for the correct Autocad-to-Illustrator sequence, working more with lines with a given thickness to create meshes, no filling in Autocad but only in Illustrator; this new set was only a few hours of work. The UP-launcher design was one of the oldest and was redesigned. As I'm now more comfortable with soldering, I decided to add new funnel grills and I wanted to solder the cordage reels anyway because the glue bond isn't that good. Other parts are some wooden gratings for the bridge, an oar rack, detail parts for the Denton floats, some spare pompom sights (I'm quickly running out as they damage easily) and new railing; why not have railing in brass?


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:49 pm 
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Impressive work in this thread... My primer of choice is Tamiya Fine Primer. Yes, it comes in a spray can, but it goes on beautifully, sticks well to metal and tucks into fine details while drying to a satin finish. It's not cheap, but then you don't want to ruin such fine work with cheap paint.

Jens


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 7:40 pm 
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A cool primer for PE is Mr Metal Primer from the Gunze brand, methinks. Sometimes I just use clear acrylic from Tamiya which
also gives a good grip to the following (acrylic) color coats.
I use primers to avoid unintended "chipping" caused by tweezers-touches and that sort of things.
Of course all parts have the same color after priming (mostly grey) which also can be an advantage.
Sometimes I think the better word for primer would be "revealer" since it detects imperfections as glue excess,
sanding scratches and similiar. Primers often also smooth the picture.
Primers of course can be polished in order to achive the perfect surface.

You know all that, man. :-)
Who am I telling this....

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:19 am 
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I've used the Tamiya spray can a few years ago, but the parts I used are very fine and need to be sprayed from several directions to get full coverage. With a spray can, this would be most difficult while the airbrush provides pinpoint precision. Polishing the primer? How to prime a binocular stand 3mms high :smallsmile:

Avoiding chipping is one of the main reasons to use the primer (I handle my parts for years on end ;) ), hence I did scratch tests using various primers and paints on styrene, brass & neusilber etched plate, resin etc. Now I simply use grey Humbrol; it is very scratch resistant, airbrushes infinitely better than the various waterbased paints I tried (Gunze/Tamiya) and gives a very thin coat. So I think I'll join the Jim Baumann Never Prime Again club and considered the primer problem: solved.


Last edited by EJFoeth on Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:09 pm 
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Exceptional quality, very impressive indeed. :thumbs_up_1:
Rob.


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:35 am 
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Now, that speaker building project I was talking about earlier was a good exercise for building a presentation cabinet. Damage to models is rare on shows but I get incredibly nervous when people are shaking hands above my model; even a minor hit can mean irreparable damage. Our local IPMS SIG Warships leader builds his own glass cases and blackmailed me to come to a few shows in exchange for a glass cabinet built at cost. Today I made a wooden base for the model using some left-over planks from my bookcase. It should protect the model against shows, transportation, and dust.

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The plank was milled to size and I cut a small ledge for the glass case. The glass is 3.0mm thick and has a bit of room to manoeuver (in case the wood works). Although my cats aren't an enemy of my hobby---they haven't caused any damage to my model---today I just couldn't get the tiny bastard out of the frame; he'd bounce back immediately after being thrown a great distance across the living room.

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The model is bolted to the plank by three nuts and bolts. Recall that I started with the WEM resin hull that I fitted with fixing bolts before adding new decks. The glass case is 80 cm wide so that it fits in most book cases (I refuse to admit it is made to fit an Ikea Ivar bookcase) and is 25 cm wide and high. That’s a bit wider than strictly required, but this size will fit my next project too. A seascape will be added once I've thoroughly exercised making seascapes.

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Yes, I assure you, cat, we are quite safe from your friends here.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:54 pm 
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Another etch? Well, the design I showed in a previous post was fine, except that I'd used very dark gray instead of black in Illustrator :heh: . A nice dotted pattern was visible over almost all the parts. The railing were fine though and only a few parts were repeated.

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With only a few parts and an A5 area to fill, I could place a 'spare' set on the other side. The UP launcher parts and some gratings for the bridge floor were drawn in three versions as I experimented with different line thicknesses for the mesh from 0.05 to 0.075 mm, the smallest working just fine (not entirely etched through everywhere, but that's not visible to the naked eye when the model is done) .The hawser reels can now be redone (sigh) but at least I can now solder them. The rest are spare parts and I added the stairs so I now have brass versions. The etch was again made by Hauler; there was less than one week between submitting my order and delivery of the etch!


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