The Ship Model Forum

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to this board and this is going to be my first attempt of scratchbilding ever.

I’ll be using a Fleetscale grp hull for this project. Progress will probably be slow as my studies eat up most of my time but I shall post as I proceed. I might ask some dumb questinons but please bear in mind that I’m completely new to warship modelling.
The hull has arrived today along with scaled plans, now i have some cleaning, trimming, filling work to do. I’m still gathering buliding materials and refrence photos. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

Peter

P.S.: I apologise if my poor English leads to any misunderstanding. I’m stiil learning naval terminology.

Hello Peter Welcome any problems just ask . The 23 is a smart ship and at 1:72nd should look really good.
Dave Wooley

I will be watching too... I love this class of ships...

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NIKOS (NICK)
ΜΕΓΑ ΤΟ ΤΗΣ ΘΑΛΑΣΣΗΣ ΚΡΑΤΟΣ
(GREAT IS THE NATION THAT MASTERS THE SEAS)

Thank you gentleman for the input.

@Dave: I too think she's a beautiful ship, hope I can build her as close to reality as possible.

My first question: Does anyone know the deck camber for the Duke class frigates? I've learnt that the volume of camber is not the same at the full length of the deck. Also the landing platform is elevated from the flight deck as it is clearly visible on some photos but the flight deck itself looks to be lower than the rest of the main deck. Unfortunataly this is not indicated on the plans so I'm not absolutely sure. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Peter.

Hello Peter I have sent you a PM.
Dave Wooley

Peter
Good luck with your interesting project .

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If you are not living on the edge then you are taking up to much space

Thank you Richard I know Argyll is not a really exotic ship to build but still quite challenging for me.

Right now I'm trying to determine the true edge of the hull and working on a wooden stand to get the hull staight up so I can measure the distance from the keel to the deck edge. Unfortunately I have found that the drawings are fairly inaccurate. I assumed that the waterline should be perfectly straight... turns out it isn't.

Peter.

Hi Peter,

good luck with that. I had the same problems with my Udaloy.
It's not exotic, but it's not too common either! Haven't seen many type 23 models yet and they really are good looking ships. I've visited a couple of them in the past. Argyll was one of them, just before she left on piracy patrol I think. Any idea on the timeframe in which you will build her?

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The merchant shipyard

Good luck for your build !!
Michel

Hi Neptune,

Thank you for the encouragement! I don't really have a timeframe but it would be nice to finish this project within a year. First I have to save some money for the running gear and the R/C stuff but once the main deck is in place things sholud speed up a bit.

I've been working hard on the hull lately trying to fill blemishes and air bubbles. The hull is full of air bubbles, especially along the keel where the to halfs of the mold meets. These little pores are really hard to get rid of as the air trapped in them tend to keep the filler out. I used CA glue to fill the holes then sanded the surface smooth whit 600 grid paper. I repeated this process a lot of times but some of the holes are still visible.
The wooden stand is ready so the hull can be stood up straight. It's pretty basic but does its job.

Hi Peter looking good . For those troublesome blemishes I use a heavy primer paint called Hibuild . One spray coat of this and many of the blemishes disappear . This type of “primer filler” comes in cans and is available at motor factors or trade outlets . For more serious defects such as holes I open up the hole further and then fill . Generally most good GRP hulls are free from serious surface flaws but blemishes are a problem that Hibuild takes care of quite well .
Dave Wooley

Hi Dave,
Thank you for the tip! I'm not sure if Hibuild is available in my country but I'll look for something similar. I generally use Tamiya's surface primer to get a uniform finish but that's obviously not a filler.

Peter

Hi all,

Some progress on the fornt hawse port. I discovered that the starboard side hawse port is also out of shape and it's position is incorrect. I'm not sure if I want to rebuild that though.

Hi there and wishing you good luck in building a Type 23.

You have picked quite a large scale, so plenty of detail work to do. It will keep you challenged.

If you have not done so yet, a good idea to Google the particular ship you are modelling. That usually comes up with Images of the Ship. That should have a good lot of photos that may well answer a lot of questions.

Also try and check the equipment the ship had/has at the date you are modelling her. For example for the 4.5" gun is the turret the one with many flat surfaces or the one with rounded surfaces. Then which helicopter, the Merlin or the latest version of the Lynx (given a new name that sorry I don't have to hand as I write this).

Anyway good luck and as Dave has already said, please ask and we're always pleased to help with queries.
Mike

G'day Petya,

I am just starting a 1/72 Type23 also! doing HMS Iron Duke F234 (early fitout) its not a Fleetscale hull but an Australian made hull by a couple of guys from Taskforce 72 up in Sydney. I am just up to the stage of stiffening and bracing the hull.
It doesn't have the Anchor locations molded in so those pix you posted will help greatly (Cheers ) DW has a posted a heap of T23 pix over there (of HMS Argyll I think)

For more ideas on your build check out the modelwarshipsUK site at http://modelwarshipsuk.informe.com/forum/ there are several T23 builds in both 1/96 and 1/72 scale going on.

Best of luck with your build

Cheers Bruce

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building:
1/72 RC USS LONG BEACH CGN9
1/72 RC USS CALIFORNIA CGN36
1/72 RC USS SAIPAN LHA2
1/72 RC USS JOHN PAUL JONES DDG53
1/72 RC USS SHARK SSN591
1/72 RC USS SEAWOLF SSN21
1/72 RC USS ALBANY CG10

Hi Mike,
Thank you for the kind words. I've gathered quite a few pohotos of Type 23s but it's hard to cover every single detail. I want to build Argyll in her current outfit with the mod1 Mk8 stealth turret. As far as I know Argyll carries a Super Lynx (HMA.8 ), I'll probably use the Hobby Boss 1/72 kit.

Hi Bruce,
Looking good! It's nice to see an other Duke in progress, please keep me posted as you proceed! I'm trying to figure out that starboard anchor location right now. I'm only guesstimating cause I don't trust the drawings any more but once I find the correct dimensions I'll let you know.
Thanks for the link! Hope I find some inspiration over there!

Peter

Hello Peter,

in order to try to help you estimate sizes on a ship. A standard railing is approx 104cm high from deck to top. Deck to first stanchion is about 20cm, between lower and middle stanchion as well as middle to top is about 40cm. That'll give you some in-between sizes to measure and estimate sizes of other objects. Railings can be found all around the ship, so they give you a reference in a lot of pictures and places.
Good luck in correcting this. If you have a good car-body filler you could fill the anchor place entirly and start out from 0 on that.

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The merchant shipyard

Hi Neptune,

Thank you! You really helped me out here!
I will cut the whole port out of the hull and start to build the new one from there.

Peter