1/350 Battleship group build

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Last night I finished making the 5" guns and filling the cracks with putty. Tonight I hope to sand the putty smooth and then start on the 20mm guns.
All the while this building was taking place, I was thinking " man I sure wish the parts fit together better than they do".

Added 5/5/2013

After 5 hours of working on the "Show Boat" or should I say the "Putty Queen" this is how she looks.

[California Bound]

My Pontos deck arrived, so that is now in place. Having used MK1, Artwox, and now Pontos, I find that I prefer Pontos. There is less of a visible grain in the piece. And it's much more rigid. You can be working on one end of it without too much concern that the other end is going to flop down in some unexpected direction and stick somewhere inconvenient.



I decided that it might be a good idea to plan out the rest of the bow stripes first, just in case. Turns out that was a good idea. My size was off and at 10mm wide, I would have had 10 red stripes. I taped off 14mm and got 6. 12mm got me 8. And finally 11mm got me the targeted number of 9 red stripes. While the stripes themselves are 11mm wide, being measured accross them bow to stern, they actually cover about 14mm. And they're still not located quite right. The upper left corner of the picture should have ended in red. But oh well. Close enough. I've put a wash on the grated area. I didn't take into account that the darker red would really hide the wash. But, I still like it.



Here's my overall progress. There's still a lot to do on the quarter deck, hull sides, and bow areas before I can get into that big barren center area.



Dan.

[derailed]

beautiful work
i'm amazed at the talent everyone here has

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Nice job on the stripes Dan. Looking forward to your next update.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Unless someone says "no", while I', waiting for my GMM PE set for the North Carolina, I'm going to add another rescued ship from the "shelf of doom"to the GB. I bought this kit back in 2004 and worked on it in both 2004 and 2005 before putting it on the back shelf. I took it off the shelf this last week and brushed painted the decks, built the 5" guns, added the 16" barrels to the turrets and started working in the ships radars.

Tamiya's Moden New Jersey.

Group Builds are a great way for me to get rid (finish) models that I have lost intrest in.

[drdoom1337]

This gives me an excuse to start the combrig HMS Tiger



Mine is a waterline version. I'm attempting to finish this within the group build time frame, there are hardly any parts in the kit. I'm going to ignore the two main accuracy issues and just order a set of brass masts to ensure strong rigging and proper fitment. I have a few reference books that'll help superdetail. I don't like that railing wasn't included so I had to buy WEM rails, but everything else seems to be there.

[California Bound]

Is it just the camera angle, or is HMS Tiger extra long compared to most battleships?

Dan.

[drdoom1337]

Is it just the camera angle, or is HMS Tiger extra long compared to most battleships?

Dan.

It is pretty long, compared to it's contemporaries. the ship is 214.6m, the North Carolina class is 222m. They're very close in size

[PetrolGator]

This gives me an excuse to start the combrig HMS Tiger



Mine is a waterline version. I'm attempting to finish this within the group build time frame, there are hardly any parts in the kit. I'm going to ignore the two main accuracy issues and just order a set of brass masts to ensure strong rigging and proper fitment. I have a few reference books that'll help superdetail. I don't like that railing wasn't included so I had to buy WEM rails, but everything else seems to be there.

I'm really excited to see a Tiger on this build. In my opinion, she's still the prettiest battlecruiser built.

...hoping to start the Bismarck this week.

Chris

[dbutl3r]

This GB has really taken off! I will post some pictures of my nearly complete Missouri this afternoon which I hope to complete in the next week or two before I begin Arizona

[Deacon]

My Pontos deck arrived, so that is now in place. Having used MK1, Artwox, and now Pontos, I find that I prefer Pontos. There is less of a visible grain in the piece. And it's much more rigid. You can be working on one end of it without too much concern that the other end is going to flop down in some unexpected direction and stick somewhere inconvenient.



I decided that it might be a good idea to plan out the rest of the bow stripes first, just in case. Turns out that was a good idea. My size was off and at 10mm wide, I would have had 10 red stripes. I taped off 14mm and got 6. 12mm got me 8. And finally 11mm got me the targeted number of 9 red stripes. While the stripes themselves are 11mm wide, being measured accross them bow to stern, they actually cover about 14mm. And they're still not located quite right. The upper left corner of the picture should have ended in red. But oh well. Close enough. I've put a wash on the grated area. I didn't take into account that the darker red would really hide the wash. But, I still like it.



Here's my overall progress. There's still a lot to do on the quarter deck, hull sides, and bow areas before I can get into that big barren center area.



Dan.

This is looking the business mate.

[California Bound]

Thanks Deacon,

It's gonna slow down now with all the little pieces. I think I only added about 20 or so of them since these photos were taken.

Dan.

[dbutl3r]

Here is my USS Missouri, it should be done soon. PE is from Eduard, paints are White Ensign

[California Bound]

Thanks Gordon,

Sorry I missed your post the first time. A single mm doesn't seem like much, but by the time you add it to 17 stripes it really adds up.

Your New Jersey is looking nice. What PE are you using? Any chance of a closer look at your bow antenna area? It looks nice.

Dan.

[FlowerPower]

great stuff guys!

I'll start with my Scharnhorst tomorrow.

Behold my scale culture shock....

Oh my...

This gonna be tough for me

[Ronald47]

Well.... succes wished!

[FlowerPower]

And so I started...

...and so I came to a squeaking halt when I noticed the lower hull has sink marks where the bulkheads are

I'll try to fix that with a few layers of basecoat and sand the whole thing smooth when dry.
The lower and upper hull fit very nicely, but it's not perfect. The provided wedge is helpful, but it's not enough, so I made an extra bulkhead near the bow. Seems to do the job.



I'll use the Vallejo Air Hull Red, looks very brown I think, but I read the German hull red was more brown, so it's okey I hope.
Will highlight a bit with the Fire Red.

Okey, I'm off to sand the hull now.

Edit:

done...

I more or less expected a shake n bake kit, but...nope.

Another Edit:


Uhmm...let's call it "Cuban Cigar Brown"

More soon

[California Bound]

I've been wanting to try that brand of paint but can only get it through mail order so I haven't done it yet. Is it premixed for air brushing? Is it enamel or acrylic?

Dan.

[FlowerPower]

Hi Dan,

All Vallejo paints are acrylics, the "Air" series is indeed ready to airbrush, but I still use some extra airbrush thinner.
The "normal" range is great to airbrush with also, just more thinner.

The downsides of acrylics...not as tough as enamel paint and it often needs several (thin) layers for a good result.
I still prefer acrylics, because I can airbrush indoors without my brains melting...not even smelly. Because of the size of the 1/72 scale Flower Class corvette I'm building...my shipyard is the dining table. My wife can watch tv a few metres away from me and she never complained about me airbrushing. Acrylics dry quickly, so I hardly ever watch paint dry. I clean my brushes with water, airbrush with an ultrasonic airbrush cleaner.

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/m ... division/3

[California Bound]

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, I try to stick to enamel paints.

I've built that Scharnhorst kit myself. Main points to look out for are the instruction call out for main turret parts. And almost all of the vertical support poles are numbered wrong except for the ones that are supporting the motor boat frames. They're the only ones I remember being numbered correctly.

Dan.