hi folks
Moving on with the 'admiral's platform' I have now built the structures below it and also shaped the forward area below the MG stands above. Now, I thought that things were going nicely when I spotted that those beautiful people at Trumpeter had continued the shelter deck plating under the 'admiral's platform even though it was totally hidden making life easier for us nutters who modify these things. After making good the area, re-scribing the panel lines from where I had changed things only to realise that this area was a little problematic as I was getting the 'Pontos' kit which includes an etched shelter deck which of course stops at the 'Trumpeter' shaped structure....lol Still i will wait until i have the kit to see what it looks like, since the step will be on the 'blind side' so to speak it will probably be fine, depends on how thick an etch the PE deck is. Anyway, here's a picture to show the plating as it stands....
On to the area under the MG platforms and for me the first time that I've glued plastic in..well in a long time, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my 20 year old 2.5ltr bottle of Chloroform actually still works as a glue....
So this picture is viewing things from underneath, firs,t I used two short lengths of 'right angle', chamfered to match the angled sides of the structure itself as supports to stop the large curved section (conning tower base) from springing out which was the next item to go in. I then fitted what is in effect the rear wall to the 'torpedo lookout' area which is in two halves. i then had a choice of continuing the sides of the 'signalling distributing office' back to the conning tower or fitting another curved section, i took the later as it was easier, neater and indistinguishable from the curve of the tower when in place.
Next job was to fill the missing floor, for this I used a piece of clear plastic, angled the sides to a good fit under the platform deck and marked out the shape that could be clearly seen through the plastic and cut this to shape until it was a good fit in the hole. This picture shows the new part glued in place.
Now, the clear plastic that I used was much thinner than the deck so the quickest way to strengthen it was to glue small blocks of the missing thickness onto it as can be seen here by looking through the clear area.
Followed by a strengthening plate glued underneath, there was no need for a perfect fit here as this will be unseen.
here's the underside with a representation of the walled rooms below, I have followed it mostly to drawing but have stopped after the forward stairway where the strengthening plate resides blocking off what would normally be a corridor to the conning tower base, there's no point is going to far, the aim being to give a good representation of what's there when viewed from the open rear of the structure. One thing that I noticed later is the part that looks like a square behind the center section is marked on the drawings as a 'wire bin'? I hadn't noticed this before, whether i change it or not will wait until later, simple enough but of course more work and will it be seen? You may note that I have added the first 'PE' parts, I found these on the 'Pontos' fret 5 that I got from james(Sovereign) last week and since all the parts bar the funnels etches are spare I fitted these as per drawing, for these doors i have used the 'open door' etches.
so here's how things are looking the right way up, next job is to add detail below the MG platforms, now there must be some sort of doorway into the 'torpedo lookout' post, the question is what type of door? I'm thinking a sliding door, well two, one either side of the tower. For those who already have the 'Pontos' kit, have you guys found any sliding door etches on them, I have tried looking through the 'negatives' posted on the 'Pontos' site but have failed to find any so far, there should be as the central room ( signal distributing office) seen here according to a drawing in the AOTS has a sliding door in the center of the rear wall? One thing that I have decided on is to fit a pillar and it's supporting braces under each MG unit of the same diameter as used on the rear MG mount supports, makes sense to me. It looks like there's a curved section in photo's available and I have seen it drawn this way on a computer model. it's very unlikely that the navy designers/engineers would mount a gun of this type on a flat plate with no strengthening below, well not in my head at least.
last picture for tonight shows the 'admiral's platform positioned on the shelter deck to see how it's looking, of course once glued it will be flat to the deck but so far it's looking good and a reasonable amount of the work done can be seen. two items missing are the rear boiler vents, the forward starboard side vent can be seen, the port vent is hidden behind the wall that is part of the library to it's left. The two rear boiler vents which don't go all the way up to the next deck will be made/added later, I best make a note of that somewhere...
tomorrow i will try to find a drawing for an RN sliding door, I will also make a start on all of the portholes and viewing slots that need drilling/cutting out.
Thanks for looking in folks, more soon..
Pete