Modelling against the clock now ....-- Telford is looming .... !!
@ Marjinn....
As you know the contact area of many of these tiny guns and other small items etc is very small--
and CA superglue in that type of application , can often be decidedly.... UN-super... not having much " grab "
My favourite concoction for this is to use either:
Thinned white glue, excellent grab --but an unsubtle media ( that dries very quickly ( sometimes too quickly ..)
and this gives insufficient wiggle time
or in this instance where there are no "hanging " loadings I use Humbrol Matt cote varnish ( in the glass jar ) that has had the lid left off for months...
This gives a goooey sticky paste ( can be re-thinned) that has
huge instant grab--but can be wiggled.
i will dry out and go hard in about 1 hour or so
on both of the above I then afterwards apply a droplet of the very runny Pacer ZAP pink CA glue on the end of a cat whisker or wire
This droplet spreads wraps around in a thin film and penetrates any small fissures giving a bit of strength to the assmbly
meanwhile....
I added the navigation lights , small strip of paper with a 90 degree bend and with a piece of brass rod for the lantern
and made all the QF guns-of which there were 17 ( !! )
and being dissatisfied with the first set of guns....
I removed and
I remade all the guns that I had previously fitted ... ( !! )
The shoulder pad / aiming ladder crutch on the left side of the gun
( this can also be central and of various shaes and configurations..)
( which on the real thing in 1/1 scale looks a bit like this...
in 1/350 I managed this
in 1/700 I had to simplify-as I could barely see it and certainly could not manipulate it accurately
( WEM handrail cut as per image )
Rather harder were the Nordenfelt 1" machine guns
the real thing came in various sizes with barrel fitments ranging from 4 to 10 barrels.
They could fire 600 rpm (!) and were supplied with ammunition from the vertical hopper toward the mid rear
Fortunately the four guns on Hood had shields in the photos I had -phew!
-allowing me to simplify and not construct all the really hard bits !!!
I selected a piece of elderly PE( :L'arsenal PE ?)
that usefully had what I needed-- etched corrugations top and bottom
These would make the barrels....
the PE shields ( Unknown source ) would hide the rest
Installed they sort of look passably like the real thing in the photos
The work with small guns continued into the three fighting tops,
adding the gaff spars , upper mast rigging spreader supports , davits etc
a lot of time expended on small details, but I hope the collective impression of the ship will reward the effort and time.
The entire ship--being Mediterranean based ship had full sun-awning stanchions set up all round.
The upper fwd and aft bridges also had awing stanchions--but so as to afford a bit of shade overlap the tops of these had an offset
I made these of thin brass strips cut from 1/350 railing PE longitudinals-
-a ready and repeatable source of raw material to work with
More soon!!
JIm Baumann
