The Ship Model Forum

Marijn, thank you very much indeed! Your support is greatly appreciated.

Some progress has been made and here is the report:
I thought that the construction of the middle superstructure which contains the hangars would present fewer difficulties than that of the bridge. As it turned out, I had to tackle other kind of problems than previously, but hey, this is why our hobby is so enjoyable.
As a first step, all overhanging decks were duly thinned down. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized: it contributes greatly to the overall finesse of the model. The superstructure consists of two components, an upper and a lower part. Here they are in their original configuration:


The problem with the lower part was that its front portion is open from the front and sides and covered by the upper part and contains elements that are inaccessible for painting once the two parts are attached. That is why I had to paint this area – a process I normally do after all of the individual components are finished. There is a structure on this continuation of the shelter deck with various (presumably boiler room) vents which were constructed using the Tetra photoetch set.

There are two cable reels and some watertight doors which were duly reproduced and the deck hand painted AP507A, the vertical surfaces 507B (I know, there was no such thing, so think of it as a faded 507A – this is in my view in accordance with the photographs).

There are two massive cylindrical supports of the pom-poms installed a deck higher, the upper part of which has a conical shape instead of the gussets suggested by the kit (this may be one of the numerous small differences between Valiant and QE). I glued numerous styrene triangles around the top end of the column,

infilled the gaps with putty, then sanded the cone smooth.

The surface is actually not completely smooth but it will be barely visible on the completed model. Another difference between the near-identical sister ships seems to be the support of the aircraft (and boat) handling crane which is a solid rectangle, not a column, as in QE. This was fashioned out of aluminium strip.
The upper part of the superstructure displays the usual problems of injection molded kits: low and wide splinter shields, excessive taper, soft details.

All of these just had to go! I removed practically every detail from the deck,

but then came the most intriguing task in this chapter of the build – the splinter shields are inclined outward by a variable degree around their perimeter – a feature that is really hard to reproduce while maintaining a constant height. I tried to solve this problem by taking templates from the splinter shields before removing them by drawing their outline with a pencil on a piece of masking tape attached to them.

The templates were then attached to aluminium strip which was cut along the pencil lines. Even so, it was extremely demanding and took a lot of trial and error to achieve an acceptable result which is not as even as one would wish but, in my opinion looks with its supporting gussets way better than the original kit part.

Another view of the completed splinter shields:

I glued the upper and lower part of the superstructure together and added numerous details: supporting triangular gussets to overhanging decks, watertight doors, vertical ladders, portholes, hangars door (WEM, one partially open), some token hangar detail, small mushroom vents protruding from the superstructure walls, identifiable in the photographs, a prominent vent on deck (completely scratchbuilt using PE mesh and styrene) and a small deckhouse from the Flyhawk set (a little skewed, but it is all but invisible in reality).



The ubiquitous lockers, inclined ladders, cordage reels plus the boat cradles (to be attached to the hangar roof) were prepared separately.


Next on my agenda was the detailing of the funnel. Here it is in its original condition.

I removed all moulded-on detail and filled in the recesses on the after part with a strip of styrene. I used Tetra’s funnel cage – I know my friend Jim Baumann will not like it – apologies, Jim! – it is indeed very thick, but I could not resist using it, the interlocking structure fascinated me so much. First, the base plate was smoothed in the funnel top using superglue and sanding,

then, after installing an internal walkway and some smoke pipes, not really visible in the pictures, the cage structure was built up.

Two platforms (for searchlights and their control) were modified FlyHawk items - the upper one features a low handrail.



Contrary to plans and PE upgrade parts, the walkway under the sirens consisted of two separate pieces, not a continuous one, so I modified the PE part accordingly. The bells of the PE sirens were thickened with dabs of superglue. Among some other details, supports for a vertical ladder on each side were also added. The ladder itself will be fitted later for easy of camouflage painting.
Here you can see the newly completed components on the ship:



The last remaining superstructure component is the after bridge. Being smaller than the ones completed, I hope the construction of it will present fewer problems although its exact configuration is not entirely clear to me. I only know that it is not like the kit part. One final remark: in the pictures I recognised some flaws: a bent gusset under the searchlight platform for example. I went back to correct it and found that is not really visible, so I left it well alone. It is fair to say that the unflattering nature of macro photography lets detail seem coarse, while in real life, even viewed under magnification, everything looks sharp enough.

Plus one more picture:

Fantastic work, as always. Love all the details you've crammed into her.

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Absolutely beautiful work!

Those inclined splinter shields are something else indeed! Very difficult indeed, and they look perfect!
Do you think it would be possible to gently sand their top edge after installing them, or do you need to get their dimensions 100% right before you commit to glue?

Martin, Marijn, thank you!

Marijn, no, I could not make the top edge horizontal without sanding. I deliberately cut the strips wider to have some margin to sanding the top edge even. Even so they are not 100% perfect, just look: the forward starboard side end is higher than the port one
But that is an imperfection I can live with...

Aha! I was also thinking that sanding the top edge would be the 'easiest' way (or rather for me the only way...) I could get it even.

Don't sweat the smallest of imperfection; there will always be with handmade objects...
I can't make out that height difference in the photo's, even when you direct me to it. And I'm sure once everything is in position with the rest of the superstructure, and the guns in place, nobody will be able to see that on the model!

Thank you, Marijn!
You are too kind.

Dear friends, I have made some progress and here is the report.
The simple structure of the after bridge has been detailed as follows: portholes were drilled deeper and in part repositioned as per photographs, the overhang in the front thinned down, two circular splinter shields (for the pom-pom directors) fabricated out of aluminium strip, some piping and PE details added like rigols, watertight doors, crane jib stowage platforms and a small deckhouse on the top.
It seems that the top of the platform differs significantly from that on Queen Elizabeth, which is catered for in every detail set. Individual differences were not easy to ascertain from contemporary photographs. The kit part of the after director has a basically sound shape so I restrained myself to just adding some surface detail and cutting off the base of the tub on top which was not yet fitted at the time depicted.

.
I added PE details to the HACS platforms. The HACS IV cylinders themselves, contrary to the ones on the bridge, were provided with a canvas cover made of copper wire hemicircles glued to the top and the gaps between them infilled with white glue. One of the covers is just being opened – I will put a crew figure there that will “lift” the edge of it up.


Here the after superstructure can be seen with the HACS towers temporarily attached.


I scratchbuilt two searchlight platforms, complete with one-bar railing, resting on turned brass cylinders from FlyHawk.

Next I assembled the two large cranes. This is another feature in which Valiant is different from QE, so I took the cabs from the Tetra set but for the jibs a FlyHawk Renown set had to be cannibalised.


In my opinion the cranes really look the part and will be a major attraction of the completed model.
I then fabricated twelve booms from brass rod of two diameters. The ends were slightly tapered by sanding (not really visible) and the braces fashioned from tiny strips of cigarette paper wrapped around the rods, secured with superglue.

Searchlight came next. Five 44” searchlight were based on the MicroMaster 3D printed units.
I drilled deep into the front plate,

painted the inside silver,

then filled up the void with Micro Kristal Klear.

After drying it became completely transparent (i.e. invisible in the following picture)

Some minor details and two handwheels completed the searchlight assembly, while the PE lens crosses were kept separate for easy of painting, The four 20” signal projectors also came from the MicroMaster 3D printed set. I did no drilling here, otherwise they received a similar treatment to their bigger counterparts. Four 10” signal projectors, usually not present in kits, were completely scratchbuilt with transparent stretched sprue cylinders and brass frames. Two minuscule and beautifully detailed paravanes from Flyhawk were also assembled. Simple searchlight handling cranes, bent from brass rod, can be seen as well.









Sorry about the poor photographs. I took many to represent the three types of searchlights but they turned out awful to tell the truth.

With the main elements of the superstructure in place the model is beginning to look shipshape now.

Impressive and very inspiring work.
I love to see how precise you are in creating the details. As a whole it looks absolutely fantastic.

I love it when a ship comes together...

Fantastic work George!

Milan, Marijn, thank you for your kind words!

Even unpainted... she looks ' heavy '

question-- what are you attaching your hand-wheels to your 'paint-stands' with ??

and pending what it s -- how do you get them off? etc

The whole project looks dead sharp!

best wishes

JIM B

_________________
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Jim, thank you for words of praise.
Actually the parts you mean are not handwheels, they are the crosses that belong to the searchlights. They are glued to the stretched sprue paint stands with superglue. The searchlight lenses will be masked by masking fluid, then the whole thing is going to by spray painted, the masking removed, the crosses simply snapped off their paint-stands - this will be their backside - and carefully glued to the front of the searchlights.
44 in searchlights on my Barham constructed the same way:

Excellent work, even more impressive when considering the small scale...well done

Pete