The Ship Model Forum

I've yet to look into the searchlight business, but my initial idea is to hollow them out and maybe adding cling film or something like this, the transparent foil which is wrapped around cigarette boxes might also work (I'm not saying that you or anyone should start smoking, I gave up a year ago or so, thats why I came up with cling film...).

@ Dan ~ I received the file, all is well!

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

I considered foil for the back but decided that silver paint was quicker and easier.

Cling wrap would definately make a nice thin lens cover. I don't know how well you'll be able to secure it.

I thought about using a thin clear plastic sheet like the type you can get if you want to put an ID card in laminate. That would mean cutting a perfect circle.

I'm also considering the idea of putting a piece of railing over it to look like the grating detail. So, idealy I can fill the indent with new, clear resin and drop the railing right on top of that before it dries. Maybe it'll work, or not. Who knows.


Dan.

California Bound wrote:Cling wrap would definately make a nice thin lens cover. I don't know how well you'll be able to secure it.

I think matt varnish/clear dullcoat might work. Or, maybe better, you skip the foil or whatever, and use clear drying diluted whiteglue. I think Jim put something about it into the Tricks & Tips section, covering ralilings with canvas dodgers or creating large awnings over fragile stanchions. If you find a whiteglue that dries really clear, then you have it. Krystal Klear (spelling?) might also work. I know modellers who use this stuff for 'filling' larger windows and portholes; but I don't know how this can be 'stretched' over an opening, with whiteglue this is dead easy. Whatever you come up with, dropping a piece of railing into it sounds good. Even finer, when your 'glass' is dried, draw on lines with a very thin graphite pencil.

Happy trying ~ Olaf!

good afternoon:

Testors makes a "clear parts cement and window maker". Its very good and I have used it on the Revell 1/72 schnellboot cabin windows. You should give it a try. I will be when I get that far, right now I am just painting the hull.

Dick Wood

dick wood wrote:good afternoon:

Testors makes a "clear parts cement and window maker". Its very good and I have used it on the Revell 1/72 schnellboot cabin windows. You should give it a try. I will be when I get that far, right now I am just painting the hull.

Dick Wood

Could you please provide a photo of your Schnellboot windows? Sounds like interesting stuff...

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

Good morning Olaf:

Here is the photo that you have asked for, using the testors product. This is a photo of the cabin windows of the 1/72 Revell S-100. I think the windows look very realistic ro me. The product is very east to apply, and cost effective. I think you should give it a try. It could also be used for portholes in the super structure.
I hope this helps.

Dick Wood ( putting second color on the hull today!)

Dick,

Does that product go on clear like super glue, or is it milky like white glue, then dries clear?

-Devin

Devin wrote:Dick,

Does that product go on clear like super glue, or is it milky like white glue, then dries clear?

-Devin

Devin:

It comes as a milky white in the bottle itself, it drys very clear, and has a glass look to it. Here is the ptoduct:

Many thanks Dick, much appreciated.

That 'glas' looks very good and convincing, I'll try to put my hands on it here on my side of the pond.

Happy glazing ~ Olaf!

Hi everybody,

Wedding was good. Honeymoon was good. And time away from this build was good too. I had no idea how oppressive (for lack of a better word) this build was becoming to me. All the mistakes and corrections really take a toll. Thankfully, the time away has got me recharged, so updates should be back to normal this weekend.

Dan.

Glad to see you back,
hope the honeymoon has not taken too much out of you.
Remember building models should be FUN too.
Regards
Richard

Thanks Richard,


Honeymoon wise, I've never walked so much for so long in my life. Those casinos are huge and seem to be designed to get a person lost inside. I guess I lost some weight, the ring that I could barely get on at the cerimony, will barely stay on now. I'll need to get my fingers more pudgy.


As for the model, I know it's supposed to be fun, and it usually is. This build hasn't been fun though.


I got the FlyHawk 1/700 set for half price, so I'm gonna build the Tamiya waterline too. I think it'll be fun. I'll put an easier paint scheme on it, and the only downside should be some PE that I'll crush, of course.


I might try to build up the 1/700 Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen, and Bismarck into sub assemblies all at the same time, so I can do the painting more easily. And might skip rigging them entirely, just keep then reasonably simple.


Dan.

Hi everybody,

I guess it's time for an update.

I didn't realize the smaller size of the pics until too late. Oops.

I've replaced the railing around the top of the hanger, and extended it all the way to the back and over to the other side. The main mast support got a bit messy.
I didn't notice much difference between a searchlight filled with Krystal Klear or clear epoxy glue, so I didn't take a comparison pic.


The main cranes are done. I've gone back and hollowed out the supports of the first crane as well. I was more careful after breaking the other one way back in an earlier post.
The oval rafts are deeper now too. I think they look much better. There was a couple of them broken in the process though, so I only have 7 per side now instead of 8.
As it turns out, the 4 square pods on top of the hanger roof were from an earlier time period. Another example of me ignoring what I saw was not in photos and just following the instructions without thinking. The roof is a little worse for wear now, but still acceptable.


The small cranes threw me off for a while. They need a second winch, or at least a second reel, in order to both lift the crane boom and the cargo. At first I followed one of Rob's 3D renders and when compared to the model, I thought that Dragon had just removed it. After I "added" it back, in one of my prior posts, I came to realize that it wouldn't work in that position. In reality, once the boom lowered too far, the cable from the rear winch would rub on the top of the front winch. Both winches need to be in the front. So I've cut the rear winch off and returned it back to the second crane. Wont have to scratch build now. Now, I've taken each winch and cut them apart and reassembled them as seen in this sketch. One winch has easily become two.


Another theory I have, is that the PE pulley attached to the front of the crane base, probably tilts up and down. This way the pulley maintains alignment and easier cable flow with the pulleys at the far end of the boom. I figure it should be added last so that you can tilt it in a direction to match how high or low you've positioned your boom in.


A finished crane with steering wheel, seat, safety railing and rigging added.


As I build farther forward, more pieces can be confirmed.




Unfortunately, the armored bridge has been damaged, and needs to be repaired. I accidentally stepped on it when it fell on the floor.

Something I posted earlier, I now realize should be clarified. Because of the way Dragon chose to design the parts of the main turrets, positioning them in any position other than straight ahead, will require changes to be made in painting and positioning of the PE pipes at the base of turret A and C. And the small ladder that I said needed to be moved further back under the upper ladder on turret B.
As you can see in this picture, the real turret rotates at a different point than the model does. This will throw off the positioning of the parts I just mentioned. The PE pipes will have to be positioned on turrets A and C based on alignment relative to the bow for example, not the parts of the turret as shown in the instructions.
The small ladder on turret B needs to be positioned so that it is above the deck and just inside the railing regardless of where the gun is aiming. As shown in this picture.
If you are painting a multiple color scheme, as I am, and if you are positioning the turret in any direction other than straight ahead, you will need to be careful and base the color alignment of the upper half of the turret support cylinder with that of the lower half, and not on the actual turret itself.
I believe that the thick ring around the turret at the point of rotation on the model can confuse people as it implies that it is a point of rotation when in fact it is just an overly thick molded on detail that is supposed to represent a simple hand rail on the actual ship. Why it's molded so thick compared to the faint hand rails molded on everywhere else is beyond me.


I hope this helps, and thanks for looking.

Oh, and I've found a paint that is closer to correct for the lower hull. It's readily available to me, relatively cheap, and comes in large rattle cans. I had planned to use it on my 1/700 ships I mentioned earlier, but the 1/700 Scharnhorst is a waterline model so I'll build all of them as waterlines. I therefore plan to repaint the lower hulls of all my 1/350 German ships.

Dan.

Hi everybody,

The holiday allowed me to get a lot more done. And I tried super glue accelerator for the first time. I like it a lot.

Something I forgot to mention last week was that the fit between the forward superstructure and the back of turret B was so tight that the pieces tried to buckle in test fitting to the hull. I had to mark off the area on the back of turret B's support base that would be glued to the superstructure, and scrape off the layers of paint in order to get the two pieces to fit together tight enough to fit in the open area provided in the deck.

I've got the new lower hull color painted. And new prop guards built. The old ones didn't survive the masking for the repaint. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a good picture yet. I've tried a couple different cameras and neither one captures the color correctly. Maybe I need better lighting.

I've got both cranes done now, and the range finder hoods in place. I couldn't seem to get the rigging on the far crane to stay tight. I'll cheat and pull the end of the boom down with some small fishing line once the forward superstructure is glued to the hull. Also, I like my side mounted range finders to be looking sideways instead of ahead or back.


Which brings me to a new correction. It doesn't really matter on mine because the color I'm using is so dark. However, if using a lighter color and/or you're a really good painter (which I'm not), the end pieces G2 and G3 are labeled backwards and need to be reversed.

It doesn't matter on the rearward ones because their support cylinders can simply be rotated, but for these front ones there is a notch inside G12 that matches to a tab inside the dome G13. If you want to position your domes looking anywhere except forward, you'll have to remove that tab from the inside of the dome.


I've lost some of the PE that goes along the front, so I'm replacing it with small plastic rod.

The three holes near the base of each yard arm is for support ropes that I'm in the process of adding. They will be easier to see once painted.

I had hoped to be able to assemble part of the bridge area and paint it prior to slipping in the windows so that I wouldn't have to worry about masking the windows. Unfortunately, the windows were too brittle and broke when I tried a test fit. That's ok though, they were really too thick and looked bad even with light blue tint. Unlike the front windows, they chose to mold the frames for the side windows as part of the window instead of being part of the wall. By not using the supplied windows I had to make window frames on the sides. Making two windows on the right side and three windows here on the left side.


According to Olaf, the rear wall of the top platform is supposed to be railing, so I cut out the wall and put in some railing.

For the upper mast support ledge I chose to stick with the plastic one instead of the PE. I figured it would make a stronger bond to both the mast and the wall.

Right or wrong, for the lower platform, I chose to open up the wall wide enough to match with the railing around the platform.


Thanks for looking.

Dan

Hi everybody,

It's a pretty small update this time.

Thanks to the accelerator for the CA glue, rigging went quickly. Again, rigging is not anything official. Just a mix of sources. Some windows are clouded over, the Kristal Klear hadn't dried yet.




One line did break off, but I'm not concerned with adding it back. And unfortunately, I should have probably tried to make at least a partial metal mast. The tension in the line has curved the plastic masts slightly.


All that's left now is the railing around the main deck, and I've still got to come up with an acceptable single machine gun shape.

Thanks for looking.

Dan.

Hi Dan ~ Model looks good, two things, one being a question:

The hole in the deck starboard aft of the Admiral's Bridge - did you put a stairway into it, and if yes, which one?

Then, you mounted three of the four butterfly-shaped Sumatra antennas to your foretop gallery bulwark. If you want to know where the fourth is going, simply put it to the railing facing aft, photos clearly show it. When looking from aft, put it slightly off-centre to starboard (probably as far off-centre to port as the forward one).

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

Thanks Olaf,

Yes, I did put a ladder in that hole. It's MC-9.


Here's a close up of that rear Sumatra you mentioned.


And another really "small" update...

Ideas for the single machine guns.
Original on the left.
In the middle, an attempt I made at putting plastic on both sides of the White Ensign PE gun in order to bulk it up a bit. I added the barrel from one of the original guns.
On the right is an original gun with some of the bits cut off.


Based on how much time and effort involved for minimal improvements, This is what I ended up with. An original gun with the bits trimmed off, and mounted to a base made of just the bottom cone shaped section of the original base. This is the minimum height that is required to get the gun to fit over the top of the railings when the after market deck is also accounted for.


No picture, but I did go back and replace the rigging line that had broken off. Now there are four of them going from the uppermost radio lines back down to the main mast.

It looks like the next update will be the last one. It's weird, the project has gone from a constant feeling of never getting anywhere or getting anything done, to suddenly looking down at it and realizing that it's almost finished. It makes me scratch my head and wonder "how'd that happen?"

Thanks for looking.

Dan.

Many thanks for MC9. WHere is the second one going? Leading up to platform L36?

Maybe I'm just too blind to see it in the instructions... otherwise, another thing to add to the list...

Happy guessing ~ Olaf!

P.S.: I like the gun improvement!

Thanks,

Yes, the first ladder MC-9 goes from the piece L-10 up to L-36 (barely visible in bottom of my picture posted above) and the second ladder goes from L-36 up to the hole in piece L32.

I wouldn't say you're blind. It's just the layout of the instructions. I've missed multiple things and had to go back and look for them just because of the layout being so jumbled. My eyes just skip over sections and relegate parts of the instructions as worthless. The parts in question are shown half way down the right side of the page that shows the assembling of the top forward main radar. It's just under the large number 2. I skipped over it lots of times myself.

Dan.

I am hoping someone comes out with a 20mm for Scharnhorst because I am fairly certain Dragon molded hers way overscale. I have had to comment on it in some of the other projects that have come out, they want to add so much detail but they have to make it the wrong size to do it.