1/350 Academy Warspite to Barham conversion

[JIM BAUMANN]

most excellent!!

JIM B

[RichardP]

@Mister Me

The camouflage is AP507B (WEM Colorcoats), AP507C (Testors Modelmaster).
I was using WEM's 507C but was having some problems getting it to dry properly at which point I discovered that I had some of the very last paint produced before Sovereign took over and the color had drifted. Sovereign have addressed this but had not yet put their corrected paint into the market at that time so I switched to Modelmaster to keep the project moving along. It's a reasonable match to the Snyder & Short chips but I'm betting the new WEM 507C will be better.

The metal decks are AP507A (WEM again).

The red is Royal Navy WWII Antifouling red (WEM again).

[RichardP]

Forward Superstructure

This was actually the very first thing I started (before I even bought the Warspite kit) as, along with the funnel, the build approach was an idea that I hadn't used before so I didn't know if it would work. This structure has 9 separate levels above the main deck of which 7 are extremely open with large areas of overhanging decks through which the supports for the tripod mast are clearly visible from top to bottom. I wanted to build each level as a stand-alone 'slice' so that I could add all the deck support beams and so forth with easy access.

The idea I wanted to try out was to use Albion Metals telescopic tube packs so that each leg of the tripod has a single core that runs top to bottom and for each level I could create a 'sleeve' the height of the level and fix that to each slice. Final assembly would simply involve pushing the cores through the stacked slices and gluing in an appropriate fashion.

In the first round of building I created all of the 7 decks from brass sheet and the basic cabin blocks from styrene. The tripod sleeve method was implemented and found to work (huzzah). The topmost and base levels have no overhangs so could be made entirely from styrene. All this was put to one side quite some time ago whilst I moved on to other stuff.

I'm now back on this again, working through the various level by interest. These are the first two levels to get close to completion:

And assembled with the cores:

The main reason this is working, I think, is down to spending so much time on the computer producing the drawings for all of it. The key start for this was a drawing that develops the exact location for the mast holes for each deck:

All the deck outlines for cutting templates were worked from these centers. By starting with small pilot holes and expanding the holes only when I was ready to align the cores, I got a pretty good fit from top to bottom even with slight build inaccuracies.

These are the drawings for the levels shown above:

Nothing is drawn in isolation, everything uses previous info to create the next part. In this case the location of the (initial) supporting deck beams (I added more later) and the bulwarks and supports.

For this on there were no deck beams but a while load of small parts to make the wind deflector around the top.

Providing the parts I actually make are close to what I draw, it all works out quite well....

[EJFoeth]

If you continue like that I have to throw away my model and start over I'm really impressed

[zs180]

Wow! So impressive! I will benefit from your masterly work so much when I get to this phase of construction.

[Channell]

Absolutely superb modeling here... just amazingly concise, detailed scratchwork!

[RichardP]

And another slice....

The two small stubs of brass tube at the front are the tops of support columns that land on the deck under. Because of Albion's telescopic sections, I can add just enough length to allow the support structure to be fixed. When final assembly occurs it should be easy to add extensions using a smaller inner tube for alignment (yes, Albion's tube diameters are that precise). I didn't want the full length items at this stage due to the risk of my accidentally breaking them off.

Good news is that the work will be visible when assembled.

I also had a 'secret ingredient' turn up this week that let me experiment with turret top rivets. I have seen EJ Foeth's work on this using rivet wheels (aka pounce wheels). I'm avoiding this approach because a) I suck at using rivet wheels, b) I couldn't think of how I could get the precision on corners and curves etc because c) I suck at using rivet wheels.

Note that Mr Foeth also informed me that the Barham turrets were probably not riveted but then he also sent me a picture of another ship which I think had the same mark of turret that did have rivets. I decided to add them anyway for experimentation purpose as they could always be removed later (I am able to do this - remember the foghorn platform on the funnel I experimented with?)

Spoiler. The end result looks like this:

So the experiment mostly worked. Definitely a step up from the original kit part:

How's it done? Here's the secret ingredient:

Yes, it's mild lunacy to contemplate this.
0.2mm Scales out to about 2 3/4" real life. I don't know how big the rivet heads actually were but it seems reasonable (it also sets a personal best for smallest part I've ever handled). There's 2500 in that jar so the carpet monster can munch away.

My plan was to develop the rooftop plates into true flat size, add the rivet position centers, print on paper and use a fine needle to make depressions that the solder balls would fall into. Then I would magically fix them in place.
Here's some key points:

-Developing the plates to be accurate when attached to the turret was a pain requiring numerous attempts.
-Piercing the depressions was probably the hardest part as a very high level of precision is required to keep the rivet runs looking as straight as possible.
-Placing the solder balls was actually very easy (if you can see them - luckily they're very shiny which helps) as they are readily drawn to a statically charged needle tip
-Fixing them was equally easy once you realise that a) CA is not the answer, b) Mr Surfacer heavily thinned with laquer thinner can be brushed onto untreated paper without warping it and c) solder balls like attaching themselves to liquid even more than they do the needle. Put a small drop of Mr Surfacer in/around a depression, pop the solder ball into the liquid and use the end of a slightly blunted wood toothpick (hardened with CA) to push it into the depression. Next. Next. next etc. At the end, let everything dry and then give all of them a gentle wash with thinned Mr Surfacer to fix them a bit more.
-I chose to fix the solder balls before cutting out the roof plates. The base plate for the range finder was pierced, cut-out and fixed to the roof before adding the balls.
-If some of the balls look too proud they can be flattened slightly with the toothpick due to their being soft.

Please note that the use of the word 'easy' is of course relative; it really means that it was less extremely difficult than I thought it would be.
It seems to be quite a tolerant process as the pictures are the first attempt, it's not the one of many that looked OK. It's straightforward to remove and replace individual balls if they are too errant (with finesse obviously). The next step will be to try and make a resin casting; I really don't want to repeat this 4 times.

Note that solder balls are available on smaller sizes (0.1mm) for the truly adventurous. I'm not going there....

[LE BOSCO]

Hi Richard

outstanding scratch work very inspiring
cheers
Nicolas

[JCRAY]

I've always wondered how to do something like this. Madness
I'm in awe! Thank you

[Aop Aur]

Beautiful work!

Aop

[zs180]

Words fail...

[Joe Simon]

You are officially insane!!

[RichardP]

Final turret ready for mold making and casting:

(Yay! Another kit part used for the range finder cover. Needed some mods to fit the reformed roof and add some height and a few extra details.)

And that's when I discovered my silicone mold rubber had set in the bottles. "Oh my! What a shame" is not what was said.

While I wait for Micromark to send replacements (ready to ship today huzzah!), I've been working on the blast bags. 2nd Kit piece used in less than a week. Because Barham didn't have the gun elevation mod I've had to crop the top of the bags to match the top of the turret and I've re-sculpted thing as bit to emphasize the folds (and try and make them 'sag' a bit) and reduce the taper of the lowered barrel pulling the top canvas tight; when I look at photos of this area the canvas seems to drop down and rest on the barrel more. I like the effect of the canvas continuing the barrel outline instead of taking on a whole different shape as it provides some continuity across parts.

I tried to take a picture but my skills are lacking (the red is the original part line):

Tried again with the original kit part this time:

I've also discovered another problem. The brass barrels are from BigBlueBoy and apart from having just a tiny nubbin to attach to the blast bag (which has a much larger hole), the outside diameter of the barrel where it meets the bag (not including the raised ring they add there) is about .020" wider than the bag that is supposed to cover it. "Oh my! What a shame" is not what was said either.
As an aside, the barrel bores are not drilled very deep at all, it's very obvious that the barrels are solid.

I've ordered up a set made by Aber to see if those match better. If not I'll have to make some blast bags.

[EJFoeth]

I have excellent experience with Master (Poland) and they do custom work for affordable prices. Unbeatable quality.

[RichardP]

Spontaneous 'it's been a good couple of days on the workbench' pictures.

OK, so I didn't create all of that in 2 days, but the bits I was dreading, the wire frame work, side tubs and pole mounts, were.

[RichardP]

Busy, busy, busy...

The new mold rubber turned up yesterday so I made a quick mold and cast to check what would happen:

Sprayed the casting with 507A. Here it is, warts an' all (aka, no retouching or clean up yet).

The Aber 15" barrels turned up as well. Not quite as large as the BlueBoy but still bigger than the blast bags. The BlueBoy have the neat collar at the bag end but the bores will need drilling out some, The Aber have the bores suitable drilled but no collar. I'm leaning toward the latter.
Before I explore the very good suggestion to get some custom barrels made (Master are very good ), I thought I might try this:

Cut in half, add padding, ream out and insert styrene tube to fit metal barrel stub. The tube sticks out for now so I can check the alignment, it'll save messing around when I come to fit the barrel and'll get cut to the end of the bag when it sets. There will be an impact on the turret itself as this part is .03" wider than before; no big deal hopefully.

[Brett M]

Just reading through page 2 today, impressive work. The solder ball rivets are insane!

Looking forward to seeing more as this build progresses

[RichardP]

Wrapping up on the turrets....

Based on the isometric sketches and drawing in the AOTS book, I've modified the kit blast bags to accept the Aber barrels and fit the turret in a certain way. Academy made the fit simple by squaring off the front of the turret but I think the faces where the barrels enter the turrets are actually slightly angled and adjusted my turret master accordingly. I've taken a mold of the bags so can cast as many as them as I want.

It's all turned out a bit vague in terms of fixing the bags to the turrets. Effectively I'm loose fitting the barrels in the bag castings and then trimming the back face on the blast bag until the barrel is correctly aligned. There's a little bit of slop in the barrel fit so it doesn't have to be absolutely spot on for both barrels. Sand and fill as required to tidy up the edges and spraying with heavily thinned Mr Surfacer gets me to here:

From here on, each turret gets individual treatment as there are 3 different layouts....

[LE BOSCO]

HI Richard
very a nice job
congrats
Nicolas

[RichardP]

Another one down, one more to go. The Radio shack is paper folded into the hexagon shape.

The director for this platform was an early incursion into 3D printing for me.

The armoured conning tower was done quite some time ago as an interesting exercise in making a complex shape with 'sandwiched' layers for the viewports.

The director for this was done over the weekend. It uses a 'lego' approach using various stock styrene strip sizes to build up key size areas (particularly around the viewports) and then putty to flesh out the overall shape.

With the kit part

Running tally pictures: