The Ship Model Forum

Thanks, Bob!

Here after applying Tamiya primer with an airbrush:

Quite the little jewel.

Dirk, it seems clear that you have exhausted your talent in 1/700. Time to turn your attention to 1//2400 scale.

Thanks, Dan!
Concerning 1/2400: I like 1/700 and a lot of interesting ship models available. I even ordered the 1/200 Arizona. Will be maybe shocking now (H U G E !) after building this tiny subchaser.

But now I have a ship model with handle (or a ship-popsicle?): or a lollypop? Sorry for this lapse. I will turn serious again.

Here pictures after airbrushing in Kure grey (I learned from Allan ("Ive lightened colors by about 20 % for scale effect.) and also lightened the grey a bit.)
By the way: The degaussing coil is from Rainbow model (I like it!).

... started with the rigging:

Jeez, between you and Jeff Lin on these ultra small 1/700s...........

Dan ... and its is really fun with such a small project. It is possible to find out in a very short time where the weaknesses are. And also trying some experiments ....

I continued with the rigging, the depth charge equipment and weathering:

... continued with the rigging:

Coming back from my trip to China (and missing Telford ) I had some problems to start again with modeling .
At least I got an inspiration: In a factory producing silk cloth I got an introduction how to process silk starting from the cocoon. Wonderful material with interesting properties! � Why not using it for ship modeling?
And I found one application: The boats of IJN ships are typically fixed by two crossing belts. At first I used thin brass strips to simulate these X-shaped belts. A lot of work, too thick and a nightmare to get them into the proper shape. Paper might be even too thick, too white and not easy to produce a very thin strip. Now I found a solution I would like to share with you: SILK.
I took my waxed dental floss (I never used in in its primary function.) and used � of its width. Not so easy (I used a pair of scissors with teeth and made a small cut along � of the width and then tearing parallel to the fibers.) but the result is a very thin 1/700 belt. The fixing is easy (see Subchaser38) and I think the appearance looks good (no weathering required). Only the mint flavor of the dental floss is needless in this application (Or? ...remember my picture Subchaser 26?). All in all I am not satisfied with this model: The airbrushing resulted in a very grainy surface . It seems to be happened during the priming. It might be that the brushing distance was too large, the pressure too high or not enough stirring of the paint. At least a good decision to start with a very small ship to make a first trial. My next model will be the K-19 class IJN minesweeper from the same Tamiya kit. But this time I will perform a series of air brush tests before and maybe no priming at all.

Flat dental floss is an interesting idea. I might have to experient with that. I've been using paper soaked in a matte acrylic.

I like it a lot. Great work. I agree that lightening the color for scale effect really lifts it. I learned a lot from David Griffiths book . Cant recommend it enough for work in this scale by the way

Airbrushing primer, I found Timiya a bit grainy until I used lacquer thinners. Have to test the pressure, distance from kit , watch the consistency . I found the new Valejo primer easier to spray but doesnt have the nice matt bite of the Timiya, and its a bit plasticy.. It does cover brass well though and easier to clean up. I keep experimenting

Dirk,
looks great, so much better than my old school (1980s!) build of the Skywave subchaser. Can't wait to see her with some paint on! http://www.modelingmadness.com/reviews/ ... /reysc.htm
regards,
Tim

Hi Dirk:

I have an idea about the grainy paint effect. You could almost use it as if the subchaser was sunk in shallow water and raised after to be salvaged in a drydock layout? The barnacles and seaweed would be all over the hull/superstructure when underwater for a period of time. You would have to add some damage effects here and there but, it might just work.

Just a thought.



Bob Pink.

Thank you all for your comments. Sorry for my late reply.

Silent one: I now did some new air brush experiments with the next model, a IJN W-19 class minesweeper in 1/700 (viewtopic.php?f=59&t=65351):
- no primer at all
- lightend Kure grey (WEM), 45% paint, 55% thinner, directly sprayed with low pressure setting (0.5bar) and a very small spraying distance
Seems to be better.

Tim, I like your subchaser. Especially the picture with the thunder flash in the background and the tiny boot in the heavy sea: very realistic and phantastic atmosphere!
I only don't understand this:

Tim Reynaga wrote:Can't wait to see her with some paint on!

Do you mean your model or mine (mine is already painted.)?

Quincy: Good idea with the grainy paint effect. Last time I watched the History channel documentation of the USS Arizona. After being exposed to the seawater for 69 years the guns looked very similar with a very "grainy" appearance.