The Ship Model Forum

Richard, first let me say that I share your pain regarding the elusive modeling mojo. Mine has been elusive now for several months and I'm now at the point where making myself sit down at my work bench has begun to feel like work, not fun. But, I'm slowly ploughing through my current project, Dragon's 1/350 U.S.S. Laffey, with WEM PE.

Now to the point of this post. I can't sufficiently express how impressed I am with your work on the Indianapolis. I have her in my stash and either she or the Merit Yorktown will be next up. Frankly I'm leaning toward the Indianapolis. I also have the Pontos detail up set for her. Your work has been both inspiring and humbling, because I know all too well that my efforts will not even begin to touch yours. I'm completely overwhelmed by your resourcefulness and determination in remedying unsatisfactory elements about the kit. I am a "kit builder", you sir, are a "modeler".

I would really like to know the technique you used for making the paper replacements for such things as the director tubs on the bridge wings, etc.. And you just knocked it out of the park with your replacement non-skid decals, the idea, the effort to bring it to fruition and the result are pure genius. I hope you will continue to grace the board with periodic updates. Even us kit builders can learn from your skill and resourcefulness.

May both of us be successful in recapturing our lost and elusive modeling mojo!

Bob M.

Not sure how I missed this one but wow Richard! That is amazing work! I am considering an Indy for my next project and this thread is very inspiring... hope we can see more!

Amazing work!

3 Years....that came as quite a shock. I built 3 three 1/4 scale aircraft from start to finish in Q1 this year which but my need to finish things to rest so I plucked this off the shelf of doom as I feel able to apply some extended focus.

How did it get to be 3 years??

Since April I've been slowly working my way through the Pontos set, turns out I got a lot of the major work done when I last put this aside. So it's all about tiny changes now.

Ladders and various bits are sprouting all over...
The flag lockers have been given tie rails and covers; I wanted these to look like loose canvas that was sagging so I made up a small frame and covered it with alum foil that was then gently pushed into the frame. The color is terrible and will get adjusted.
The tubs and searchlight platform are made from paper. Because I remade the overhanging deck pieces from brass, some of the Pontos dedicated rail parts do not fit well enough so I've used generic 2-bar. I try to do something with the bottom most rail to make it look more integrated with the deck etc; on the platform at the base of the aft funnel the rail has been aligned and blended with the top of the superstructure - the inside is painted deck color to diminish it's appearance. On the tapered walkway behind that structure the base rail has been removed and the rail stuck to the side as if the base of the stanchions was bolted to the lip along the side.
More of the same on the aft-most structure. The ammo boxes are from L'Arsenal, I had them for ages and do not know if they are the right type or not, but they add something so I'm not worrying about it.
All new bow tubs for the 20mm from paper. The stiffeners and top rail are too deep and will be reduced.
The crane from Pontos is simply stunning and the arm has been a huge amount of work as I wanted to fill the corner seams to square the corners without loosing the relief etched detail. If you look close enough at the second picture you'll see I've missed a bit.....

The catapult is sublime, using PE, resin and turned brass parts, and phenomenally tricky to get right. I am so very glad Pontos included two and I only need one - I made a complete horlicks of some parts. Again, tricky seam filling. The painting looks quite shoddy right now (because it is); with assemblies like this I like to glue brass to brass free of paint (as paint doesn't stick well) and I don't tend to prime for fear of clogging fine detail. Getting the deck blue applied over the grey is going to result in accidents - there'll be a few rounds of re-touching before it's done.

Good afternoon ... I saw a lot of different sawing ship models, but I consider yours a riding masterpiece .. I really like it and you give me inspiration in my fight with King George

Nice work, Richard. Glad to see you back at it.