1/350 Academy Warspite to Barham conversion

[JIM BAUMANN]

...very inspirational and precise work on the platforms and turrets !!!

the sum total of this model will exhibit those excellent crisp razor sharp edges-
-so often missing with models using a plastic kit starting points

BRAVO !!

JIM B

[Dan K]

Uttering "wow" seems inadequate here."Brilliant" doesn't quite cut it, either.

Just keep going, Richard.

[J. Soca]

Beautiful work! its like deja vu ( It reminds me alot of Dino's Barham)



Jose

[RichardP]

And from the more pedestrian version of the subject.....

I've not been having a great deal of joy with paint recently. I finally finished the correction to the hull camo (no pictures needed because both sides look the same), but have had to redo the anti-fouling and 507C because both previous paints would not dry properly and could be rubbed off in places or just felt rubbery and wouldn't sand properly without 'chunks' sloughing off. I'm trying a new local supplier of enamels which are working out nicely. I'm now on my third brand of 507C and am frankly not happy.

I'm mostly working on my 'bridge stack kebab' trying to get the top 4 levels completed as they have lots of fun exposed pipework and I would like to get a little fine detail under the belt as it's been a while since I did that.

Whilst discussing the possibility of the tripod legs being black toward the top with George Pek a while back (awesome job going on there !! ), he sent a picture of this area from a slightly earlier time (you can just make out a print of this in the picture above). Although there were some a couple significant changes from this before 1941, I'm going to assume that the structures in the unaffected areas would not have been changed. Doing this course meant that a lot what I had done based on the Profile Morskie drawing was, to be polite, 'at odds' with actual photos. More steps backwards....

The Spotting Top

The area underneath from the mast to the front has been completely redone requiring the 'starfish' supports and the two side tubs to be redone as well as new supports added. The forward points of the starfish now extend beyond the spotting top cabin.

The wide vertical ladders from A GMM generic set were almost exactly the right size for the window frames (once you cut out every other rung); if you look close, there is only in flat face that has a 'half' frame due to length mismatch, all the other are full size.
The roof part I had made previously got binned as I wanted to include the little recess that PM show around the director. I don't care if it really exists or not, it's a nice detail touch....

15" Director Platform

The bulwarks were too low and and the replacements now have a wind deflector lip. I've decided to include the small platform in this sub assembly so that I can blend it into the small radio shack. This also allows me to work on the two wing platforms in front of the mast at this level. The look like they are service access platforms for equipment suspended beneath the spotting top. I've added various supports etc and the handrails. Additional supports appear to run from the spotting top. Being made of paper with a thin edge piece means these are flimsy as anything...not helped by their being a gap between them for the support struts that go to the forward edge of the spotting top starfish.

Because of thepaint issue I've had to replace some of the large triangular supports for this platform as well as a make anew overhanging lip which were victims of cleaning out the old paint.

Compass Platform and Air-defense lookout

Finally got two sub assys together. Yay. For all the careful preparation of the tripod rear legs into layers, I dropped one of them and ended up redoing the legs as one piece for these two. The support bracing I had done was not compatible with that of the new photo so a lot of it was removed and redone in a simpler way but with much larger pieces. There will be two columns at each end of the large rectangular piece that run to the deck below. I've also moved the cutouts or the stairs at the rear forward slightly as I need some deck behind them for support columns there as well. Those two sticky-out boxes at the front have been redone to make them thinner and higher up such that they touch on the deflector strip. The gigantic supports for the enclosed platform are actual progress....

[Joe Simon]

No words Richard, no words!

[MartinJQuinn]

You are a f**king lunatic. That's incredible work.

[Strategos Augustus]

Your 'kebab' is cooking nicely.

Really like how this is turning out.

[Dan K]

Exquisite.

[JIM BAUMANN]

I reiterate my earlier statement....
razor-sharp edges !

remarkable

JIM B

[SovereignHobbies]

This continues to impress me greatly!

[zs180]

I have checked and re-checked the pictures of your previous rendition of these structures and the pictures of the original and must state that the new one is a great step froward. I admire your determination to rebuild details that even the most knowledgeable judges won't identify as not entirely correct at possible future competitions and which had previously been flawlessly executed with an enormous amount of scratchbuilding. On the side note this will be of great help to me once again.
Thank you, Master!

[RichardP]

And another year (almost) drifts by......

I got a new laptop a couple weeks ago and decided to revisit my virtual wood deck (previous in it's own thread) and get it done for this build.

The first stage was to get an accurate outline since the final printed item would not be adjustable. I started the build with a set of line drawings but during the build process, there has been a bit of dimension creep (should have built using solid wood blocks instead of just styrene sheet). Consequently I have been printing out templates on thin cardstock (paper distorts a wee bit too much), which are cut out and offered on the physical model. Check, note, modify, and try again. Takes about 4-6 attempts to get real close.

The complete deck has been split into 4 sections, this is the outline for the bow piece (from the breakwater forward):

The next stage was to create a base planking pattern (8" wide x 20' long offset a 1/4 length) on a separate layer as well as a fixing pin pattern to match, also on it's own layer. This was cropped using the outline and then manual edited to suit the various curves and features. I worked to a loose set of self-devised rules such as (from info supplied by EJFoeth) where planks needed to be cut at greater than 45 deg. nibbling was added, where there was less than 20' between structures plank joints were removed, and so on.

Next up, color. I found an image of a piece of teak online and used the average of all it's shades as the base deck color. I sampled an additional 4 areas to create individual plank colors. Along with black and white I created 6 unique layers by randomly sampling the plank pattern, each being a mask for color difference.

Each layer was then had it's opacity adjusted to act as a filter on the base color rather than a color in it's own right.

Finally, the complete deck area was replicated on a new layer in white over the top so that I can 'fade' the colors. This can also be used in various colors as filters if I need to adapt for printer variance.

Yes, this is a virtual adaptation of a well known painting technique but since all aspects of this are on a separate layer, I can tweak to my hearts content rather than hoping I don't get heavy handed with the airbrush.

The other 3 sections:

The image files are currently 1200dpi and my color printer is printing at 600dpi and the results look quite sharp. Ultimately I can get it all printed professionally as my printer has got some grubby rollers and puts unwanted mark on the print.

[RichardP]

I'm printing on waterprooof paper which has a nice thickness and prints close to photo quality. Despite that it is quite impervious to water (even with an inkjet) and other than some slight curling, seems quite robust. When cut it does reveal the fibrous quality of regular paper but edges can be treated with CA that soaks in without discoloring the printed surface and binds the material to allow trimming with a scalpel and possibly even fine sanding. Edges will be painted brown at the end.

I printed out a set (fits on one letter size sheet) and cut for a trial fit. Ultimately I need to fix some superstructure parts in place to provide a firm location for each piece before I can be certain that the shapes are right.

[Goodwood]

The 3D texture artist in me (I used to skin airplanes for the IL-2 Sturmovik series of flight sims) is standing up and offering you a hearty congratulations on your Photoshop ingenuity, Richard. I've occasionally thought about doing something similar to what you've done for the linoleum decking and brass tie-downs of Japanese warships, but never really went anywhere with the idea since I'm a fairly lazy kit assembler.

Well done, she looks great!

[ModelMonkey]

Ingenious!

[JIM BAUMANN]

certainly looks very sharp !!!



JIM B

[MartinJQuinn]

That is f**king brilliant. Wow.

[Silenoz]

fabulous work....

[Thom]

That's some great work on the decking. Lovely.

[zs180]

Glad to see you you rolled up your sleeves again and pulled off such a solution for the decking! It looks most satisfying and like nothing I've seen ever before!