The Ship Model Forum

Halsey, I would agree. Your PE work is astounding. I will eventually do the same kit as well.

I wanted to weigh in on what was said above about rivet counters. My personal feeling is that I want to find out as much as I can about the subject I am building in the time frame I am building in and attempt to make those aspects reference standard. This is what I enjoy. The research of the subject I am building to make an attempt to do justice to the memories and history. This is my preference. The is considered by many to be overly anal retentive and they would prefer to do things their way. My methods are also consider by some to be too lax due to my lack of actual skill in building. Are any of us wrong. Nope.

What I do think is wrong is to force your preferred method on someone else. So I would have to agree with Bob in that most of us here are not like that and tend to be open minded. Most every realizes we all enjoy the hobby for different reasons and we all started out at different levels than we are at now. Some of us are just faster at the curve (see you PE work for proof of that).

Please keep the pictures coming! If you have any suggestions for the rest of us on how you do the PE I for one would be interested.

Angeliccypher wrote: ...any suggestions for the rest of us on how you do the PE I for one would be interested.

hey thats great to hear Angeliccypher! I, too, try to be as accurate as posssible, but its not the end-all-be-all to me either. For instance, I put some ladders (and a couple of railings maybe) on my Yamato that may not have been on the actual ship... (<<Tim ducks for cover>>)

anyway...as to the above quote, I did just put a couple of things I do on my Yamato post ( viewtopic.php?f=59&t=73105&start=40 )

but I will add that for pe I also use:

http://thesmallshop.com/index.php?main_ ... ucts_id=13

its great for seeing tiny parts, avoiding the dreaded cutoff stem and also for avoiding those tiny flying brass projectiles which disappear into a) the black hole that is my workroom carpet or b) my eyesocket. Cheers! -Tim

updates on the hull as it goes forward:

hull halfs painted before dullcoat is applied


after matt finish dried, starting hull pe work:




Thanks for viewing my update, your comments and suggestions are welcome! -Tim

Sorry, forgot to include a couple pics of the wood deck. Varnish has been applied now, deck placed on green painters tape to prevent rollup:




Thank-you for viewing my post.

now...to do the other half of the hull! I think I will take a break from portholes for awhile and work on something else. those things are tedious after about a hundred or so

Very nice work! Your nagato will be a beautiful model! Your work with the PE is simply amazing, thanks for sharing this experience with us. Keep the good work

Nice job on making the bulges free of the excel spreadsheet it looks fantastic! how did you do it?


Jose

Halsey, as usual, I'm blown away by the quality of your PE work. Neat and clean, no sign of excess glue. In short, very sharp indeed. If I could get mine to look just half that good I'd consider that to be a major accomplishment! But, while I doubt I could ever attain it, the quality of your work is an inspiration to me - it gives me something to strive for to develop my PE skills.

On another note, it seems like most folks replying on this thread have agreed that detailing and accuracy are basically functions of individual tastes and skill levels. Not all of us, and I'm certainly among this group, have the ability or skills to correct the defects and inaccuracies found in every kit, or to modify a kit to a different period of time from what the kit is intended to depict. I admire those with the skill and patience, and envy those with the time, to scratch build such corrections and to do high quality PE work such as yours. But the fact is, for me, those skills just aren't there, at least yet. I do make efforts on almost every build to make some corrections and to do the best PE work I can, hoping to expand and improve my skills by doing. Most, admittedly, come under the heading of "it was a good idea, but....". By the same token, sometimes I actually manage to make something work out close to what I had planned. I also feel that even my failures teach me something that will help me down the road. Its all a part of growing as a ship modeler.

Keep up the great work and the great inspiration to us lesser mortals.

Bob

robertmelvin wrote: I also feel that even my failures teach me something that will help me down the road.

Bob, thats right and if you only knew how much brass I've mashed up into useless balls of crumpled hopes remember, I'm the pic editor round these here parts....you are only going to see the good stuff lol

thanks also to Jose and Jonck for the kind words!

More great work, Halsey. What can I say? Just simply superlative. I know what you mean about PE winding up as crumpled balls of crushed hopes. LOL. But, that's how we learn. That's the reason that on something I'm doing as a really important build, like my current U.S.S. North Carolina, I will often order two sets of PE from different manufacturers. One, they usually contain some differences as far as what is included, but more importantly, it gives me one to screw up and one to apply lessons learned and get on the model.

Keep up the great work.

Bob

J. Soca wrote:Nice job on making the bulges free of the excel spreadsheet it looks fantastic! how did you do it?


Jose

For fill I used Mr Surfacer 500 and some auto body fine scratch filler. Mostly Mr. Surfacer, but the scratch filler is very fine and is easier to work with actually, and didn't give me a fume buzz like Mr Surfacer.

Taped off the edges with masking tape to help prevent inadvertently sanding off wanted mold detail, sanded with progressively finer grits until smooth. I was unpleasantly surprised at the number of high and low spots on the hull, especially a vertical seam/indent 3/4 way up the hull nearer the bow...I think you can see it in the pic)

Took about 90 minutes each hull half, so 3 hrs more or less. I didn't enjoy the process and swore at Hasegawa many times while filling/sanding. The cursing and foul language seemed to help my mood, but raised an eyebrow or two in the other room from the mystified Better Half...)

Not a simple or easy task to accomplish but it was well worth it my friend!! keep it up



Jose

Hello again! Thank you all for the nice comments...its appreciated believe me!

... I will have a nice update in the next couple of days, but for now here is some of the detail I have been adding to the model (all portholes are now drilled and capped, for instance) ...the part below is held upside down to illustrate




**edit -sorry for fuzziness of pics, camera is about 1 inch from subject and I do not have a macro lense, my apologies.

I will have a bigger update this weekend. Thanks for viewing! -Tim

nice work

one question, how come you paint the hull halfs separately? I read the majority of the post, did I miss something?

"one question, how come you paint the hull halfs separately"

Great question veliko! I did that in this case as its MUCH easier for me to apply photo etch with the hulls lying flat... and with 170 portholes, 10 ladders, 24 pc degaussing cable, etc., ease of pe application is a big factor with this many brass parts. The two hulls and the braces have been dry fitted together already so I know there won't be many probs when it comes time to join them up (soon) and the only downside is time spent afterwards touching up the seam

i like to include a new pic in every post so here's one of a hulf hull thats fully pe'd now



Thanks for the question! Cheers!

Very sharp work. Your photo-etch work is very crisp and clean.

I couldn't agree more - outstanding PE work, hull work, too. Very nice.

Awesome work!!!!

Your PE work and attention to detail are great. For what it is worth regarding the smoke stack, I am of the belief that you build a model how you like it, at the end of the day it is your hobby and you can do with it what you like. I have done such things as incorrect markings on a plane because I liked them and I didn't want to have to modify the kit to make it the correct variant for the markings.

I have just started a Nagato as well (my build log is in the work in progress too) and will be referring to yours when I start the PE soon but I have the 3 Hasegawa sets. I wish I had have held off and bought the WEM or Lion Roar sets for it though in hind site as it would have been cheaper and I think they might be more complete.

Cheers

Anthony

Guest wrote:Awesome work!!!!

Your PE work and attention to detail are great. For what it is worth regarding the smoke stack, I am of the belief that you build a model how you like it, at the end of the day it is your hobby and you can do with it what you like. I have done such things as incorrect markings on a plane because I liked them and I didn't want to have to modify the kit to make it the correct variant for the markings.

I have just started a Nagato as well (my build log is in the work in progress too) and will be referring to yours when I start the PE soon but I have the 3 Hasegawa sets. I wish I had have held off and bought the WEM or Lion Roar sets for it though in hind site as it would have been cheaper and I think they might be more complete.

Cheers

Anthony

Sorry that was me (not logged in)

Hi Martin and Dan, thank-you for your comments! and Anthony.. I'm glad to have some company while working on Nagato, hope you are too! I will follow your build as well! Here is an update on what I have been working on the past week or so...

-ditched the side marker lights kit parts and made some with clear styrene tube drilled out slightly on the bottom with paint inserted into the drilled hole, then dunked in Future floor polish:




additional detail added to superstructure base and portholes drilled and capped:



prop parts:


rudder detail:


I will have more pics in the next day or two of the finished and joined hull and also the next superstructure level...thanks for viewing my post and comments and suggestions, as always, are most welcome! -Tim