One of the things that often lets down other nicely built 1/700 models is small platforms....
When a floor is fitted of plastic or resin, or even brass-- and the rails are fitted on top of the platform
the edges are way over-scale-- and end up looking clunky.
Drilling holes in thin brass, and square ladder aperture can be challenging without distorting the outside edge.
Combined with the difficulty of getting clean paint demarcation lines on the In-side of tiny circular or square platforms...
For many years I have circumvented this by pre-forming the rails to a chosen shape, adhering to the mast and infilling the base of the pre-painted railing with white glue--once set it dries clear-- if painted from the
underside perfect paint demarcation will result with a very thin platform effect!
This fwd searchlight platform was complicated by the need of the mast to pass thru an asymmetric position aft-of-centre, ( ie I could not stick the rails to the mast!!) and needing an ladder access aperture...
I solved this in the following manner:
I bent the rail and butt- joined the circle.
I cut some 1/350 handrail using the longitudinals and a stanchion to form it into a "U" shape.
This was glued around the mast, and the rails stuck on with matt varnish so that the metal supporting struts were level with the bottom of the handrail, this was facilitated by gluing the aft end first and then adjusting the angle of the model until the rail circle balances level with the fwd butt ends- this was then tacked with CA at both ends
Once this had dried - I in-filled the apertures by spanning white glue across the gaps one side at a time.
Hmnnnnn--need a bit of deck-paint touch-up !
Note the resulting aft ladder aperture!
Result!
Onwards to more small details...!
Jim Baumann
JB
