The Ship Model Forum

[quote="Jon C Ryckert" post_id=1098083 time=1773687471 user_id=6668]
Nice work as always. Do you lighten your colors? maybe it's my monitor as the 5D looks not as dark as my Colourcoats 5D.
[/quote]
Thanks! I do not. That's Colourcoats 5D straight out of the tin.

Nice work as always. Do you lighten your colors? maybe it's my monitor as the 5D looks not as dark as my Colourcoats 5D.

Broke out the airbrush and gave the funnels, cranes and boat stowage another coat of 5D.

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Also airbrushed ION figures white in advance of detail painting.

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I'll check those for any additional touch-ups, then figure out next steps.

Plain ole soldering irons. They hate me, and I them,

I spent most of the day looking at archival photos. Realized my initial interpretation of the funnels was wrong, so I redid the forward one. Also added vertical ladders to the aft funnel
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are you talking about the soldering irons used on circuit boards & not solder guns used by diy? self trained on the use of soldering irons then properly trained while working at Celestica in the late 1990's. used that skill to replace the left switch on 2 computer mice with gaming switch of 80 million clicks. have not used a solder gun in decades, maybe late 70's into early 80's.

Before I broke out the airbrush, I spent some time seeing if there was anything else that needed work before painting. Of course, there was.

The small cranes on the quarterdeck needed some attention. I added PE ladders, wire booms, then grafted on the ends of the PE booms that came wit the kit onto the wire with CA. If I could manage to use a soldering iron properly, I would have soldered them, but solder and I are no bueno, as the folks in my office like to say.
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I also spent a lot of time going through photos of California, especially Pearl Harbor photos. I noticed details on the funnels that weren't included in the kit.
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So, I took out some brass tubing, cut to approximate length, and added those. More wire and "sh*t" need to be added to the forward funnel to finish making them resemble the photos.
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"Thingys" added to both cranes. Another round of painting next. Then some rigging from the top of the kingpost to the tip of the boom.
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Given that I'll probably bump into these while handling, I decided to fix the alignment of the PE hooks right before attaching these to the ship.

Huh. I've never noticed that item before. A quick looksee of the Big Five shows it for all their boat cranes. If I had to guess, I'd say it was some kind of hydraulic cylinder with a cable extending to the pulley to maintain tension on the cable(s) used to lift the boats. Exactly how, I'm not sure.

Your cranes continue to impress.

Thank you Jim! Much appreciated. :)

I've continued working on the cranes, using photos for reference to add details. The supports from the king post to the boom are .15 plastic rod, while the rails are cut down two bar rail from a GMM PE set designed for the old Revell Olympia.
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I think they are starting to look the part.

Next up, I'll replicate these thingys.
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ahoi Martin Q- :wave_1:

- the boat racks are laborious-- but you have made a splendid job--with much perseverance
the relative delicacy belies the hard work!!

still looking on

JB

As often happens, I realized, belatedly, that I goofed. But, it ended up working in my favor. While I was making the boat stowage, I had a snippet of the West Virginia BoGP on my workbench. So, I made the number of cradles/racks based on those plans. Then, I realized CA and WV had different arrangements, so I technically didn't need those. But...instead of progressing with making the smaller boat stowage that I had started, on either side of CA's superstructure, I'm going to these extras instead. So, it all worked out, and now the boat stowage is complete, after adding some vertical ladders to dress them up a bit.It was tedious, but I'm pleased with how they came out.

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Test fit of the large rack and the small stowage on CA:

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Test fit of the large rack and the small stowage on WV:

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These parts, and others, were airbrushed Colorcoats 5D

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I removed the boat stowage, flipped them over (I had initially painted them upside down), then permanently glued the boat cradles to the tops.

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All that is now ready for the next round of airbrushing

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I also reattached the barrels and trunnions to #3 turret

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Finally, I started adding some vertical ladders to the cranes, to try and replicate what I can see in photos. More to come there...

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Continued sharp work, M.

Hi Martin.
What a fiddly little job! I'm glad my things are just a tiny bit bigger.
But brilliantly done. :thumbs_up_1:

Yes, it was more tedious!

After a break, and a long long weekend in Central California...
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...it was back to the workbench.

I chopped more plastic strip to make the pads to support the boats.
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Then added them to the cradles I made. Super tedious, but I'm happy with how they came out.
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I realized I also had to make something for the boat stowage on each side of the superstructure, as the kit had cast supports that were meant to fit the parts cast into the bottom of the boats.

I used a single strip of .30 x .30 plastic, then bent wire and glue those in place.
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Next step, bend the wire to shape, chop more "pads", add those, then start painting everything.

Tedious, but still very sharp work.

you mean to say you were not a bit cross-eyed before & now more so?

Still plodding along with these boat racks. I finished beefing up the PE parts with plastic strip, then moved onto making a new second set. Since I only had enough kit PE to do the cradles for one ship, I used thin brass rod and plastic strip to start making the second set. I was relatively pleased with how the first of these turned out, so I continued and added the brass rod to 5 more. Next up, the brass needs to be trimmed, as needed, then bent to shape. Finally, small pieces of .10 x .20 plastic strip will be added to the end of each rod, to replicate the pads. It’s been tedious, and left me a bit cross-eyed.

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Progress! Sharp boat racks.

Work continues (slowly) on the boat racks. Since I was making one for California, I made another for West Virginia while I was at it. Added some additional braces to each, (loosely) based on photos. They aren't 100% accurate, as mentioned in an earlier post, but they'll do.
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Once the basic boat rack was built, I needed to make the cradles that held the boats next. There was nothing in the California kit - the resin boats all had little boat cradles cast to the bottoms of their hulls to slot them into the white metal parts. When I looked in the West Virginia kit, there were these (the PE had been revised and upgraded from the California release):
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I also belatedly realized that an entirely new PE boat rack was included in that PE set. However, I liked mine better, as it was sturdier. The WV set includes 6 of these boat cradles. Four to go on the boat rack and two to go on the deck. The only thing I don't like about them is, being PE, they have no depth to them. So, I took out some 30 x 30 plastic strip and started building them up.
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I think it makes them a more realistic looking...
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Now, if I could only measure correctly, I wouldn't have to cobble together multiple pieces of plastic strip to finish the job :doh_1:
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While those were drying I started drilling out holes in the funnels for both ships and adding PE rings for the funnel stays. The WV funnels have some damage to them that I'll have to repair.
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After seeing some of the brilliant updates posted by others, I'm loathe to post my crap, but here goes...

Since my last post, California got some gloss coat, then I gave the decks a burnt umber oil wash. The hull then got a wash with various colors and some dot filter weathering as well.
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After that all dried, I flat coated the hull. Recently, I've started on the boat racks that sit between the funnels. The kit supplied white metal parts are showing their age, so I started making new ones out of plastic strip
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Here is where they are at as of now. Still need to add some detail. Using the 1/700 Five Star PE instructions as a loose guide.
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I've also been using the kit supplied PE to detail the kits white metal cranes and the catapult on turret #3. These, along with some boats and other small parts (including the boat racks) need additional painting.
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In between all this, I've gotten the worst f**king model I've ever had the misfortune to work on - the 3D printed 1/350 GAGA Models Charles de Gaulle - almost to the finish line. What a pathetic excuse for a model. A pox on the designer and manufacturer!!
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Also finished a 1/700 Tamiya HMS Echo...
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And, if that isn't enough to keep me distracted, I've slowly been working on an Ironshipwright 1/350 HMS Canada, with the "goal" of having that ready for the 2026 IPMS USA Nationals, for their "Jutland 110th Anniversary" special category.
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