The Ship Model Forum

Restarting this build.

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- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

No good images of the camo she wore exists - just one blurry starboard shot that I used in mine: http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html
Scroll to the very last pic for the only photo that shows her in the scheme.

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Thanks Timmy. I guess I'll proceed in a similar manner and just... guess.

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- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

My kit was the same way. Will eagerly follow your progress.

Back to the England/Buckley class. I'm not going to start the Scharnhorst until after I get in her wood deck, brass secondary, and main mast from Flyhawk.

The King George was... a disappointment. Overall, I was told it was a good build, but a lot of stupid, stupid flaws kept it from even placing. 1st was taken by a ship that utterly deserved it (1/200 'Zona) and I took 2nd and 3rd with the Harusame and Nagato. I'm happy I won, but damn, thought I did a better job on the KGV. I'm going to spend some time going over the ship and correcting what two of the judges told me I should do, post show.

Anyway, to the England:

I decided to cut off all the detail I could and replace it with brass. I used hatches from GMM's 1/350 set and brass wire I got from the hobby store. Fire hoses were added based on photographs I found on the net. I also hollowed out the life rafts, replacing the molded netting with substitutes from Tom's set. This left some ugly attachment points I've cut/filled in or simply filled:



I was debating waiting under post-camo for the fire hoses, but read that most of these were painted in colors typical of those around them. Nothing "shiny" was left evident.



If I recall, the actual 'stepladder" to the upper works were actually small bars welded into the superstructre. I'm... not quite confident in my abilities to go that far. I did add two small hand rails on the forward part of the gun tub to see if I could pull it off. It worked but with MUCH frustration.



I've finished the thicker forward rafts in this picture. All are done at this point.



You can see the two smaller hand holds above the ladder, on the forward part of the gun tub better in this picture.



Full hull shot. Tomorrow, I'm going to focus on the bow, remove the anchor chains, and sand down the seam between the deck and hull. I'll check the remaining seams, and set to priming it. Due to the cammo pattern and two very ugly seams amidships, I'll prime/paint the decks, mask them, then set the superstructure on the hull. After filling, painting on the verticals can begin.



THANKFULLY, all 20mm guns are done. I've also added PE to the main armament and built her Chicago piano out of WEM's photo etch.

More to come in the next few days. Comments are welcome and appreciated. I've gone through and filled the seams. The flat lines you see are, hopefully, all filler. I had painted on silver and sanded a few times, then hit the spots that looked bad with CA glue. Some of the CA is still showing from under the superglue.

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- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

Heh. Edited my last post. Whoops. See above.

_________________
- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

OK, I decided to prime the deck and see what I had. Minus a few rough spots on the extreme bow and some debris from outside, I'm happy with the deck. I'm going to remove anything looking ugly, lightly sand, then paint. The superstructure is another story...



In order to get a good fit along forward superstructure and the large, solid breakwater/amidships hatch (or whatever those guards are called,) I'll have to glue the superstructure down AFTER I paint the deck. I'll mask the deck carefully, re-prime, and then begin painting her verticals.





On the current condition of the superstructure: There are still gaps on her aft deckhouse. These must be filled and sanded. I'm not OK with how they look. I also need to do some work on her bridge... just not happy with it as of yet.



Once I'm cool with her seams, I'll paint the tops of her superstructure 20-B, mask, then begin the insane task of masking ALL the decks for vertical painting. She'll be in a MS32 mod dazzle, with decals from GatorMasks.

Aaaaaand I can't find her torpedo tubes. Awesome.

I'm going to waste a lot of masking tape... :Smile_sceptic:

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- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

Today's joyous activity: SANDING. Yes! I spent my modeling time today sanding and masking. It was exciting. Thankfully, I convinced the wife to watch Django Unchained with me. It's a fantastic movie, if you have the stomach for that sort of thing.

Anyway.... to the (semi) progress!

I didn't do a whole lot today, you know, life outside the hobby room causing issue. I'm supposed to run in a marathon benefiting cancer for the wife's school, so I've been doing sprints to get my endurance up.

What I did do: The verticals of the ship are masked. I'll start with a layer of 5-O from my dwindling supply of Poly Scale paint. Once that's dry, I'll mask off the sections of the deck and glued upperworks that are supposed to remain ocean grey. I'll then spray down the 20-B.

Now, here's a question to the community: I HAVE to pre-paint the deck, glue down the superstructure, mask the deck, and finally, paint the verticals (with the deck masked, of course.) There are still ugly seams to fill and I plan on showing this model in Pensacola if I can. Now, I can paint the horizontal surfaces 20-B, masking off her vertical superstructure, or I can mask the ENTIRE model, sans the decks in question. I'm really not certain which way is the best to proceed, though I'm leaning toward pre-painting the decks, then masking them for the eventual dazzle painting.

Here's the 32-B I'm using from Kenny:



Opinions?

Here's my progress. I'm sure it looks impressive with all the masking tape:



That's all for now. I'm hoping to get the dazzle done this weekend, at my IPMS club's group meet and build. As soon as this one's done, I'm starting on my DKM Scharnhorst which will also be a joy to paint.

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- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

Looking good. I am trying the Iron Shipwrights Buckley APD. The Trumpeter kit seems to more to scale though. I have extra torpedo tubes if you need them.

After a short time away from this build, I'm back. I spent most of my time on her masking her upperworks. I have a few areas left to hit with 20-B. When that's all done, it's back to masking. I'll cover ALL the decks (which will be a pain) after gluing down the superstructure. Once it's puttied and looks good, I'll give it a quick sand, primer treatment and start the vertical dazzle.

Thankfully, I found the torpedo launcher while vacuuming today.

_________________
- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

Maybe white glue would help with seams? Might save some masking? Looking good otherwise though

Matt

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In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Small update. All the 20-B has been painted and I've added the hull red to the ship. Sigh.... now I get to mask away the horizontals and begin the process of painting her dazzle. I'm also removing the small ammo boxes, photo etch, etc and I'll be painting those soon.

I've added some PE and will do a bit more in places where I think I have to.

Most of the weaponry is PE or heavily modified.

With this and a review for IPMS I'm working in, I'm hoping to have them both done by the end of next weekend.

48: I've tried to think about a NUMBER of ways to make the seam line go away. Would white glue completely disguise it?

_________________
- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

Hey PetrolGator

Been enjoying your build. She is coming along quite nicely. I have USS England lined up next in the drydock. Just the upper and lower hull pieces glued right now. So I am watching with interest. Not sure about your kit but I had to do alot, I mean alot, of sanding to get the seam smooth. As far as your gap situation have you tried a medium viscosity CA or some Mr. Surface 500. Either one should work fine with very little cleanup/touchup.

Regarding the fit I encountered: It's garbage. The incessant sand/fit/fill/grumble/sand combination led me to burnout and nearly made me delete this entire thread. The only reason I got back to it was to try out some new techniques I had learned at the last IPMS show I went to in New Orleans.

Here's an example of her fantastic fit:


I ended up sanding off 80% of the ship's molded detail and replacing it with PE from the Tom's set and GMM/WEM 1/350 bits I had picked up at various shows fairly cheaply.


I figure this little ship can give me a bit more confidence to work in 1/350 scale. I can't hide imperfections as well. I have an Academy 1/350 Premium Warspite and 1/350 Tamiya Bismarck + All the PE goodness waiting to be built.

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- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

I only have one word for the dazzle: disappointing. I was sure between the masks and masking tape that I would avoid most serious bleed over. I was wrong. I was sure that I could pull off a 1/350 dazzle. I was terribly wrong.

To put it mildly, I'm disappointed with how this turned out... The pictures I'm posting are AFTER I spent a good deal of time correcting bleed over. I'm getting into the habit of photographing a model once I get to a stage to better identify issues. Well, there are a lot of them. The bridge looks horrible. The gun tubs are disappointing. From a distance, it looks GREAT, but much like a Picasso, becomes terrifying up close.

I'm reapplied antifouling paint due to the bleed and haven't gotten around to its black stripe. I'll continue trying to hand correct issues I see with the paint, apply future, and may take some VERY thin light grey paint to weather it a little... Perhaps the weathering is how so many of you make these look so good?

Anyway, for the judgement of the forum:

Any help is really appreciated. I don't have any one in my area that really does small scale (read: anything ships.) Our IPMS chapter is pretty fractured, so in person help is often difficult. We have one other guy who regularly builds. The rest sell stuff on eBay.







I will say this. I haven't started any of the assembly or detail painting. Deck fixtures will be colored appropreately once I'm satisfied with the main dazzle.

_________________
- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

uhmm...well, I think it looks nice, but I'm a sucker for dazzle painting, so you can fool me easily

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WIP:
-1/72 Revell flower class corvette,with GLS PE and lots of Evergreen.
-1/350 Dragon Scharnhorst, Artwox wooden decks, CyberHobby PE, Master brass barrels.

I am too. I think I'm going to march forward (after buying some latex gloves... oil from hands is affecting the paint) and continue trying to fix all areas of concern. Once that's done, I'll Future it, hit it with some LIGHT and THIN grey, use some oils and pastels to add rust and wear, then see what happens.

I guess I've always been a perfectionist. You should see the way I work. There's a reason my boss loves me.

_________________
- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

Well, after a day off and a day trying to make this ship look better, well, it looks a lot better but I think I can still do better.

I attempted a few new things today:

- Oil weathering
- Highly thinned paint for fading (Tamiya sky grey)

It turned out alright. There are still some spots I'm not 100% OK with, but overall, and considering I'm at my one year plus two months of modeling, I guess it's okay.

Progress so far:









Comments/tips/criticisms are welcome. Seriously. Rip into it. I'm learning this hobby a bit more with every build.

Edit: Oh yeah... I'm going to have to repaint part of the waterline. Again.

_________________
- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi

Did you spray a layer of either the base color or a clear flat/gloss to seal the tape edges to prevent paint bleeding under the tape?

I think it will look just fine when touched up- actually, it looks great at this stage!

Let me answer you with the appropriate newbie question: Did I.. what?!

_________________
- Chris

1/700 Saratoga w/Pontos (Needs paint)
1/700 Potato w/Kurama (On hold)
1/700 Murdertorpedoboat Ooi