The Ship Model Forum

Dear all,

A little build I started some days ago.

It is the trumpeter kit which seems OK

I wanted to build it ‘out of the box’ but a well-meaning friend advised me to add a few things like PE railings and radars... Thanks to him.

Step 1: weight the bottom, like the old tamiya kits, it makes the handling easier if the kit is a little heavier.









The decks are prepared, the tools are taken out to remove the moulded chains and the hawse pipes are drilled.

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We then glue the decks to the hull (for the moment it's fine

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Trumpeter and their adjustments...

Some add-ons :

Anchor chains :



trumpeter generic railings :


a little naughty painting session

50 shades of wood

I paint random slats with 4 refs of brown-beige :



All this will serve as an undercoat to vary the shades and break up the uniformity of the deck tan that I will apply next.

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_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.

The effect is very light and deliberate, but it's a little more noticeable in person.
I used 75% XF-59 "Desert Yellow" and 25% XF-19 "Sky Grey"

The whole effect will be enhanced with a very diluted brown wash.

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The upper deck has received the same treatment

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Dark wash aplied on the decks :

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Then we attack the castle, with this habit of always multiplying the parts unnecessarily with trumpeter...

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The usual little blank assembly

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Masking the bridge, using Parafilm

It wasn't all plain sailing, he didn't like the juice I gave him beforehand, so note for later: give him the juice AFTERwards



Next up are the turrets...

They basically look like this:




The protuberances must be removed to match the California...



And as moulded ladders are ugly, we're replacing them with PE



Let's move on to the [strike]catastrophe[/strike] catapult in turret No. 3:



It's not pretty... and up close it's even uglier:



Better with some PE

_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.

It's not perfect, but there's still more detail

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It's starting to look like something...

We'll soon start thinking about masts...

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1st mast in progress















This is a radar and not a waffle iron

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Let's replace it with a PE version

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We're going after the rear catapult with the same treatment:

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And we're off to work on the rear cage mast, with the platform receiving generic PE railings (8 pieces).

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_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.

Little blank assembling



We glue trinkets and generic trumpeter PE, which I recommend. It's very easy to fold and the set costs very little.
It contains railings and stairs, originally for the Kriegsmarine, but to be honest, you won't really see the difference...







It's not the whole story, but it still smells like a painting session, doesn't it?



We start with a solid coat of German Grey XF-63, which will be followed by a 2nd coat lightened (sic) with 25% Ocean Gray XF-82.





Remove Parafilm and TADAAAAAA !







Last step of the day (which was a productive one), Haze Grey at the top of the mats, and definitely NOT in white!

I hesitated for a long time about the mix and settled on a 50-50 split between 2 Vallejo colours:



The result is sufficiently clear, but renders slightly more than grey in normal vision:



And we leave the whole thing to rest gently in the window, protected from the dust



Turrets N°1-2 et 4 (not the N°3) are painted in insignia white















To be continued

_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.

Good job my friend

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A day spent without laughing is a wasted day!

Nice work.

Thanks guys

Today's work

The auxiliary artillery pieces are attached, followed by the cranes:

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Then the drome and finally the turrets:

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Railing on turret N°3 will have to be fixed...

To be continued

_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.

I had time today to move forward on the ship

assembly of the castle and the main mast cage

Only remain to add the anchors chains made in 3D by my friend @Bgire and the railings on main deck.
Il ne reste plus qu'a coller les ancres en 3dé et les rambardes du pont principal avant d'attaquer le haubanage.

Although... Wouldn't it be better to glue the railings after rigging to avoid damage when handling with my big pudgy fingers...


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Pic in natural light

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To be continued

_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.

_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.

She's coming along very nicely.

Thanks Dan

Here is my flying California

Base hase been repainted and next step is addition of varnish before final photo shoot

_________________
In 1:700 we trust

There are three kinds of people: the living, the dead and those who go to sea.