The Ship Model Forum

Welcome back.... Looking forward for any progress...

Hi Russ great to see you and your Nagato back on the board . Nice place you have there , nice lake as well . I trust you are well settled in?
Dave Wooley

thanks Russ for the info! Keep up the great work!

Hi Russ
House and IJN Nagato look great ! Glad you are back at work . I love WWII Japanese warships .

hello all,i have finished my work space,i will be starting on nagato again soon.something must have leaked onto my 16" guns it ate at the paint i will have to strip them and redo .i closed in a 6 by 8 ft. space in the garage with heat in it . it is small, but all the power tools are on a bench in the main garage. heres some pics.

Hi Russ i loved your work space... well organized and clean.
i am planning my but still not can do.
your gun is superb too
is good you back again into the forum
many regards

lovely workshop!!

Now for some serious modelling again!

JB

well it's been a while,a still have'nt found all my stuff .it does not take long to get rusty,things that were routine 6 months ago now seem to take a lot of thought,but i am sure it will all come back to me.i am working on the funnel,search lite platform and 25m.m gun platform.this is a very complecated area,every thing has to match up with each other ,there is lots to add yet, the 4 sub assemblies are just dry fitted for now .one has to not get to far ahead of one's self or somthing will come along and bite you in the butt.heres some pics

Exceptional work Russ! I great to see you back at it again. Following your build has been an enjoyment! Enjoy the new Space!

Cheers!

Hi Russ good to see you back in the groove . Well you haven't forgotten how to build that's for sure , amazing styrene work , I very much like the work on the searchlight platform and you are not kidding when you say it's complicated . The level of detail reached on this board by those working in styrene is inspiring indeed the bar just keeps on rising!!!

Dave Wooley

I agree Wooley
the work in this area is incredible.
the japanese ships have very difficult parts to do
and Russ making a very good job reproducing it in 1/200 scale.
superb

Looks awesome Russ!!! man i can't wait to see her all together, good to have you back too !!



Jose

good to hear the comments from all you guys,it means a lot to know there are people of your skill levels following my build. I have the funnel ,director, search lite,25 m.m platform fitted.Now i know it lines up with every thing i can start tiddling it up.The weather gurus are predicting a colder winter with more snow than usual here, so it looks like there will be more days for building

Hi Russ are you using PE for your stairways and rails ? Superb build but do you find you have to plan a build sequence to avoid problems further along in the build?
Dave Wooley

hello dave,yes i am useing photo-etch railings,and ladders,also my 25m.m,s,and doors and hatchs.And you are so right on the assembly process, It seems no matter how carefull one trys to be i seem to miss a detail that should have been added in the process before.Belive me dave i study drawings and pics till i'm cross eyed,Plans and pics or drawings of the same spot are always a little differant,looking at japanese ships they seem to have no set plan as to the practicality of there outcome,they add things here or there then latter take it off.This is what makes these japanese battleships so unique.

Hi all,my hat is of to all modelers who build smaller than 1/200.I am trying to assemble photo-etch 25 m.m guns it is taking me 1.5 hours to do one ,and there are a lot to do.Some of the parts have 5 bends to them and they are tiny and the instructions are not to good.I have done 5, slowly getting better,but i am afraid i will never get one anywhere perfect,they are to small and my eyes are weak and my hands are all thumbs.some of the parts such as the ammo clips i am going to try to make my own.The photo-etch ones are 4 pieces,just about impossible to glue them together .pics show them but i am going to break them off and try something differant.

Hello Russ. Really nice! At 200 you get an awful lot of detail out of those 25 mm! I would try soldering paste(not solder), dab of paste, heat and it flows. Real low temp also. Just an option.

Great patients! Keep the pics coming!

Cheers!

Hi Russ magnificent work but an eye sight test . I agree building in any scale less than 1:200 is amazing and way beyond me and I consider the skill to handle such smalll and complex fittings to be dexterity of the very highest order. I'll stick to larger scales I can see it for a start.
Dave Wooley

Hello all fellow modelers and scratch builders.I am putting the final touchs on the first deck of the tower bridge.The doors,portholes and hand wheels are photo-etch,And the 127,s are castings from gpm models in poland,i belive.All these little bits are what make a model stand out.Nothing is glued down yet as i still have to paint.I will wait untill i have enough pieces to make firing up the air brush worth while.Heres some pics.

Hi Russ you a spot on regarding the smaller less significant fittings they do in fact make the model stand out. Question which part of the ship are you moving onto next and why?. I ask this question because it's interesting to see how modellers develop their build . I find that the build has to have a coherent methodical sequence otherwise it would be near on impossible to build and finish certain structures without that thought pattern. I guess to build this way may sound obvious but those coming into scratch building for the first time and being presented with a 2D drawing may not appreciate that a sound methodology of build is very relevant. . Also I noted what Bill has said regarding scale. Although the scale of his new model is large the depth of detail is greater so in reality building to larger scales is in some respects more demanding than smaller scales. By the way I have never built above 1:100 but at 1:24 that�s frightening . The very fine details that would be hidden in smaller scales would now become very clear . As an example a friend of mine built a 1:24th RNLI Mersey class life boat . He took all the measurements off the full size vessel even down to the nut heads around the window seals 28 in all per window. Each nut was a mirror of the real thing. Even the hatches were identical replicas of the originals down to functioning springs This could be seen as a very challenging view of the concept of scales and their inherent difficulties, just some thoughts. After all that Russ you make 1:200 look easy
Dave Wooley