This is my entrie to this contest an Out Of the Box Build of H.M.S ILLUSTRIOUS 1/700 from Dragon had the kit sitting in the loft now for over a year.This gives me the push now to build it.

Ahoy Keith,
Welcome aboard, mate, glad to see you made it!
Looking forward to seeing your build progress...
Cheers,
~Gunny

Now that’s a neat looking ship.

Good luck with the build.

Welcome aboard Keith.

Gator

Well here I go made a start on the build for lusty as the ship is known in the british navy. I have been watching a TV documentry about the ship and her crew while she was on duty in the gulf last year and have got some good referece for this now. The kit flight deck has a raised seam line running all over it probabley for the younger modeller but i think it is to thick so have scraped and sanded it down also I,ve re-scribed the hanger loading dooors as they where raised also.




After looking at some of the fantastic full builds going on I can see why this may take a full year to complete so I,am going to just be taking my time with this one and enjoying looking at all the great work going on around the site and hopefully picking up a lot of good tips from everyone else.

Hi Keith,

Good start to your Illustrious, I think I see part of the problem with your progress,... you've been given some uneeded individual Sherman tracks with your Illustrious! (I'm one to talk, I'm lucky if I can keep my concentration on one model for more than a week!)

keep us posted,

Frank

Looks like your off to a good start Keith.

And to add to what Frank said I think those tracks are a little outa scale as well.

Hi Beefy

I take it there was some useful reference material for you in that piece of tabloid press you failed to cover fully. Obviously full of some kind of reference material ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, certainly not so much of news though.

I have a couple of the flat decks from Telford that are sitting in the stash marked "why did I buy something so small that I need double the magnification I would need normally" pile!

They are nice and so are the white ensign aircraft you can get to fill up space.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on.

All the best from Scotland

Nige

This is the sort of kit I would build, Keith, and I think you're always going to turn out a good build with well supported information. I'm interested to see how you get on, and when I build mine, I can follow your instructions - good one!

Cheers,

Peter F

Ahh yes. The raised deck markings. Can you imagine hitting those trying to take off.

Great work Keith. Keep up the good work!

Kenny

Here is the latest to my build got a little more done this month after concentrating on another project a bit too much

Rescibed the deck loading doors by using a sewing pin end in a pin vice (pun ) got the idea from an aircraft modeller at the local club.

The two hull halfs glued and masking taped in place to hold secure.

Making a start on the superstucture using small finger clamps to hold together.

Also the dry fit of the deck to hull.Hopefully a bit more done this weekend if it,s not to sunny

Looks great, Keith. Nice work cleaning up the flight deck. Barry

Well got more done this week having a few fit problems with the bow top and capston area getting a lot of gaps and ill fit parts.

Even managed to get finger print on deck trying to hold it in place

But the rest of the flight deck and jump ramp went in place no problem all glued and taped to hold in place until set.

And the stern section will need more filling and sanding Well off to the shops to get more filler for a small kit there is a lot of work to do but it is a 2000 kit a lot has happened since then for the better .

oops did something wrong dohh

Good work Keith, take care with the jump ramp and the seam lines, my Illustrious took countless layers of putty/glue to remove the seam lines.

Frank

Good progress, Keith!
Keep on!

Looking good keith!

Well best get this in now as will not be here for the end of the month off on a jolly to Krackow
Krackoff whatever POLAND>

After a carefull look at some reference photos started to fill and sand and fill and sand the bow to try and get the correct shape

After using Revell plasto putty, to get a smother finnish on the bow I used some Mister Surfacer 500 and some very fine finnishing paper.

Mister surfacer was also used on the jump ramp sides and deck,also on the hull stabilizers

I have also made a start on the superstructure which has gone together well after the hull problems.Cracking on quite well now

And the dry fit to the deck for second check

Looks really nice, Keith. Barry

very nicely done! I have to try that Mr Surfacer..cheers

I have used the mister surfacer quite a bit over the last year, Have found it to be really good for filling in very fine joine lines without the mess and over use of filler,because you can just brush it on and drys quite quick also use it for building up weld seams and lines on other stuff

Nice work, Keith and a good reaction to the shortcoming of the kit - I must get some mr surfacer myself and try it out.

Keep up the good work.

Peter F