Here's my entry.
Trumpeters 1/350th scale USS England.
Tom's Models Photo Etched set.
Battlefleet barrels


The virgin parts:

The hull:

The kits photo etched, and flags:

Tom's Photo Etched...... what did I get myself into?

BattleFleet Barrels.... these things are small!

Dave,

Welcome! Good to see they let you off work for a while.

No such luck, still pulling 12 & 12's.
I'll be off to bed in about 1/2 hour, then up at 4 PM to head back to work.

Hi Dave!

Glad to see you made it, mate...nice looking batch of supplies, my friend, looking forward to seeing her progress!
~Gunny

Hi Dave,

Good to have you aboard!.... make sure you eventually take some well deserved time off!

Frank

Wow, that looks like some serious Photo-etch there Dave...
Luckily, appropriate medication should be at hand if needed..

Looking forward to seeing this progress.

Henk

Hi Dave!

You have all you need to make it GOOD (time included: we have ONE YEAR!)
Please keep us posted on your progresses and if anything is needed to help, we are here too


Rui

Well, I actually managed to do a little on this campaign.

Decided to go for the waterline version. I glued the bottom plate on, CAed a few ounces of lead shot into the hull to add a little weight, then glued on the deck. I figured the weight would help me not knock it over too easily as I progressed along the build. I really don't know if anyone else does this, but it made sense to me.


Started the deck houses, they are only placed in place right now, as I have some filling and sanding to do yet.


Another view.


My first piece of photo etched added. I'm still wondering how the heck you guys deal with some of this stuff, as a few of the items on the sheets are as thin as a human hair, and it appears to me that simply trying to remove them from the frame is going to cause them to bend out of shape. I also just ordered TM's water tight doors set, and also his deck fitting set.

Have I turned into a photo etched demon?

Very nice work Dave!

Kenny

Nice job so far. And yes, you are now a fully fledged Photo Etch Demon.

The Water Tight Door set is most excellent, inner and outer doors as well as door frames. Don't worry too much about the tiny stuff, brass is very forgiving about being tweaked in and out of shape a few times before it gives it up. One of my favorite tools for working with the stuff is a pair of flat jawed square nosed mini pliers, not only does it do double duty as a straightening tool, you can use it to make simple 90 degree bends in parts. If you haven't already, find a chunk of tile like they use in the john on the walls, makes an excellent surface to cut PE on, just make sure to use a finger tip to hold the part down as you cut or you will be getting down on all fours with a light trying to locate parts that are looking for the Twilight Zone after being cut free and leaping off the bench.

I have been considering this kit for a while now, I will be watching to see how she goes together.

Nice start here, Dave!
It's a matter of practice (the PE parts)... so when you get to the end of this project, you'll be a master of the thing!
Keep up


Rui

Nice work, Dave. PE looks great. Extra weight makes sense to me - can't really hurt. I really like your subject and am looking forward to more. Barry

looks good Dave.

Personally I don’t know if adding weight is worth it. Does more damage if the model falls.

As for the PE good luck.
I’m using the stuff more now and it still scales me.

Good start Dave, I look forward to seeing further progress.

Frank

Hi Dave,
it's good to see your work again.
May i know is the hull comes prepainted?? I saw in the pic the bottom hull is painted.

Good luck Sir!

No Zaidi, it wasn't pre-painted. The lower hull and flat water line bottom come molded in a dark red plastic.

thanks mate.... never knew they made from different color these days....

You gotta loves those DEs!
Somebody please enlighten me what all those "sticks" around the aft stuctures are. K-gun bars?

nice job so far!

I think they are the spigots for the depth charge launchers, but don't bet the kids on my answer!

Aye!

OK, managed to get a little more done, I realized I needed to do some filling of holes etc on the deck for the photo etched parts, so spent some time filling and sanding the holes. (Next time it would probably be easier to do this before attaching the deck to the hull, so I could back up the filler with tape or some plastic card)


The deck houses are not glued yet, just fitted so I can add the WT doors and ladder rungs easier.

Now for the dumb questions--- these rungs, do you guys normally replace them? If yes what do you use? I have some .006 brass wire, and some .003 copper wire on hand, or do you guys simply use the photo etched ladders in the photo etched set? If you use wire, how do you keep them alined, and straight?

Dave!
Certainly the most impressive method will be to create real rungs.
That .006 brass will be a bit over scale, but the .003 copper will be delicately soft and may be too easily damaged. If I were you I'd use the brass (There! I said it).
This is what I did on my 350th Austrian Torpedo boat (and what I will do along the mast of my Leipzip in the Community contest):
I use a needle to make an indentation at the rung's ends. Take a pin wise to drill holes on each end of the rungs. The hole should fit the brass rod you'll be using for rungs. If the alignment of all holes in 2 (almost) straight lines is good I sand away the plastic rungs and polish the surface.
Create a mandrel in desired width to bend the brass rod into desired width (i.e. the distance of the holes for one rung you had just drilled). Now take .75mm to .8mm square rod a good bit longer than the intended ladder. You may fix this “Spacer” between the 2 lines of holes with the tiniest amount of Elmer’s on one end to keep it temporarily in place.
Apply a bead of Elmer’s to each end of the rungs in insert it into the hole. Leave the spacer in pace until the glue has fully dried. Untill fully dry you can move the rungs into place. Finally remove the spacer.
It is a lot of work and it is time consuming and demanding, but the result is worth the effort IMHO. I hope this helps.

Thanks Guido for the help.

Looking pretty good there Dave.

I will admit to cheating on my build of the USS Baltimore as far as the rungs on the sides of the quad mount towers, I just used some chopped up sprue and the Mark One eyeball, but then it is in 1/700 scale, be pretty hard to do justice to spacing on such a small item there. But it does look like Guido has come up with a pretty good solution to your dilemma. Can't wait to see more as you go.