Thanks Dave.

It may not look as though I have been doing much from the pictures, but I am putting in at least a few hours each night, and some things seem to take forever!

First up, the searchlights are finished except for the silver to represent the lens. That can wait in case I need to paint them again.

I have also;
- Assembled and cleaned up the two funnels ready for PEing.
- Painted the boat deck.
- Assembled various other parts like the anchors.

Then we come to some PE assembly.

This is a small platform that holds a range finder I believe. Don't worry about the seemingly out of alignment railing, when the glue is dry I will persuade it into its correct position.

Then we have the Admiral's Walk..

This took quite a while as only the two inner railings had any clues as to where to bend it. The outer railing had nothing and some of the corners needed rounding which always takes longer. The back of the outer railing has not been glued as yet as I wait for the rest of it to dry first.

That's it is for the moment.

Cheers
Warren


parts

Thanks Dave,

Getting there with the Duke.

Hi warren,

Dreadnought is coming really well, great work.

Si

Thanks Simon.

Here I am back for another installment of my Mighty Battleship build.

I had been dreading it for a while as I wasn't sure how it would go but I finally plucked up the courage to tackle the funnel grates. Using gel CA glue was the important part as if you didn't the parts would almost invariably depart company with the frame. The Gel CA held the parts long enough for me to line them up then hit them with accelerator . That held them in position well enough for me to flood the areas of the joins with thin CA. If you do it right you get a very thin film of thin CA that holds the parts very well with little sign of bulky glue joints.


There are still a few parts to put in but they are basically ready for final paint, airbrush of course as I think a brush may be a little disasterous..

The funnels also came in for some PE for the straps that tension them in place.


One end needed to be bent but due to the design every one I bent seemed to warp one side of the strap. Luckily the thin CA held them in place. A small flood around the top of the funnel, followed by absorbing any excess with a cotton bud, made sure they will stay in place.

Last up for this episode I finished off the Admirla's walk and placed it in position on the boat deck along with the little shelter.




Note that there is still some finishing of the painting to be done.

Cheers for now
Warren

Sorry for the double photo in my last post but for some reason I can't edit my own posts...

Anyway, got a fair bit done today.


First up we have one of the funnels with PE installed. It has since been painted grey and when it is dry I will paint the top black.


Next is the base of the bridge before the first level goes on..


Then with the first level installed..


Then we have the top deck which will be going on tomorrow.


Then this little dustbin looking item goes on one of the rear platforms. To make it easy to roll you needed to anneal it. That involves heating the item up with a flame and then letting it air-cool. If you cool it in water it has the opposite effect and the item becomes stiffer.


Then there are 24 of these 2 pdr guns (I think). I decided not to add the metal barrels in the set as they are not drilled out and really don't add anything to the build visually. Saved me an hour or three as well..

I also applied more paint to the PE as some of it had been chipped just through general handling.

That's it for now.
Cheers
Warren

Coming on superbly Warren, great work on the bridge.

On with the Duke's cranes. The Pontos Instuctions only has very small pictures on the construction, which means there were several small parts shown as required that I could find where they went that I omitted them.

The main part of the crane boom being folded to shape, having criticised the instruction, to be fair I have to say the etch is splendid to handle and fold.



Both booms folded and the top section fitted,



Crane booms with all the detail parts added.



The parts for lower section of the boom under way.



The lower boom sections completed.



The rests for the booms need four small stiffening plates fitting, this was done prior to removing them from the fret.



and folded up and finished.



All sections of the cranes ready for having sone TS81 shot at them.



More soon.

Si

Believe me when I say I am not trying to take over this build..

But here we have another installment of Warren's Mighty Dreadnought, 1912 version..

First up the main armament of the Dreadnought..


Did you know that the guns on the tops of the turrets could be slaved to the main guns in elevation for practice shoots I suppose. You wouldn't really want to be manning those guns in a battle withe the main guns firing..

Then we have 26 net booms that only need one more PE part attached and they will be ready for painting.




Hmmm.. needs some touch up me-thinks. Here are some views of the secondary armament guns.



Next up the almost completed bridge..


And I have installed the boat deck, first floor of the bridge and a funnel..


And lastly a closer view of one of the finished funnels.

And that needs a touch up as well after I sprayed the black around the top of the funnels.

This would be a great ship to do in 1/200 as you could go to town on the funnel and torpedo netting rigging. There is also a fair bit of extra rigging around the ship but I don't think I will find anything scale enough to do the rigging.. although I may push my envelope and try to do the radio aerials with the starfish looking insulators/separators...

But that is far in the future so until next time have a great weekend

Cheers
Warren

Wow, I finally stopped for a few moments (mainly the last hours) and read through the 18 pages of content here....what a fantastic display of building gentlemen!! Truly inspirational!!

You're not taking over Warren, I'm still around as well.

Dreadnought coming on great, be interested to see her with the nets stowed, having built her with the nets out. I dare you to have a go at the aeriels.

On with the Duke's cranes, all components sprayed.



The rests for the booms in place, along with the guard rails around the upper Pompom platforms.



Cranes in place, just need some rigging.



Before start with the rigging, decided it would be a god idea to get the props on, undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black.



Then sprayed with Humbrol 54 (Brass) from a rattlecan.



and in place.





12 20mm next for the catapult deck and boat deck next.

Si

Props look great Simon, as does all the PE works!!

Si and Warren,

great progress! This are two superb builds and I continue to be amazed by your both' pace!! That's just amazing

Si, your props DO look good!! - one little comment of yours made me think - the bronze color from a rattle can. Seems like a really good idea on the second thought - there is very few metallic type color needed on our type of ships, but after spraying the props/shafts it takes ages to clean the gun from the little metallic particles... I think I'll invest in two rattle cans (iron/bronze) for my next build!

Cheers,
Jan

Thanks Todd & Jan,

I must admit I use metallic rattle cans quite a lot, partly laziness, mixing the paint and cleaning the windy stick afterwards and partly because some of them are really very good.

The trick with brass / gold / bronze colours is a matt black base coat. For Steel / silver, you can vary the tone by using anything from Black to white, or any colour in between

The shafts on the Duke were painted with the hairy stick using Citadel "Leadbelcher" straight over the Red, mind the citadel metallic paints are hairy stick friendly.

Si

Greetings one and all...

Lots of progress on the Dreadnought..






And yes, I did knock the rear mast off once... It just kept getting in the way!!

Then I had to take it off anyway as I couldn't get the bracing parts in due to not test fitting in situ BEFORE glueing on the mast.

The Pontos masts are nice, but the instructions are, as usual with this kit, not too informative leaving you to guess where to locate the yards on the masts. I went off the Zvezda plastic ones.

All is set on the shelf now to allow 24 hours for the various glues I used to dry.

As I am going into hospital next week I should get it finished well and truly before the end of the campaign.

Cheers
Warren

More progressive work...fantastic to boot!! Loving the work Si and Warren!! Top notch!!

Warren,

That's some stunning work on the Dreadnought!

Thanks Tim!

You guys are building like your in a hurry, and making it look easy. Simon that is a great solution for the propellers, I think I'll steal it if I may. Lovely work all around.

Bryan

Warren - The Dreadnaught is looking beautiful. The wooden deck really pops and definately raises the beauty.

Si -I too am going to steal your prop process if you don't mind. The DoY is coming along beautifully.

Watching you guys I wish I had not moved so fast on the Musashi. I have learned so much since then. Well since I cant use it on the Musashi i will use it on all my future projects.

Dave

Be my guest mate! Any time you want some info just drop either of us a PM and I am sure we will be able to help.

Thanks Dave & Bryan.

Pls feel free to borrow the prop painting technique.

Dread is coming on great Warren, good work.

Si

Going great Simon. Not far to go now..

As for mine..











Almost there...

Cheers
Warren

Looking fantastic Warren!!

Wow Warren, I know you live the other side of the world but are you also in a time warp?

Last time I looked in your Dreadnought was just a hull and deck then it seems like just a couple of days and it's almost complete. Great work by the way.

Thanks Todd and Luciano.

I spend a few hours a day after work and the weekends. It is a fairly simple kit really and if you were not doing all the extras it would only take a week or so to finish.

Cheers
Warren

God I hate it when that happens.. You type in a few paragraphs of text and having to switch between tabs to load picture you switch the wrong one and lose all your work.. Useless!

Anyway, does anyone know where you can get depth guage decals? I hate dry decals like the ones supplied by Pontos so please excuse the lack of them for this build. Also, some Royal Navy flags would be good.. Only a British flag in the kit, and it isn't right anyway..



















That's it. Please excuse the dark mark on the photos. There is something on the lens of my camera and you have to take it apart to get to it.. and guess who hasn't got a screw driver to suite..

Keep up the good work everyone,
Cheers for now.
Warren

Warren,

I know exactly what you are talking about - lost quite some text this way

But nevertheless, great update! Fantastic work at light-speed!!

Cheers,
Jan