Wood decks look great down Frank,

Missing pic from my last post, as far I have got with DOY's quarterdeck.



Si

Guys some really great work, Ships build a lot slower then tanks, thats for sure.Some progress on my Warspite.




I'm pretty happy with the 15 inch gun turrets. The elevated guns look alot better then as molded. The decks are installed. I'm just debating the order of build vs paint.

Tom

Looking good Tom,

Nice to see some more progress.

Si

Quick question when do you add the railings? Do you guys paint them first or with the entire ship?

Tom

Si, the deck looks great, hope mine looks that good once I can put it down.

Tom, main guns look good..I am working on mine now and have noticed that they are a little skewed to the side.

Hope to have some more update photos by the end of this weekend.

Everyones build looks great, I appreciate all I have learned from ya'll.

Dave

Thanks Dave,

Take it steady and you will be fine.

Tom,

There is no one right order to painting / fitting railings, I tend to paint first and then fit, and touch up after fitting, but I want to minimise the risk of paint marks on the wood deck.

Hope that helps.

Si

Hi all,

Have a quick question regarding weathering of your ships. Do you spray dullcote over your entire model prior to adding weathering such as you washes and filters or do you add those prior to adding a coating of dullcote. That being asked do you use dullcote or glasscote as the final coating?

I'm not at that point yet but want to make some final preparation plans.

thanks

Hope everyone's build is going well.

Dave

Dave,

When I weather (usually only on waterline builds) I weather straight onto paint job & mist a matt coat over the top to bring the whole thing together.

A bit more progress on the Duke.

All the vents and boxes fitted on the quarterdeck, right forward to No.4 5.25" mounts.



"A" Turret is sat on "Y" barbette just to check non on=f the vents or boxes will foul it as it rotates.

The kit provides moulded on flag lockers on the signal deck.



these need to be removed to make way for the etched parts provided in the Pontos set. In order to fit the detail parts onto the lower superstructure deck, the I built up the signal deck to make sure everything fits, etch replacement doors also fitted.



More soon.

Si

The test fitting the gun tub, base plate & boxes on the forward lower superstructure deck. The treadplate next to the gun tub is not strictly accurate, the photographs in Raven & Roberts show a "bullring" style base for the middle of the three guns, as that is not provided and I could not see an easy way of scratchbuilding 2 of them, so I used a couple of spare treadplates for the gun tubs.



the middle section of the bridge painted and fitted, also the vents that sit on pompom deck.



The first section of railings fitted.



All the port side fittings in place and painted (except the remaining moulded in box, which I have only just noticed I have missed.



Starboard side fittings in place.



The first inclined ladder folded and test fitted.



Both ladders, which fit exceptionally well folded, painted & fitted in place,



What next, either 20mm production line, 28 in total to fit, funnels and pompom deck, 5.25 deck details, or the boat deck.

Don't know myself yet.

Si

Si,

Looks great. Do you do most of your painting with a brush or airbrush?

thanks for the tip regarding the weathering.

My efforts this weekend have been nill as my wife decided we needed to take a trip this weekend. Hopefully I will get some time in this week.

Dave

Some great progress... need more modelling time... to catch up with everyone else..

i used to railings last but with my new gator glue i am able to place the internal railings and they do not ping off the glue gives some flex to the join unlike super glues...

Well i have lla the bits for my dreanought so i think that will be my start - photos at the weekend once i complete the Z31.. i cannot believe that Dragon managed to squeeze over 500parts into a destroyer!!

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your comment, welcome on the weathering tips.

I mostly use Rattlecans, Tamiya are acrylic are my favourite because they are very forgiving. small stuff, or things that are awkward to mask are brush painted.

I do have an airbrush, and am still learning to use it, but I hate cleaning it, so it tends to get used when I can't match a colour or doing something that needs a delicate touch I tend to use a rattlecan.

I do know I have some touching up to do on the weekends work, but that gives me a bit more time to think about the next job

Si

Si, I was curious how you got such a fast turn around on your painting, just curious was all. The paint job looks great. I did some airbrushing this past Friday to cover the bottom half of the hull. Still learning how to use it myself. I learned that I did not have the right nozzle for such a big job. Corrected that and should have the correct nozzle later this week.

Below is some of the work I have done so far...

Here I have started the assembly line process for the AA guns



and here are the main guns almost complete..I have a few more PE pieces to add but for the most part they are complete..



The forward deck is complete of all PE and is just awaiting a primer so that I can add it to the hull



and finally the aircraft deck is complete just waiting for the primer to be added



Once I receive the new nozzle for my airbrush I will paint the main deck and the forward deck with primer and add it to the hull. You can kind of see the lower hull was painted. Not too bad but as I said earlier I am still learning how to use my airbrush.

Having fun with this build and getting back into the hobby. I have been hitting ebay looking for some good deals on bids for models. Already signed up for three more campaigns after this.

Hope everyones build is going well. Look forward to seeing your progress.

Dave

Looking good Dave,

Good luck with the airbrushing, looking forward to seeing the results.

Si

WOW everybody is cruising along only a small amount of progress from me just got the deck painted with Tamiya Buff and gave it a dark oil wash not sure if it is to dark as want the ship to be set in rough sea and well used as she was just before a refit

Keith looks great. What did you use for the base of the sea? I want to display my Musashi in a sea environment but have never done it before. Any advice you could give is greatly appreciated.

looks great.

Dave

Thanks Dave if you look back at page 4 of this thread you will be able to see what I used for the base it is a sheet of building insulation foam cut to shape and sanded to form the basic sea shape and then coated with PVA white glue this will the be coated with silicone sealer to make the smaller wave effects.
The foam I used can be bought from a local DIY home improvement store or a local builders merchant it might seem expensive but one big sheet of this stuff can last a long time just depends on the size of diorama you want to build I also use this on some of the amour builds I have done but you can also use old polystyrene packaging foam but that leaves you with a lot more mess to clean up

Keith

hi all, hope your builds are going well. Hope you don't mind but I have some (ok a lot) of pictures that I want to share showing my updates.

The first one is the hull finally painted. I originally painted the hull black and now that I have added the gray it provided for a good pre-shading effect.



Now that I received the Vallejo primer I used it on the remaining major assemblies. Here is one of the main guns



and here are all three main guns. The Vallejo primer provides a nice smooth surface and went on easily



Here are the two major deck assemblies.



and



Here is a picture of the aircraft hanger after painting it the base gray



and finally a battery of triple 25mm AA Guns



I am still working through understanding my airbrush, I find that the aztek is not as forgiving as my old simple badger but it does do nice work when I can figure it out.

Now that I have the major sub assemblies painted I will mount them to the hull for the final painting of gray. So I should have some updated photos here in a couple of days showing the massive IJN Musashi coming together.

Thanks for all ya'll advice. take care

Dave

Keith,

looking good, deck colour looks pretty good.

Dave,

Nice job with the primmer, your airbrushing is ahead of mine.

I have made a bit more progress on the Duke, will post when I can find the lead for my camera.

Si

Very nice work, everyone!

A very dramatic sea base, Keith!

ok all, I couldn't take it anymore so I went an mounted the two major subassemblies to the hull. Mounted the forward deck first without issue. However in my first attempt to mount the rear deck I ran into some trouble and had to make some slight modifications. But after minor surgery I was able to get it mounted.







Now that the decks are mounted I am going to try and get it finished so I can mount the real wood deck. Quick question for the real wood deck veterans... Do you use spray adhesive to mount the deck or the adhesive that is already on the back? Any advice while I travel down this path is greatly appreciated.

thanks for all the comments.

Dave

Hi Guys

Just read through from the start . . .

Some impressive work going on here, will be watching you " Big Boys " with interest

Cheers Kev

Hi Dave,

The decks I have used have all been self adhesive, and have needed nothing else to hold then down.

Does your deck have any kind of peel off backing sheet on the side that goes down onto the kit? If so it is likely to be self adhesive. In that case take a small section and peel of the backing sheet, and put it in place and see how it sticks. not a good idea to test a piece off the kit as you could damage it lifting it off.

Si

Having found the lead for my camera, on with the update on the Duke.

A production line for single 20mm has been started, requiring 28 for the build, I am doing it two batches, the first of 16 to cover the 10 in pods on the fo'c's'le and quarterdeck, and the six on the lower bridge deck.

The shield mounts were a little tricky as the holes in their base in most cases were smaller than the pins on top of the pedestal, also even stacked to the fret they did not react well to enlarging with a file.

Here is the first 3 in place.



One Trick I quickly learnt was to attach the shield whilst it was still on the fret.



Half way through the shields I decided that was enough of a strain on the eyes for one day.



For a break I started on a bit more destruction, the moulded on funnel caps.

Firstly chain drilled.



And then the middle hacked out.



Each funnel has it's own interior detail, the after funnel has a walkway.



The rear section of the platform has been removed since the above photo was taken to make room for the etched replacement.

The forward funnel as a grid.



and fitted along with the opened out cap.



Finally a view of the project with all the partly finished sections in place.



A long way from done, but starting to look like a KGV.

Si

Looking great Simon the 20mm line of guns is giving me the shakes just thinking about that part of the build

Keith