Hello Russ:

I have been following your build and was saddened to see your mishap. You seem to have found a good solution and are on the road to recovery. A lot of times a good coat of dullcote will hide those imperfections pretty good.
I mostly use acrylics since building Wingnut Wings 1/32 WWI A/C as most of their color call outs are for Tamiya Acrylics. I use both hardware store laquer thinner or MEK which also makes a great plastic cement. Naturally, I use a respirator, but; I rarely have a paint mishap and the Tamiya acrylics work extremely well with those mediums. I use them on Testors Model Master Enamels with equally excellent results.
Looking forward to more of your build.

Hi Mark!

Well good news! The funnels and HCT are back on track and will be shipped aboard tonight! I agree Mark! Many a time I've used a matt varnish to hide all manner of sins




Hi Todd!
Yep, I think acrylics are the way to go! I'll still be using a respirator and spray booth though
Will be a way off yet as have a lot of enamel paint to get through

Thanks for looking in
Russ

13th April, 2015 update: Back on Track!

Well folks, the funnels have been successfully resprayed and shipped. Also adding in ladders and other small items that will be difficult to add later on.
Pics...












More soon, thanks for looking

Russell,

Beautiful paint job on the King. Clean lines and smooth paint. Amazing work on your recovery of the funnel.

Looking forward to seeing more as she develops.

Dave

Looking superb Russ,

Very clean paint job indeed, etch work very tidy too.

Si

Nice Recovery Russ:

Is that a wood deck or is it paint? Looks great.

Your work is an inspiration. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Hi Russ,

great to see that you fully recovered from your mishap - the funnels look fantastic, as does everything on your King!!!

Fantastic work, looking forward your next update, mate!!

Cheers,

Jan

Hey Russ,

Glad to see the King is back on track. The wood decks are brilliant! Now that you are recovered from the mishap things will go quickly, I'm sure

Thanks everyone

Dave: I'm really glad the funnels were able to be rescued, was sweating there for a bit
Si: Paint's not too bad now. Had to break my own rule and use the hairy stick on the aft funnel searchlight platform. Not a fan of hairy sticks as I just can't get them to look as good as you guys can, but I couldn't see a way around it this time
Mark: This is a Shinsengumi wood deck which was purchased before the Pontos self adhesive deck came out. Whilst very nice, it was also very expensive, costing more than the kit itself!
Albert: Glad to be sharing really think it's healthy for our little corner of the world (hobby) to get some air on the world stage.
Jan: Hopefully not too long til the next update. Not sure what to do next, but pretty certain I won't be finishing by the end of BB campaign date. Looking forward to seeing your next build too
Tim: Your Yamato is coming along very nicely! Not sure if I'll be quick enough though

Russ

Russ,

I am new to ship modeling after having built armor and have a couple of newbe questions specific to ships. With armor I would basically complete the model before painting so except for the PE all assembly was done with liquid plastic cement. What adhesive do you use to attach pre-painted parts and the superstructure to the wooden deck? What do you use to attach PE?

After seeing your build progress and what a great looking ship she is I bought the POW kit, a wood deck and a couple of different PE sets. I plan to build a couple of smaller ships before I get on this one but I can't wait. I am currently building the Rubin James FFG-57.

Thank you in advance, Al

Hi Al!

Welcome to the salty side of the hobby. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Hopefully I can be of some help.

Thank you for your kind words on the King, and thanking you for taking the time to follow along. I am a very slow builder as you might have guessed.

Yes, you are right, ships do require painting as you assemble. I like to think of them as a series of smaller sub assemblies built up into one larger assembly.

The choice of glue is a little bit of a case of "horses for courses". If I have a sub assembly of plastic on plastic my first option is to try to remove the paint and use a styrene based glue. Failing that my "go to" adhesive for pre-painted parts and attaching the superstructure to the deck, I use white PVA glue very slightly thinned with water.

PVA glue thinned in this way has many advantages: You can apply it with a brush; It dries clear; it will adhere to paint, brass and plastic; it washes off with water if you make a mistake; and it gives you good working time. Unfortunately, it requires that the parts are not able to move until the glue cures. Not so good on PE that needs to be vertical and free standing-eg railings.

For PE, I generally use medium super glue for the tiny parts that need to adhere quickly. For the railings I will tack on the longer runs with super glue then using a brush run a bead of thinned PVA along the entire length. Thus the superglue holds the railing in place while the PVA has a chance to dry. Once dry, the PVA is much stronger in holding the railing than CA alone.

Be careful on the wooden deck with the PVA glue though, as the timber will want to 'suck up' the water used to dilute it. It is always advisable to 'seal' all your wooden decks with a clear cote of gloss varnish before applying them to your vessel. (Seal both sides if it is not self adhering). This helps later on with gluing objects to the deck and also protects it from aging. Later on you can seal the whole vessel in a matt varnish that will hide the gloss on the deck, plus any 'shiny' adhesive spots.

Good luck with your POW! They were fine ships and very distinctive. I do like your plan to get a few smaller ships under your belt before tackling the bigger ones.

Hopefully I have been of some help, Al and I do hope you will consider posting some of your builds on MSW!.

If you need any help along the way, mate, I am happy to help, and there are many friendly and talented modellers here on the site, who would be more than happy to help also.

Russ

PS. update coming soon-I promise!

Russ,

Thank you for the detailed answer To my beginner questions. The idea of looking at the sub-assemblies as their own kit make the project less overwhelming. I'm glad you went into some detail on using the wooden deck. I would not have thought to seal it first. The deck I got for my POW is a Pontos deck. It's still sealed in the package so I don't know if it's self adhesive.

I have a Trumpeter Dreadnought that I will build before I get to the bigger ships with A A guns and radar and such. It's a couple of DD,s first though. They are daunting enough with a pe set and some gun upgrades.

Thank you again for a most informative reply.

Al

Hi Al!

Always glad to help out a fellow shipwright.

I think the Pontos deck is self adhesive, as are many of the decks these days, which certainly makes applying them much easier and is a step in the right direction by the deck manufacturers.

As you can see earlier in this blog, I had to use scotch 3m general purpose spray adhesive to apply the Shinsengumi deck, which can be a very messy process, as it wasn't self adhesive.

As modellers we often forget how fragile the timber is when it is cut this thin and sealing isn't mentioned on the packaging anywhere. But, our homes do get very humid at times and it is important to treat the timber like any other and seal it for its own protection. The sealing cote also prevents any chance of dirt or such marking the deck whilst we're handling the vessel.

It's a very good idea to get a few smaller builds under your belt before tackling the larger ones. Firstly, they take less time and so there's a sense of satisfaction that progress is being made. The larger kits can take a long while and sometimes it feels like the end is way off (but it's not really-they do come together quite quickly after what seems like a long gestation)and finishing a sub assembly helps give a sense that progress is being made.

Secondly, if you make a mistake on the smaller kit it's much easier to overlook it and move on.

Russ

6th May 2015 update.

Onto the Pontos catapult, which went together very well indeed.


the cross overs

the turn tables

what carley floats I could scrounge from the kit.

I'm going to be 10 short though, as the POW had many stacked carley floats, whereas KGV didn't. I only hope that Tom's get the WEM resin ones back to market soon!
Now, Mr Tamiya, if you're listening, the ship's boats on this kit need a major upgrade



so we need to throw even more money at the build

and while we're at it why not go the railings too.


So I now have all 3 Eduard sets for the KGV as well as the WEM set, and parts of the Pontos set!
Let's hope that's all it'll need!

Thanks for looking
Russ

Always such clean work Russ!! A real treat to follow along with your builds!! Never easy having to shell out extra money for the add-ons!! But in the n all that bling will make this one just pop!! Keep up the great work!

Russell,

Very nice work. Have you looked at L'Arsenal or North Star for the remaining Carley Floats? I believe they have a set available.

Dave

Etch for the boats looks good Russ,

looking forward to seeing them come together.

Si

Thanks Gents

Dave, I had a look at L'Arsenal and the Carley floats are fairly different to the Tamiya styrene ones. Not to be too picky, but i reckon it'd stick out like a sore thumb.

North star didn't seem to have anything like a carley float, so WEM it seems it will need to be...

Either that or the 'what if' HMS lion is coming one step closer to fruition and i purchase the Tamiya KGV and pilfer that.... hmmmm....

Russ

Great to see your fantastic King back on track Russ!!

I only can second everybody above, great and clean work like always!!

A shame you are living some oceans away mate, I could supply you with some of the WEM carley floats, but postage alone is probably way more expensive than buying some new ones...

Cheers

Jan

Thanks for the offer Jan

I totally understand about the postage rates: it's what we here down under like to call the 'Australia tax' where an identical item costs double here what it would anywhere else in the civilised world. Merchants put it down to our 'isolation' and 'small population'. hm...

Russ

Very nice work indeed Russell. Watching with interest.....Cheers mark

Thanks Mark

good to see you back online mate!

Russ

Thanks Russ. Glad to be back.....Cheers mark

Good work overall Russell, and those new boats will be a big improvement over the kit. Cant wait to see'em ready to go.

Bryan