Thanks Jan

update 31st July,

well where were we? Oh, right, yep, Pom Poms!

Okay, so according to my references the pom poms should scale out to 14.3mm across

the kit parts come in fairly close

but! the fancy pants 1/350 WEM replacement pom poms that I bought with the intention of replacing the kit parts only come in at around 12.5mm!

This makes them more suitable to 1/400 scale!

So I abandoned my plans to go with the WEM pom poms, and referred to the Eduard set

ah, that's better!
so I've started building all 6 pom poms available in the set. The first 2 are for practice and spares, just in case I ruin one of the 'good ones'

Now, before you all start saying that I've got the numbers back to front, on the other side of the timber, the numbers run in the correct order

then you've got to make 24 of these little blighters! You know, they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result. Well, I think this comes pretty close.

and here's where we're at so far...


Thanks for looking
Oh, and if anyone's after a set of 1/350, ahem, I mean 1/400 WEM pom poms, PM me.

Russell,

Beautiful PE work on the pom poms. Sorry to see the WEM parts don't meet the need. Interesting as I thought they were one of the more accurate manufacturers

Dave

Thank you Dave

Me too. Oh well, as they say, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's good enough for me

Hi Russell,

Very nice work with the etched pompom bases.

They will be well worth the effort.

Cheers.

Si

Russell,
The pom-poms look great. I must admit I have avoided building late WWII ships so I don't have fiddled with all those little barrels

cheers

Michael

Very nice work, Russ!

The Eduard PomPoms are really great, I have been using them for my Repulse as well. But they do need some modification - I think the actual gun was placed to far aft, but I would have to double-check on my own build log...

Great to see your King progressing as well!!

Cheers

Jan

Those little ammo boxes, if you had sneezed... catastrophe. Great progress Russel.

Bryan

Thanks Si. Definitely not easy to build though



not such a silly move Michael



Thanks Jan. your pom poms were a work of art. Only hope I do half as good as yours though


True that Bryan good thing there's a couple of spares

Family commitments kept me away from the bench over the weekend, but hopefully I can spend a bit of time tonight and keep adding to the pom pom insanity fund

Update 29th September, 2015

At last the horror movie that is "The night of the Pom Pom" is over! Here we have four u-beaut, state of the art pom poms! They're not perfect, well, not to my eye anyway, but you know what? I'm gonna live with them.

First up, you need to remove the ammo boxes from the molded components

then make one of these per pom pom

then you need to use 0.1mm styrene on either side to shim the plastic part to fit the brass

then you need to turn these

into these

making four per pom pom

I'm making all 6 pom poms provided in the Ed PE, so a total of 24. This is because i'm going to use the best four.
Then you fold up these

and these ammo belts

and of course, the ammo belts are handed, so another lot

and then you put them all together to make these.

And these-down to five pom poms as one went pear shaped

Next you assemble them to the central part prepared earlier

and then the base

giving you this



next you need to make some of these


and attach them like so






so there you have it... 2 months of my modelling life given over to four little pom poms... Am I burnt out i hear you say. Why, yes sir! and a little mad methinks... thanks again for looking.

Russell,

I admire your ability to stick to what can only have been a tedious task, but those pompoms look absolutely fantastic! No wonder this hobby makes us all a little nuts at times....

Russell,

I have to echo what Tim said on both accounts. Amazing tenacity in pursueing what appears to be perfection with the POM POMs. Amazing work.

Dave

What the guys said,

great job on the pom poms Russ, they will be splendid under a coat of paint.

Cheers

Si

That is some beautiful work you have done Russell. Really enjoying your Build.....Cheers Mark

Russ,

main difference between a horror movie and "The night of the PomPoms" is that the latter one has an happy end!!

Great work mate, I can just second everything that was said above!! They are looking fantastic, and I know what you've gone through from my REPULSE build - but I had only three of them.

Well, our hobby must make one slightly nuts sometimes, I'll defacing the horror movie here myself again shortly, but only an abbreviated version - two are needed for BELFAST, and I do have some spare Eduard pieces, so I will go for them instead of the WEM ones (apart from that WEM is out of scale anyway, as you were proofing earlier). Watching a horror movie for the second time should be easier - you should remember when the most horrible scenes are....

I hope your PomPoms will fit on the King - I remember from REPULSE that they did not at the first dry fitting - the guns were sitting to far aft on the cradle, so part of the quite delicate aiming / sight devices of the gun were gotten caught by the ship's superstructure - some kind of embarrassment you can guess... I ended up removing the guns from the cradle again, then shortening the 'spent ammo slide' by a bit, cutting it's sides and bending it so that the forward part would be shorter. This allowed the whole cradle to move forward a bit. Happily I did my dry fitting before painting.

Again, great job and I am looking forward to see your fantastic King growing

Cheers ,

Jan

Thank you guys!
I must admit I was close to throwing in the towel a few times
I'll definitely be dry fitting one of the spares to make sure they fit, before painting. Thank you for the tip, Jan
There could be a happy ending to the horror movie, but it could spawn many sequels!!! really tempted by all those lovely red airfix boxes that rapidly accumulating in my stash at the moment

Pom Poms painted and shipped!


can you spot the bug?


Thanks for looking

Russell,

The POM POMs look greated added. Really brings her to life seeing her AA compliment. Looking forward to seeing more.

Dave

Hi Russ,

What Dave said, pom poms were well worth all the effort you put in.

Si

Ahoy Russell

What a superb effort indeed.

I am glad you have not given up.

Inspires me (or shames me actually)to get back into my Airfix E-Boat again.

Cheers


Sean

They are really worth the effort my Friend. Turned out beautifully.....Cheers Mark

Thanks guys!

appreciate the kind words.

Working on ship's boats now...

Russ,

the PomPoms were really worth the effort!! They look great on your fantastic King!

I hope you're not into another horror Movie - The revenge of the Boats or something like that??

Looking forward to see more!!

Cheers,

Jan

Hi Jan!

Well "revenge of the boats" sounds like an excellent title for a sequel! Though, like most sequels, its not a patch on the original and the boats are proving a lot easier than the pom poms...




I still need to finish the 27' whalers and fit the davits, rudders and props to some but taking my time

Thanks for looking

Hi Russ,

Nice wok on the boats so far.

Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Keep up the good work,

Cheers.

Si

Russell,

Great work on the boats, they are coming along nicely and will add a great deal to your magnificant work.

Looking forward to seeing them mounted on the King.

Dave