I know we have just had Michael's excellent build, but I managed to pick up the wood deck from Sovereign Hobbies, the guys there have just started stocking them, and were interested how they fit, so I promised them a picture.

The Kit.



The Deck.



Keel laying is planned for tomorrow, might be a day or two before the pics get posted.

Cheers

Si

I'm on board

Great to see. And the good news is the keel is in one piece

I'm on board too - it is fun to see what different modelers do with the same kit!

Welcome Russ, Tim & Michael.

Glad to have you along for the ride.

Cheers

Si

Oh boy Simon is back full strength.

Great stuff.

I loved Michaels build so will I follow this one with real interest indeed.

Cheers


Sean

Love the ship! Can't wait to see this build!

Count me in....looks like a fun ride!

Hi Sean,

Great to be back in the shipyard.

Glad to have you aboard.

cheers

Si

Hi Charlie,

Welcome aboard, glad to have you along for the ride.

Cheers

Si

Glad to have you aboard Todd,

Keel laying update to follow later today.

Cheers

Si

Here we go, as promised

The Deck unpacked, it also includes the maindeck railings, and few other etched details.



Some tidying up done on the deck components ready to take the deck.



First prop shaft on, no positive locations, just engraved lines.



all the shafts, rudder and bilge keels in place, the bilge keels went on surprisingly easily using a little Tamiya quick setting glue.




Fo'c's'le & Quarterdeck parts fitted, along with the bulkheads, the forward bulkheads did need a little fettling, but went down in the end.



central deck section fitted.



Hull sprayed Halfords red primer, which will be the anti fouling colour.

More after the weekend,

Si

Rapid progress. You'll find the fit of pieces pretty good in general. I think HobbyBoss did a good job on this kit.

cheers
Michael

Rapid progress indeed.

good to see separately molded bilge keels too

Thanks Michael,

So far so good.

Cheers

Si

Thanks Russ,

well once I get in the zone!

The separately moulded bilge keels really work, and they fit. (Tamiya extra thin quick drying cement was very useful in making that easy)

I note I forgot to post the last photo, this weekend's update shortly.

Cheers

Si

Firstly, the missing photo from the last update.



The upper hull sprayed XF53, I might be wrong but looks a good match to me.

Fo'c's'le deck brush painted dark grey, needs a wash yet.



Boot topping painted, and all the masking removed.



Artworx Deck prepped for fitting, all the unwanted bits picked out.



and fitted.



All three sections down.



Some nice etched parts need to go down too.

Building up the superstructure next,

Cheers

Si

These Hobby Boss kits are looking mighty fine! Almost tempted to whip out and grab their Lord Nelson kit!

Are you using any aftermarket for it Si?

Hi Russ,

with this one, the only aftermarket is the Artworx deck, which fortunately comes with maindeck railings and a few other etched parts, which will fill all the gaps.

The Lord Nelson comes will all the etch required, except for the spiders for the cage aerials, great kit. As you may be able to tell, I am quite impressed with what they are doing too.

Cheers

Si

This weekends progress.

Test fit of the two major superstructure components.



Very good indeed, fit work very well with the artworx deck.

The forward superstructure under construction, the kit supplied etched supports in place.



The base of the searchlight platform aft of the funnel, it will need to be sprayed before the actual platform is added.



Nice to have the lower section open.

The forward section test fitted,



all good.

And the base of the searchlight platform.



again all good.

More soon.

Si

Looking good Si.
I found the funnel did not quite fit with the searchlight platform in place so a dry fit check is good. I shaved the inside arc of the platform to allow the funnel to sit down.

cheers

Michael

neat and efficient as always Si

Thanks Michael,

Appreciate the heads up, everything else so far fits very well, might have got little over confident.

Cheers

Si

Thanks Russ,

The quality of the moulding is very good indeed, and so far the fit looks very good.

Cheers

Si

This weekend's progress.

Preparing sub assemblies for spraying.

The Funnel, and the structure in front of the conning tower built & test fitted.



The searchlight platform on the upper half of the bridge fitted and work on the railings under way, this is provided in one piece, but with many curves I cut it into sections to curve and fit.



All done, apologies, but I thought I had taken pictures, but there were a total of 9 sections.



All the etch on the upper bridge, I have also painting the top deck, not sure of it's purpose, flag bridge maybe? I am adding a little detail inside, so far a binnacle and some voice pipes. Might add a bit more, probably won't be visible, but better safe than sorry.



Very careful handling will be needed not to knock those etched yard arms off.

The etch included in the artworx deck includes some of the deck details that had to removed to fit the deck. The tracks abeam of the bridge, the stbd side has been fitted, considering how fragile it was, very few issues.



Tracks and turntable for the aircraft.



steel inset abeam of A turret, again stbd side only added.



More detail added to the after superstructure, still a lot to add, and the funnel test fitted, Michael was right, there was a bit of an issue with the funnel and the searchlight platform, nothing a little file work didn't fix.



More etch on the after end of the lower bridge structure.



And the upper bridge structure test fitted.



Finally an overview with everything in place.



Looks well on the way, but this is mostly big bits, many small details to add before the windy stick comes out.

Cheers

Si