hi all, i'm in the process of drilling out the portholes on my ark royal, with the idea of brushing a coat of kleer over the inside to simulate glass, this is how i would do aircraft instrument dials, anyone else do this? i think it should turn out nice, better than trying to drybrush the raised circles on the kit

I think it's a good idea, but I'm not sure how well it would show up in this scale. You're dong the 1/600 scale Ark Royal, right? I'm not at all sure how much of the window would be seen. Also I know that on some ships the portholes were covered over in war time, to prevent too much water coming in if the ship was rolling too much. I just don't know if all the portholes would have glass shoing or not, and if not all which ones would.

yes, its the airfix 1/600 scale kit, the box artwork is a roy cross painting, and shows (as far as i can tell) all the portholes moulded on the kit. on the box as well they stand out from the light gray colour of the hull. you can just about make them out in this pic

Lots of work involved there mate! To be honest though I don't think you'll be able to see much, if any, of the result of all your efforts in this scale. However, I look forward to being proved wrong!

The other thing is that they would have hinged metal covers on the inside, painted grey (deadlights) and these would probably all be screwed shut tight in wartime to darken the ship...

yeah i thought they'd have covers on the inside, but when they were shut the glass would still be on the outside. i don't intend them to be looked through (they are way too small) but i'd like to see a glint of glass across the hull

The clear ought to work. What's the name of that stuff-Krystal Kote? For making small windows. It's like white glue unti it dries. Alternately, there was an article several years ago in FSM where the author replaced whole sections with plexiglass, then masked over the portholes/windows, and painted.

what happens when you paint the hull. Can't really mask them off too well?

Hi Phill

Lots of drilling to do
I understand your point and I think it makes sense!

Answering to the painting guide to Kristal Kleer: You can not mask it! It is applied after painting and weathering the model

Skipper

i'm doing them this way because i'm lazy! rather than try to paint something to represent them, i thought it might be easier to get a drill thats the same size and make real holes, they won't need masking at all because i'll get the hull painted before i put the deck on, so i'll still have access to paint kleer across the inside of the hull, this should glaze the holes from the inside (i've done this successfully with aircraft dials) i'll keep you guys updated with pics as i go about this