Now that Invincible is completed, it's time to concentrate on Dreadnought.

Some work was already done on her - the decks, hull and part were all painted, and she's already been mounted on her base. I'm hopeful that this build will go a little smoother and faster than the 'Vince, especially since she has a smaller superstructure.

The first step was the 12lb secondary guns. The barrels that came with the kit were ALL broken, so I got replacements from the barrel king, Steve Nuttall. Unfortunately, I wasn't specific as to what I wanted, so I got perfect casement barrels. However, most of these guns were open mounts, so I needed to add the missing portion of the gun, as you can see in this picture


Once I assembled 10 of these (there are a total of 27 carried), I was able to populate the superstructure deck (IIRC, it's called the "flying deck") with these and some searchlights.


Now the flying deck was ready to be covered with the boat deck, the pieces of which can be seen laying next to the model in this picture


Since I took these pictures, I was able to add the two largest pieces of the boat deck to the flying deck with super glue, and add some putty where needed. Some of the thinner resin decks sag, so I have to prop them up with plastic rod "pillars", which I needed to do on a few spots the 'Vince too.

Once the seam between the boat deck and flying deck is sanded smooth, I'll touch up the paint and move on to adding more of the superstructure. More pics to follow...

Thanks for the update, Martin! Love the secondary guns, mate...
Looks great my friend!!
Keep Modeling!
~Gunny

Magnificent as usual. I have always been a fan of the battleship. Given unliited resources, I probably would have 100+ of them in 350 scale. From Dreadnaught on to Todays New Jersey modifiation.

I hear you, but after all the work I did doing the Missouri, I'd have to live to be 196 years old to finish 'em all!!!


Martin, VERY nice work!!

Tom

Some new pictures, showing my latest progress...

Lovely work so far Martin - a lot of scratchbuilding involved by the look of it? I'm looking forward to seeing some finished photos of this one!

Hi Martin

Usuall workmanship and another interesting subject
Thanks for sharing

Skipper

Thanks Skipper. Here's a few updated photos...

Looking SWEET Martin, keep em coming, mate!
~Gunny

Here's the latest. Two overviews:



Turrets are done, with 12lb guns (Steve Nuttall's barrels) added to the turret roofs:


My attempt at making a 9ft rangefinder:


I also added the plates where the torpedo net davits attach to the hull - they are the small white circles along the hull, just above the waterline. The kit supplies resin davits/plates, but they are on a casting pour and a pain to clean up, so I thought it would take me just as long to make my own. I used a punch to knock out two circles.

Next step is to make the coaling davits (the ones that came with the kit were brittle and broke easily), boat booms and the aforementioned torpedo net davits. The model was also missing the roofs for the spotting tops, so I'm attempting to make those out of plastic card. You can see one perched drunkenly on top of the aft tripod in the first picture.

Hey Martin!
Thanks for the update, mate...LOVE the turrets, man!
Cheers!
~Gunny

Hi Martin

I am reading right now, for review, British Battlecruisers 1914-18 and I have to say that, after looking at the pics on the book, the photos of your model are even better
Excellent


Skipper

Very good, hope to see more!
Ron

Martin,
When you've finished with this beastie how about a couple of pics of her alongside some other 1/350 scale battleships for a comparison.
I know I've seen some of the data for various ships and could look at some scale drawings perhaps. But I think it'd look really good to see 'em in a photo
Tom

Well, here is Dreadnought alongside an American Pre-Dreadnought, USS Illinois, which will be my next big project.



When Dreadnought is done, I'll be sure to click a few pictures next to some other 1/350 BBs!

Nise ship...
Im thinking about new ICM ship 1/350 Markgraf WWI battleship...

I have one question ( totaly off topic , sory fot that )
when you finish painting your ships, do you aplay gloss varnish ( Future ) on it like airplanes , or you just put some weathering on and seal it wit mat varnis?

Very nice Martin.

I've got the Konig in "the stash"...would love to build it one day. I'm thinking of backdating it to a Jutland version with the torpedo nets and the red aft funnel (which was painted as for ID purposes).




Depends on the model. If it's strictly for my collection, I usually airbrush on a few thin coats of future, weather the model, then seal it with flat coat.

The curator of the Battleship NJ wants the models pristine, with no weathering, so I'll just cover them with a few light coats of flat when they are finished. That will hide any glue stains and even out the finish a bit.

I use Polly-Scale flat coat - I'm almost never had a problem with it.

THX

Here's a few more progress pictures. She is getting closer to being done. Torpedo net davits and coaling davits have been added in these pictures.







After these were taken, I added the boat booms and the rest of the 12lb guns. Still a bit to do - PE railings, torpedo net, ships boats and rigging, to name a few...

That's a very impressive build, she is really starting to come together now. I would of course have snapped off the mainmast by now if I was making her! :-)

Well, she's almost done. All's that's left to do is rigging and the ships boats. All of which will have to wait until I get back from vacation next week...

Nice

Hi Martin,

Thansk for sharing the pictures. Looks great. Have a great holiday.

Cheers

Al