RGL

I'm in the process of quitting smoking pre surgery next month, the bride does not want to poke the bear at the moment so I'm getting a bit done.  I'll be too crook to do much for a while. 

Single strips, each cut to size, luckily I bought 2 sets as 1 is not enough. A tiny dab a CA to set in place on each, the gaps are where gun pits go. 

Whats doing with your build! 

Jeez, that was painful. A full day. Next, a matte coat, then dabble in some pigments to dirty it up. 

Thanks Pat, not as hard as doing up the brass strips for the Lino deck....

Well you couldn't NOT buy it at that price. Even if for spares. 

Upper hull rust, getting there

Deck added and joins fixed (to a point), bit of touch up required before the brass tie down strips are added. 

Continuing to grunge up the lower hull, overspray of very diluted grey, then black then green at the waterline (this time) dulls out the ribs. Salt to go then the upper hull. 

And as you have to use the chipping product ASAP, the upper hull is painted, then chipped. It makes all the work on the hull plates worth it now (the glue on the bow gave way of course) as there was no detail at all. 

It looks a bit stark but this is the first level of weathering. 

Her movements in the last 6 months of her life were non stop, thus the flogging it's getting. It's also nice to try some new techniques just takes lots of forward planning and components 

I'm thinking 1945 in constant action would beat it up a bit. 

There is method to my madness, some photos of what I'm trying to achieve (somewhere in between)

Now, just add water. The ribs have come up OK, and a lot of it will be covered up anyway. I'll let it dry for a while then a matte coat and do the upper half. Once that's done I can start to add rust etc. 

Back to the hull. I have sprayed on some 'worn effects' fluid over the pre painted parts of the hull then about 4 shades of red trying to bring out the frames and hull plates. This photo from another ship of this class shows them up nicely. 

Ill give it it a few hours to dry then start rubbing back sections to reveal the undercoats. 

I have used some Mr Surfacer on the bottom which when oversprayed with black and grey may represent barnacles, then a bit of rust and alge. 

Nah, anyone could do this. The seriously good plastic modellers are usually Korean or Chinese and if I could find their blogs to learn something I couldn't read it. 

I just follow the instructions. Married a long time, that'll do it. 

thanks. The depth charge racks and mortar, will get a bit more weathering when finally fixed on. 

The three Amigos, bit of grunge and rust

I'd rather leave a gap than bend the PE or leave great globs of glue. We've all got a skill level still to attain! 

Now, extra after market depth charge racks. The kit ones are atrocious and didn't bother with some bits and neither did Flyhawk. 

The kit depthcharge thrower is pretty pretty good but just not on the instructions as they provide multiple spruces for multiple kits for some reason. 

This stuff is nice... there is actually only one main rack, the first one is a practice fret that is .1mm out (my fault). 

Yes mate, a little gap, paint will bring them closer! Or maybe a tiny bit of mr surfacer, I'll see how it looks after the primer coat. 

Depth charge racks today. 

From experience the only way it works is to cut the very first spoke too close to the fret, and make a pilot hole for it, otherwise it just does not work. As there is a curve you can't guess where each hole goes and it looks like crap as they don't align or you use too much glue. They're horrible to install. 

Ah, that's why I do them poked onto a stick in a vise then! 

Sunday afternoon, and all three stacks complete and ready for paint. They are fairly fragile so I'm thinking the airbrush will knock bits off.

Started on the funnels. The kit provides 3 pieces per funnel, so tossing one piece and stripping and sanding it down, started them again also using brass rod as the external steam vents.1/3 done. 

Thanks Mr Fly but I just glue stuff together and paint it. 

The advantage of a smaller kit is taking more time on the smaller details. 

I'm in, IJN is in favour at the moment. 

Well done