king derelict

Something to occupy idle hands while stuff is setting elsewhere. Another nicely detailed 54mm figure from Art Girona. Sargon II was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. This is a nice figure but a nasty casting. All the joints are full of excess metal and a lot of filing was necessary before attempting to fit anything together. Even then I have had to use a lot of putty compared to other figures, generally I have hardly used any until this one. The major parts are assembled for priming and painting. Ive used ca glue again, it’s so much less messy than epoxy, at least for me. We’ll see how things look when primed. Thanks for looking in Alan

Another day, another masking session, for the blue this time. Fiddly thankfully there are only two blue sections per side. The masking remained watertight and the Tamiya paint dried quickly so the result was quite clean. The WW2 color photo of HMS Comet has similar colours so I think we’ll call that good. The deck has had a coat of dark grey. The superstructure is white with a little blue so I think I can start sticking bits together and thinking about the PE. Tribals seem to be a bit like Flower corvettes, they all a bit different so some of the PE is not going to be used but at least there are railings and ladders. Thanks for looking in and the likes and comments. alan

Splendid work Andrew. The Gannet looks really good and the folded wings make it a very distinctive model. Congratulations alan

I sprayed the am Western Approaches Green and it seemed to be better behaved today. I used less thinner this time. My working theory is that the longer drying time allows the paint to flow down surfaces and can cause streaks. It also means the paint is very prone to penetrating the masking. This time I got a good result in terms of color and masking. I’ll let the paint harden overnight and hopefully mask and spray the WA Blue tomorrow. The masking is going to be a bit intricate but the paint is Tamiya acrylic light blue so should be less of a problem. Thanks for looking in and for the likes and comments. alan

Looks very good. I’m amazed at the skills of card modelers. Well done alan

Not abandoned yet but a case of two steps forward and one step back. After deciding on the paint scheme I needed to sort out the paint. I have the AK Royal Navy set which includes Western Approaches Blue and Western Approaches Green. I was not totally happy with this set when I used it before but I thought I would try it again. I tested the WA blue and green. Although it looks a bit bright the green does resemble the color seen in a WW2 photo of HMS Comet wearing a similar scheme. The blue is another story, it’s almost white. I’m going to use Tamiya Light Blue which looks better. After painting everything except the decks with flat white I masked up the hull ready for the green part. I remembered the AK acrylics and water based and using.Tamiya or Vallejo thinner causes the paint to curdle. I have some AK acrylic thinner and that worked quite well. The green was sprayed on and the masks removed. I think the color is where I wanted and the masking worked well. Unfortunately the port side was not so nice. The green paint appears to have run down the white leaving the green areas mostly white with green streaks. Maybe I thinned the paint too much or used too heavy a coat. I did notice that the paint took a long time to dry even in my 85F garage. The coverage looked good at first but seemed to run during drying. I sanded the green back and then painted the hull all white again, a second coat was needed today and tomorrow should see us masked and trying the green again. At least the masking will go a bit quicker next time. Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments. alan

Hi OC, I think you are right. alan

Some serious photo etch work there Mike alan

Super job with the washes Andrew. That’s a well used aircraft. Looks very nice. alan

Super job detailing the turrets. I still can’t believe how you do the railings. alan

Thank you very much Andrew. It was a nice relaxing project alan

Thanks Ken. So far the Trumpeter parts look quite nice and seem to fit. alan

That adds charm to the name. Possibly it should be twinned with the village of Little Piddle on Dorset (I believe) Alan

Thanks Mike. This is the final choice of camouflage. It seems to be a verifiable scheme - and I like it. Alan

I had planned to build something else on my return to this corner of the forum but it turns out I am short of PE bits and now I think I want to try and find some resin parts too. So this is hopefully a relatively quick build for the interregnum. Trumpeter calls her HMS Huron but my initial reading suggests she should really be a HMCS ship being part of the Canadian Navy. And so she is referenced in my books. The camouflage scheme on the box art drew me to this one, curiously the painting guide has something different Ive also seen a Sovereign Hobbies illustration showing a four grey shade scheme. My book British and Commonwealth Warship Camouflage offers another variation based mostly on Western Approaches green. This one is quite unusual and might be the final pick. The box is misleadingly large, inside the hull is not exactly filling the box. This is not going to use up a lot of shelf space. I’m going to try to build this up and paint in pieces to avoid some horrendous masking, we’ll see how that goes. Thanks for looking in. alan

Thank you Ken. It seems like one minute you are painting the initial glazes and then suddenly the final details. I’m trying to work up the courage to order a mounted figure. I think that might slow me down a bit. alan

Thank you very much OC. I was a bit nervous about the textures on this one but it came out okay. Alan

Coming together beautifully Rob. The details on the kit are amazing. alan

I think this warrior is finished. I painted an earth brown onto the base, added light grey for tge rocks and stones. On the large rock I used a diluted light grey on the black primer and then rubbed it back with a cotton bud. The petroglyph was given a diluted black wash. I added Woodland Scenics grass to complete the base. It was easier to do before adding the remaining parts and having to work around them. The sword, shield, axe and his hand and spear were all added. I continued to use the ca glue and it worked great. The faster setting time really made it easier so this may be the way forward. This was a very relaxing subject and I think I will try some more Pegaso figures amongst the Art Girona ones. Thanks for looking in, for the likes and the great comments. Time to return to the ships, not sure what though yet. A diorama is attractive. alan

Moving along with the details. I added the trim to his tunic. I painted flat orange as a base and the gold over the top, it seems to look more like gold cloth that way. i finished the facial details, eyebrows and eyes and then fitted the nose guard. As I suspected the eyes are pretty much obscured. I had a bit of a surprise painting the gold decoration on the guard. Shaking the bottle of clear orange I found I hand a hand coated in clear orange. The plastic cap had cracked. I was able to rescue some paint but I think I’ll have to order another bottle. I have the Mig AMMO clear orange but it is a much thinner color and doesn’t look like gold. i added the plume to the helmet. I’m using ca glue this time for the small parts. So far so good and it’s easier to make sure the piece stays in place while it dries. The base is rather nice on this one. Note the petroglyph on the rock. I think that’s rather nice. Thanks for looking in, the likes and kind comments. alan

Yep, the little display case is getting crowded. I just hope there is no pushing and shoving in there. There’s some prickly characters that are carrying weapons. alan

Thank you kindly OC. It’s a nice subject to work on. alan

Thank you very much Mike. Pegaso have some great subjects and their sculpting is very good. The cost of shipping them from Europe is a bit uncomfortable. alan

The helicopter looks very good. Great work alan

The last of the batch of figures. Nicely sculpted by Pegaso and a lot of latitude regarding choice of colors. As seems to happen, I picked up the brush and before I knew it I was well into the painting and hadn’t taken any photos. There is a lot of texture to play with on this one, fur, beard, metal and leather. His cloak is heavy fur with the skin outside. I used ivory paint and blended cork brown into it before it dried. It looks a bit rubbish at the top but that will be covered by his shield. The fleece on his chest was done the same way. I polished the metal of the helmet, used Tamiya clear orange for the gold bits and a diluted black wash to bring out the detail in the helmet. I’m working on the details and the face. I didn’t like the eyebrows so they have gone and I will try again although I think the helmets nosepiece will cover it anyway. Thanks for looking in. Alan