king derelict

Thanks Boydie. Its fun so far but you are right about the PE. Some of the parts are breaking away in the frets just from moving them about. Alan

Thanks Mike There is plenty to work on in this little destroyer Alan

Thank you OC. I hope I can live up to it. Flyhawk manage to pack an awful lot into such a tiny kit. Lots of tiny parts and PE, Just as much fun as a big one. I hope the Christmas season is going well Alan

Back to tiny world with a vengeance today. I'm still building the modules that will be painted before assembly and then PE is being added in places as part of that. As @Boydie noted the PE is very thin and the hinges of the folds are well perforated so I don't think there would be a second chance if you bend the wrong way. I was trying to go slowly to minimise that problem. The breakwater for the foredeck was a good example. Just the flexing of the part as I was cutting it from the fret saw three of the ribs breaking away from the breakwater. Actually I found it easier to cut them all off and then glue the breakwater to the deck. Once the breakwater was solidly set i attached the ribs. At least that way I wasn't dealing with trying keep everything in place and orientation at the same time. However the little triangles are tiny. I decided that the plastic gun barrels on the 4 inch guns were good enough to retain. I think anything I gained in the neatness of teh brass barrel would be lost in the lack of neatness in drilling the tiny holes in the barrel stubs to hold the brass barrels I'm definitely working at my PE limit. This is the mainmast platform The plastic mainmast is very well done by Flyhawk but I thought the brass version might be better so I assembled the main components without too much trouble. I made up the plastic version to get the correct placements of the brass parts. The antenna at the top of the mainmast is a very fragile piece and two of the H antenna broke away as I was folding them to the correct angle. I managed to find the broken pieces and glue them in place (approximately). Its not as tidy as I would like but it might look OK once painted (if it survives the airbrush). The photo shows one of the ribs for the breakwater and above it one of the H antenna Thanks for looking in and all the helpful comments Alan

Very neat painting OC. Its starting to look busy. Its going to be great. Alan

The engine looks really good. We used to have parking bases which were just stands for spare engines that were simpler and cheaper than the workshop stands. It looks great too. Alan

A fully loaded out AV-8B always looks like something not to be messed with. Alan

Thanks Mike This has been a lot of fun Alan

A diorama you can enjoy with a glass of wine😄 Alan

Thank Egilman. That ceramic brick dust keeps coming in handy Alan

Thanks Patrick I really enjoyed building the car - and helping to eat the cake Alan

Thanks Mark I read the thread. It will be interesting to see what is going on - though doubtless it will be unintelligible to me.

The fuel cans were dulled a little and added to the back of the car. I added a bit more replica sand around the cans and I think this one is finished. The 200 error nailed one of the photos - funny how it picks on one image and even if it is edited, renamed reimported and it still kicks it out. Thank you for all the support, kind and helpful comments. I hope it has been interesting. I hope you all have a great Christmas Alan

Thank you very much Popeye I look forward to tasting the cake Happy Christmas Alan

Thank you Ken I'm looking forward to trying the edible diorama Happy Christmas Alan

Thank you very much Mark Witha third of a bottle of brandy in it; I'm hoping the edible diorama tastes good Happy Christmas Alan

That is great way to show the real size of the zeppelin. It is fantastic display and both models are exceptionally well done Alan

I was all set to start SMS Lutsow but I made the mistake of looking at the PE set which includes the torpedo nets and my nerve broke! They look delicate and horribly fiddly. So I decided to reenter the 1/700 world in easy stages and lifted Flyhawks HMS Lance off the shelf. This is the deluxe kit with metal barrels and two sheets of PE, mostly railings and davits. I'm not sure i will used the PE davits; the plastic ones look very good and are three dimensional. A box full of parts along with a nice card with the art work on it. Instructions for the kit and then instructions for the PE so there is the need to cross reference. I tend to go over the kit instructions and make up where the PE parts will take the place of the plastic part number. 1/700 scale seems to have got smaller while I have been away playing with 1/72 armour and the corvette. The PE is thin and fragile. There won't be many second chances The overall plan is to put the decks on the hull and then build up the superstructure separately as much as possible and hopefullu avoid some masking marathons. So the bridge structure has been started with the tiny pieces of bridge equipment added and the first bits of PE I hope everyone has a great Christmas Alan

A tiny update. I am making the flimsies for the car. I took a length of 1/8 square styrene rod and rounded the edges slightly to make the individual cans more apparent. I cut four 5 mm pieces and glued them together. I created the appearance of the lids by pressing the tip of a hypodermic needle into teh tops. Its a little out of scale but it was the smallest size I have and its not in quite the right place but any closer to teh edge and it distorts the plastic. I think it will look okay under some dust. A plain top just leaves it as a box After priming with black primer I painted the strip with metal paint and gave it a black wash to delineate the individual cans better Next I will add some dust but first I had a diorama to finish - not a desert one this time I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year Alan

Hope the tabs bring relief quickly. Thats nasty and worse just before Christmas. I hope it all goes well. I'm glad you have a responsive doctor. Alan

Thank you Lou. Yes, I was thinking that the lockers on the side of the truck bed would hold some supplies but ropes, personal kit etc might be under that tarp. Bed rolls if it was a multi-day patrol. Alan

Thank you OC. I really like this subject and the model is quite good. The 1/35 scale version just turned up and that does look very good. Alan

Thank you very much Ken I need to a better job with the lighting for the photographs. I realise that some of the pictures make it look like I have used a green and sand camouflage Alan

Back on topic today. Yesterday I was playing around to see if I could make convincing representation of the sand that gathers on surfaces not blown clear by travel. I made a mix of PVA glue and water which I painted onto the areas I thought sand would be found. Then I added a spoonful of the dust from sanding the ceramic bricks used in the Aedes Ars models which was sitting around. I tapped the surplus off and dusted off any remaining excess with a stiff paintbrush. I like the effect; its a bit more three dimensional than just using paint but I think its easy to get a bit too wild with it. The tarped load was placed properly in the load bed and then the wheels were added. I was excited to find all four touched the ground. I gave the whole model a coat of matte coat. The 1/8 inch square styrene rod arrived today and I started making the flimsies again. Hopefully these will be better than the first attempt. I like this model enough that I ordered the 1/35 scale version from Roden to see how that builds up. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Mark. The Sahara is a huge place too. The area around the mountain is a maze of gullies and canyons. I doubt they have ever been fully explored in detail. Stuff keeps turning up out there like the P40 found in 2012 in Egypt. That was sitting on rocky desert so not even buried. In ancient times the area around the mountain wasn't desert. The cave paintings show lions, giraffes and elephants so it was probably savannah like Botswana or Kenya maybe. The ancient Egyptians got ivory and gold from somewhere and a very old trade route is evident leading south towards the mountain. Curiously gold has been discovered (or rediscovered?) in the last ten years very close to the mountain. So maybe a city is buried there somewhere. Its an interesting environment. It fascinates me that you can pick up an expended AK47 cartridge sitting on the desert floor next to a piece of prehistoric pottery or a stone tool. Alan