king derelict

Sorry for the dolorous progress. Real like has been intruding badly these last days. Partly its self inflicted. I was asked to come back and consult for a couple of engine tests and I (possibly foolishly) agreed. It will keep the wolf a few paces away from the door and doubtless improve sales at Sprue brothers et al. Its also good to hear the howl of an F135 at full throttle again Anyway, in quiet hours some progress has been made and the outer faces of the walls have been finished Now I have to turn it around and do it all over again on the inside. Some of the blockwork on the inside of the towers is going to be interesting.. I had planned to take a break at this point but I'm enjoying it too much and playing with engines will provide enough diversion so I'll try to keep going. Its going to be slow though so get comfy and lay in plenty of snacks and adult beverages Thanks for all the support, likes and comments Alan

Thanks Ken The figures are very nice but a few mould lines need to be filed down. I'm very impressed with them. Alan

Thanks EG Looks like there is other howitzer activity on the board too Alan

Thank you OC. Thank you for the advice regarding the figures. I am amazed at the detail. You can see beards on faces and individual fingers on hands. Alan

Gators Grip and the similar product from Mig Ammo have similar properties. They give you time to get a good placement of the PE. They also dry with some flexibility which means the part doesn't break off as easily as when glued with .CA which is brittle. I like the GG thin version best. Alan

Really beautiful Mike. The panel lines are really nice and you did a masterful job of the folded wings. Alan

Absolutely stunning Mike. You did a great job and the dio really sets it off very well. The mechanic really sets the scene. Looking forward to the next one Alan

Absolutely stunning OC. The details on the uniforms is so precise Alan

This should be fun. It looks more sci-fi than your space fighter Alan

In my flow of build I end up painting the main deck before painting the superstructure so I tend to 1 assemble hull, deck and main structure elements 2 Prime 3 paint the main deck 4 Mask the main deck 5 paint hull and structures if they are the same colour 6 Mask hull and paint structures if they are different 7 Add details and touch up. I'm not claiming this is the most efficient way but it works for me Alan

This is going to be spectacular Alan

I still slowly grinding (literally) away at the outer walls. As usual nothing much got done at the weekend but I got some useful time in today. It still moves along fairly slowly because I think its worth letting a tier set before trying to sand back level and risking knocking off a couple of blocks and having to do it all over again. I turned the last corner and am on the last tower and section of wall This is where the hill will climb up the wall And the panorama showing the completed work so far. Our nice post lady brought a package from the UK this morning The 10mm Pendraken medieval figures. They are really beautiful and I think they will work well. Thank you @Old Collingwood for the suggestion. They have a medieval cannon set too so I am considering a couple. I'm still a bit concerned about @Egilmanhowitzer Painting them is going to be interesting I think we will be going for *overall effect* Does anyone know how to prime metal figures? I have the Mr Metal Primer for PE so I am planning on using that Some thought is going to have to be given to adding them to the model. They are too small to really remove from their bases so maybe I can thin the base down. Thanks for looking in, all the likes and comments. Alan .

I never got on well with my Tamiya PE pliers. The jaws quickly went out of alignment. Possibly it was just a dud pair. The magnifiers with light are a big help to me. I tend to stick the hull to something that I can hold to minimise handling of the model. I use a piece of plastic packing material liberated from work and double sided tape. Others use paint bottle tops and blu tack. There is a big deep hole of tools that you can throw money into Alan

The wash really makes the ship pop. Looks great Alan

I had the Airfix Defiant kit about Fifty five years ago. I painted it as a night fighter then. It looks like the kit has got more sophisticated since. It's a lovely model and a nice concept but it made an indifferent aircraft. Lots of weight that could have been used elsewhere Alan

Wonderfully busy decks. Great stuff Alan

Sorry. Autocorrect insists that PE should be OR and I missed a couple in my reply. For me the key to PE is planning the sequence of bends so you can access the area to bend as needed Good luck Alan

Thank you very much OC your photos of Pembroke castle are wonderful. Black and white is really dramatic with the right subject. I envy you living with the town wall at the end of your garden. I've walked along the town walls of Conway several times and looked down into the gardens and homes that press up against the walls Alan

Looking very nice already OC Alan

Your Hurricane is superb. Excellent work. I always liked the workhorse Hurry. As I understand it there is a Hurricane VC, the only one in Fighter Command. Congratulations on the very positive recovery Alan

Great news E.G. Alan

I'm still learning how to use PE but I would recommend the following basics. A hard surface to cut on. I use a piece of acrylic but I have seen glass or metal mentioned. A scalpel to cut with. I use a round profile blade. You can use the scalpel or a single sided razor blade to slide under a piece of PE trapped under a steel rule and bend it up against the straight edge. That works for straight bends. A series of drill bits can be used for curved bends. I use Vallejo primer on PE and it sticks quite well but I think you have design yourself to touch ups if the PE is going to get handled. I haven't really used OR pliers. I bought a set and the jaws quickly went out of line. I do have PE benders and rollers they are great but pricey. I started out with the stuff above and it all worked fine for the average OR Hope this helps Alan

Simply beautiful. I hope you have a glass of something good for the topping out ceremony. The quality of your model demands it Alan

That is a real maze of PE. Congratulations on a spectacular result. It's very neat and will look great E

I reached a minor milestone today. I turned the corner onto the last section of walling and the end of the outer wall is in sight (at least the outer half - it all has to be done again on the inner side) You can also see that I have reached the point on the last round tower where the landscape starts to climb onto the wall and the brickwork no longer runs the full depth of the wall. Its going to be interesting trying to keep the tiers horizontal but the pattern on the cardboard formers should help I'm rough shaping and cleaning up while I wait for glue to set but I will go back and finish the tidying up once its all built. I taped the joins in the cardboard formers for the main structure and hand painted the interior black with craft acrylic to help reduce light bleed through. I need to map out the lights and how to position them. This probably needs to be done before adding the blocks. I also need to add partitions to stop lines of sight through the building. They will be full height and will also help hold the oof up. I'm sure Aedes Ars know what they are doing but they seem to trust some weighty structure to a few bits of cardboard The roof template shows the outlines of the next level and I have been tracing out which elements will have windows or doors and thus need leds in place and wires routing through the roof And here is a bigger version of those walls and towers Conway Castle, North Wales. A lovely place to explore Thanks for looking in, for the likes and the comments Alan