king derelict

Amazing. That’s going to look realistically crowded alan

Came out very well Jack. I really like the base too Alan

It’s lovely to see the figures again. They really are terrific. The smoke is tricky, the breech smoke looks great in the first picture but not so impressive from the other side. I’m sort of following along here because I have sea spray in my future and I think smoke and spray are extremely difficult things to model. It’s probably easier modeling a cannon battery firing than the delicate musket smoke Alan

Thank you Mike. I was a bit nervous of the Mirage kits but they are really quite nice with decent detail. I wish they made a short forecastle version but I suppose it impacts the tooling and costs. I have the four ships that they make, some have PE for railings others not. The White Ensign PE is good for the later bridges and different radar lanterns but quite a bit of it won’t get used. Alan

Thank you very much OC. It sometimes feels like I’m learning all over again. The razor saw is a very useful tool, I’d be breaking the fine parts everywhere without it. Alan

Lovely cockpit Dan. Great work Alan

Work resumed its busy schedule and long hours so no progress was made last week. Then on Tuesday we managed to set fire to the back of the test cell and now I have a ten day rest period while the welders get busy. No damage to the engine or crew thankfully. I've been starting to work on the details. I'm starting to like the Mirage kit; the plastic is quite robust even in the thin sections and the detail is nice. Removing the parts is a bit of a challenge. See the galley chimney in the fret below I decided to keep the kit plastic mast and yardarm, its better than the 2D PE offering. I made two investments to help ease the thin parts off the sprues. A decent razor saw replaces the nasty thing ay right. The teeth are too large and it really drags at the plastic increasing the risk of breaking the part. The new ones are very smooth and cut quickly A fine nipper has also been a great help I also dipped my toes into the world of resin aftermarket parts. The kit 4 inch gun is actually quite good. The 2 pounder is okay and the 20mm Oerlikons are reasonable but I decided to get resin replacements for the 4inch gun and the 2pdr These make the Oerlikons look clumsy so I ordered some resin parts to use there too. These are all Black Cat parts and I think its going to be hard to go back to PE after seeing these. Naturally the aftermarket stuff reduces the cost of the kit to a small part of the whole experience. After priming and adding the light grey to the guns I finished weathering the hull. I have also painted the PE structures in light grey and I think I am at the point of being able to add them to the hull and start building up teh detail. Thanks for looking in and the likes Alan

This is a superb scene Richard. The landscape especially the hedges is so realistic and the Archer blends into the scene and the story instead of dominating it. Great Work Alan

The second planking finish looks very nice. Alan

Wow Andy; that looks really good. It shows the Wellington off beautifully. The variation in the grass colouring stops it looking like artificial turf. Alan

Yup, I was at Home Depot this weekend buying mulch, fertiliser and new plants for the rabbits to eat. Alan

Yes, I had great times on the farm as a kid. Of course nowadays Health and Safety doesn’t let you jump from the top of the bales into the loose straw.

Brilliant recovery alan

That would look great if you can pull it off. Would it be easier where there are troops in line and the smoke can be distributed across the row. Maybe then you could sneak a small yellow led into the smoke. Do you have some unpainted figures to try it on? great idea alan

My family were all farmers in North Wales; mostly dairy with a few sheep and pigs. I have happy memories of getting tangled up in the barbed wire fences or crawling under them and finding the nettles Alan

Mike You are right. The tiny parts just represent smaller items as the scale increases. The challenge remains This is just a deviation from my usual 1/700 because I couldn't resist a few more Flower corvettes. Alan

The fencing and gate looks great. Alan

Thank you OC. And now i realise that moving to 1/350 doesn't really make it easier. Its a bigger scale but now you can detail tinier elements. The braces for the venturis are absolutely tiny and there are ready use ammo holders for the 4 inch gun that are ridiculously small. I'm undecided whether to even try them If they escape the tweezers they will be lost forever. Alan.

Very nice work Patrick. The decaled camouflage looks great. Alan

Another day of absenteeism from work and some slow progress building up the major PE structures. The White Ensign set is not one of their best, some of the PE items don't even look like those shown in the instructions but I am slowly muddling through. I never did find the missing venturi so I used one from my second PE set. I don't think Zinnia will need the parts. I have realised that putting the black primer on before making up the parts was a silly idea. The black makes it hard to see the tabs that hold the part in the fret and it obscures the fold lines. It also makes it harder to assemble accurately being all black on black. So the bridge with the early radar lantern and the enclosed compass platform is complete. The replacement venturi is the brass one The 4 inch gun bandstand The 2 pdr gun tub As a bit of light relief I started adding weathering to the hull. I dirtied up the wooden decks and started adding rust at the port holes and scuttles along the hull. More or less complete on one side. I am back on the test site for a twelve hour shift tomorrow and Friday so I don't expect any progress untill teh weekend Thanks for looking in and the likes. Alan

I was excused from the test site today and therefore made a little progress. I started on the PE structures. The White Ensign PE fret looks very good and so far is folding well but for this set the instructions are very vague. I made up the bridge and sonar cabin very happy to be back folding brass, then I dropped the front structure of the bridge and had to virtually disassemble the work bench to find it. Unfortunately in the process of searching for the missing piece I managed to sweep away one of the venturi pieces and after two hours searching I still cannot find it. I have a second set of PE for the other Flowers so I could raid that sheet. I think early Flowers may not have had the venturis. I'm not even sure that Spirea had them. I don't see them in the colour plate of Spirea in the book and they don't show on the box art (highly authorative source!). Actually I haven't found them on many Flower photos online but they do look like a challenge to fit. I may see how I get on with the other side first. The instructions are horrible for this particular area. It looks like there are braces to hold the venturi panels in front of the bridge with the open slots folded back onto the upper edge of the bridge front. The remaining venturi piece can be seen just below the railing As light relief after the PE debacle I decided to see if the chipping fluid would work after multiple layers of paint on top of it and an extended drying period. Actually it worked quite well. Photos of home bound Flowers show them to be very beaten up with huge areas of paint missing. With a stiff toothbrush and a cocktail stick I worked the forward half of the hull over and ended up with some serious scruffiness. I'll be adding rust streaks next. It may be a little excessive but I have seen photos that show much worse. I finally got fed up with my homemade box for spraying and got this. I generally use acrylics but would prefer not to breathe even fumes from them and I would like to try lacquer paints after seeing the results on this forum. The lighting is considerably better with 4 led arrays and the vent fan will make things a bit more comfortable. Thank you for looking in and for the likes Alan

Thats an interesting way to apply static grass Andy. I've wanted to give it a try but didn't want to end up with more kit that is infrequently used. This looks a good way round it. The base is looking very nice with the addition of teh grass Alan

Thats a great looking kit OC; excellent job so far. I agree with Craig you can definitely achieve great things with the brush. during my online browsing to get educated about thinners I came across several guys doing similar projects by brush and with appropriate brush choice and thinning of the paint got great results. Alan

Thank you very much OC. I'm feeling better about it now that it has sat for a bit. I was just so frustrated about the mess I made with my airbrush. I had a quick look this morning and I plan to touch p a few bits and press on. i meant to point out that the blue haze on the light grey at the stern of the first picture (masks removed) is just an artifact of the photos. It was the first thing I checked this morning and its not overspray. Whew Alan

Hi Yves I do have a great affection for the Flowers. My uncle was in the RN during the war and served on escorts, mostly East Coast convoys but later up to Iceland. The Cruel Sea is an unforgettable book for me and captures the boredom, misery and dangers of convoy duties in a masterly manner. I hope there will be a few more Flowers from me over time. Alan