king derelict

For some reason building the brass tripod mast on HMS Kelly felt too daunting so I worked a little on this mainly playing around with the skin tones. I’m using my usual Vallejo acrylic paints. I started with Burnt Umber and then used clear orange to redden it, Royal Purple to darken it and Sunny skin tone to lighten it. Ive made a first pass at the bare skin areas and face and it looks reasonable with a few details needed on the face. I’ll see how it looks in the morning and maybe try something different. It may need painting of the adjacent areas to view it properly. Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments. alan

A beautiful model. Congratulations alan

The bridge area is finished apart from some paint touch up. I decided to try using diluted black on the lockers instead of grey tones. I made it a bit thicker than a wash and I think I’m fairly happy with the results. As the photos show you can discriminate the lockers but they are not too obvious. And I have one to straighten up tomorrow. I added the funnel and the next task is the tripod mast. The kit one is very nice Flyhawk moulding but very delicate. I need to make a jig to hold the brass parts in place while gluing or soldering but the enthusiasm wasn’t there today so I attacked a slow running shower drain instead. Tyanks for looking in, the likes and comments. alan

That’s a great idea Mike, probably better than using an overall lighter colour. alan

Thank you very much OC. I think Flyhawk makes some demanding kits but the detail is impressive. alan

I can’t believe I spent all the modeling portion of the day still working on the forward superstructure. Over twenty lockers of various shapes and sizes, stairs, railings, ventilators. I think the lockers are going to have to be painted to match the camouflage but if I use straight black they are going to disappear which will be a shame. I think I’m going to try painting them with dark grey and see if they blend in but still be visible. I think I also have NATO black which is sort of grey and rubber black which is a dark grey. Gun and more lockers, railings and then I can move on. Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments. alan

Thanks Mike. Yes I haven’t modified the portholes at all. Flyhawk does a really nice job of defining them. Even the ringols are present. With the black primer and subsequent paint lightly applied they look really nice and much more consistent than if I tried to drill them out. alan

I’m sure it’s good for our souls. There are an incredible number of tiny parts just for this little destroyer. All the lockers are individual pieces. I dread to think what the Hood kit is like. alan

A lot of great work being done, really looks amazing alan

It’s been a mixed day for modeling today. I started well adding the decks and most of the superstructure to the hull. Everything fitted very nicely. I added the bridge and started on the details. The PE includes screens dividing areas of the bridge, something I haven’t seen before. It looks straightforward in the instructions but the pieces are tiny. Here’s the bigger part #5. Folding part #4 was a bit of a nightmare, trying to put a curve into such a small piece. I ended up with this. And then onto the plastic details, searchlights, binoculars, binnacle etc. It was then that I realized that the bridge wasn't sitting flush on the deck. I was able to remove it but during the subsequent efforts to find out what was stopping it sitting down I gradually knocked off everything, the PE screens, both binoculars, the binnacle, pelorus, and the searchlights. Amazingly I found them all with the help of the hand held vacuum. So everything is back in place and I will continue tomorrow. The black camouflage and the dark gray deck makes it hard to see how good the fit is at times. So this is where I am now. It impresses me how much detail Flyhawk cram onto the bridge and how detailed the parts are. The binnacle and pelorus are really nice. I decided to use the kit quad 0.50 cal guns, they are quite well detailed and the printed ones are not significantly better. I’ll keep them for a Trumpeter or IBG kit Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments. alan

I was busy with the black primer over the weekend on both the vexillarius and the Kelly. Then a coat of light grey and this morning I masked the hull and sprayed the black parts of the camouflage. I’m either getting better at masking or the Tamiya paint is easier to work with, no seepage under the masks. It probably helps that it’s 86F in the garage and the paint is drying on contact. This gets me to the point where I can start sticking some bits together. Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments. alan

Thanks OC. No I’ve heard about it but never seen it. I’ll definitely take a look. alan

Ive got some decal paper for inkjet printers and I have found a website that shows the standards of the legions so something might be worked out with a bit of practice. Over the weekend I managed to add the usual black primer coat and then the zenithal white paint. It shows off some nice details so I’m keen to pick up a paint brush Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments. alan

Absolutely beautiful work Mike. Your PE work is very neat and really makes a difference. It’s a great subject and the aircraft really make it stand out. Definitely calls out for a diorama. alan

Thank you Mike, I like these ancient figures, plus there’s a bit more wiggle room with the colours of the dress. alan

Thank you very much Rob. His face is nicely sculpted and I think I got the shading the way I wanted. Not a shy Middle Eastern potentate. Alan

Hi Rob, yes the FT-17 is 1/72. I opened the box and the hull is above 1/4 the length of the 1/700 destroyers about the size of a matchbox. I’m tempted to start gluing bits together. alan

The guns look quite a challenge. Great work alan

Lovely work on the torpedo boats, they look great. alan

Looks very nice Mike. The cranes are really neat alan

This looks really interesting. I’m looking forward to following developments. I’m feeling I should get my Flyhawk Renault FT-17 off the pile and join in. Alan

Well, I got distracted by incoming figures. This was what was supposed to be on the workbench next. HMS Kelly was a “K” class destroyer commissioned in August 1939 and had a thoroughly rough and short war. On the afternoon of 14 December 1939, the tanker Atheltemplar struck a mine laid by German destroyers off the Tyne Estuary. Kelly and the Tribal-class destroyer HMS Mohawk were dispatched as escorts for the rescue tugs Great Emperor, Joffre and Langton. During the operation, Kelly also struck a mine and sustained damage to her hull. While Mohawk put a party aboard Atheltemplar, and Joffre and Langton took the tanker under tow, Kelly herself was taken in tow by Great Emperor and returned to the Tyne. Reaching the Tyne just before midnight, Kelly was assisted upriver by the tugs Robert Redhead and Washington. She was towed to Hawthorn Leslie's yard for repairs, which took just a little over three months. This was the second of Kelly's misfortunes, having just returned to active service after a month in dry dock following storm damage. Repairs were completed on 28 February 1940, and Kelly returned to the fray. Astonishingly, she was involved in a collision with HMS Gurkha, just two days later on 2 March, necessitating a further 8 weeks in dry dock, this time on the Thames. She was released on 27 April, in time to assist with the evacuation of allied forces from Namsos. On 23 May, during the evacuation of Crete, she was bombed and sunk, with half her crew killed. Kelly did succeed in shooting down three of the attacking Stukas, while another was badly damaged and crashed upon returning to base. The survivors were deeply affected by the loss of their ship; Mountbatten shared their loss and tried to console the ship's company by reminding them all that "we didn't leave the Kelly, the Kelly left us!" This is a deluxe edition Flyhawk kit with PE and brass barrels and masts. For such a small ship there are an awful lot of bits in the box. PE looks quite civilized, nothing too minuscule to deal with. There are two sets of instructions, one for the kit and one for the PE, a lot of reading is needed to successfully integrate the PE. The paint guide has Kelly in overall grey but my book of British warships camouflage schemes shows two alternatives. Mountbatten pink, the man himself was skipper of the Kelly And this rather striking design I'm leaning towards this one as something a bit different. And I see Ive got stuck with yet another tripod mast. A tentative start has been made. I cut back the kit plastic barrels and replaced them with the brass one. It was only after letting the drill bit skip into my thumb on the third set that I remembered that my recent Black Cat order included 4.7 inch guns. Oh well, it’s all about the challenge. I left the base of the guns in the sprue as being easier to hold, seemed to work quite well. Thanks for looking in, I hope you enjoy the adventure. alan

A lot of reading today researching the background and equipment of the vexillarius. I remembered I had this book on one of the bookshelves and dug it out. i think I bought it as a companion for the Simon Scarrow, Ben Kane and Harry Sidebottom novels. The sections on equipment agree with the information from @Canute so that take care of most of the painting issues. The book identifies the standard on the box art as belonging to the first Adiutrix legion who did indeed take part in the Marcomannic wars, the wars with the tribes of the Danube. The shield is wrong though and doesn’t match any of the legions shield designs. The legions postings don’t seem to have any reason to have a Nubian vexillarius though. It does occur to me that apart from the standard there is nothing about the figure to identify it as part of any particular legion so I can look for a different legion that maybe served in North Africa and maybe has an easier standard design. Luckily that decision can be made late in the build. This may be a bit slow as I work over in the ship log, this one sort of got away from me. Thanks for looking in, the likes, the helpful comment and the popcorn. alan

Welcome Phil. I think using a printer may be the way to go. Thanks for the suggestion. alan

Glad to see you Ken. Thanks for the very useful information. I think that takes care of all the equipment questions. No decals, they would have been nice. Ive ordered some decal paper for inkjet printers. Thanks again Alan