king derelict

Thank you so much Mike. It was a bit like masking those 1/700 scale destroyer decks. Seemed to go on forever but it actually was easier than I thought it would be. One piece at a time. I was very thankful none of the paint peeled off with the tape. Alan

Thank you very much OC. I really need to up my game and try a 1/35 scale AFV Alan

Really nice job Craig, The railings really set it off. Alan

Really excellent work Craig. The detail is so very crisp and the shading subtle. Alan

The last set of masks were added ready for the brown coat. There are some discontinuities in the Takom scheme around the glacis so this is my interpretation using some photos off the internet too. In the end I didn't use the mask guide very much. The skirts were masked using copies of the Takom guide blown up to the same size as the model and the rest were cut using the large copy asa reference. And here we go with the brown coat in place. What a mess! Somewhere under all that might be a Berlin paint scheme. I went and had a cup of coffee to get my nerve up for pulling the masks off. Gulp! So off it all came Thankfully my worst fears were unfounded, The PE engine grills didn't pull off and the paint didn't strip off them wholesale. The track sections, trucks and skirts all stayed in place. The paint didn't peel off from previous layers. There is some bleed through in places where it wasn't possible to get the mask to sit flat but I think it will work. Most of it can be touched up by hand I think. The lockers and baskets still have to be added and a bit of weathering should take care of the rest. I really like the Mig paints on this build; they really seemed to air brush nicely and they didn't life with the masks. I may be a convert from Tamiya. I think this calls for a beer! Thanks for looking in and for the likes Alan

Thank you very much Edward. I really like these 1/72 vehicles (and the detail is really good on some of the brands). I keep thinking about a 1/35 version for comparison. Alan

Good luck with the RL issues OC .. This masterpiece is well worth waiting for Alan

Well, sorry for the (enforced) silence. The landscape guys cut through my internet cable on Wednesday and i just got it restored. Things with the chieftain has been moving forward a lurch at a time. The masks came off the road wheels and they came out quite well The trucks were added to the hull along with the upper sections of the tracks which are trapped in place by the idler wheels. It pretty tight in terms of clearance both in height and width. I had to sand the inside edge of teh tracks to stop them protruding. The skirts are made up of four pieces of PE per side and need to be fitted and carefully aligned. I used tape on the inside to try to make it easier. The PE was dished and needed a bit of rolling to straighten it out The attachment points for the skirts are small and they are a bit fragile. In hindsight I should have added some blutack or similar at the top of the skirt to increase the area for the skirts to rest on. The lower sections of track had looked like a good fit on the jig but with the assemblies on the hull they all turned out to be a little too long. Unfortunately not long enough to remove a link and take up the space. They were all about 1/8th link too long. If I had assembled it all while the glue was drying a link could have been dropped and the extra space lost in careful positioning of the remaining links. I ended up filing the edges of the adjoining links and got a reasonable fit. Its not obvious unless you turn the tank over and look at the pads carefully. We still have dirt and grime to add too. So now we have the basics done and the Mk10 will be focussed on A coat of matt white was given as the starting point for the Berlin paint scheme, And then the masking madness starts. The white sections are now covered. I have read that the Takom scheme is incorrect but it is close to the photos I have seen and is the only comprehensive side / top / front / rear reference I have. This took a lot of the day with several breaks. I have a feeling I should have given it a second coat of white but I was trying to avoid the blank white look even though it will be broken up by the other colours. The day finished with the blue grey paint air brushed on. Now back to masking for the NATO brown coat and then the great (I hope reveal) Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you, Mike. Now the masking craziness begins Alan

Wonderful work. It looks really excellent Alan

As always the sea base looks so good Alan

Mike, you are a master with the PE Alan

The only paper / card plane I have made was the one in the Rupert Bear annual one year. You guys are amazingly talented Alan

So to masking - but the easy stuff first. 36 road wheels and idlers so the rubber rims can be painted. The circle cutter is a great help and avoids my terrible efforts at hand painting the rim They were then air brushed with MIG rubber and tyre paint. I got a bit of a shock expecting something black like Tamiya NATO Black but its really a deep grey. I think it will be fine but may need a hint of black adding during the weathering. The engine deck was masked for the Mk10 ready forthe white coat and then the complications. The skirts are fairly heavy PE. I gave them a shot of Mr Surfacer metal primer and a dose of Mig black primer for luck. Two layers of masking is needed and i hope the paint stays put. I think its going to be a challenge to line up the four panels. I'm thinking of mounting them on card or tape to hold them in alignment rather than just adding them to the side of the hull piece by piece. First all the running gear and tracks need to be added. I thought it would be a short trip to getting started on teh Berlin paint scheme but there is quite a lot to these little kits. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks OC I'm hoping I can pull off the Berlin paint scheme. Alan

Thanks Craig I was a little disappointed at first; pins were too big for locating holes in places but I'm really liking the kit as I'm moving forward. Its not Flyhawk but there is some very nice detail and the PE help a lot. I would like to try one of their 1/35 scale tanks Alan

Thanks Ken Its feeling it was worth the learning experience with the 3D printer. It was fun weathering something like that and Its a ship type I'm fond of. My uncle was in the Andrew primarily on convoy escorts during the second world war. I would have liked to have shown him how this turned out. I priced out the acrylic sheet for the display case; its going to be about $300 all up. As usual the case costs more than the model but I think its going to have to be done. Alan

Both Mk10 and Mk11 hulls, tracks, turrets and running gear got a dose of diluted Mig One Shot Black Primer. I picked up the Mig British Berlin scheme paints In the spirit of inquiry (and a question of what I have in the cupboard) I am using Mig paints throughout; a first for me. While the main parts are drying the kit baskets and lockers were built up for the two marks. The railings are fiddly but the PE is extremely accurate. These are the parts for the Mk 10 version Track Rust air brushed onto the tracks = the black rubber pads to follow. The running gear, the Mk11 turret and hull have had a coat of NATO green. The engine deck for the Mk10 also got the green. The Mk11 will be painted in green / black scheme for the RTR in Germany although looking at the next photo its extremely hard to see the different colours on the Mk10 although its a bit more marked in real life. The next move will be to add the undercarriage and then its into serious masking Thanks for looking in Alan

Mike You make great seascapes. The waves look very convincing Alan

The aircraft are really very nice Alan

I celebrated my return to the work bench by knocking over an open full bottle of Tamiya plastic cement. Luckily it didn't flow onto the models but it has knocked down the resale value of the work bench. Its quite relaxing working something that you can hold in one hand. I'm not sure whether I get more exercise walking back and forth between kitchen and work bench with the Corvette or spending time crawling around on hands and knees looking for the latest bit of tiny plastic to escape the tweezers. So the hulls are now complete as far as being ready to paint. The details will be added after the paint schemes are completed. The hulls are identical between the Mk10 and Mk11 tanks. The turrets are now under construction. The Mk 11 turret is now complete for painting and the Mk10 is in progress. We are now at the point where the differences start to appear. The side of the turret is different between the two models, It is complete on the Mk11 and needs to be added to the Mk10. The kit provides parts to build one Mk10 and one Mk11. You can't make two Mk10s etc. The hatches can be posed open and there are details on the underside of the hatch covers. I left them closed; there is nothing to see inside and the paint scheme are going to be difficult enough without adding to the mix. Generally its going together well but a lot of the parts seem jut a little too big. The tool boxes on the hull and the vision ring for the main cupola needed careful filing to get a good fit I'm not sure if these are a result of this being a scaled down kit. The PE engine grills were a bit fiddly with nothing to align them but the PE is nice and soft to cut. I had to revive the Gators Grip with a couple of drops of water I'm getting towards the bottom of the bottle. Hopefully priming everything next. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you very much Jav; and like achieving any push goal it feels good to have made it. I'm looking at a few "simple" builds as a break; maybe an airplane. I haven't tried one for over fifty years. Alan

Thank you very much for the kind words Yves. I have no regrets about starting the corvette now that I can look at the result and feel very happy about it. It will definitely have a special place in my collection. I'm very glad your log led me into this. I don't think I would have built the Revell kit somehow. The conjunction of big model, Flower corvette and 3D printing was perfect. It i s a fantastic model and a ridiculous price. $50 of filament some paint and glue get you most of the way there. Its crazy to realise I spent more on the stanchions than on the entire rest of the model. The experience of learning the intricacies of 3D printing was a great benefit although frustrating at times. Its a different matter to try to achieve a quality print for a purpose compared with printing some random item off the web. I'll definitely be looking at another printed model. I rather like the look of the Astute class submarine from the Dry Dock outfit and I need to look what else is out there. I did print the corvette hull parts again scaled down to 1/72 scale just to see how it worked out and to demonstrate that I could now knock out the prints in a low stress few days instead of weeks of frustration.. t 1/72 scale she just fits on the work bench so another Flower might be in the offing. I see this as a whole new world of modelling especially combined with teh detail from a resin printer. Thanks very much for the help throughout the build and I look forward to seeing the ALFA sub develop Alan

Thank you Todd The weathering was a lot of fun and I'm happy with how it came out. One of the old corvette crew members interviewed in the RN museum book reminisced that one kipper had them paint their ship all over in the last day of returning from an Atlantic convey. This resulted in them entering harbour to an unfair chorus of calls to "get some sea time in"

Thanks Grant I confess I did spend a fair bit of time today looking at her and feeling a bit puffed up about the result Alan