king derelict

This has not been abandoned but progress remains very slow. I seem to spend a lot of time trying to work out how to approach the various elements of the build. I guess this is a lot nearer a scratch build than anything I have attempted so far. Reference material is sketchy and the kits generalizations are sometime a bit contradictory. The current task is shimming the decks to get a smooth run along the ship and at the right height; flush on the foredeck and level with the scuppers on the aft decks. I started building up some of the structures to get an idea of how things go together and also to stiffen the deck pieces at some points. Some of the kit parts fit beautifully; others seem to be less well done. When the deck sections for the foredeck are laid down there is a considerable overhand at the aft end. None of the plans that I have show this; they all show the foredeck finishing at the break to the main deck. So some trimming will be needed to bring it into line. Another anomaly is seen where the engine room roof is too long and runs over the aft end of the foredeck. Again it can be trimmed. However more studying of the various corvette plans suggest that, at least for Campanula and her batch of Flowers the funnel is too far forward. So, relative positions of the funnel and cabin, bridge all need to remain as the model is designed but I think I can introduce a space forward of the bridge which will push the funnel back to nearer its real position. That has the effect of extending the foredeck further back over the engine room and if the forward roof section is removed that will all fit together about where I want it. The overhanging part of the foredeck can then be reshaped to reflect the shape of deck seen on some of the modified Flowers. I think I will use plastic sheet of the appropriate thickness rather than try to print out something and shape it to fit. The scrapped deck sections that suffered from warping are proving to be very useful cut up into joining sections between deck pieces The batch of Flowers of which Campanula is a part had the short wooden side decks that start at the rear of the engine room. To accommodate the extra thickness of the wood I printed a second set of side decks and the aft part of the aft deck and then cut off the side pieces where the wooden deck will be installed. Once the decks are levelled correctly then the focus will be more on assembly of parts which should be rather fun now that most of the major decision making about layout etc. is complete. Thanks for looking in. I hope everyone has a great weekend Alan

Thank you very much Mike Alan

Thank you very much Yves. You set a very high standard to follow. I don't there is any danger of me fiunishing this any time soon. I seem to spend hours just moving bits around and reading up on teh real ships. Alan

OC, that looks great. Its worth having teh airbrush just for that finish. Alan

Thats a spectacular model Mike. The details are beautifully executed. Very impressive Alan

I even think that different colours make a difference. I think white is much harder to AB than dark greys. Maybe its something to do with teh amount of pigment in the paint = or its all my imagination. Alan

There seems to be quite a lot of debate on the colour schemes for the British tanks in WW1. Opinions range from grey, to olive drab and khaki. I decided to go with olive drab so the base coat was air brushed on. The tracks will them be worked up with rust, silver and dirt then washes and shading to the hull. With paint on the ditch rails look OK and I think the homemade Lewis guns will pass muster. Thanks for looking in Alan

Hi Mark I was at NAS Patuxent River, MD from 2011 to 2018 and knew some people at Aberdeen but as Egilman reported the collection has moved and you can't visit it any more. A huge shame Alan

Hi John That would have been great to be able to be that close to the tank museum and also to be able to actually climb around on the tanks. Bovington is definitely one of my must do museums. I'm not sure it will happen this time though. There is something about actually being able to get inside something and experience the environment instead of looking at the thing over a rope. At the Air Force museum, Dayton, Ohio they have a B29 fuselage you can walk through - great. Alan

That finish looks really good OC Alan

Thanks for the info OC. I am planning to be over in December. I'll be Oop North unfortunately but plan to hit RAF Cosford and try to seeing down to either the FAA museum (easiest to reach) or Bovington (the one I really want to see). I also hope to spend a few hours digging up spent Spitfire rounds from a WW2 air gunnery range in Wales. Alan

The last few pices of the kit were a bit of a challenge. The ditching beam rails. The kit provides three elements for each side and very loose instructions for the assembly and location of the rails. I spent a lot of time playing with the parts and looking online for photos of the real thing. Eventually I trimmed about 1/4 inch off the front section and got something like the shape and locations of the attachment points. The last fabrication task was to address the terrible Lewis guns. I found a very nice set of booms and yardarms from a Flyhawk ship model that had been replaced with brass. The size looked good so I cut the kit "barrels" off the mounts, drilled them and installed the cut sections of rod. They look a bit scruffy here but I think they will work under a coat of paint. The mounts were cut off teh sprue and then glued to sponsons and drivers position. Thats it! No more parts - a total of 31 bits glued together. The primer has been airbrushed on and will be left for 24 hours and then an olive drab paint scheme and weathering. I'm toying with adding a ditching beam to the rails if I can make it look good. I have some dodgy 1/700 anchor chains that might work to secure it. Thank you for looking in. Alan

Hi Lou This seems to be jumping together quickly. I thought of buying some after market Lewis guns but the cheap part of me baulked at buying them and chucking 3/4 of the gun and just using the last 1/4 of the barrel. I think I can use some plastic rod and it will look OK Thanks Alan

Thank you Ken Its interesting; I found a few photos of built kits on line and although they had been modified with a Czech PE kit (might have to investigate that sometime) they left the Lewis guns as per the kit - which I think is the most unappealing part of the model. Definitely going to do something about them. Alan

Hi OC Got to have a Strong British representation. I have a Whippet and a Tadpole also to strengthen the line. Was that at Bovington. While I was researching on the web I found some photos of a Mark IV in a museum with a sign next to it saying :Closed" which intrigued me. It must have been great to have seen the inside. Bovington is on my "must visit" list Alan

Thank you very much Gary These Emhar kits are nice little side projects and come out well. I'm also improving my knowledge of WW1 fighting vehicles too. Alan

Thank you for the kind comment OC. I am a bit heavy handed when I dry brush so I thought the air brush might work. The down side is trying to keep the spray where you want it. I didn't want a line so I couldn't mask easily Alan

Hi OC. I think my Vallejo primer with their thinner, maybe 10 to 20% and it sprays nicely Alan

It seems the balance of power needs to be redressed for the Entente Powers so I had added the Mark IV lit to the pile. On Sunday afternoon I opened the box - just looking you understand. There is quite a bit more to this kit than the a7v. More parts and three pages of instructions. Tracks are a rubbery fold around type. Detail is quite nice of the parts and not too much flash. Then the glue came out - just to check the fit on a few parts you see Sponsons assembled and the lower hull and inner skins mated. The fit is actually quite good. No positive locators but its all pretty obvious so far. The outer skins and drivers cupola are in place and now the bit I was not looking forward to - the tracks. I have memories of dealing with the rubber track on Airfix tanks fifty years ago and they rarely went well. The instructions say that the plastic can be bonded using normal styrene glue which I was a bit cynical about. I tried a test piece gluing two bits of the sprue together and got a solid bond so on we go. I worked a bit at a time gluing and holding each section to get a good bond. Got a bit generous with the glue at the sharp radii to sften teh track and it wrapped around the corners and held very nicely. The short section was added at the bottom. I was expecting the long piece to be deliberately long and provide some spare to cut back to fit. In the event the exact length is provided. Actually it is just a whisker short but I think it will fill and be unnoticeable Looking through photographs of Mark IVs the kit has an error with the external fuel tank. The kit has the hatch and filler on the side rather than on the top where real life (and logic) places it. I sanded off the hatch and built a new one from card and some scraps of PE and added it to the model The exhaust and rear structure has been added. It needs to be softened with some adhesive to bend it down the rear wall and across the top of the tank. The sponsons have been added and I was impressed at how nice the fit was after a touch of flash had been cleaned off. The remaining parts are the ditching beam rails which look a bit fiddly and then its back to the air brush. So far this has been very pleasant. I am rather disappointed with teh kits rendition of the Lewis guns They are parts 34, 35 and 36. I am reluctant to use them and think it might be possible to do better with some thin plastic or brass rod inserted into the dome at the base of the kits effort. I see resin options out there but it seems a bit profligate to buy those and discard most of the gun Thanks for looking in. Alan

Thats about my ratio; far more time cleaning than spraying but I think the air brushed paint is so good that its well worth it. I usually finish a cleaning by spraying some cleaner into a paper towel. It proves to me that its running clean and the flow is good. I pull the needle, nozzle guards and work cleaner through it all. I tend not to pull the nozzle every time because it has a very small o seal which deteriorated if you mess with it too much and I can't find a source of replacements. Having said all that I went to spray the a7v the other day and the paint just would not spray. I ended up pouring the paint into my other air brush (I have two cheap ones) and dumped the first one into a container of water. The second air brush worked fine and I cleaned both afterwards without finding anything untoward and they both work fine again. Voodoo Alan

I decided on some very mild weathering. I don't really know what a realistic level is. Some models seem to have been an exercise in adding as much weathering as the model would hold and that seems a bit too much for me. I can see vehicles on long campaigns bashing cross country are through rubble are going to get pretty beaten up but it seems the WW1 tanks would not have that sort of life and would be dirty in use and relatively tidy when in the rear. So I decided to add a little rust to the running gear, tracks and the edges of the lower panels. I currently using the Vallejo product and like the effect of the dark and light rust colours provided. I used the dark rust colours at the edge of the lower panels and then a touch of the light rust within the dark rust and then diluted it and spread it with a wet brush. After it dried I air brushed a mist of buff onto the lower hull and running gear. I'm trying to emulate OC but its not as good. Finally a matt coat was air brushed to lose the gloss applied earlier. Lastly the point of this build - to meet the Renault FT17 to compare sizes. Oh my Can't we just get along? Thanks for looking. all the kind comments and helpful advice Alan

Thank you for the kind comment. The masking looked a mess but it worked out OK. The Mark IV is in progress - I made the mistake of opening the box - just to look. Alan

Thank you kindly Lou I'm glad you enjoyed the build. I had a lot of fun with it and it actually came together quite nicely. And PE - free too😄 Alan

Thank you Patrick Thank you again for your help with the research Alan

Thank you Mark. I think I'll be building a few more WW1 tanks as lightly relief from the corvette.I Alan