king derelict

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

Thank you Craig. Thats an intriguing story and an new place to visit. Alan

Thank you Mark And its probably going to get slower. Continental Drift? Alan

Thank you Craig I had previously read that the answer to how the huge blocks of the pyramids were moved in place was --- whips! I think you may well be onto something though. Curiously Aedes Ars also make a model of Stonehenge - another construction of huge blocks that continues to challenge the experts. Maybe Aedes Ars know something! Alan

Thank you Andrew I had the same feeling when I started sanding it down. Unfortunately it will all get sanded off to reveal the bricks again. I was a bit heavy handed in places. Alan

Thank you very much Gary It does tend to look a bit rough at first and then you sand and shape a bit and suddenly it starts to look like it might all come together. I love the Welsh mountain countryside and the castles are spectacular Alan

Lovely detail work. The grating is a very nice piece of work Alan

I'm working along the next wall and round tower. One more round tower and I reach the part of the wall that is partly covered by the hillside so it doesn't get completely covered in brickwork. Today has been spent playing with ideas for the lighting and mapping the wire runs in the main structure. The upper floor is complicated and I was thinking about adding the cardboard formers before placing the upper floor in place but I think that might cause problems because I think some of the walls have to be covered in blocks before other walls are added. That part of the build is going to be very interesting. Today more wall building but I also continued shaping the towers and added a filling mix of sanding dust and diluted white glue to the gateway. This now needs to be rubbed back to bring the blockwork back into view but it already looks better. The arch needs more tidying but I will probably wait until the other side is in place so it can be matched. Thanks for looking in and all the likes and support To borrow @mtaylor tag line The wood might be patient but the stones are glacial Sorry Mark Alan

Thank you Waitoa The build is enjoyable but I wish there was an elf that visited the garage overnight and squared off and chamfered the blocks for the following day Alan

Thank you very much OC. This is turning out to be much more enjoyable than the Towers of Rochelle. Working on the bigger tower was soul destroying. I was adding bricks but nothing seemed to be happening. Castillo Loarre has more elements which are generally smaller so I can see progress - even if its not a very exciting spectator sport. I think it will look good as a finished model especially with lights and figures. Thanks for the support Alan

beautiful work Alan

I built the Dragon 1/700 Z38 and it was an enjoyable build. That was a simple grey hull so you should have a lot more fun. They are nice kits Alan

The mainsail looks great. The weathering is perfect. Nothing more needed. A beautiful boat. Alan