king derelict

Thanks Egilman. It was a great experiment - and of course the chocolate didn't go to waste. Alan

Thank you OC. I remembered your warning(?) about food creeping in. I think thats a good thing. I'm still thrilled with my hoard hauled back from the UK. Twiglets at last and even Marmite peanuts. Big Peat Whiskey and a belated Christmas pudding - and all the chocolate of course. Alan

Its looking really nice now as the detail builds up. Great work. Maybe needs just a little chocolate. Alan

The hanger details are superb Alan

Down in the detail today. Touching up the paint on the PE (and trying not to knock anything off). I added the yellow PE ordinance disposal chutes. The kit is wrong relative to the 2013 configuration but the photos sorted it out. The booms were added too. I just need to finish the 50 cals and that's the ship done apart from weathering. I then need to work up the vehicles and the aircraft. I'm leaning more towards a seascape to display it and its own case. Thanks for looking in. Have a great weekend everyone Alan

Thank you Ziggy. I hope you won't be too disappointed to see only two F-35Bs (those were the test birds in 2013) . I will have the SAR helos and a V-22 on deck too though. Alan

The research into appropriate foils for the vision blocks continued. I found I could buy 600 foil squares in six colours from Amazon for $12 or I could buy a grossly over priced box of Quality Street for $8. This left me with the dilemma of what to do with 594 squares of coloured foil or what to do with the chocolate. It arrived yesterday and my raw material stock was complete Its sort of like @Egilman metal finish research but without all his expertise and skill but with more calories The foil was a bit delicate to handle but I managed to place it into all teh vision block apertures and fixed it with PVA glue. Once this had set I gave it a coat of clear gloss to complete setting it in place and stiffen it. The hatch covers and turrets are just dry fitted to see how it looks Not as nice as @Old Collingwood but I think they are better than paint or dyes The deck was glued onto the lower hull and the warp mentioned earlier resulted in a poor fit at the rear bulkhead. I was able to pull it together with a bit of CA and a clamp but it will stull need a bit of filling. Thats all the bits together; now its time to add detail Thanks for looking in and have a great weekend alan

Thanks Denis Thats a good point. I plan a fair amount of dust and sand around the road wheels and that will obscure the faults with the tyres. Alan

Fantastic Yves. I had just been thinking that a submarine would make an excellent subject for the 3D printer. I am ecited to see you launch one. Now I feel lazy and think its about time to return to HMS Campanula Alan

Catching up on your development of a bare metal finish since I've been away. Your work looks very good. The methodology looks repeatable and controllable which is very encouraging. The F104 is going to be spectacular. I'm very grateful for the tutorials; I'm keen to get my Vampire out on teh table. Great Work Alan

Apart from the metallic foil research being conducted in the candy aisle I built up the tracks today. Flyhawk made quite a nice way to create them The inner road wheels and the return idlers go onto the axles and the rear inner sprocket half is installed The inner half of the track is added and keys into the sprocket. The outer road wheels are put on Then the outer half of the tracks and the outer half of the sprocket And the lower hull is ready for the deck Very restful stuff after the PE on the Wasp Thanks for looking in Alan

That PE gun mount is very nice OC Great work Alan

Thanks OC. Wispa bars come in purple foil and i brought several back along with teh Crunchie bars and Twirls. I wish I had thought about this earlier and brought some Quality Street chocolates back; they have a great set of coloured foils. Alan

Thanks Denis I now need to look at a suitable load for the bustle alan

Thank you OC Its another Flyhawk gem Alan

The jet lag is easing from the UK trip and I came back to this build after fraying my nerves with the Wasps netting PE. I painted the metal parts of the road wheels. Flyhawk provide a nice brass mask to mask the thin rubber rims. It fits over the rim of the wheel and is quite effective. Thirty two wheels painted Generally they came out quite well although some touch up is necessary. Looking at @Old Collingwood beautiful vision blocks made me vey dissatisfied with my trials will dyes and tints in gloss varnish. I'm looking at other ideas now This is my current inspiration Obviously I discarded the chocolate bar because I wanted the wrapper. I'm thinking the coloured foil might work if I can find suitable colours. I can then colour each aperture differently Now I need to do research at the grocery store Thanks for looking in Alan

I worked on the last major part of the build today; the netting. I was not looking forward to trying to add the PE parts edge on to the hull but in the event it went reasonably well. CA glue all the way because i needed the fast grip to stop the netting sagging before the glue dried. Lining up the parts around the elevators was fiddly but it came out quite nicely. The netting attaches with small tabs rather than along the length of the part - hence the CA glue. The nettings are a vast simplification of the real ones but they are better than not having any and as after market parts i am not sure how you could attach them to the hull in a more realistic manner. Probably a project for a 1/350 model. Slowly it all came together and all the netting was installed. The elevators were fiddly and adding the PE ordinance disposal chute was a bit of a breath holder Apart from the odd sape ladder and door and a set of ordinance disposal chutes to add to the flight deck the PE frets are now empty. Except for a last piece of railing. The instructions would have you install it across the flight deck at the bows but thats not a normal configuration on a flight deck. And really not a good idea A lot of small tasks now. I need to add the 50 cal guns but they were wrapped up in covers during the flight testing so I need to mould some putty around the parts to resemble that. Weathering and then helos, jets and vehicles need to be finished. Still some more fun to be had but its getting fragile to work on now. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you Mark Its good to back and catch up on all the great builds again Alan

Thanks OC. It was great to spend time with family and see some old haunts but its good to be home too. Alan

You have made great progress while I have been away OC. The Abrams is coming out really nicely. I am very envious of your polarized vision blocks. I don't think I am going to be able to get anything close to that look in my 1/72 version. Excellent Stuff Alan

Sorry about the hiatus in progress. I've been back to Blighty for thed last three weeks visiting my dad and other family after a covid driven two year absence. The family was priority so I didn't get out and about as much as I had hoped but I had a great time. I did take my 96 year old dad out to the National Arboretum and we spent four hours walking about and making our usual stop at the Parachute Regiment memorial (his wartime mob), The cafe for coffee and homemade cakes afterwards was also a favourite. We have been there a number of times and still haven't seen a lot of the monuments. Great place. So back home and jet lagged it looks like everyone has been doing some marvelous work. I have so much to catch up on. After fending off my attention starved cats I did manage to spend some time on the next part of the Wasp build; fitting the life raft containers. My photos show significant changes from the kit layout to the ship configuration in 2013. Thankfully this meant I needed less containers rather than more. In 2013 the ship had considerably fewer containers fitted. After a lot of time studying the photos the containers were installed. The starboard side is 100% correct but the angles of some of the photos of the starboard side mke placement a bit obscure but I think its very close now. I gave the containers a white wash to make them a little more visible. In real life they are a light grey but they looked a bit formless with just the grey coat. Its good to be home and hopefully making some more progress. The netting will be the next job Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you very much Dave Its starting to come together. I'm hoping not to fall on my face in the last stages. The weathering is going to be really interesting. Alan

A small update; its really all painting. i put down a coat of black Mig One Shot primer. I'm getting to like that paint; it seems to go on very evenly. Then a series of thin sand colour. I'm trying to get more shading in the paint by using the thin colours. Its bleached out a bit in the photos but it looks better in real life Now the road wheels and tracks Have a great weekend everyone Thanks for looking in Alan

The engine looks fantastic; The shading makes it very real Alan

Looks very promising Egilman. The test pieces look great. Alan