king derelict

Thank you kindly OC. I know what you mean; I suppose its the downside of the delicate Flyhawk mouldings. The thin mats and booms are really difficult to get cleanly off the sprues. I have started cutting those pieces out of the sprue away from the part and then cleaning it up by cutting close in once its separated from the main frame. It gives me better access and puts less stress on the part I think. Alan

The boats look really good. Great job Alan

Happy New Year All. I hope you had a great holiday season. I've been making slow progress in short sessions and haven't had a chance to catch up the log. Some photos also got omitted but nothing serious. The sub assemblies, parts on the sprues, PE frets and the hull all got a coat of the Vallejo black primer. The hull got a coat of Tamiya XF24 after masking the hull the decks got the deck grey. Its difficult to see the difference between the hull and the deck. The decks were then masked The superstructures were painted with 507C along with the majority of the parts still on sprues and the PE frets. Now its back to the Flyhawk magic. Those tiny pieces that make up the details. These are the capstans for the foredeck New year and a new cutting mat. I'm hoping small parts might show up better than on the dark green one. My clumsy handling of the epoxy glue has spoilt the old one. New magnifying glasses too. The old ones just failed at the side pieces - again. The superstructures and main guns have been added and the detail is starting to build up. Still a a lot of parts on the sprues and in the PE frets I'm pretty happy that I didn't bother with the brass gun barrels; the plastic ones are not really clumsy. That pink mat seems to have messed up the colour balance in the photos. I'll do better next time. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you Boydie. This PE seems thinner than the usual Flyhawk stuff. Thankfully there aren't any really complex structures to fold up. The tripod mast seems to have all the horrors Alan

A stunning model. Great work Alan

And now as I intended - darn autocorrect Hi OC, Flyhawk and White Ensign have frets of railings in various style. Flyhawk have "easy glue" generic railings as well as specific WW2 RN railings. I have used both successfully although cutting a strip out of a fret full of railings is likely to make your eyes cross. good luck

Hi OC, Flyhawk and White Ensign have frets of railings in various styles. Counsel have "easy glue" generic railings as well as specific WW2 RN railings. I have used both successfully although cutting a strip out of a great full of railings is likely to make your eyes cross. good luck Alan

Railings scare me OC, but I think I'm improving. Craig, @CDW is my mentor and his tips have helped a lot. The two biggest improvements for me were. - Working with short sections of railings, even for the straight sections. Getting the sections to join up on the model has been relatively easy once the previous section has dried. - Using Gators Grip glue which I think is a PVA type instead of CA glue. It gives time to adjust and it's easier to clean up. I let it sit for a minute to tack up before placing the section. The two items are kind of related. The shorter sections are easier for the glue to hold on place straight away. When I tried to install the railings in the lengths supplied I found it hard to place accurately along its length and then it would gracefully fold over at the deck edge because the glue couldn't hold it. So far I've been airbrush painting the railings and touching the up after installation. At 1/700 they are a challenge to me. If you get heavy handed with the paint or glue its easy to fill in the spaces between railings. Fragile things indeet. Alan

Patrick. They look very good Alan

Thats a very thoughtful gift OC. It should make a beautiful model. It will be interesting to see how much of the bonus stuff is really necessary. I got a new salt shaker😄 Alan

Thank you Mike. Well the PE on Lance is certainly recalibrating my eyes back to 1/700 detail Alan

I'm looking forward to your Aurora build. That looks like a great kit. I might have to get it to complete the Force K set.

Thanks Boydie. Its fun so far but you are right about the PE. Some of the parts are breaking away in the frets just from moving them about. Alan

Thanks Mike There is plenty to work on in this little destroyer Alan

Thank you OC. I hope I can live up to it. Flyhawk manage to pack an awful lot into such a tiny kit. Lots of tiny parts and PE, Just as much fun as a big one. I hope the Christmas season is going well Alan

Back to tiny world with a vengeance today. I'm still building the modules that will be painted before assembly and then PE is being added in places as part of that. As @Boydie noted the PE is very thin and the hinges of the folds are well perforated so I don't think there would be a second chance if you bend the wrong way. I was trying to go slowly to minimise that problem. The breakwater for the foredeck was a good example. Just the flexing of the part as I was cutting it from the fret saw three of the ribs breaking away from the breakwater. Actually I found it easier to cut them all off and then glue the breakwater to the deck. Once the breakwater was solidly set i attached the ribs. At least that way I wasn't dealing with trying keep everything in place and orientation at the same time. However the little triangles are tiny. I decided that the plastic gun barrels on the 4 inch guns were good enough to retain. I think anything I gained in the neatness of teh brass barrel would be lost in the lack of neatness in drilling the tiny holes in the barrel stubs to hold the brass barrels I'm definitely working at my PE limit. This is the mainmast platform The plastic mainmast is very well done by Flyhawk but I thought the brass version might be better so I assembled the main components without too much trouble. I made up the plastic version to get the correct placements of the brass parts. The antenna at the top of the mainmast is a very fragile piece and two of the H antenna broke away as I was folding them to the correct angle. I managed to find the broken pieces and glue them in place (approximately). Its not as tidy as I would like but it might look OK once painted (if it survives the airbrush). The photo shows one of the ribs for the breakwater and above it one of the H antenna Thanks for looking in and all the helpful comments Alan

Very neat painting OC. Its starting to look busy. Its going to be great. Alan

The engine looks really good. We used to have parking bases which were just stands for spare engines that were simpler and cheaper than the workshop stands. It looks great too. Alan

A fully loaded out AV-8B always looks like something not to be messed with. Alan

Thanks Mike This has been a lot of fun Alan

A diorama you can enjoy with a glass of wine😄 Alan

Thank Egilman. That ceramic brick dust keeps coming in handy Alan

Thanks Patrick I really enjoyed building the car - and helping to eat the cake Alan

Thanks Mark I read the thread. It will be interesting to see what is going on - though doubtless it will be unintelligible to me.

The fuel cans were dulled a little and added to the back of the car. I added a bit more replica sand around the cans and I think this one is finished. The 200 error nailed one of the photos - funny how it picks on one image and even if it is edited, renamed reimported and it still kicks it out. Thank you for all the support, kind and helpful comments. I hope it has been interesting. I hope you all have a great Christmas Alan