king derelict

It definitely helps. I spray in the garage. I just made a first attempt at hair spray paint shipping and the garage stinks of cheap hair spray. I'm glad I didn't try that in the house. Alan

I find the Vallejo black primer to be good at blocking the airbrush nozzle. I try to quickly get cleaner into the brush as soon as I've finished painting to dilute it and then really clean the nozzle. I'm going to try another primer next but I do like the coverage from the Vallejo. Alan

I've had a few scalpel blades snap when cutting PE. The magnifier do double duty as safety glasses. Your PE looks really tidy Alan

While the paint dries on Lance I started this simple but interesting AFV kit; the Renault 35 tank by Polish company First To Fight. As with the other kits of theirs that I have built instructions are confined to a diagram on teh bottom of the box and the box art on the top is generally just as useful. There are not a lot of parts but I tend to be using these kits to improve my painting and just for the interest of the unusual subjects. A little background from the web Designed from 1933 onwards and produced from 1936, the type was intended as an infantry support light tank, equipping autonomous tank battalions, that would be allocated to individual infantry divisions to assist them in executing offensive operations. To this end it was relatively well-armoured but slow and lacking a good antitank-capacity, fitted with a short 37 mm gun. At the outbreak of the war, the antitank-role was more emphasized leading to the development and eventual production from April 1940 of a subtype with a more powerful longer gun, the Renault R40. It was planned to shift new production capacity to the manufacture of other, faster, types, but due to the defeat of France the R35/40 remained the most numerous French tank of the war, about 1685 vehicles having been produced by June 1940. At that moment it had also been exported to Poland, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia. A set of decals is provided but only for the French version An interesting element is the rear wheel. Several versions are provided although only one is referred to. The diagram doesn't give any hints but the struts in the wheel rim have to be cut out and then the appropriate wheel filed to fit the centre. Construction went nicely after that until it came to the side hatches for the turret. They are supposed to be on the sprue shown at the bottom of the photo but something obviously went wrong with the moulding process and there are two sets of small blobs. I made replacement hatches based on the box art from bits of shaped styrene. The usual black primer and then shaded coats of sand and then masking for the olive green. Its quite an intricate paint scheme and I didn't get it exactly right but it captures the spirit I hope😄 I left the turret hatch partly open. Apparently it was intended to be set fully down for the tank commander to sit on The masks came off and I'm fairly happy with the way it came it out. The tracks were painted up with a background of dirt and rust and steel on the running surfaces. Oil washes have been added to the running gear and then they were fitted to the hull. Deatil work and washes on teh hull and turret are next. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you for the kind words OC. I value them. Getting the davits and boats into place was a bit of a breath holder. I have seen In Which We Serve and I have the Flyhawk Kelly on the shelf to add to the destroyer fleet. Lovely little kits. Alan

Slow progress I'm afraid due to really poor planning of the flow of work. Most of the time being lost waiting for paints and washes to dry. The last major jobs before the railings were the boats and rafts. With the superb example set by @Old Collingwood with his boats for the Hood i felt I had to improve my game if I could. The rafts were given brown washes over the tan planking. The highlights on the sides are still a bit bright but the final washes will subdue it. The rafts were fitted.on the racks with Gators Grip glue The davits for the boats were made up with the PE ladders (which will be virtually unseen in the final assembly). The boats were detailed with black and brown oil washes And added to the ship At this point, ready to move to the railings I suddenly realised I had a boat still on the sprue. There is a fourth boat that lives on chocks on teh port side and I had missed it. That will now be painted and detailed. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thats a good point OC. I do like the look of the railings it somehow finishes the model off. On the other hand I don't usually add the rigging. In 1/700 its almost invisible and I fear the load on the delicate masts. I have a couple of the easy IBG destroyer kits to experiment on but at a foot or so the rigging just isn't visible. Alan

The result is magnificent Alan

All the upper deck PE is installed and the lockers, depth chargers and throwers are placed on the main decks. A late Christmas present showed up today. The scissors are very nice and should allow precise cutting. They seem sharp and well made. The blue tool is a pair of fine tweezers. I'm still getting used to them. They seem good for control when placing small parts but at the moment I am experiencing a higher percentage of "ping" events with small parts departing the tweezers at speed. That is probably my lack of familiarity. So, touch up of the paint and washes are next. Thanks for looking Alan

Thank you kindly OC. I swear the PE is thinner than the norm for Flyhawk. The PE davits are actually too thin I think. The plastic ones might be a but chunky but the PE ones are like hairs stuck on the model. I had to use a couple because the plastic ones were damaged and i don't like them too much. Alan

Thats another good point Mark Thanks Alan

Thank you for the confirmation Egilman. The SDF only had a handful of the Rolls-Royce cars and they were used for patrol and garrison work so very possibly were not marked. As far as I know they were never used in WW2 combat Alan

Thanks for the kind comment and the input. So far I haven't found any photos showing how the SDF marked their cars. I have thought of using the ID numbers provided in the kit and then part obscuring them with sand and dust. Alan

I did find that all three depth charge rails are needed so the first one will go in the middle where it is harder to see the detail. I made up the others by making the first fold and then gluing the solid floor onto the side frame and letting it dry before folding up the rest of the rail frames. The Gators Grip glue worked well. The slight elasticity that remains when the glue has set means that it floor didn't ping off while being worked around. The picture shows one set of rails completed and the last one in process The I fitted the repaired main mast and this time it dropped into place first time. I had taken the precaution of putting a little Gators Grip on the forward leg but no fiddling was necessary this time. Then it was back to adding the PE ladders and continuing with the railings. So far it is going nicely although the PE is very flimsy. I'll finish all the upper deck railings and then add the depth charger throwers and rafts and boats before the main deck railings. Thanks for looking Alan

The wood plank lines on the motor boats are brilliant Alan

I suffered a minor setback today. I was dry fitting the main mast and managed to drop it as i was trying to line up the three legs. I managed to repair it but it also needed to get a better paint job so attention switched to the PE railings. I focussed on the upper decks at the aft end of the ship because I'm likely to forget myself and put my stubby fingers in the wrong places when I make a second attempt at getting the mast in. So far so good. I then spent an inordinate amount of time on the first depth charge rails. Folding the body was quite straightforward but setting the solid floor in the frame was extremely vexing. I think this is adequate but after leaving it alone for a while I think I have a better way to do it and there is also a spare set of parts so I can choose the best of three. Tomorrow the Christmas decorations have to come down so progress might be a bit slower than usual Thank you for looking in Alan

Thank you Mike The detail on the plastic is amazing. If they provided railings, ladders and the bigger gun barrels i could probably manage without the full deluxe kits. The plastic davits are better than the PE on this one I think Alan

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