king derelict

The grass looks very good. I think the vegetation is going to blend the buildings and the walls together and soften the lines to make it look spectacularly realistic. Its coming together beautifully. Alan

Thanks OC. I appreciate the positive support. This has been my biggest and most complicated kit to date and I thought it might be too much at my skill level but I have learnt a lot and enjoyed it immensely. I need to be tidier and I want to try some basic rigging but there was just too much fragile stuff around on this one to risk experimenting. Alan

Thank you Craig, praise from the experts is something to treasure. I plan to look into our Dollar Tree tomorrow and grab some material for a photo box. I got the Masters brush cleaner today and gave my old brushes the "restoring" treatment to see if it helps get a point back. Alan

The figures look very good. They really add to the car making it seem to move. The car paint looks great. Alan

The swastikas were completed on the ensigns and the staffs added to the deck. I used the PE stays but felt the staffs were too flat looking and used the plastic ones. The railings were finished and I did some basic shading on the hull and rusting around the anchor hawse and lower portholes. I'm still learning the techniques and am keeping it simple and not too excessive. Its easy to swamp a 1/700 model. I need to make a light box for better photos for the next model. Thanks for looking in and all the helpful and kind comments throughout the build. I think this is complete. I don't want to risk rigging and ruining the result. Maybe on a simpler model Thanks Alan

They do look good. Looking at the Kolinsky sable brush prices on Dick Blick you may be right that these are "friends of" but as long as they perform they will be an upgrade for me. I did get some brush cleaner and restorer to see if I can keep them pointed nicely. Apologies for hijacking your thread. Alan

I just ordered those brushes. My current (cheap) ones won't hold a point and have random loose hairs. The Kolinsky ones look very good. I got a set of the Army Painter dry brushes to try. A video says they perform as well as the Artis Opus ones but may not last as well. I'll see how I get on with them and upgrade later if they are getting a lot of use. What do you use to clean your brushes? Thanks Alan

Thank you Craig It seems its a bit of a lottery these days. I used the same source as I used before for Flyhawk kits that aren't stocked in the US and he did well with them. The XY chains from Hong Kong arrived quickly too. I bought a couple of books from Black Eagle in Russia in June and still no sign of them. I suspect the problems are with the postal systems rather than the vendor. I just checked the tracking number for the Hood and there was an entry two days ago so who knows, they may still arrive. I try not to have too much money tied up in each order. Alan

Thanks Craig that is fascinating stuff. Some very useful techniques. It seems it would work well on AFVs too. Their brushes look nice but pricy. Your figures are developing very well. With OC too there is some real master class work to learn from. Alan

Thanks OC. its been a great kit to build. I understand that Hood and Prince of Wales are even better so I look forward to seeing their builds kick off. Mine are still in transit - or lost. Tracking has been silent since the start of August. That will teach me to think I could beat the delivery time from an in country store. Alan

After important diversions like undercooking the burgers and filling the GFs house full of smoke from the grill we return to the calm waters of the Geisenau build. The anchor chains were added. These came with teh wooden deck and I like them better than the two dimensional PE that were provided with the kit. I installed most of the railings. This is the first time I have done 100% of the railings using Gators Grip glue. I followed Craig's technique of cutting the longer sections into shorter pieces and found that much easier and its also less weight for the glue to hold while its drying. I also applied the glue and let it set up for a few minutes before installing the railing; the grip was much better that way and after a bit of fiddling with the first piece the rest went on quite well. I'm trying to avoid CA glue as much as possible; I have a nasty feeling I am getting sensitised to it. I finished painting the Arado and added the decals (well, alright not the swastikas on the tail) and placed it on the catapult. Much to my huge surprise the machine gun is still in place in the rear cockpit of the Arado i placed the flags on their staffs and started on the swastikas. So far so good. Just the flags to complete and install, the railings to finish and the weathering of the hull. Thanks for checking in Alan

The face on the middle guy is spectacularly good (the others are also really good). A real expression. Alan

Saturday always seems to be a day for errands so very little constructive gets down. Actually between tasks I was able to add a piece of the swastika decals, let it dry and add the next piece. The three piece stern decal wasn't too bad but the six piece bow one was a fiddly piece of work and needed thought as to how it fitted together. Letting each piece dry so the next piece didn't move it helped a lot and its not too dreadful. Considering the mess I had a couple of days ago I think its reasonable. A little bit of touching up, last washes and I can move onto the deck railings and anchor chains. Suddenly it seems almost complete. Thats almost scary! Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks OC I was beginning to think I had ruined it. Alan

Ken, Many Thanks for your help. Armed with your information I was able to identify the ships crest on a couple of photos of the real ship. Just added them to the model. Thanks Alan

Last night I ran a line of clear coat around the inside of the paint masks at the bow and stern. This morning I started the layers of white paint. It took several coats to get rid of the pink tint but I think I have it back to white. Removing the masks showed no bleed of the colour this time (thanks Grant) and I think I can move forward after a bit of touching up. The deck plank lines are gone but I think its acceptable. I could try to scribe a few lines but I think it may look scruffy and I think I will leave well alone and hope the decals provide enough of a distraction. I added the torpedo tubes with help from Craig to locate them. Many Thanks. The last few small parts are now on so I looked at the decal sheet. This is my first WWII German ship and my first acquaintance with the problems of the swastika decals. I understand the political and legal issues that kit manufacturers have with selling in the global market but I am amazed at the length Flyhawk have gone to with the swastikas on this decal sheet. The ones for the identification panels on the deck are like jigsaw puzzles. Its going to be really interesting trying to get them placed; especially the bow panel; if I have figured it out correctly there are six pieces to it. Another minor grumble with the instruction sheet. It identifies a few markings for the Arado but for the ship you are on your own/ There is a ships crest and nameplate (items 17 and 18) but no idea where they live on the boat. The instructions have been a bit disappointing yhis time. It will be interesting to see how the POW and Hood ones are. Have a great weekend everyone Alan

Thanks Lou Now I have the decals to wrestle with 😄 Alan

Thanks Gregg It looks like it is coming out well. A lesson for the future though. I have Scharnhorst in the pile. Alan

Thanks Grant I put down a layer of sealer last thing yesterday and the white paint this morning looks like it stayed put. Thanks for the tip. Alan

I ran some sealer around the masks before painting the white again and I could see the sealer wicking under the mask as i did it. Those wooden decks are real sponges. Alan

OC; You're right - the breakwater would be the place to make the change. I think I may have dodged having to do that and I would rather not buy another wooden deck. Thanks Alan

I'm glad your brother turned up safely OC. Scary stuff. I am always amazed how well you paint these faces. Each figure has an individual face and looks very real - and they are tiny. Great Stuff Alan

Very impressive Craig. The paint finish is so smooth; its beautiful. I have been havering about the six wheel Mercedes staff car and this might nudge me over the edge; especially with the diorama possibilities. Great work The pin up girls and the Hitler Youth are the obvious items for the diorama 😄 Alan Alan

Today was a rather disappointing day. I masked the bows and stern to air brush the red sections of the identification markings and sprayed them up. On removing the masks I was horrified to see that the red paint had bled extensively under the masks and ruined the white circles but worse, had bled across the wooden deck. I tried a little gentle scraping with a scalpel blade but as I suspected the paint had soaked extensively into the thin wood and there isn't any depth in the deck to scrape anyway. I thought of trying to piece in some of the waste material that surrounded the wooden deck pieces but it doesn't have the plank lines and I think would look very untidy with the difference at the cuts being obvious. After a thinking some more I tried the Tamiya Buff and Deck Tan paints and found a mix was very close to the wooden deck. So I used the spare bits of the paint mask to cover the red part of the markings and hand painted a mix of the colours onto the wooden deck up to the mask. I reversed my original decision to not weather the deck. I think I can let the difference in shades com out as weathering. I held off on repainting the white to let the red fully cure overnight. So far I think it is a reasonable recovery although I'm still not sure what went wrong. Possibly the red was too dilute but the test spray looked normal so maybe the wooden deck wicked the paint under the masks. Maybe the masks were not down hard enough but I was careful about burnishing them. Possibly a bit of all the above. For some reason the white went on fine the day before. Maybe I should have used a sealer on the wooden deck before painting. I'll experiment with the waste parts. It looks hopeful so far. The ultimate fall back position would be to buy another wooden deck set and splice a new fore deck in possibly at abreast of the first set of AA guns. I would prefer not to do that but I'll see how bad the recovery looks once its all dressed up. After a cup of tea and a slice of Bara Brith I felt strong enough to continue and added a lot of the final details and the big guns at last. I still have the Arado to finish and the deck railings to add along with the anchors, chain and staffs but I think the end is looking close. I have a paint touch up and wash session before calling it finished. I have an enormous amount of unused parts still on the sprues but a careful check of the instructions doesn't turn up anything I have missed. Looking at CDWs Scharnhorst i can see where a lot of the spare bits might go. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Craig I would appreciate help with the torpedo tube placement. This isn't the best set of instructions that Flyhawk have generated. There are a few wrong part numbers called out although its relatively easy to identify the right ones on other sprues and some of the views really don't help with part placement. A PM is on its way to you. I usually paint the PE on the fret but my mistake this time was building up the big cranes on a blob of Blue-Tack without realising that I would end up with a very delicate assembly that would be difficult to remove when it was time to install it. The added problem of removing stray bits of Blue-Tack compounded the issue. Its all a learning experience and thankfully there are people like you and OC to help/ Thanks again Alan