king derelict

Thanks OC. Using another bit of Blue-Tack to remove the residue worked a treat. Thanks for the tip. The real problem with the PE was judging where to set the reverse curve after fashioning the first curve and then dry fitting in amongst the scenery. The paint brush handles are a good idea though. I have a better selection of them on the table than rollers for the PE tool and some handles taper which gives me even more scope. I was using my large brush for the PE around the big gun turrets this afternoon. Many Thanks Alan

Congratulations on your first air brush session. I use any left over paint in the cup to experiment on a piece of cardboard to learn about distance, pressure, trigger position (mine is a double action brush too). I'm still trying to get away from trigger down and fully back for everything and learn to use the part positions for finer lines. I think that is a key skill for free hand use of the air brush. The figures have very dynamic poses and great faces. Its hard to remember that they are not 54mm Great Stuff Alan

Sweden - September 3rd 1967 http://realscandinavia.com/files/2014/09/kungsgatan1967.jpg

Yep. I think Sweden used to drive the same side as Britain but they switched in the 1960s I think which must have been a fun experience Alan

Yesterday was a day to try the patience. After finishing the PE railings around the aft upper deck I started on the complex shaped railing that runs around the deck with the 105 mm guns. It did not go well. After a couple of attempts to work with a continuous length of railing I cut it into two shorter lengths. I still found it very difficult to form the curves to fit and test fitting was a nightmare because of the scenery around the area. In the course of the next two hours I knocked off the boat rack (which was not fun to reinstall), a ladder and one of the barrels from the 105mm guns. The PE was getting increasingly beat up too. The last try of the day got it close enough. Further efforts were going to damage the PE and make it look worse. After clean up it should look reasonable and there are more parts to hide some of it. I gave up at this point and raided the beer cellar. A fresh day today and I cut and bent the port side railings and had them installed in twenty minutes with no collateral damage. I seemed to get the shape without too much trouble this time. I don't think it would have been better done earlier in the build because of the boat racks and boats that have to be placed. I'm wondering if making a cardboard template of the deck would have been a good idea then all the test fitting could have been done less stressfully off the ship. Of course that would require thinking ahead. I wonder if I will remember the thought for next time something like this occurs. I masked and sprayed the white circle of the identification marking at bow and stern The rest of the afternoon was spent adding the 150 mm guns and the large cranes. Adding the cranes was a tense operation; there was very few areas free of PE to grip them while placing them. As an aside I'm not sure if this is a Florida thing or not but I often have trouble with Blue-Tac sticking a bit too tightly to parts and often leaving a residue when it is removed. This was particularly bad with the cranes and the first one was very difficult to clean up because of the PE. Out of curiosity I put the second crane on the fridge for a few minutes and it released cleanly from the Blue-Tac I just realised that Geisenau has torpedo tubes but I don't think I've seen them in the build instructions. I'll have to poke around a bit. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Lou Yesterday was quite a debacle regarding knocking stuff off. Difficult to know if I made a net gain in teh day Alan

Many Thanks OC, its much appreciated. Stuff just keeps piling in there and more to come Alan

And BANG it suddenly comes to life. The buildings are a great showcase for your figure painting. I'm so glad you are removing the bases instead of a war gaming style diorama. The guys on the table look perfect. Alan

This looks like it will be really interesting and a great setting for the car. The cars engine and running gear looks terrific, really like well used metal. I look forward to seeing the figures being painted. I'm thinking of trying a few in the shadow of the experts. Great Stuff Alan

I seem to have been moving very slowly in the last few days. Weekends always seem to bring a lot of errands and tasks away from the work bench. Current events finally inspired a friend to have her accordion hurricane shutters checked and serviced. Its much more fun doing it now instead of March. Anyway that's a digression. I'm still in the little details. I was highly delighted to paint the PE life rings and attach them to teh cabin roof of the motor boats. That encouraged me to attempt the Arado which has a lot of PE including the cockpit frames and float frames. I had trouble getting the wings to align properly on the fuselage and the primer got beaten up in the several attempts. I was also disappointed to realise that the tail plane wasn't on the sprue and there wasn't a spot on the sprue that it had fallen from. A scrabble through the remaining parts turned it up on its own tiny sprue. The machine gun took a bit of fiddling to get in the right place and I'm not confident it will survive painting. The instructions require you to cut the spinner off the plastic propeller and glue it onto the PE blades. I stuck with teh whole plastic assembly - its very hard to see the difference between the metal blades and the plastic ones. I added boats to the racks and found I would have been better to have done this earlier in the build. Working under the derricks is a bit nerve wracking and the boat racks are delicate too. I detached the starboard rack while trying to add the boats. I might have been better adding teh boats to the racks and adding the whole assembly to the ship but that also felt very delicate. I'm left with the rest of the boats, the guns and the railings along with a few bits of deck equipment at bow and stern to finish the build but I suspect there are still some days ahead before its finished. There are an awful lot of parts and PE still left - presumably the Scharnhorst bits. There is a sprue of life rafts and I have been puzzling to find them in the build instructions or photos but looking at Craig's (CDW) Scharnhorst I see she has them. Geisenau just has the boats and the life rings. Does anyone know why German ones are square? Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you very much Popeye. I'm glad you enjoy the log. Its still a big learning experience for me and I am still daunted by a few of the kits I have lined up for the future. I have a 1/700 USS Wasp (LHD-1) that I am rather in awe of. If Geisenau and Prince of Wales come out well enough I may screw up the courage. Alan

Thank you kindly OC. Been a bit slow these last few days but still working on her. Alan

Thank you very much Roger, your comments are much appreciated and I'm glad you find useful items in the log. I'm still very new to model building with about a year of experience now and I am still learning a lot with each build. I can't imagine tackling the Geisenau six months ago. PE is still a huge challenge to me; trying to keep it neat and sharply folded. Some of the parts seem to be a deliberate challenge to the builder rather than necessarily enhancing the model! With all the tiny stuff on Geisenau I am increasingly using a cocktail stick with the end rubbed in beeswax to pick up and set the parts in place. It gives me more control of positioning the part than the big wax pencils and you can use a lighter application of wax to make sure the glue pulls it off the stick. My two biggest issues are 1 - no looking far enough ahead in the build sequence and making some later steps harder than they should be and 2 - situation awareness. I get so focussed trying to get perfect positioning as I add a part to the model I ignore the feeling that something is touching my fingers until I realise I just bent or knocked something else off the model. On Geisenau I am deliberately leaving everything off the bows and stern to allow me two places for my stubby fingers to go. Alan

Thank you Lou It feels like its going slowly working with the details of the Arado and the ships boats but I'm taking my time. Alan

I know the feeling. The top yard of the aft mast is my bête noir. I have knocked it off so many times. I actually found it on teh floor yesterday while I was looking for something else and hadn't realised that I had done it again. Thanks for the kind comments. Looking at your Scharnhorst photos I think I got the easier of the sisters to build. Alan

There are some parts in the PE fret that I look at and think - its not going to happen. The Flyhawk plastic provides so much detail anyway so apart from masts, railings, gun barrels the majority of the PE can be ignored. I chose to use the plastic hose reels on Geisenau because although the reel end pieces of the PE are nice the detailed hose in the plastic is a better look to me. Mashed up and bent PE looks much worse than a decent plastic part too.

The pond water came out really nicely. Looks very wet! Alan

The pond looks great OC - sorry - darn autocorrect Alan

The pond looks great OF Alan

I hate plumbing work. It always seems to involve fittings that have frozen in place after thirty years and the damage created in getting them off leads to an even bigger job before it's finished. Alan

I'm still working away in the details of the ship. I started the ships boats. There are several very small PE parts to enhance the boats. Some of it may be a bit excessive. I'm not sure I see the value of adding the brass cabin roof. Its plain; just like the original. I omitted it but the windscreen, rails and canopy rails dress the boats up quite a bit Detail painting to finish them and some PE life rings. to add The last boat racks were added to the edge of the upper deck. I'm a bit confused about them. The instructions show railings running along the deck edge in the same place so I'm not sure if I have this wrong but it seems to match the diagrams in the instructions and there are notches in the deck for the boat racks where I installed them. I think I will have to cut the length of railings short to cater for the boats. Guns are slowly being added. I'm trying to complete the areas that will difficult to access when teh railings are added and adding the railings before other parts make them vulnerable. I'm leaving the bow and stern bare until last so I have somewhere to hold without ruining the delicate stuff. I have started with thin black weathering washes and to help with the shadow detail. The main runs of railings and the ships boats will be next to be added. Its starting to get busy. Thanks for checking in Alan

The view through the front gate looks like a real farm yard photo already Alan

OC, You probably know all this but if the resin is anything like the one I used for the Penelope diorama its a good idea to "tent" the pond with a cardboard box or sheet of cardboard over it to stop dust (or in my case cat hair) drifting into the setting resin. Watch for bubbles and pour slowly to avoid them. Its going to look great. Alan

The brickwork always looks so good. Very realistic Alan

Its looking very nice. The doors are very good Alan