realworkingsailor

Thanks for the “likes” everyone! @Canute Rapido have really set the bar high, I remember some of their earliest offerings, while extremely detailed, they suffered from a host of issues. This was in the early oughts (‘03 or ‘04). It really took them the better part of the decade to hit their stride, but leaving their early teething troubles behind, they’ve carved out a sizeable piece of the the market with an almost uninterrupted stream of fantastic models. I’m kinda thankful they’re full swing into developing products for the US market (as well as their core Canadian market), as it has taken a lot of heat off of my wallet trying to keep up! Andy

For those who missed it, I recently picked up three 1/87th scale CPR D-10 4-6-0 steam locomotives, recently released by Rapido Trains. All three come equipped with DCC and Sound. If you haven't "played with trains" in a while, you'd be astounded at the technological leaps the hobby has taken! These are absolute jewels of models, the level of detail is almost unsurpassed (I have noted a few small errors, but nothing that detracts from the overall appearance of the models). In my case I received 2 locos that came factory lettered for Canadian Pacific subsidiary Dominion Atlantic, as well as one unlettered version, which will also be lettered up for the DAR. My third D-10 would also require some detail changes to more accurately reflect on my chosen prototype. Thankfully, Rapido has included a small bag of extra parts, so scratch building, or otherwise sourcing replacement fittings has been thus far kept to a minimum. My chosen prototype is D10h #999. This locomotive served on the DAR from the late 1930s until the mid 1950s, when it was transferred to Ontario, until the end of the steam era. As luck would have it, #999 was donated to the Canadian Railway Museum (Exporail) in Delson, Quebec (just outside of Montreal), where it remains to this day. This makes #999 the only DAR steam locomotive to have been preserved. Much information about the DAR and its locomotives, rolling stock, structures and history can be found at the Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative. The website includes numerous prototype photos of many subjects, including many of #999 throughout its service life: I was able to make most of the desired changes to my model based of the above and other photographs sourced from the DAR DPI. The first step in my conversion required careful disassembly of the model. Extreme care is needed, there are numerous small, fragile, detail parts, as well as the strong admonishment to follow the instructions included in the manual! After a lot of cursing, and only one or two damaged parts, I managed to get the locomotive broken down into its major sub assemblies: This was necessary in order to access the steam pipes coming from the cylinders, and make modifications to the running boards. I would rather not have had to disassemble the locomotive, but things are as they are. As stated, the first change to be made was to the steam pipes. These are exhaust pipes and they came in two main types on the prototype D-10s. One version had the pipes angled, meeting the smoke box directly, the other had them coming vertically from the cylinder chest before curving in to the smokebox. The model came with the former, so the pipes had to be changed. You can see the difference in the pipes in the above photo, the (supplied) replacements are on the right. The changing of the steam pipes, necessitated a change in the running boards to ones that had notches cut in them to clear the pipes. The left side running board was easily replaced with a supplied part, it only required the shifting over of some detail parts from the "as delivered" part to the supplied replacement. The right side running board required a little work. The supplied replacement had a raised step, found on some D-10s, that carried the walkway over a power reverse mechanism. On my prototype, there was no power reverse, it likely had only a hand operated "Johnson" bar, and therefore a straight running board. This meant I didn't need to remove the details, but I did need to create the notch for the steam pipes. You can see in the above photo, the replacement supplied with the model and my modification. For weight, as many of the model's parts as possible were die cast. I have messed around with other model manufacturers, so I have some experience in the area. It should be noted that different model makers use different alloys. Some are very hard, and some are quite soft. Rapido's alloys are quite hard, so power tools are needed! Some careful Dremel work, but in relatively short order, the running board was modified to fit. The next small modification was found under the cab. For most of her career on the DAR, #999 had a large valance that curved down from the running board flange to the back plate. The model had only a thin flange on the backplate. This was common to most D-10s late in their careers, so I can understand the choice to only make this version for the sake of mass production. I made my valances out of 0.020" styrene sheet that I had on hand, as it closely matched the thickness of the locomotive castings. There is a bit of a visible seam where the plastic and metal meet, but I would rather not mess around with too much sanding and filler near the delicate mechanism. In less than ideal lighting, the seam is hardly visible anyway. After all the modifications, it was time to reassemble and test the model, as well as repair any damaged detail parts. Thankfully there was only one piece of pipework that suffered from my abuse, but a little CA and the damage was put to right. A test run proved that I hadn't caused any harm to any of the mechanism. Whew, breathing again. The next steps will involve a little more cleaning of the model, as it arrived from the factory rather generously lubricated, and some oil has found its way onto the surface of the model. Not a big deal, I would rather have the mechanism functioning properly than having it come out of the box squeaking like a mouse the first time it was put on the track. For lettering, I dug deep into my stash and pulled out a set of decals from Black Cat publishing (I was worried I might have to order a set, but I found I still had one left). They are very nice decals to use, I've had a lot of success with them in the past. I also pulled out a set of PE number boards from Andy Mallet at MLW Services. I got them a long time ago, so despite the presence of a web site, I'm not sure if he's still in business. Since I had the paint and glue at hand, I didn't waste too much time getting the number board on: In the past I've used gold coloured decals to replicate the number board, but the opportunity presented itself to use PE instead. To prepare it I simply painted the board black, followed by dry brushing brass paint on the frame and numbers. The project as it stands now: My next update should have all the lettering applied, and sealed in, ready for a little bit of weathering. Andy

No doubt the parts in question on the prototype received their fair share of dings and dents from pebbles tossed up by the propeller, a heavy handed mechanic, or a glancing blow from an incoming bullet. Can’t really see anything in the way of doggy damage in your photo, looks pretty good! Andy

Nice! Glad to see it arrived. Can’t wait to see you get after it, or will you be waiting on any aftermarket goodies that might show up? Andy

You’re gonna need a bigger garage…. Andy

Looks like a good sized backdrop. Have you considered perhaps doing one in all black (floor and walls)? I noticed in your previous photos, the colours of your car models looked really vibrant against the black “floor”. Andy

I think it depends on what the goal is. For a diorama, sure, it’s very void of the details that would be found in any typical shop. But for a photo background, I think it works, as there is no extraneous detail to distract from the actual subject. The colour scheme may be a bit stark (the white walls and black floor probably plays havoc with the camera), so perhaps some improvement could be made in that respect, but I wouldn’t go crazy adding details. Andy

The difference is how the stairwell is constructed. The modern requirement is for the stairwell to be sealed by A60 bulkheads and automatic self closing fire doors. This is to prevent the vertical spread of a fire, and it also allows the stairwell to qualify as a secondary exit. Many ships up until the 1990s were built with open stairwells, and accommodation blocks didn’t require the same degree of internal fire separation. Although regulations still differ from country to country, the number of smoke detectors has increased (In Canadian ships, for example, every cabin is required to have a smoke detector). All insulation and panels inside the accommodation must be non-flammable material. The likelihood of a passageway becoming completely filled with smoke is significantly low, far lower than it used to be. You would have to be able to sleep through an extremely loud fire alarm for a significant amount of time before smoke becomes a problem (the alarm sirens are required to be “temporal”, ie they hurt your ears). I have, somewhere in my files, a digital copy of the LSA and FFA plans for a ship built in 2012. I’ll have a search and post some screenshots for you, so you can see the modern arrangement. Andy

I’m not sure of the precise wording of the rules, but if I recall correctly, every cabin door must be within ten meters (I think) of at least two exits. Where the distance to a second exit door exceeds 10m or is on a “dead end” passageway, alternate provisions for a second exit must be made (via a window, for example). The emergency exit design in your ship has become outdated due to improved interior layouts, and the fact that clambering down on the face of an accommodation black is inherently dangerous! Andy

Thanks! Of its contemporaries (Stuka, Val, SBD, and SB2U), the Skua had the best offensive armament, at least in terms of numbers of guns. Did you get a chance to see the above video from Eric “Winkle” Brown? His Skua trick was to get low to the water while hugging the fjord wall. When the 109 has committed to his attack, Brown would pop the dive brakes causing the 109 to overshoot, while exposing his belly to the rear gunner (since the 109 could only break up and away from the fjord wall). Sadly, encounters with 109s usually ended up badly for Skuas and their crews. They had little to no armour plate, and only a belated addition of armoured glass for the pilot. The gunner was even issued a bag of various sizes of bottle corks in order to plug any holes in the internal fuel tanks. Andy

Inching a little closer to the finish line. The remaining details went on fairly easily. the largest items were on the underside, consisting of the arrestor hook, as well as the bomb crutch: The bomb crutch has no locator pins or any clear indicator where it is to be properly located. By adding a bomb, this greatly simplifies the matter. In my case, I had a leftover 500lb MC bomb from an Eduard resin set that fit the bill. The maximum bomb load of the Skua was only 500lbs, relatively light by contemporary dive-bomber standards, however still enough to sink the cruiser Konigsberg. In the case of my Skua, with an MC bomb ("Medium Capacity"), it must be tasked with a raid on some oil installations instead of a ship (a common target for Skuas during the Norwegian campaign). The remaining belly item was the arrestor hook. This consists of a plastic "V" attached to a resin hook. Although not clearly visible in the above photo, I dry-brushed some silver and gunmetal to simulate paint removal caused by the friction of the arrestor wire. After adding the remaining details, a layer of Dullcote was applied to seal everything in and the canopy masking has been removed. The pitot tube on the starboard wing required some delicate trimming in order to fit cleanly around the leading edge of the wing. For the antenna mast on the canopy, I drilled a #78 hole in both the bottom of the mast and the centre of the canopy (again, no locating pins or holes provided in the kit), and used a short length of .012" brass wire to secure the two together. There is a small boarding step located just aft of the trailing edge of the port wing. On the prototype it was hinged at the bottom and folded up into a small recess in the fuselage. Many prototype photos show this step deployed in flight (rather noticeably if you know where to look). Finally proof of concept: The propellor spins quite freely. All in all, I'm please with how this kit has turned out. While not a kit for beginners, and having a few (easily addressed) errors, it is nevertheless an enjoyable build for anyone with a little experience. I should also point out that Special Hobby made a few errors in their historical references for the three kit-supplied paint schemes. SH claims that each of the three Skuas was shot down during the raid on the Scharnhorst on July 13 1940. However only one of the three options (L2963/F) represents a Skua that was. Of the other two Skuas, L2940/A force landed after shooting down an He-111 on April 27 1940. Both crew survived (SH claims the TAG was killed, and the pilot became a POW), and eventually made their way to the coast and were rescued and sent back to the UK. On their way to the coast they came across a cabin where the survivors of the He-111 were also sheltering. Apparently there was still a level of gentlemanly conduct and after spending the night together, each went their separate ways in the morning. The final Skua L2991/Q was forced to ditch on April 26 1940, also after tangling with some He-111s, in this case SH also gets the names of the aircrew wrong. The pilot Lt Cecil Filmer survived and became a POW, unfortunately his TAG, Petty Officer Kenneth Baldwin was killed. As for my own Skua, there remains a bit of weathering to do before I can call this build fully finished. Andy

Either of the raised white letter slicks might look good (with or without whitewalls). Do you have to rush to get the tires mounted? Can you wait until the body and frame are painted and partly assembled, or, at least, mocked up? It might give you a better idea how things might look, rather than guessing now and being unhappy with it later. Andy

Tichy, Kadee, Accurail, there are a few. Andy

I particularly like the line in this video: “They have a high performance, but their speed is a secret” Not sure if the narrator was being ironic… Andy

Thanks for all the "likes", everyone! Some developments in my Skua project to report! I've finished re-doing the fin flash and the airplane ID letter has been replaced. A bit fiddly, as the second set of supplied letters lacked the white outline that was present to define the letters better in the dark blue area of the fin flash. Easy enough to create from some white decal film, but fun to try to get lined up. The port side letter was the most fun, as only the top bar of the "F" required an outline, but things came out alright. As you may surmise from the above photo, my Skua is now sitting on her legs. I've also glued on the twirly-whirly bit on the front. When Blackburn designed the Skua, they weren't that familiar with retractable landing gear, all they really knew was that carrier landings were rough. As a result, the Skua, and it's sister the Roc, had very robust, and rather complicated landing gear, made more complicated by the folding wings, as all the mechanism had to be confined to the fixed part of the underside (even though the majority of the landing gear bay was in the folding part of the wing). Each landing gear leg consists of one main strut, to aft bracing strut and an inboard running hydraulic actuator. To add to the general oddness, the Skua's and the Roc's landing gear was perpendicular to the ground when the plane was at rest: This gave a rather pronounced swept-back look whenever the plane was taking off or landing. I guess Blackburn though that if the wheels accidentally snagged an arrestor wire, it would be deflected downwards to a point where the plane would roll over the wire, rather than get caught. Things are starting to move towards the finish line. Next to be added are the bomb crutch and the arrestor hook, followed by a few final small details (pitot tube, antenna mast, etc). Andy

So that was the before, here is the after: This is better, the replacement fin flash fits the Skua more correctly. It’s not 100% perfect, but there’s actually a red stripe, rather than a red sliver. I still need to add the airplane ID letter and I will post more photos once that has been done. Andy

I’m glad you kept that part of the Shore Leave forum, and I understand the reasons behind the suspension of the other part. I hope that things can remain this way, as regardless of subject, MSW is a great forum to belong to. I know lately I’ve been away from ship modelling (it’s a “mood” thing), but as part of my researching for my “other projects” I stumbled across another forum that uses the same type platform and similar format as MSW (I will not name it). While there was a similar wealth of information and a similar community of enthusiasts, some of the threads I read turned into almost outright nastiness: “You’re wrong!” “No, you’re wrong!” (I’m paraphrasing, but I hope you get the idea). I was considering joining as it would be a more appropriate venue for my current modelling endeavours, but after seeing the darker side, I lost my appetite. I truly hope that things are allowed to continue here in the newly adjusted format. I think, for the most part, the people posting down there at the bottom of the forum are still following the MSW rules (it really isn’t a high bar to step over, if you think about it). And if I do do something in error, please let me know so I can correct it, if possible, and avoid making a similar misstep in the future. Andy

The freeing ports would not used for mooring ropes as the edges would have been too sharp, and the shell plating would not have been inherently strong enough to handle the forces applied by the ropes. They would have simply been holes in the bulwark shell plating. If you look closely at your Corsicana picture, you can see a Panama fairlead (the name for the reinforced and faired edge casting) between the second and third openings, forward of the house, and between the fourth and fifth openings, aft of the house. Andy

A quick update, my decals arrived today, hooray! Some quick work with MicroSol and a stiff bristle paint brush and the offending fin flashes were removed: Suspicions confirmed, the SH decals are of the removable film variety. There are a few (many) videos on YouTube discussing the pros and cons of this type of decal. I’m not about to open a debate here as the topic seems to be pretty contentious. A quick couple of photos for comparison: The replacement sheet overlayed over the FAA set. The Skua fin flash in the set has stripes that are the same width as those next to the “7C”. You can see here how the stripes in the generic set are much thinner and match the original SH decal better, and should actually fit the model (!). Not sure how Xtradecal came about that error, but be warned. Andy

Looks great Nils! Instead of cutting out the scuppers (freeing ports is the term I think you mean), many of these ships had hinged flaps that covered the opening on the outside. The hinge was at the top so the flap would open to let the water out, and close to slow any water wanting to come in. Maybe an option to avoid risking damage to your hard work! Andy

Thanks to everyone again for your "likes"! I've been having a bit of a decal-palooza (decal-pocalypse?). First off, the quality of the Special Hobby decals leaves a bit to be desired. I think, but I'm not certain, that these decals share something in common with Eduard's new "removable film" decals, but I'm not certain. The film on the SH decals seems rather thick, and in some places appears like it's detaching from the coloured part of the transfer as the film appears to be on top of the transfer, (like the decals have pre-silvered). The registration on the fine stencils is not great, and they are barely legible (by comparison, the Cartograph decal stencils supplied with Airfix kits are perfectly legible under magnification. For anyone else building this kit, I strongly recommend going after-market, but with a few caveats! For my Skua, I bought the Xtradecal FAA 1939-1941 set (as it includes one set of markings for a Skua). It's not entirely a bad set, but as some aftermarket sets are wont to do, the little red dots in the roundels have to be applied separately. The real failing(s) of the Xtradecal set comes in the decal for the Skua's fuselage side roundel as well as the fin flash (more on the later in a moment). The roundel in the set is really too big in diameter when compared with prototype photos. There are smaller roundels for other aircraft in the set, but I "borrowed" a set of roundels from the Hawker Hurricane set I had in my stash (these ones had the red dot printed in place too, so there was no mucking about with that issue). So as things stand, here is my Skua: I should mention the kit supplied decals are in the pre/early war "bright" colours, I prefer the duller colours. Beginning sometime in the early summer 1940, the airplane's identity numbers where painted on the leading edge of the fixed part of the wing. This helped crew's locate the planes in crowded aircraft carrier hangars. The plane I've lettered mine up for is L3015 (A6F). The "A" indicates the Skua was assigned to Ark Royal, "6" indicates the squadron (800) and "F" is the individual airplane code. At the start of 1940, the squadrons were ordered to drop the carrier code, when you look at the history of the Skuas, the squadrons were frequently switching between shore based and ship based assignments, so having a carrier code didn't make any sense (some squadrons even dropped the squadron code as well. No set that I used included the red gun port tape, so I improvised using leftover bits from the red part of the fin flash. Speaking of the fin flash: I really wasn't happy with the fin flash and it took a good hard look at it the other day to discover why I didn't like it. It boils down to the width of the red/white/blue stripes.... they're too wide! If you look closely, the blue overlaps the joint between the rudder and the fin, and there's barely a hint of the red on the forward edge of the tail fin. I have ordered another set of decals that should arrive in a few days, this is just a set of roundels and fin flash striping, so redoing my Skua shouldn't be a problem. The "F" came with the Special Hobby decal set, but for some reason (very fortuitous) they included an extra pair. There really weren't too many markings on the underside of the Skua, other than a few stencils, but I took a little inspiration and modellers license from a photo found on John Dell's web pages: https://dingeraviation.net/skuaroc/blacksundaymyth.html: The photo depicts a Skua being hauled out of the drink after an incident in Bermuda in July 1940. If you look carefully at the port wing, there is the faint hint of an underwing roundel peaking through the paint. I attempted to replicate this on my Skua by first applying a roundel to the underside of the wing (starboard in my case), then lightly over spraying with white until the desired effect was achieved. I am pleased with the results as it gives a hint of an airplane with a bit of a service history. I had considered doing the same on the port wing, but I thought better of it and left it looking a little lop-sided, weathering is seldom even and symmetrical in real life anyway. So that's about it for now. Hopefully the replacement decals will arriver soon and I can re-do that fin flash. Andy

Furthering Roger’s reply, you may want to source a boiler backhead detail kit. Aside from a sight glass, there should be valves and plumbing associated with the injectors (water), as well as blow down valves etc. Grandt Line made a detail set for a small Porter switcher: https://www.grandtline.com/for-the-model-railroading/14-scale-148-or-o-scale-model-railroading/cab-detail-kits-for-grandt-porter-locos/ Should fit your rotary, and fill in a few missing parts if you can find it. Andy

If I had to guess from some vague photos, it looks like a Clark-Chapman single chain windlass. I don’t see a cable drum, so you might want to try taking the gypsy from the Sylvan kit (which is a steam windlass), and using to to replace the cable drum on the second one you have. Andy

Here’s a couple photos of an assembled HO version, if that helps: I’ll dig around and see if I can find the actual corresponding instructions. Andy Edit: Have a look here, post #3:

Thanks to everyone for the "likes", it is time for another update! A couple of items remained to be installed in the cockpit. First off the gun/bomb sight was added above the control panel. After this there was a small tank that had to be added to the pylon behind the pilot. Some online speculation supposed this was an air tank, but intact it was a hydraulic tank, I suspect it was an accumulator (this is a tank that holds a quantity of hydraulic oil under pressure, so that should the pump fail, a minimum of hydraulic functionality remains. Also to be added in the rear cockpit was the TAG's gun. As originally equipped, the Skua used a Lewis gun in the rear position, but as 1940 wore on, many aircrews swapped to Vickers "K" guns, as the Vickers had a higher rate of fire than the Lewis gun. One of the many mistakes that other, older Skua models make, is they frequently show the gun deployed while having the rear canopy closed. In reality, it was impossible to use the gun in this manner, and it was even impossible to stow the gun with an ammunition drum attached. On my model, as the canopy would require major surgery in order to be displayed open, I left the gun neatly stowed in its recess. I then turned my attention to fitting the canopy and getting it masked and ready for paint. I didn't take any photos of these steps, not much to see really, a little sanding, some tape, and a little canopy cement and things were ready for paint. Referring frequently to John Dell's Skua pages, especially his detailed treatise on Skua paint schemes. It's a worthwhile read, and I highly recommend it. I'm making my Skua representative of some of the airplanes involved in the Norwegian campaign, in the spring of 1940. Early in 1940, the Admiralty decreed that FAA airplanes were to be painted in camouflage scheme S1E (which had been first promulgated in March 1939). This consisted of a disruptive pattern of Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey on the upper wings and tail planes, and on the upper part of the fuselage, extending 1/3 down the sides. The lower fuselage sides, airplane undersides and the vertical fin and rudder were to be painted in Sky grey (not Sky type "S"). At the start of the war, the in service Skuas had the underside of the wings painted in black and white (like other early war Hurricanes and Spitfires). This colour was applied before the S1E scheme, and the Skua's flying during the pursuit of the Graf Spee had black and white wing undersides and pre-war silver colours. In the summer of 1940, the B&W undersides were replaced by Sky Type "S", and following the Dunkirk evacuations, the disruptive camouflage pattern was extended further down the fuselage. The reason for the latter change can be traced to a couple of unfortunate instances of friendly fire over Dunkirk, as the original demarkation line was very similar in location to that of the Bf-109. I first began painting my Skua by doing the black and white wing undersides, following a similar, but far less complicated, procedure for painting invasion stripes. Once dry, the underside was completely masked and the Sky grey was applied, and subsequently followed by the upper EDSG/DSG camouflage pattern. Overall, I am pleased with the way things have come out. The most nerve wracking part of the build has now passed (the removal of multiple layers of masking tape.... and poster putty worms), now I can relax and get on with the decals. Andy