Old Collingwood

Ummmm - Superb OC

I gave her a second coat of anti fouling and it seems to have sprayed quite well, I will give it a couple of days before spraying the boot line - after masking her again. Third time lucky - or is it tenth time OC

Small update folks but just words in absense of a camera I let the paint dry for a good 24-30 hrs then had a look at it, it was fully dry - even the smell you get from enamel had gone, so i got my wet and dry paper - not 1000 grade as suggested, but I have some 800 that has been used so its lost a bit of its bite, I used water aswel and in small areas gently rubbed the small ridges that had been formed due to the reaction between the two mediums, it went quite well and I was left with a dulled but smooth surface that is ready for another spray. I did manage though to knock of the spinner blade that I had glued back on, so it will either have to wait for a replacement part or put it down to shell damage when she lost her stearing OC

Thank You my friend. OC.

Thank you for the comments greg, I thought I would have some fun and games with the hull, but as I was feeling a bit dissheartened, I rushed on with spraying the bottom, its that constant learning curve where you see inperfections later that should have been done beforehand, with my situation it is from now having better light and a more powerfull magnifier, and my errors show through clearly, and more so on the pics I took before my cam broke. Like I said above - I'm going through a bit of a rough path at the moment, but just need to weather it out, and hope for better things soon. OC

Than You for your kind words, I'm kind of going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, the boats playing up a bit, my camera had died on me, my other hobby is Aviation or Aircraft Spotting and that aint going well as my cam was firstly no good for that and secondly its died, and lastly my health aint to great at the moment, all while being rather strapped for cash so cant even get away for a break. OC

I didn't know if I should post this or not - but I have not been having a very good time with the build, I seem to be going backwards and not improving anything on it, when I was rectifying the hull sides I managed to knock several deck fittings off including several bollards, the small block on the rear deck kept getting the brass derrick supports bent and broken, so I managed to remove the whole block and put it aside, next was the spinners - I managed to break one of them in two but I found the piece and glued it back on, only to be knocked off every time I handled the hull, one of the props it came un glued from the hull and needed securing. Today I masked up the whole top side and deck with layers of tape like a tent ridged in the center - at least no spray should kreep in, well i put a couple of surgical gloves on went outdoors and sprayed the whole bottom and sides up to the mask, with the same rattle can as I used before, it went on in a couple of layers but - Its Orange Peeled folks , no doubt the enamel base over the top of the Water Acrylic hand painted top coat, even though that had been painted on months and months ago. Not a happy bunny at the moment with it :( OC

I spent the last two days in the sunshine doing my other hobby - photographing planes, so this gave me a good break from the build kind of rested my eyes, I will be back on her today masking the hull top sides and deck to make sure no paint sprays onto that section, I will spray the bottom and part sides - upto the Boot line with the red I used before, then put her aside to dry thoroughly. OC.

I sanded off all of the raised plastic detail on my warspite deck before fitting the pontos deck, perhaps this helped its fixing as it was a flat yet slightly abrasive due to sanding. OC

Some update pics folks showing the prep work and masking completed on one side, just need to mask up the other side and the top will need completely covering before I spray the Anti-Fouling. Hope all the bodywork hasn't shocked to many folks OC.

Folks - here is a pic to show what I had intended to do(its a pic showing the side and the alterations marked on it) I have done both sides like this but also other alterations as mentioned above, I will take some more pics tomorrow to show the pre - painting stage. OC.

A bit more of an update but minus any pics, as I am trying to hold on to the small amount of Internet allowance we have left, till our next next fill up and pics take allowance up. anyway - I carried on sanding the pipes off and am very happy with the finish, I also decided that now was the time to correct any other issues on the hull - while I had the chance, so I sanded around the bow as there had been a few bubbles, that where from the paper armour plate that had not settled, but by doing this I kind of made the situation worse and ended up with a shallow gouge down through the paint layers and paper, and to the plastic hull, this was going to need some work to rectify as it looked terrible. I sanded the area quite hard to blend the area as best as I could, then I did a lot of thin washes with my brush over the dent and over the whole frontal bow area, inbetween I force dried the paint using a hair dryer and continued till the dent was filled, the result from doing this for several hours was sucsess. I moved away from this and started scrappng the top line against the recess ontop of the Torpedo Bulge, to get a more accurate line for masking when I spray the boot line after re doing the lower hull sides Red Antifouling. At the moment the hull looks like a car when its having body work done on it - Rough LOL. OC.

Looking great greg, love all that detail in the small boats really adds to the ship. OC

I made a start earlier yesterday on the pump outlet pipes along the mid boot line, I started with a medium corse standing stick and gradually worked my way along the hull, i cleaned up as I went with water as this gave me a smoother finish, I finnished off using a much finer(well used) sanding stick and cleaned up with an abrasive sponge pad. One side has been finished like this and tomorrow I will attack the other side with the same method, after I will finnish off fitting the casemates and any other small bits along the hull, I will then tape up the top edge of the Boot line and also mask of the lower torpedo bulge round to the bow/stern, and cover the props/spinners/rudders and re-spray the red anti-fouling. I will put her aside to fully set and harden before I mask up to spray the Boot Line. OC.

Decided folks after some careful looking over my hull, and some research - some rather drastic re-work needs to be done, in the shape of filing away a few profiles that are supposed to be pump hull tubes(these where cut back higher as the boot line was highered due to her extra weight), this also includes a few going lower than the boot line, so after filing/sanding i might aswell give her bottom side hull, boot topping a fresh spray, i will then do any touching up - finish off the hull fittings and add her depth markings to the semi shiny surface. I will then do any touching up to the two coats of grey on her camo, and get hold of a good flat rattle can top coat, as I couldn't get smooth even coats of acrylic top coat with a brush. OC.

I started on the casemates yesterday each one comes in three sections top middle and bottom(souds like strike it lucky) first off i sepaerated them in to groups of four and glued the bottom sections on to the deck first, I did this both sides till all eight were in place, next I seperated the middle section that contained the barrel shroud, I had to file off the joing pip from the fret then glued onto this this the top section, the whole two pice section was then carefully glued into possition ontop of the bottom section(hope you are foilowing this ok) After completing four sets I noticed I had managed to mar a few areas of the hull from Constant handling - as for some reason the lower hull just seemes to have a very slight tacky feel to it and picks up all sorts of stuff, dust marks etc(it should be hard and set solid as the Vallejo top coat was applied months and months ago, this was applied by brush over the top of a thoroughly dry enamel rattle can finnish that gave me my hull red finnish. Also I noticed that I had somehow got some poly cement on the lower hull and this had caused a slight run and melted into the finnish slightly, so Im pondering ideas to treat this area - light sanding then a small masked off spray from that enamel rattle can? or a bit sprayed into the cap and applied with a small brush. But its protecting the painted hull during all the months and months of work ahead, its so soul destroying seeing the once nice paint work getting shabby and tacky :o OC.

Next move tomorrow is start on the 6 Inch Casemates that she carried on here lower broadside deck, she had the barrels removed prior to D Day but kept the housings that were just turned inward, I will do the same with mine. Here is a part pic from my drawing I did showing the four casemates on the lower deck and how they blend in. OC.

Yep its the Academy kit with part of the Pontos detail set also the Lifecolour paint set. OC.

Thank you for the compliment - I am trying to make her look as realistic as possible as she was in 1944. your build is looking great aswel. OC.

Two more updates today folks, I cut the spurnwater parts from the brass fret then dry fitted to check alignment, i applied a small amount of PVA then placed them on both sides, I also fitted some of the brass covers on the deck - same procedure using PVA. Just the two pics folks. OC.

Not Yet OC

A bit more progress today - i lightly weathered the wood deck section I have fitted so it matches the other sections, this was done with just a diluted black wash then wiped away with a rag, just leaving a bit of detail between the planks, next i cut the waterbreak from the fret and tidied up between the ribs, then i genly thined the profile a bit, after a coat of light grey I glued it down onto the deck. It will need cleaning up a bit where it meets the deck and the ends trimming, then I will have to deside whether or not to cut for the walk way or just show them as closed, as they were made with two slot in sections. Here are some pics also showing my work station and new light/magnifier. OC

After letting the decks settle I noticed that around the mid to bow, the port holes had become partially obscured and blocked by the deck, i found the corresponding drill bit and carefully set about re drilling all the port holes, by gently drilling into the bottom section of the deck hidden inside the hull. Next will be to start on the fittings on the deck - brass covers etc and the waterbreak, I will use the plastic one that came with the kit but I will file down the edges slightly to give it a sharper profile, including cutting out the walk through sections. OC.

Sounds a bit like my build that will not be finished anytime soon possibly 2017-18 OC

Keep up the work and showing us what you are doing - we are all very interested. Kind regards OC.