HMS Warspite by Old Collingwood - FINISHED - Academy - 1/350 scale - PLASTIC

[Old Collingwood]

So after a few fun and games with my primer, i think i have cracked it, and one side of the hull is semi primed and sanded minus a small section of sanding on the bow, to blend in all those paper hull plates that were Far to over scale even with just printer paper.

 

OC

[Old Collingwood]

I guess i learned a lesson with simulating armour plates at this scale - if using paper make sure it is thinner than printer paper,  dont use PVA/White glue to fix them down or wash over them,  and only use Poly cement to fix paper down or lightly rub over to seal the paper for light sanding,  above all else keep the scale thickness to a minimum as it will stick out like a saw thumb :(

 

OC

Edited May 9, 2015 by Old Collingwood

[Old Collingwood]

More work today with a bit more sanding then smoothing with wire wool, i also decided to remove a few of the fairleads as firstly some got damaged by my heavy handed holding while sanding, and also because they are larger and set further inwards on the deck area on the real ship.

Here are a few current shots that show the current status - one side is 95% primed and ready for its first camo layer minus a small amount of filling near the bow fairleads, and a small amount of primming where sanding has revealed the plastic.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Just a smal update folks - I decided to do a bit more sanding to blend those areas i had painted, well i have it back down now to near clear palstic minus the hull side bow plates   they just didn't look right, yeterday i took delivery of some more Vallejo primer so i can do the - Prime/Sand/Prime/Sand  dance .

 

But what arrived that realy had my eyes popping out of my head where the turned metal barrals    but - WOW  are they tiny tiny little things, they are like the tinniest of baby pecsision metal work i have ever seen :o    i will need a magnifying telescope to work with these as i was hoping to hold them with a pin or something down the barrals, while painting .

They look superb though, oh and the 20mm Orli's i received aswell including the pe framework/shields

 

I think my work will be cut out working on these folks - my appoligies for swearing in advance

 

 

OC.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Old Collingwood

[Old Collingwood]

I foregot to mention - i have been working on a plan in Windows Paint, of  how i want my build to look, here is the plan part finnished -

 

 

OC

Edited May 13, 2015 by Old Collingwood

[Old Collingwood]

More primer arrived so i was able to continues with hull both forward and aft, after mixing the paint to a 50/50 mix with distilled water i came across a technique that has helped to level out the paint in a smoother manner,  before applying the primer i heated up the section to be painted with a hairdryer first, and i found with a quick thin layer and the hairdryer,  applied again after  application, the paint was smoothing out nicely and drying quickly.

I put on about 5 layers and have left it over night to harden before i give it a light sanding/wire wool keying, ready for more parimer.

 

The idea is to get a smooth even layer that will be hard enough for me to gently improve some of the buried details with my knife, the hull will be ready then for the propper painting

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

I achieved a bit more progress yesterday with the bow area, i am getting to the stage where i am quite pleased with the way it is turning out    she is getting closer folks to being completed in the hull area anyway   promis

This morning i have also been continuing to work on my plan in Micro Paint,   its coming on what do you think?

 

OC.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Old Collingwood

[Old Collingwood]

Here is another picture from the diagram i have been worrking on it takes time because i am having to zoom into 600x and work in squares to fill in the details, i am cross referencing from different sorces at the same time, to try to get the most accurate 1944 representation of her.

 

OC

[Old Collingwood]

My plan is finnished here is both sides as i am building here

 

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

While i am  just starting out on my journey with my Warspite build    i want to thank all those who h ave liked my build, and follow what i have done, i will try to keep it interesting and hopefully without to many lows .

 

Thanks for watching

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

I like your approach and what you're doing, OC. 

[Old Collingwood]

I started to mask off the boot line today with low tack blue tape, i had to cut this tape into small sections to fit in between the hull details, after completing this - that seem to take all day   i let it sit then smoothed it down to get a good seal with a small sponge.

I have now started hand painting the first layers of the hull red color, i have chosen to use my Red Ochre that i already had, this is close to Red Oxide and i believe quite close to RN Anti fouling paint,  it looks a bit patchy at first folks   but this shouls smooth and even out with more thin cooats and gentle sanding between coats - fingers crossed

 

 

OC

[Old Collingwood]

Progress has stalled abit folks that first layer of my Admiralty Paints Red Ochre that i applied to the hull, started to come away it wasn't very hard even though i had left it over a whole day to dry

 

I think i will have to try a different paint as it ju t doesn't seem solid enough, i have seen an Acrylic Vallejo surface primer in red, so possibly with a few drops of black it will do a better job?   i need to search out a seller of it and purchase it before i continue with the water retention floaty type device we call a hull

 

OC

[Old Collingwood]

While i m waiting for my new paints to arrive i decised to have a look at the seperate deck sections, i have not decided yet when i can get some wood decking but i have decided to carry on as if i am getting it, so after a lot of researching different sites i have come to the conclusion that the raised plastic simulated planking would be better sanded off, also i have discovered that the areas around the 4inch guns - mid section had reinforced metal floors and painted dark sea grey, so i found a picture of the wood planking and also i did a scan of the plastic area from my model, and ended up with a few ideas.

I marked out the metal area on my scanned part that was a 1:1  scale with the real plastic part, then i set about cutting this out with a sharp blade, i have done this for both sides and both are now awaiting a coat of dark sea grey, then the next stage will be to tidy up the bulwark area/shields that sit in front of the 4inch guns, and give them a couple of coats of paint before gluing the steel decking in place.

 

Here is a pic showing what i mean.

 

OC,

[Old Collingwood]

Just a quick update folks,  i put a coat of Admiralty Dark Grey RN01,  on the paper sections i had cut out to represent the metal deck areas  that are to go under where the 4inch guns sit,  this color is the standard RN color for metal deck areas, so i will contiue with it on the other sub deck sections.

 

Oh,   still waiting on my red surface primer and flat black for the boot line, i will be able to continue with the hull then

 

 

OC.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Old Collingwood

[Old Collingwood]

Oh,  How do you get a ship in a bottle?   tell the captain its got rum in it........

 

OC

[popeye the sailor]

your making some good progress thus far....sorry to hear about your paint woes.   I haven't used acrylics much.....wish I could offer an idea for you.   I'll enjoy following along 

[Old Collingwood]

your making some good progress thus far....sorry to hear about your paint woes.   I haven't used acrylics much.....wish I could offer an idea for you.   I'll enjoy following along 

Hi there,

 

Thank you for following my build, painting by hand with a basil brush type device is all i am used to, i have never used or owned an air brush and only used a rattle can the once, on a plastic airliner and that went horribly wrong with overspray and runs galore, the hardest and most challenging section to paint is the lower hull Red area, but as i am going to paint this with a good primer that helps to self level and smooth out, at least that will be done and i will be able to concentrate on smaller masked areas on the rest of the upper hull where the two tones of grey for the camo are located.

All the deck details should alos be easier to control with hand painting due to their size.

 

Regards

 

OC

[popeye the sailor]

I know folks that have a good control over the 'strokes',  can come up with a very nice paint job.   I didn't get back to air brushing until I got got back into wood ships.  we all have our methods 

[Old Collingwood]

I had another go at the hull today as more paint arrived in the shape of Vallejo German red brown, but after a few coats it was way way to brown and dark, and not smooth enough, so i binned that color and went over it with a more red ochre color from my Admiralty Colors range, this went on horrible full of patches and brush marks,  Its no good  folks i just cant brush paint the hull - i have wrecked it.

 

Seems to be the hull and getting its Red RN  color on it that is spoiling evrthing else, like i said to wife - i can do great maessing about making tiny improvements by building things, but it falls appart when i have to paint a large area

 

I just dont use a sprayer never tried one and cant afford one to experiment with, i guess i need to see if i can get an Acrylic rattle can in the correct color :(

 

 

OC

Edited May 28, 2015 by Old Collingwood

[popeye the sailor]

sorry to hear of your dilemma...truly stinks when things just don't go right.   if you saw my airbrush set up, you'd laugh.   it a Testor's  "Amazing Air Airbrush kit, adapted to a 25 gal compressor.   this kit cost me $30.00......set up to be used with a compressed air can.  darn thing is all plastic.........I bought a second one on clearance.   someone tried it and made a mess of it.......and then returned it  {paid like half price for it}.   very easy to use,  clean up is minimal,  and it's a siphon feed.  I hope you find a solution......you may have to strip the paint off and start over.   here are a couple sites for you to browse through.   there are cheaper alternatives in air brushes that work just as good.

 

Testors » Airbrushes » Airbrushes

 

Testors

[Old Collingwood]

Despite the disaster  with the hull (i am going to pretend a buch of drunken sailors painted it )    i decided to carry on with a bit of etch stuff, i am working on the armoured plating bulwarks around the 4inch guns, i cut this from the spru with a sharp knife and bended the bottom for support, i then laid a small pool of PVA glue and sat the section in it,  this looks worse than it is as the PVA should dry up and mainly dissapear.

 

Hers a pic.

 

OC

[Old Collingwood]

I have carried on with the armour for the 4inch gun bulwarks and managed to complete just one more plate, its kind of very taxing and hard work focusing under a magnifier, i find my eys go            and i end up cross eyed, the wife keeps saying to me "who are you looking at when i am talking to you"...

My plan as mad as it might seem   is to finish off the four plates on the one side, then i will glue the paper strips down, to kind of trap the lips of the etching plates and fingers/toes and everything else you can cross,  this will keep them in place as so far i have done without CA superglue, as i hate this stuff with a passion, i could tell you a story of a friend who glued his eyes shut - by accident with CA glue....

 

 

OC

[popeye the sailor]

as long as you have a plan.......I'll wait and look forward in seeing the results     carry on OC!

[Old Collingwood]

as long as you have a plan.......I'll wait and look forward in seeing the results     carry on OC!

Thank you kindly sir,   hey  if you run out of pop corn i have some multi cherios i could  let you have.

 

OC

[Old Collingwood]

Well the pe armour plating  is making slowwww, but positive progress, the PVA glue seems to be doing its job of securing then vanishing, this should make it easier when i place the simulated metal deck sheet down, because of the delicate nature of each fixed piece of pe, i can only work on one piece at a time than put it up wellaway from miss moggy cat, who does like to have a walk on the table to see whats going on and where her food is

 

OC

Edited May 30, 2015 by Old Collingwood

[Old Collingwood]

I finished off the one side today with the fourth blast screen bulwark, these little .....fellas have been very tempromental and have been ungluing them selves, with the slightest movement, i cleaned and scrapped where they were due to sit, and even had to lay a wash of PVA White Glue around them. i just hope that the paper sheets will help to hold them in place.

Its weird because i read that PVA is good for securing etch brass in place?

 

 

OC

[popeye the sailor]

not really.   I'm not used to seeing PVA.......you mean white glue.  white glue is water based....it works best when gluing to porous surfaces.   plastic is not porous....neither is P.E. brass.  it may hold well at first,  but after being jarred a few times,  it will tend to lose it's bond.  it may be better to try plastic model cement.   I know you don't like using it,  but the best overall would be CA.

 

.......all you have is 2%........is that 'cuz you think I'm fat?         {Napoleon Dynamite}

[Old Collingwood]

not really.   I'm not used to seeing PVA.......you mean white glue.  white glue is water based....it works best when gluing to porous surfaces.   plastic is not porous....neither is P.E. brass.  it may hold well at first,  but after being jarred a few times,  it will tend to lose it's bond.  it may be better to try plastic model cement.   I know you don't like using it,  but the best overall would be CA.

 

.......all you have is 2%........is that 'cuz you think I'm fat?         {Napoleon Dynamite}

I think i will need to give in and pursavere (heck i know that word aint spelt right)  i mean just give it a try, as i have some metal on metal to do yet....

 

OC.

[BenF89]

'persevere' - you were only off by two letters. 

 

synonyms: persist, continue, carry on, go on, keep on, keep going, struggle on, hammer away, be persistent, be determined, see/follow something through, keep at it, press on/ahead, not take no for an answer, be tenacious, stand one's ground, stand fast/firm, hold on, go the distance, stay the course, plod on, stop at nothing, leave no stone unturned;

 

Sounds like the right word!

 

I'm watching your progress on the P.E. intently; I've never used it before, but my next kit project relies on it for a complete model (as opposed to some kits where it is an optional improvement). The base kit is resin, through, instead of polystyrene. So I think nearly everything will need to use either epoxy or CA glue.