HMS Prince of Wales by Lt. Biggles - FINISHED - Tamiya - 1/350 - PLASTIC - Pontos detail up set - first ship build

[Lt. Biggles]

Hello, 

This is my first ever build log and my first ‘proper’ ship build attempt. 

Ive followed a few builds on here as research and to see how things go together so thought I’d show my build too.

It will be a slow one I think as I’ll try give it a good go and also tough to find much info on Her except low res pics from far awayso it won’t be a super accurate one as I’ll just have to wing bits I don’t know about. 

I got this kit for lockdown and from someone that had cut a few bits off but hadn’t really done any building.

[Lt. Biggles]

While I wait for supplies, plans and other stuff I will start on the rear superstructure as the two sides were already glued together. I just cleaned up the edges and used some putty to deal to gaps 

[Lt. Biggles]

So begins some PE construction, Pontos instructions are quite awful and I almost emailed them to confirm half the instructions weren’t missing from my set...  but once sorted out the increase in quality is huge!! 

The top section of the main mast in PE next to the same part of the original kit part

[Old Collingwood]

Welcome to the club,   thats a great kit  to kick off with  - lots of interesting  style and big enough to show its self off,   that is superb work with the pe mast  (fiddly little fellas - aint they".

 

OC,

[Lt. Biggles]

Thanks mate, it good fun so far and yea very fiddly. PE is a game for patient people I think! 

Started making a crane today, basically no instructions so took hours! Next one should go together much quicker.

 

[Lt. Biggles]

Had better call that one complete crane, otherwise I’ll keep tinkering with it forever while I have a whole ship to build! At this rate I might be done by Christmas!!

[RGL]

Mate you’re doing an amazing job. When I did KGV I still can’t understand how to put those cranes together. Looking forward to following 

[Tigerdvr]

Welcome to the club. Your remark about calling that crane complete is the PE/ship model curse. You keep finding things that you

can add and everything slows down. I think you are doing very well on your PE. Suggest considering completing subsections including painting.

Painting the horizontal and surfaces is usually easier that way.

Enjoy--

[Lt. Biggles]

12 hours ago, RGL said:

Mate you’re doing an amazing job. When I did KGV I still can’t understand how to put those cranes together. Looking forward to following 

Thanks man, I did zoom in as much as I could on your KGV crane build pics to help me out and a lot of the other PE parts I’ll be referring to that build to help me make sense of it!

 

9 hours ago, Tigerdvr said:

Welcome to the club. Your remark about calling that crane complete is the PE/ship model curse. You keep finding things that you

can add and everything slows down. I think you are doing very well on your PE. Suggest considering completing subsections including painting.

Painting the horizontal and surfaces is usually easier that way.

Enjoy--

 

Haha yea already I’m not happy with the crane rigging as it’s gone saggy so will have to take it off and find a better way! Subsections is a good idea, I’ll do the rear super structure and then get the hull underway.

 

[Lt. Biggles]

I’ve got 2 questions if anyone can help..

 

1. Apart from the real wood main deck, what colour are the superstructure upper decks? From what I can tell maybe a dark grey?

 

2 once I’ve put the Pontos wood deck on how do you get under the deck to secure the main guns? Is it strong enough to lift the 3 deck parts off, secure the main guns then glue the deck down in one go?

[Tigerdvr]

EZline is very easy to rig with. Check it out. There are some other commercial lines available

Sorry, I can't help you with your two questions. Colors depend on which navy and then what time period, last time the ship was painted,

what color scheme was approved, what kind of service etc. You can go crazy trying to get the correct grays and blues. Sometimes it's easier

to do some basic research and then pick which ones look good to you.

[Lt. Biggles]

1 hour ago, Tigerdvr said:

EZline is very easy to rig with. Check it out. There are some other commercial lines available

Sorry, I can't help you with your two questions. Colors depend on which navy and then what time period, last time the ship was painted,

what color scheme was approved, what kind of service etc. You can go crazy trying to get the correct grays and blues. Sometimes it's easier

to do some basic research and then pick which ones look good to you.

Thanks Tigerdvr.

from what I can find looks like I’ll do it in a dark grey with maybe a splash of red or blue. 

My build is not from a specific time, but I like the idea of painting her in light grey instead of camo, that way I can try some shading and layering in the paint so it’s not one solid colour but 10 shades of the same colour. It’s the thing I want to try during this build as a new challenge. Which means technically I’m building the early version of her around the Bismarck time. 

But I looked into EZline and will see if I can get some, seems good but these things are almost impossible to get in NZ or the shipping is twice the price and the 1 month wait haha!

 

[Lt. Biggles]

Done some more work on the rear superstructure. 

[RGL]

BNA is still shipping, and they have denier line. The AUD has tanked so it shouldn’t be that bad. The fading thing is a nice effect. Look up a bloke called Jamie Duff, he runs a site dedicated to warship camouflage 

[Louie da fly]

A worthwhile subject to build. I'm not sure whether you can get good pics of her for your detail work, but I just checked Google image search and Pinterest, and there are a reasonable number of photos. Might be worth checking out.

 

Steven

Edited May 9, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Lt. Biggles]

16 hours ago, RGL said:

BNA is still shipping, and they have denier line. The AUD has tanked so it shouldn’t be that bad. The fading thing is a nice effect. Look up a bloke called Jamie Duff, he runs a site dedicated to warship camouflage 

BNA is where I got my Pontos set from, I quite like them. From what I can tell their Denier line is thin wire? Is it better than EZ line? Wire dodges me out alittle bit as a little kink is impossible to remove!

 

14 hours ago, Louie da fly said:

A worthwhile subject to build. I'm not sure whether you can get good pics of her for your detail work, but I just checked Google image search and Pinterest, and there are a reasonable number of photos. Might be worth checking out.

 

Steven

Thanks, I’ve been using google a lot to try find out bits of info. Quite crazy how much you learn about a ship when you are trying to find out all the little details! I’d never thought about a crane on a battleship before... and here I am now trying to scour the web and plans to find out how their cables are rigged and what they were made out of! 

[Louie da fly]

I just had a thought. Do a Google image search for the Atlantic Charter - it was signed by Rooseveldt and Churchill on board the Prince of Wales - lots of publicity photos from the time taken on board ship. You might get some nice detail photos from that.

 

Oh, and there's video footage at 

 

and

 

Steven

Edited May 10, 2020 by Louie da fly

[Lt. Biggles]

My plans finally arrived and so can look over what I’ve done and only found a few bits to change, a couple of ladders in the wrong place type thing. I’ll fix the main big ones but the rest will be ok.

 

the kits funnel Vs the PE one on a milk bottle lid.

 

a few details to add once they arrive in the mail and the rear superstructure will be ready to paint.

i did some test painting and learnt it’s best to use primer on the brass as the Tamiya acrylics seem to scratch off pretty easy.

 

 

[jwvolz]

Nice start. The PE looks great!

[Lt. Biggles]

Thanks Steven,

Had a watch learnt even more and found a few photos... in full 1941 style HD. The hull panel lines really stand out! I have to get on with scribing those so I can get painting! 

[Old Collingwood]

Dont know if it will help at all, but I built a similar Battlrship  (in regards to equipment)  -

 

OC.

 

 

[RGL]

Denier is not wire, it’s the name of the rubber compound 

[Lt. Biggles]

9 hours ago, jwvolz said:

Nice start. The PE looks great!

Thanks, takes awhile but the improvements it makes is well worth it I think!

 

 

8 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Dont know if it will help at all, but I built a similar Battlrship  (in regards to equipment)  -

 

OC.

 

 

Great build there! I don’t have enough knowledge in the ship world to even know what most of the extra details on the hull you did are!!

 

 

6 hours ago, RGL said:

Denier is not wire, it’s the name of the rubber compound 

Thanks, I shall order some and give it a go.

[Lt. Biggles]

I think the size of the build has started to sink in as today I was very tempted to just build the Walrus plane and leave the rest!

 

[Old Collingwood]

5 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

I think the size of the build has started to sink in as today I was very tempted to just build the Walrus plane and leave the rest!

 

My way through my build was to tackle stages  at a time  - to do little  sections at a time - it broke it up nicely that way.

 

OC.

[Lt. Biggles]

So didn’t end up making the Walrus... instead made a start on the hull. If I can paint the hull to a good level I think I’ll be pretty happy!

 

first I scribed some panel lines. Have a plan about the end so won’t do scribing below waterline but will still preshade and paint fully.

and once happy I primed.

 

And then started on the preshade. Not sure if there is a proper order but I’ll paint the upper hull first then the lower hull and end with the black. or  black then red... will see.

 

Next I’ll do different shades of grey in side the panel lines so once I lay the base coat on the grey doesn’t have a perfect one shade look. I know this ship was pretty fresh so the finally weathering will be light as I dont want a brand new look. But hopefully if I get it right will give it some character, plus I really enjoy the weathering part and subtle is really effective... but first I’ve got to get this base coat right!!

 

First layer of the modulation, will do this with different shades before the base coat. It’s an experiment really with mixing techniques so will see if it works or not soon enough. it takes a lot of air as it’s a big surface so my poor compressor, will have to spread it over a few days to help keep it cool.

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Lt. Biggles

[Lt. Biggles]

So decided probably not the best idea to experiment with new painting ideas on the hull. Instead made the rear big gun and did some test painting. Ended up pretty much getting what I wanted after the second attempt.

all my modulating of the grey disappeared by the time the black panel lines were at the level I was after.

 So over sprayed the panel lines until they were almost done then modulated then over sprayed again

 

I’ll overspray a tiny bit of lighter colour for highlighting and then it will be down to washes and weathering. 

Just have to work on getting the under shades to look convincing as I found that part the hardest of it all! Once I’ve worked out some sort of pattern I think I’ll be quite happy with it.

[Lt. Biggles]

Lots of little things being done, all pretty time consuming so in a stage where progress is steady but not visible. 

 

Ive cleared the decks ready for the wood to go down once I’ve got everything ready

will glue the 3 parts together but off the hull so I can get the 3 main guns attached correctly. Then once the hull is painted with main coat I’ll add the hull and deck together before I do any weathering and washes.

Also doing odd bits and pieces off PE 

so slow but steady progress at this stage.

[S.Coleman]

Stunning job and great painting job.  Looks like fun but I’m not to crash hot with plastics. I see you are from NZ too. I’m originally from Otago. Best of luck with the rest of your build.

[Lt. Biggles]

3 hours ago, S.Coleman said:

Stunning job and great painting job.  Looks like fun but I’m not to crash hot with plastics. I see you are from NZ too. I’m originally from Otago. Best of luck with the rest of your build.

Hey Mate, thanks. I’m a Tauranga boy, but due work have found myself in Gisborne... so needed to find a hobby!! Used to do plastic planes as a teenager so thought I’d do something similar but this time have some money so can buy paint! Haha

your HMS Endeavour looks amazing! The replica sailed here few months back and looked great anchored in the bay! I wouldn’t know where to start on a all wood model.