HMS Warspite by Lt. Biggles - FINISHED - Academy - 1/350 - PLASTIC - MK1 detail up set

[Landlubber Mike]

That's really helpful EG - you're an amazing source of knowledge as always!  Interesting that the horizontal plate runs are noticeable, but with their construction techniques, the vertical joins aren't.  I've seen some models at 1/700 scale where the modeler put in some vertical joins - not enough to match what I would imagine where the actual number of plates used - which has a certain nice artistic look to it.  But when looking at pictures (which admittedly aren't super high resolution), you don't exactly see the vertical joins.  Here is one of the IJN Hagi, which is one of the clearest, colorized photos I've seen, and I can't really make out any vertical joins.

 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Landlubber Mike

[Landlubber Mike]

8 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Will that be your next build? 700 scale again?

 

The Shimakaze that I'm working on is the Hasegawa 1/350 kit.  I was about to start it last year, but then thought I'd maybe start with something smaller and less expensive to be able to get a little experience since the Hasegawa kit is really nice and the Infini upgrade set is fantastic.  So, I'm now back on that kit but will probably work on a 1/700 kit alongside it.

[Lt. Biggles]

I agree! EG has a great set of knowledge on these things! I on the other hand never really looked into ship details at all until my last build! I’m constantly googling words that are used here to find out what’s being talked about! 
already this build has got details added or in the works just from bits you have all mentioned along the way! It’s why I really enjoy these build logs! Thanks

[Lt. Biggles]

3 hours ago, Egilman said:

At 1/350th? why bother....

My thoughts exactly from what I’d seen! Plus at the risk of loosing my momentum as it’s getting me through this build in good time so far so will ride it as long as I can!

 

don’t know why there aren’t little detail books or PDFs designed just for us model makers. With just useful info to help fill the gaps from the kits to the real thing. Armour plates, at what times what upgrades were implemented. What dates port holes were filled in and which ones. Guess during a war no one things about these things and then they get rapid repairs then broken down for parts and scrap so it just becomes the past. But a book with just model building in mind like that would be super helpful!

[Lt. Biggles]

Didn’t get to do much work on her today as last night we had a pretty good earthquake (7.3) at 2:30am just off the coast, so left the house for high ground and slept most of the morning.

 

But painted the black water line strip. At the time I’m going for it hadn’t been made thicker and the standard size for a battleship was 6ft so that’s what I’m doing. 
No markings on the hull to show where the waterline is so just looked at pics and drawings and gave it a go. Main thing was trying to get it straight and not looking like a banana so redid it a few times.

 

 

also did some pre shading for the above waterline part of the hull. Which will be next.

[Old Collingwood]

8 minutes ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Didn’t get to do much work on her today as last night we had a pretty good earthquake (7.3) at 2:30am just off the coast, so left the house for high ground and slept most of the morning.

 

But painted the black water line strip. At the time I’m going for it hadn’t been made thicker and the standard size for a battleship was 6ft so that’s what I’m doing. 
No markings on the hull to show where the waterline is so just looked at pics and drawings and gave it a go. Main thing was trying to get it straight and not looking like a banana so redid it a few times.

 

 

also did some pre shading for the above waterline part of the hull. Which will be next.

Looking good mate.

 

OC.

[Lt. Biggles]

Off topic but if anyone is interested here is what a 15 min tsunami warning alert looks like, it arrives with an alarm that really gets your attention!

 

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Seems similar to the tornado warnings people get here in the US.  Scary stuff!

[Lt. Biggles]

1 hour ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Seems similar to the tornado warnings people get here in the US.  Scary stuff!

Yea I can imagine! Tornados and tsunamis you don’t want to be playing silly games with!

the all clear has been given here so everything back to normal. 

[Lt. Biggles]

Masked off the painted hull and have started on the light grey. 

 

 

I added a few drops of darker grey to get some variation in the colour.

 

 

just a pretty rough coat as I’ll paint in the dark grey and shade that and lots of washes and try get a well faded and well used look to it so need to have more obvious contrast otherwise it will all be hidden later. I’ll not go crazy with lots and lots of rust type washes but will try get the grey to look old

[Old Collingwood]

I am liking that  Alot mate  - the shading is going to look fab   - so wish I had been able to spray mine.

 

OC.

[Egilman]

3 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

I’ll not go crazy with lots and lots of rust type washes but will try get the grey to look old

She was painted in admiralty dazzle when she left the NY yard in '42, and remained that way throughout the war all the way up to her going to the breakers, her dazzle was repainted twice during the war, so faded is good, lotsa rust is not...... 

 

Faded, chalked with hints of rust around a few edges would be a good look...

 

Looks like your almost there... Well done...

[Lt. Biggles]

On 3/6/2021 at 2:05 PM, Old Collingwood said:

I am liking that  Alot mate  - the shading is going to look fab   - so wish I had been able to spray mine.

 

OC.

Having an airbrush is a whole different world with so many options and effects available. It’s abit like PE once you use it, it’s hard to imagine doing a build without it! Do you have an airbrush now?

[Lt. Biggles]

22 hours ago, Egilman said:

She was painted in admiralty dazzle when she left the NY yard in '42, and remained that way throughout the war all the way up to her going to the breakers, her dazzle was repainted twice during the war, so faded is good, lotsa rust is not...... 

 

Faded, chalked with hints of rust around a few edges would be a good look...

 

Looks like your almost there... Well done...

Admiralty dazzle is just the proper name for camo right? It wasn’t painted in one of those crazy black and white schemes that make you go cross eyed looking at pictures?

 

im glad my track so far lines up with how she would have been. All the pics don’t show much rust streaks but very weathered paint so that’s how I decided my plan. Thanks for the info

[Lt. Biggles]

Well I gave the grey a day to dry and taped up the areas for the camo.

 

 

lots of angles and shelves on the hull so will be fun for the weathering and fade but trickery to tape tight!

 

 

I think for using the paints I already have the colours work well together.

 

 

 

next I’ll do some washes to see if we can get some streaks and fades going while the rest of the hull is taped up.

lighter colours are always easier to get a nice patchy look.

[Old Collingwood]

47 minutes ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Having an airbrush is a whole different world with so many options and effects available. It’s abit like PE once you use it, it’s hard to imagine doing a build without it! Do you have an airbrush now?

Alas No,   if I need to spray it has to be with Tamiya rattle cans  and that means  one thing  - outdoors  dictated by the weather.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking Superb  you have both those colours bang on right  -  AP 507B Admiralty Medium Grey (RN 02) & AP 507C Admiralty Light Grey (RN 03)   and the armour looks perfect through the paintwork  - you really are doing a fine job of the Ole Lady.

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

Have never done the tsunami warning thing, but I have done tornado warnings and wildfire evacuations. And earthquakes -- except those don't typically come with warnings!

 

BTW, the model is looking great! The QE class were, IMO, among the best-looking BB designs to come out of the Great War, if not the best.

[Lt. Biggles]

3 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

That is looking Superb  you have both those colours bang on right  -  AP 507B Admiralty Medium Grey (RN 02) & AP 507C Admiralty Light Grey (RN 03)   and the armour looks perfect through the paintwork  - you really are doing a fine job of the Ole Lady.

 

OC.

Thanks, I’m glad you like the colours! If only you knew I was using Tamiya sky grey and dark grey! But in saying that they both have a few drops of each other mixed in along with drops of other colours to get the shadings. Keeping the ratios easy so when I do the super structure the colours will match but be slightly different just to add to the well worn effect!

after the amount of washes I intend to do it won’t matter what the base colours were anyway. But these colours do look good together and probably are pretty close to official colours now.

 

This pic is for you OC, I didn’t forget about it... kinda. But it’s added now!

 

[Old Collingwood]

9 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Thanks, I’m glad you like the colours! If only you knew I was using Tamiya sky grey and dark grey! But in saying that they both have a few drops of each other mixed in along with drops of other colours to get the shadings. Keeping the ratios easy so when I do the super structure the colours will match but be slightly different just to add to the well worn effect!

after the amount of washes I intend to do it won’t matter what the base colours were anyway. But these colours do look good together and probably are pretty close to official colours now.

 

This pic is for you OC, I didn’t forget about it... kinda. But it’s added now!

 

Looking good mate.

 

OC.

[Lt. Biggles]

It feels like I’m moving through this pretty fast! Have a feeling once the hull is done it will slow down with all the PE details.

 

 

 

I have 3 grey AK washes. So used the light one on the light grey and dark one on the dark grey left it abit and then washed most of it off.

 

 

 

will leave it for a day and repeat again with abit more mixing of the two shades

[Lt. Biggles]

Letting the 2 coats of grey washes dry. I learnt that if the paint is soaked in while spirit too long and gets a good scrub then it’s quite easy just to strip all the paint back to the plastic! So I give it plenty of time to recover between coats! While they do that I did a dark green wash below the waterline to grubby it up. Just enough to blend in the old look with the rest of the ship.

 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work  - those plates and the paintwork are looking so good.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

That's looking great!  Your technique worked really well.  Gives me a little more confidence to try something similar on my builds, though it looks like the plate lines are already built into my Shimakaze hull so it will have to wait for a future build.

[Lt. Biggles]

4 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

That's looking great!  Your technique worked really well.  Gives me a little more confidence to try something similar on my builds, though it looks like the plate lines are already built into my Shimakaze hull so it will have to wait for a future build.

Good to hear, seems to work well for me anyway. If your ship has the detail already then take it! Saves you a heap of time not having to work out the details.

[RGL]

Love the colours. I also am constantly googling words as well! 

[Lt. Biggles]

Right enough time to dry and on with the getting old effects! This time doing a dot filter. 

 

 

Once the oils have had a few minutes I then washed of 99% of them.

 

 

always in a downward motion until it looked right, then a few extra washes as I’ve learnt that once dry it does stand out abit more and also under different lighting.

 

 

Tomorrow I’ll do a medium grey wash over it all to blend it in nicely.

 

[Lt. Biggles]

Added some tape halfway through the black water line paint to try hint at a bit of a waterline mark and then did another wash.

 

 

Only left it about 10 mins before again removed 99% of it.

 

 

 

 

Seems to have blended everything together well.

 

I’ve got a general question. Would all the doors have been kept closed unless being used? Would it be unrealistic for me to have a few doors open on the main deck or higher? And if some could be left open are there any places that this would be more likely? 

[lmagna]

1 hour ago, Lt. Biggles said:

Would all the doors have been kept closed unless being used?

I would think that it would depend on the weather on the day you are depicting and what ocean she is in. If, for example if she was on convoy duty on a nice day in the Indian Ocean then the crew would have open doorways for airflow and ease of passage through the ship. A poor day in the North Atlantic would probably be just the opposite. I am pretty certain that they kept her pretty well buttoned up early in the war when operating off Norway.

 

Also pretty certain that at battle stations all would be closed regardless of the weather or location. Having never served on a warship at sea this is just a guess so take it for what it is worth.

 

Your weathering is coming along nicely. I like the idea of worn and weathered but not rusted.

Edited March 13, 2021 by lmagna

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, Lt. Biggles said:

I’ve got a general question. Would all the doors have been kept closed unless being used? Would it be unrealistic for me to have a few doors open on the main deck or higher? And if some could be left open are there any places that this would be more likely? 

Lou is right on the money here, it depends.... cold bad weather they would be closed, hot calm weather they would be open for ventilation, they were all steel, one big giant oven....

 

On any alert condition, all watertight/hatches doors would be closed, at battle stations, all would be closed and dogged....

 

Most of the time when in action they would be closed. Given the camo pattern she is wearing, (late war) it depends on where you intend to depict her?

The Indian ocean in '42, the Med in '43, The north seas fleet in '44 on..... Naval ships spend a lot of time doing nothing, even in a state of war, especially in that period... The Indian ocean is hot, so is the Med, so anytime she wasn't under orders they would more than likely be open, on the converse, the North Seas (and parts further north) are of course cold, stormy, gloomy and rainy, more than likely be closed...

 

Pick the period you want to depict her in, either under action or not and go from there.....