Rebuilding the fleet by mikegr - 1/700 - restoring old plastic models

[mikegr]

Last touch up details before weathering

Done paint weathering. Ready for rigging. It will be a long and painful progress

 

 

[king derelict]

Looks very nice Mike 

alan

[mikegr]

On 5/18/2025 at 8:28 PM, king derelict said:

Looks very nice Mike 

alan

Thanks for the comment as usual

[mikegr]

For the rigging material I used fake hair extension. Very good thickness, easy to work with and it causes less tension to the masts.

I took me 3 evenings about 2 hours each evening. First I did the forward section, next the middle and lastly the stern section. Even not elastic, it causes some stress to the plastic parts. To cut the excess material I used hot needle. This has to be done with caution not the damage the rest rigging or the plastic parts. Another advantage for the brass masts. I wish they weren't SK difficult to make. Maybe one day I will be able to make it better

 

[mikegr]

So I took my time to learn how to make it closer to the real thing. I used Takao's hull to  avoid  mess on the model.

The real thing 

 

Comparing to the previous project I feel far more satisfied. Because this is not a repeat of my usual work. It is a step forward as at last learned how to create waves and wakes the way I wanted. There is more space for improvement, for example the wave at bow should  be more sharp and thinner. I will repeat the scene with Takao in the future and compare. 

The model also has some imperfections especially on railings and detail can be improved. But I dont mind, the scene overall is ok.

 

[king derelict]

Great work on the seascape Mike. The sea is hard to model and this is a great example.

alan

[mikegr]

Next theme 

North Carolina by Aoshima

I wash and remove the unwanted parts. Deck was covered by dozens of tape pieces 0.6 x 10mm before spray. That would give a planking effect. The result wasn't the desirable. Some corrections by hand didn't make the situation better.  I decided to use sticker wooden deck which I usually keep for carrier decks. So much time wasted today on painting. Enough for today. Time to study some books

 

 

[mikegr]

Unfortunately the wood deck I bought from the same manufacturer was of lower quality this time, somehow deteriorated.

Studying about the painting schemes I found out that the deck could be painted with Navy Blue under Measure 22 system or something like this.That would be easier to do.However because of the sanding the lines on forward part of the deck had been gone. So designed one and printed it out . some PE details were added, bollards and a few other soon.

Finally I sanded the side belt, it looked too thick perhaps one meter in real scale

 

 

[ddp]

what time period of the war for NC?

armor belt thickness for that class would be 12" so at 1/700 scale it would be .435mm thick, do you have a dremel tool or similar to remove that belt & replace with 2 layers of .2mm or 1 layer of .5mm thick styrene sheet? 

[mikegr]

8 hours ago, ddp said:

what time period of the war for NC?

armor belt thickness for that class would be 12" so at 1/700 scale it would be .435mm thick, do you have a dremel tool or similar to remove that belt & replace with 2 layers of .2mm or 1 layer of .5mm thick styrene sheet? 

These old kits doesn't refer the time period but I expect to put  40 Oerlikons which means 1944?

So you mean in 1/700 the ideal belt thickness is 0.5mm? That means I need to remove more material

[ddp]

double check my math to confirm the belt thickness. that is why i said a dremel tool or similar to reduce or remove the belt & replace with new belt so no wavy lines caused by reducing belt thickness.