HMS Montrose by King Derelict - FINISHED - Trumpeter - 1/700 - PLASTIC

[king derelict]

Ahhh - back to the security of tiny world and 1/700 scale ships.

 

While the parts are printing for the corvette and I play with the layout and order bits i decided to start a 1/700 scale ship as a break from the almost industrial scale project that is the Flower Class Corvette

 

I have the Trumpeter kit of HMS Montrose, a type 23 frigate and I bought the White Ensign PE kit to add details. It turns out the Trumpeter kit has quite a decent set of PE anyway but it doesn't have ladders and importantly, no railings.

 

 

The first curiosity came when thinking about fitting the WE helicopter deck and finding it is considerably wider than the aft deck on the plastic model. As far as I can determine its not supposed to overhang at least in any of the photos I have found.

The WE PE is really aimed at their resin model and I suppose its possible that their 1/700 is different to Trumpeters.  The safety railings around the helicopter pad fit with their deck so will need to be altered. The WE PE deck is going to be put aside; it doesn't bring much to the detail in that area and would add a step to the deck.

I started the bridge structure with the first bits of glitter going on from both sources. The WE PE is finer (hand railings are really thin) but the fret is noticeable thinner than the Trumpeter or Flyhawk sheets so its going to require careful handling.

The bending tool is very helpful as usual in forming the parts.

This is my first full hull model. I'm thinking about setting it in a modelled sea rather than on a stand so rudders and props may not be used.

My initial thought was to finish the ship as "The Black Duke" HMS Monmouth but that will depend on finding decals. As far as i can see the ships are identical in equipment so just the pennant number and name needs changing

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

Im in Alan,  having seen quite a lot of these ships  even have a few pics of them.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

3 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Im in Alan,  having seen quite a lot of these ships  even have a few pics of them.

 

OC.

Thanks OC

I hope I can make a nice job of it. It looks a nice kit with the PE added. I have a few pictures of Monmouth not very good for detail but this one might be handy for weathering.

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

I have these few taken by me  - 

 

HMS Monmouth close up

HMS Argyl   (sister ship)

 

Hope they are of use.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Those are great photos OC. Excellent quality. Thank you so much; they will be very useful

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

35 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Those are great photos OC. Excellent quality. Thank you so much; they will be very useful

Alan

No problem at all mate.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

OC, your photos already saved the day. The instructions are very vague and I had the 1006 Navigation Radar platform installed wrongly. It's now where it should be. Many Thanks

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

2 hours ago, king derelict said:

OC, your photos already saved the day. The instructions are very vague and I had the 1006 Navigation Radar platform installed wrongly. It's now where it should be. Many Thanks

Alan

So glad they are of use  Alan.

 

OC.

[mikegr]

An aerial photo of a type 23 frigate. Just to get an idea of how the dark grey deck can turn to red brown cause of rust and weathering, in case you are interested.

 

[king derelict]

4 hours ago, mikegr said:

An aerial photo of a type 23 frigate. Just to get an idea of how the dark grey deck can turn to red brown cause of rust and weathering, in case you are interested.

 

Thank you Mike, That is a really great photograph. It will be really useful both from a weathering aspect and also for the detail layout. The Trumpeter instructions are a bit vague and in some cases incorrect.  The Trumpeter instructions shows the longer yard arms on teh fore mast being on the forward side. The WEM instructions for the PE shows them on the aft side. Your photograph confirms this so thank you very much.

The dark grey decks look pretty grubby. Do you know how long she had been at sea at that point.

Thanks again

Alan

[mikegr]

On 9/21/2021 at 3:33 AM, king derelict said:

Thank you Mike, That is a really great photograph. It will be really useful both from a weathering aspect and also for the detail layout. The Trumpeter instructions are a bit vague and in some cases incorrect.  The Trumpeter instructions shows the longer yard arms on teh fore mast being on the forward side. The WEM instructions for the PE shows them on the aft side. Your photograph confirms this so thank you very much.

The dark grey decks look pretty grubby. Do you know how long she had been at sea at that point.

Thanks again

Alan

This photo is taken in 2021. The ship HMS Argyll, as well as Montrose have their own page, where you can find more information and photos

https://twitter.com/hmsmontrose?lang=el

https://twitter.com/search?q=hms argyll&src=typed_query

[king derelict]

Thanks Mike

Much appreciated

Alan

[king derelict]

A bit of a muddled update here. I think I'm incapable of working multiple projects at the same time. I keep forgetting where I am on this one so I think there may be some backtracking.

The foremast PE was built up. I used the WE PE as i thought it looked nicer than the Trumpeter stuff. I also modified the top of the bridge structure to take the WE PE bridge wings. WE even provide stays for the yardarms which were an exercise in breath control

 

The major elements were primered and the dark grey deck was air brushed where needed. The hanger has some nice interior detail (and a door to glue over it when its done) that I have started to work on with dark grey for the shadows and light grey and some dry brushed white for the highlights.

The light grey has been painted on the main structures. The indifferent lighting does not show the deck colour as darker but it is in real life.

 

 

 

So now I need to backtrack and work on the hull and start the main mast. There is some detail in the mouldings for the quarter deck but I don't think it will really be visible once assembled so I have done some basic basic painting in that area before putting teh roof on.

So far the PE is going quite well even though it is fiddly. Trying to read two sets of instructions from Trumpeter and WE keeps things interesting especially as the WE parts are really for one of their own models.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend

Alan

 

[mikegr]

Quite fast and clean job.

I will use this thread as a guide for my own kit with WE parts when i decide to deal with it. Perhaps in 2025 

[king derelict]

On 9/25/2021 at 2:56 AM, mikegr said:

Quite fast and clean job.

I will use this thread as a guide for my own kit with WE parts when i decide to deal with it. Perhaps in 2025 

Thanks Mike

At the current rate of progress I might finish by 2025😄

Alan

[king derelict]

Progress but slowly. I seem to spend more time on the web looking for information on this one than I usually do. Possibly because it should be possible to find more information than for some of the WW2 boats. So trying to find good clear photos showing where hand rails are on some of the side decks. A lot of the photos are not really clear enough and neither PE sets provide any railings expect the WE has the main deck railings. 

I worked on the hanger adding some delicate PE (for me anyway). I used the Trumpeter PE throughout on this assembly. It was actually more comprehensive than the WE set and the yardarms were a folded single piece whereas the WE had three pieces to each yardarm which would have required some very accurate and tidy gluing to get the same result. The hanger door is a temporary installation to prevent overspray. tomorrow

 

 

My discovery for cutting primered PE from the fret was to change to a clear piece of acrylic sheet and put a white card underneath it. The fret attachments then show up so much better. Sorry if its obvious but I was quite impressed. One disadvantage is the fret casts a shadow onto the card and i found myself cutting the "ghost" attachment point. A piece of white acrylic would be a better solution but I don't have any.

I started working up some of the details. The RIBs, main gun and the Harpoon launchers.

The kit provides plastic launchers and the WE PE has the launcher frames and nothing to put in them. I made up barrels with plastic rod and put them in the PE frame. I'm leaning towards the PW framed ones but will see how they look after painting.

Thanks for looking

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

Lots of fine work there Alan,  you not tempted to have the hangar open with the Merlin/Lynx   inside?

 

OC.

[mikegr]

Does the kit include any barrel life rafts like these in the photo?

[Ian B]

1 hour ago, mikegr said:

Does the kit include any barrel life rafts like these in the photo?

I like the buffer-- putting some nice circular dents down her side    OOOOOPs! It might polish out .....

[king derelict]

17 hours ago, mikegr said:

Does the kit include any barrel life rafts like these in the photo?

Hi Mike

Yes there are twelve of the canister life rafts provided. There are a series of PE side decks to install and the life rafts get added to them. I need to add the deck to the hull and then the superstructure to get to that bit.

Alan

[king derelict]

On 9/27/2021 at 9:52 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Lots of fine work there Alan,  you not tempted to have the hangar open with the Merlin/Lynx   inside?

 

OC.

Thank you kindly OC. Yes the hanger door will be open. The kit provides two Lynx helos so I may have one in the hanger and one on the pad "visiting"

[king derelict]

And just in time to avoid falling off the front page a late update. I've been spending a lot of time reading up on details for the corvette and playing about with the decks for that model so I rather lost my place with Montrose.

I had a couple of good days making some progress at last and also forgot to take photos at some points.

The lower hull had the red paint added and the boot topping. Its the first time I have done one (usually do waterline kits) and it took a few goes to get it acceptable.. It did reestablish my confidence in Tamiya masking tape. The first time I used it it took all teh paint off when I removed it. Since then I have used 3M blue tape and not had a problem. The boot topping really needed something finer so I went back to teh Tamiya tape and this time it worked like a charm. I must have done something wrong the first time.

I added the deck and then used the completed hull to start preparing the sea surface. I really liked Craig's (CDW) seascape using foil so I took a piece of 1 inch thick insulation board and carved out a groove for the hull , added crumpled foil and then covered the surface with a sheet of foil.

I then gave it a coat of white primer

I plan to use white glue and toilet paper to build up some wake and bow wave shapes. I'm aiming at a lazy Atlantic sea; nothing complex while I experiment with this.

I built up the Harpoon exhaust deflectors from the Trumpeter fret. The WE set doesn't provide anything for the deflectors. I think there is a resin piece in their kit. The exhaust grating is tint but goes together well

The superstructure elements have been installed on the deck and the first of the PE side decks that hold the life canisters have been made up and put in place. I added the main gun and the harpoon launchers and exhausts

 

 

Quite a lot of detail still to do, RIBs, Lynx, railings. This is turning into a very nice kit to work on. The Trumpeter PE is great. If they had provided the railings then the WE set would be unnecessary.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

37 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Thank you kindly OC. Yes the hanger door will be open. The kit provides two Lynx helos so I may have one in the hanger and one on the pad "visiting"

 

38 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Thank you kindly OC. Yes the hanger door will be open. The kit provides two Lynx helos so I may have one in the hanger and one on the pad "visiting"

That will look so cool.

 

OC.

[mikegr]

On 10/6/2021 at 2:47 AM, king derelict said:

And just in time to avoid falling off the front page a late update. 

 

 

That is another type of addiction.

Sometimes I compress my work time in order to post my updates regularly.😁

On the aerial picture I sent you can see the weird color of the Atlantic although this might be somewhere of North UK coast.

The problem with aluminum foil is that sea will look a bit messy as the waves are not pointing to a specific direction. Of course this does happen sometimes in reality its just for me looks a bit unusual.

[RGL]

Nice detail, I think I got most of my references from the Facebooks 

[king derelict]

14 hours ago, mikegr said:

That is another type of addiction.

Sometimes I compress my work time in order to post my updates regularly.😁

On the aerial picture I sent you can see the weird color of the Atlantic although this might be somewhere of North UK coast.

The problem with aluminum foil is that sea will look a bit messy as the waves are not pointing to a specific direction. Of course this does happen sometimes in reality its just for me looks a bit unusual.

Hi Mike

Yes, there are periods where the log seems to be pacing the build!

My plan with the sea scape is to add toilet paper soaked in dilute white glue to modify the sea and add some ordered swells as well as bow wave. I haven't done much of this so I'm not aiming for heroic seas but rather those quiet seas in the North Atlantic between the rough stuff

Alan

[king derelict]

14 hours ago, RGL said:

Nice detail, I think I got most of my references from the Facebooks 

Thanks Greg

Its an interesting change building a contemporary ship and being able to find lots of colour photos out there

Alan

[king derelict]

Slowly making progress in between reading up on corvettes.

I built the Lynx helicopters. Two are provided in the kit and have the option of rotors folded or in flight mode. I built one with the rotors folded to go in the hanger. The models are not that impressive and I dislike the clear plastic that they are moulded in. The undercarriage and sponsons are two pieces and its almost impossible to work out how they are put together. Starting again I would look for some after market ones I think. For the second one i removed the moulded tail rotor and added the WE PE one along with the WE PE main rotor. The PE wheels will get added after the decals as its all getting a bit fragile. Primer and light grey coats were added.

A dark grey wash has been added to the "show" Lynx and the timid one has been stuck in the hanger. My references suggests that the helos should really be Merlins but I'll stick with the Lynx. 

I found a lot of small details on the WE PE fret that could be added, antenna, approach light array for the hanger and other small items. I added the roll bars to the RIBs and put them on the side deck. I didn't like the plain black of the RIB tubes so I used a dark grey wash to add a bit of depth. I added the helo pad decals and the funnel and main gun decals because its going to be hard to reach those areas when the railings are in place. Then it was time to move onto the railings.

 

 

 

More work today and the railings are in place. The WE PE fret provides plenty of railings and shaped ones for the foredeck. I chose to cut them into shorter runs and used Gators Grip glue which gave me a bit more time for adjustment and easier clean up. I had to add a short piece to the foredeck railings; Trumpeter and WE seem to have different ideas about hull length and width  - or maybe Type 23s vary. The Dukes crown was added from the PE fret rather than the Trumpeter decal and a bit of weathering has been added to the helo pad

 

The Lynx was poked into the hanger before adding the aft safely nets

The aft safety nets are too wide for the Trumpeter hull but luckily the nets are made up of several sections of different widths so I was able to choose an appropriate piece to cut out. The remainder should hopefully fit.

In the end I used more of the WE PE than I thought. The two frets are shown together at the end of teh build. The Trumpeter fret is on the left

A few more decals and weathering; touch up and tidying and more time on teh sea scape.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

Very nice Alan  - all that detail  really pays off.

 

OC.

[mikegr]

7 hours ago, king derelict said:

Hi Mike

Yes, there are periods where the log seems to be pacing the build!

My plan with the sea scape is to add toilet paper soaked in dilute white glue to modify the sea and add some ordered swells as well as bow wave. I haven't done much of this so I'm not aiming for heroic seas but rather those quiet seas in the North Atlantic between the rough stuff

Alan

In that case you can also consider some watercolor paper bases