HMS Lance by king derelict - FINISHED - Flyhawk - 1/700 - PLASTIC

[king derelict]

I was all set to start SMS Lutsow but I made the mistake of looking at the PE set which includes the torpedo nets and my nerve broke! They look delicate and horribly fiddly.

So I decided to reenter the 1/700 world in easy stages and lifted Flyhawks HMS Lance off the shelf. This is the deluxe kit with metal barrels and two sheets of PE, mostly railings and davits. I'm not sure i will used the PE davits; the plastic ones look very good and are three dimensional.

A box full of parts along with a nice card with the art work on it. Instructions for the kit and then instructions for the PE so there is the need to cross reference. I tend to go over the kit instructions and make up where the PE parts will take the place of the plastic part number.

1/700 scale seems to have got smaller while I have been away playing with 1/72 armour and the corvette. The PE is thin and fragile. There won't be many second chances

The overall plan is to put the decks on the hull and then build up the superstructure separately as much as possible and hopefullu avoid some masking marathons.

So the bridge structure has been started with the tiny pieces of bridge equipment added and the first bits of PE

I hope everyone has a great Christmas

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

That looks like  a Beauty Alan  - so love these Flyhawk kits  - I know you will make a Superb job of her.

 

If I dont catch before the big day  - have a  great one mate.

 

OC.

[mikegr]

 So many stuff for a tiny model.

 

Good luck. Size doesn't matter. Can be impressive as much as its bigger cousins.

Edited December 25, 2021 by mikegr

[Boydie]

I've built her, great little kit I'm sure you'll enjoy. PE is paper thin so be careful with it, but I'm sure you've already found that out.

[Old Collingwood]

Just found out  we have a connection through our builds  -  HMS Penelope, HMS  Lance  and my   HMS  Aurora  all served together  in  November 1941  in Force K    - cool.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Nice start King D - looks like a great kit.  I have the Lutsow too and the nets are a little intimidating.  This will be a nice one to cut your teeth on!

[king derelict]

Back to tiny world with a vengeance today. I'm still building the modules that will be painted before assembly and then PE is being added in places as part of that. As @Boydie noted the PE is very thin and the hinges of the folds are well perforated so I don't think there would be a second chance if you bend the wrong way. I was trying to go slowly to minimise that problem. 

The breakwater for the foredeck was a good example. Just the flexing of the part as I was cutting it from the fret saw three of the ribs breaking away from the breakwater. Actually I found it easier to cut them all off and then glue the breakwater to the deck. Once the breakwater was solidly set i attached the ribs. At least that way I wasn't dealing with trying keep everything in place and orientation at the same time. However the little triangles are tiny.

 

I decided that the plastic gun barrels on the 4 inch guns were good enough to retain. I think anything I gained in the neatness of teh brass barrel would be lost in the lack of neatness in drilling the tiny holes in the barrel stubs to hold the brass barrels

I'm definitely working at my PE limit. This is the mainmast platform

The plastic mainmast is very well done by Flyhawk but I thought the brass version might be better so I assembled the main components without too much trouble. I made up the plastic version to get the correct placements of the brass parts. The antenna at the top of the mainmast is a very fragile piece and two of the H antenna broke away as I was folding them to the correct angle. I managed to find the broken pieces and glue them in place (approximately). Its not as tidy as I would like but it might look OK once painted (if it survives the airbrush).

The photo shows one of the ribs for the breakwater and above it one of the H antenna

 

Thanks for looking in and all the helpful comments

Alan

 

 

 

[king derelict]

On 12/23/2021 at 8:49 PM, Old Collingwood said:

That looks like  a Beauty Alan  - so love these Flyhawk kits  - I know you will make a Superb job of her.

 

If I dont catch before the big day  - have a  great one mate.

 

OC.

Thank you OC. I hope I can live up to it.

Flyhawk manage to pack an awful lot into such a tiny kit. Lots of tiny parts and PE, Just as much fun as a big one. 

I hope the Christmas season is going well

Alan

[king derelict]

On 12/25/2021 at 9:16 AM, mikegr said:

 So many stuff for a tiny model.

 

Good luck. Size doesn't matter. Can be impressive as much as its bigger cousins.

Thanks Mike

There is plenty to work on in this little destroyer

Alan

[king derelict]

On 12/25/2021 at 5:50 PM, Boydie said:

I've built her, great little kit I'm sure you'll enjoy. PE is paper thin so be careful with it, but I'm sure you've already found that out.

Thanks Boydie. Its fun so far but you are right about the PE. Some of the parts are breaking away in the frets just from moving them about.

Alan

[king derelict]

On 12/25/2021 at 11:05 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Just found out  we have a connection through our builds  -  HMS Penelope, HMS  Lance  and my   HMS  Aurora  all served together  in  November 1941  in Force K    - cool.

 

OC.

I'm looking forward to your Aurora build. That looks like a great kit. I might have to get it to complete the Force K set. 

[king derelict]

On 12/25/2021 at 11:33 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Nice start King D - looks like a great kit.  I have the Lutsow too and the nets are a little intimidating.  This will be a nice one to cut your teeth on!

Thank you Mike. Well the PE on Lance is certainly recalibrating my eyes back to 1/700 detail

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

33 minutes ago, king derelict said:

I'm looking forward to your Aurora build. That looks like a great kit. I might have to get it to complete the Force K set. 

Go for It  Alan.

 

OC.

[Boydie]

22 hours ago, king derelict said:

Thanks Boydie. Its fun so far but you are right about the PE. Some of the parts are breaking away in the frets just from moving them about.

Alan

 

You're doing a great job so far. Sometimes I found it easier cutting the PE apart at the folds then just gluing them back together again when I had already placed it on the model. 

[king derelict]

On 12/28/2021 at 6:24 PM, Boydie said:

 

You're doing a great job so far. Sometimes I found it easier cutting the PE apart at the folds then just gluing them back together again when I had already placed it on the model. 

Thank you Boydie. This PE seems thinner than the usual Flyhawk stuff. Thankfully there aren't any really complex structures to fold up. The tripod mast seems to have all the horrors

Alan

[king derelict]

Happy New Year All. I hope you had a great holiday season.

I've been making slow progress in short sessions and haven't had a chance to catch up the log. Some photos also got omitted but nothing serious.

The sub assemblies, parts on the sprues, PE frets and the hull all got a coat of the Vallejo black primer. The hull got a coat of Tamiya XF24 after masking the hull the decks got the deck grey.

Its difficult to see the difference between the hull and the deck.

The decks were then masked

The superstructures were painted with 507C along with the majority of the parts still on sprues and the PE frets.

Now its back to the Flyhawk magic. Those tiny pieces that make up the details.

These are the capstans for the foredeck

New year and a new cutting mat. I'm hoping small parts might show up better than on the dark green one. My clumsy handling of the epoxy glue has spoilt the old one. New magnifying glasses too. The old ones just failed at the side pieces - again.

The superstructures and main guns have been added and the detail is starting to build up. Still a a lot of parts on the sprues and in the PE frets

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy that I didn't bother with the brass gun barrels; the plastic ones are not really clumsy. That pink mat seems to have messed up the colour balance in the photos. I'll do better next time.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by king derelict
Removed surplus photo

[Old Collingwood]

That is looking really nice Alan  - so much detail on these kits  - the biggest hurdle  (to me anyway)  is cleaning delicate things up  off the sprues.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking great!  Lots of detail for sure!

 

[king derelict]

22 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

That is looking really nice Alan  - so much detail on these kits  - the biggest hurdle  (to me anyway)  is cleaning delicate things up  off the sprues.

 

OC.

Thank you kindly OC. I know what you mean; I suppose its the downside of the delicate Flyhawk mouldings. The thin mats and booms are really difficult to get cleanly off the sprues. I have started cutting those pieces out of the sprue away from the part and then cleaning it up by cutting close in once its separated from the main frame. It gives me better access and puts less stress on the part I think.

Alan

[king derelict]

21 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looking great!  Lots of detail for sure!

 

Thank you Mike

The detail on the plastic is amazing. If they provided railings, ladders and the bigger gun barrels i could probably manage without the full deluxe kits. The plastic davits are better than the PE on this one I think

Alan

[king derelict]

I suffered a minor setback today. I was dry fitting the main mast and managed to drop it as i was trying to line up the three legs. I managed to repair it but it also needed to get a better paint job so attention switched to the PE railings. I focussed on the upper decks at the aft end of the ship because I'm likely to forget myself and put my stubby fingers in the wrong places when I make a second attempt at getting the mast in. 

 

So far so good. I then spent an inordinate amount of time on the first depth charge rails. Folding the body was quite straightforward but setting the solid floor in the frame was extremely vexing. I think this is adequate but after leaving it alone for a while I think I have a better way to do it and there is also a spare set of parts so I can choose the best of three.

Tomorrow the Christmas decorations have to come down so progress might be a bit slower than usual

Thank you for looking in

Alan

[king derelict]

I did find that all three depth charge rails are needed so the first one will go in the middle where it is harder to see the detail. I made up the others by making the first fold and then gluing the solid floor onto the side frame and letting it dry before folding up the rest of the rail frames. The Gators Grip glue worked well. The slight elasticity that remains when the glue has set means that it floor didn't ping off while being worked around. The picture shows one set of rails completed and the last one in process

The I fitted the repaired main mast and this time it dropped into place first time. I had taken the precaution of putting a little Gators Grip on the forward leg but no fiddling was necessary this time.

Then it was back to adding the PE ladders and continuing with the railings. So far it is going nicely although the PE is very flimsy.

 

 

I'll finish all the upper deck railings and then add the depth charger throwers and rafts and boats before the main deck railings.

 

Thanks for looking 

 

Alan

 

[Old Collingwood]

1 hour ago, king derelict said:

I did find that all three depth charge rails are needed so the first one will go in the middle where it is harder to see the detail. I made up the others by making the first fold and then gluing the solid floor onto the side frame and letting it dry before folding up the rest of the rail frames. The Gators Grip glue worked well. The slight elasticity that remains when the glue has set means that it floor didn't ping off while being worked around. The picture shows one set of rails completed and the last one in process

The I fitted the repaired main mast and this time it dropped into place first time. I had taken the precaution of putting a little Gators Grip on the forward leg but no fiddling was necessary this time.

Then it was back to adding the PE ladders and continuing with the railings. So far it is going nicely although the PE is very flimsy.

 

 

I'll finish all the upper deck railings and then add the depth charger throwers and rafts and boats before the main deck railings.

 

Thanks for looking 

 

Alan

 

Looking smart  Alan,  I think the  tissue paper PE  will  be our lasting memory  of these kits,   I have  worked out  - trying to rush/fit to much of it in one go  - spells disater, best to do a bit  - do something  different on the build then come back to the PE.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

On 1/6/2022 at 9:03 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Looking smart  Alan,  I think the  tissue paper PE  will  be our lasting memory  of these kits,   I have  worked out  - trying to rush/fit to much of it in one go  - spells disater, best to do a bit  - do something  different on the build then come back to the PE.

 

OC.

Thank you kindly OC. I swear the PE is thinner than the norm for Flyhawk. The PE davits are actually too thin I think. The plastic ones might be a but chunky but the PE ones are like hairs stuck on the model. I had to use a couple because the plastic ones were damaged and i don't like them too much.

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

Im still  debating  about putting my main ship  railings on - as I just feel in real life at the  scale distance  we would view  the model from  - they would probably not be seen.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

All the upper deck PE is installed and the lockers, depth chargers and throwers are placed on the main decks. A late Christmas present showed up today.

The scissors are very nice and should allow precise cutting. They seem sharp and well made. The blue tool is a pair of fine tweezers. I'm still getting used to them. They seem good for control when placing small parts but at the moment I am experiencing a higher percentage of "ping" events with small parts departing the tweezers at speed. That is probably my lack of familiarity.

So, touch up of the paint and washes are next. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking

Alan

[king derelict]

On 1/8/2022 at 7:36 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Im still  debating  about putting my main ship  railings on - as I just feel in real life at the  scale distance  we would view  the model from  - they would probably not be seen.

 

OC.

Thats a good point OC. I do like the look of the railings it somehow finishes the model off. On the other hand I don't usually add the rigging. In 1/700 its almost invisible and I fear the load on the delicate masts. I have a couple of the easy IBG destroyer kits to experiment on but at a foot or so the rigging just isn't visible.

Alan

[king derelict]

Slow progress I'm afraid due to really poor planning of the flow of work. Most of the time being lost waiting for paints and washes to dry.

The last major jobs before the railings were the boats and rafts. With the superb example set by @Old Collingwood with his boats for the Hood i felt I had to improve my game if I could. The rafts were given brown washes over the tan planking. The highlights on the sides are still a bit bright but the final washes will subdue it. The rafts were fitted.on the racks with Gators Grip glue

 

 

 

The davits for the boats were made up with the PE ladders (which will be virtually unseen in the final assembly). The boats were detailed with black and brown oil washes

And added to the ship

At this point, ready to move to the railings I suddenly realised I had a boat still on the sprue. There is a fourth boat that lives on chocks on teh port side and I had missed it. That will now be painted and detailed.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work Alan,  those  small details and the boats  look a real treat  - so hard to paint aswell  due to their tiny Size,     she is such a busy looking ship  but so  handsome,    did you ever watch the  warfilm  In which we Serve  - that was about  HMS Kelly    similar  type of Destroyer  as yours.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Thank you for the kind words OC. I value them. Getting the davits and boats into place was a bit of a breath holder. 

I have seen In Which We Serve and I have the Flyhawk Kelly on the shelf to add to the destroyer fleet. Lovely little kits.

Alan