HMS Spiraea and HMS Zinnia by king derelict - Mirage Hobby - 1/350 - PLASTIC - Flower-Class Corvettes

[king derelict]

Well, its been a slow start after completing the Loarre castle. Cleaning a years worth of sanding dust off the work bench and pretty much everything else in the garage took some time. Then its been difficult deciding where to start again. I had lots of ideas and several boxes were opened and put away again. I wanted to build a ship but also wanted something relatively short but interesting with some PE to rehabilitate myself. The final choice was the Mirage Flower Class corvettes

The initial choice was HMS Zinnia and I got as far as assembling the hull before realising this was a relatively early Flower and didn't have the later style bridge so down came HMS Spirea and I started again. Mirage make four Flower kits and it looks like they all share the same hull but have different decks, superstructure and details. Zinnia was an early Flower but I can't determine whether she should have had a short forecastle or not. I think its just about possible she could have been built to the long forecastle standard. She was commissioned in April 1941 and sunk in August 1941 so she certainly was never refitted

The kits look quite good although there are some annoying placements of the sprue gates on the hull halves requiring some clean up before the deck can be fitted.

Curiously Zinnias hull was horrible to fit together and adding the aft deck was even worse. Spirea was much better and only a tiny mount of putty was needed to smooth it out.

 

Otherwise there are some lovely delicate details like the galley stove pipe and some clunky parts too. I am planning to use the White Ensign PE set as appropriate and some PE or resin substitutes for the armament.

I've been pondering the build order, trying to decide what to assemble before the basic painting (its been a while). I think the replacement PE bridge, radar and gun tub / bandstand will be too delicate to stand a lot of handling so I decided to add the basic plastic superstructure to the deck and paint the hull first and then the deck and then follow with the superstructure and details. I may paint myself into a corner!

 

So, the two hulls ready for primer. Spirea in front. This is my first attempt at 1/350 scale so some new techniques for me. I drilled out the portholes and the engine room ports and opened out the anchor fairleads

Then some Mig One Shot black primer

 

From here on I plan to concentrate on Spirea and work Zinnia if there is a pause. Its going to be too hard to get the wrong stuff on the wrong hull otherwise

I masked the hull and added the red bilge and then sprayed the decks

Next up some serious masking of the deck, paint the wooden deck sections and dip into the PE

 

My ambition for one of the models is a diorama (I can't seem to break the habit - but it will only be a small one - honest)

 

Here is the tease

 

This video has motivated me and I have had the photo in mind since building the 1/48 scale Campanula

 

Thanks for looking in. 

 

Alan

[AJohnson]

I'm here! 🤓

[Old Collingwood]

Nice  sharp looking kits  -  good  to see  you back  on some  ships.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

On 2/14/2024 at 4:32 PM, AJohnson said:

I'm here! 🤓

Welcome Andrew. Its strange to be abusing plastic again

Alan

[king derelict]

21 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Nice  sharp looking kits  -  good  to see  you back  on some  ships.

 

OC.

Thank you OC. It feels like learning all over again. The airbrush is sulking after being ignored for a year.

Alan

[king derelict]

I realised I omitted the link to the wave diorama yesterday.

 

Bing Videos

 

Its an impressive result and some interesting techniques which might be applicable.

 

Not a lot of progress today; mostly spent pondering options. I gave the upper hull a coat of medium grey thinking I might want to chip the hull as part of the weathering. Working at 1/350 might give me a bit more scope for showing a weather beaten and convoy weary escort ship

 

I also seem to have hit my first problem area. The kit provides the paint scheme for Spirea which agrees well with the Flower Class Corvette book I have. 

 

 

I am probably going with the earlier scheme of MS-4, MS-4A and Pb-10. I already have the Pb-10 but I haven't found anyone selling MS-4 or MS-4A. I may have to make up some mixtures which will be a first for me. I need to be careful because I don't think I can paint everything of the same colour at the same time. The MS-4A looks like a light grey with a touch of blue. The MS-4 seems to be a light buff. Some interesting masking ahead

 

Thanks for looking in, comments and likes

 

Alan

[king derelict]

I am afraid things are moving much slower than I hoped. Life at the test stand has got busy again so I am back on the 3pm to midnight routine and that doesn't seem to leave a lot of spare time to work on the model. Little bits have been done here and there. I dug around the paint colours and found that MS4 is actually light grey and MS4A is grey green. I have some Tamiya IJN grey green and that seems to match the paint chips and the colour plate of Spirea in the Flower Corvette book. In the absence of any conflicting information I decided to go with that. The hull and basic superstructure was masked and sprayed with the MS4 and MS4A colours and then masked for the dark blue Pb10. That was when I learnt a useful but annoying lesson about air brushing. So far I have mostly used Tamiya, Vallejo and Mig acrylics and got on quite well with them gradually moving over to Mig for the wider colour range. I've diluted them all with Tamiya acrylic thinner which has uniformly worked well.

The Pb10 is part of a set from AK interactive that I acquired somewhere and never used. My first attempt to spray it ended up with spluttering and then nothing. The airbrush cup was full of sludge. I cleaned it out and tried again after shaking the paint some more and wondering if it was too old even though it was unopened. This was no better and attempting a last try I realised that the problem came from adding the thinner. As soon as the thinner went in the paint curdled. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the airbrush and I thought the nozzle was ruined because it was solidly blocked with the sludge and seemed to have set. As a last resort I left it in a cup of alcohol and then poked it with an acupuncture needle and it cleaned up nicely. I rebuilt the airbrush and went back to the Pb10 now diluted with water (thats what it says on the box) and it sprayed on rather wetly but evenly. So now I have learnt about water based and alcohol based acrylics and need to be more careful about how I thin them. The internet seems divided about whether you can use Tamiya thinner with AK acrylics.

So somewhere under this mess is a Flower corvette hull

After letting it all dry off came the tape.

I ws initially unhappy with how this came out but its been sat for a few days and I am beginning to think its worth continuing. I think the issue with the AK paint annoyed me (my fault) and overshadowed what was going on. I'm also conscious that I am feeling a need to rush because of the limited time in the morning and that is spoiling the satisfaction too. I will clean up some of the details in the paint scheme and at least see how the chipping works out before making a decision on whether to strip and try again. I also want to do some basic weathering before adding the mostly PE sections to the hull

Next week is supposed to be a quieter week so I hope to get back at this again then. Apologies for the delay.

Thanks for looking in and the likes.

Alan

 

 

 

[yvesvidal]

After the 1/48th 3D printed model, this kit must be minuscule, by comparison. You truly have a love for these Corvettes and I understand and share your obsession, too.

 

Yves

[Old Collingwood]

Complex  masking is  always  a  challenge  and at  smaller  scales  even more  so,   I understand   where   you come from  with  feeling rushed,  it takes away the  enjoyement  and  relaxed  building  time.

 

I think its  looking Super  mate.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

2 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

After the 1/48th 3D printed model, this kit must be minuscule, by comparison. You truly have a love for these Corvettes and I understand and share your obsession, too.

 

Yves

Hi Yves

I do have a great affection for the Flowers. My uncle was in the RN during the war and served on escorts, mostly East Coast convoys but later up to Iceland. 

The Cruel Sea is an unforgettable book for me and captures the boredom, misery and dangers of convoy duties in a masterly manner.

I hope there will be a few more Flowers from me over time.

Alan

[king derelict]

55 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

Complex  masking is  always  a  challenge  and at  smaller  scales  even more  so,   I understand   where   you come from  with  feeling rushed,  it takes away the  enjoyement  and  relaxed  building  time.

 

I think its  looking Super  mate.

 

OC.

Thank you very much OC. I'm feeling better about it now that it has sat for a bit. I was just so frustrated about the mess I made with my airbrush. I had a quick look this morning and I plan to touch p a few bits and press on. i meant to point out that the blue haze on the light grey at the stern of the first picture (masks removed) is just an artifact of the photos. It was the first thing I checked this morning and its not overspray. Whew

Alan

[king derelict]

I was excused from the test site today and therefore made a little progress. I started on the PE structures. The White Ensign PE fret looks very good and so far is folding well but for this set the instructions are very vague. I made up the bridge and sonar cabin very happy to be back folding brass, then I dropped the front structure of the bridge and had to virtually disassemble the work bench to find it. Unfortunately in the process of searching for the missing piece I managed to sweep away one of the venturi pieces and after two hours searching I still cannot find it. I have a second set of PE for the other Flowers so I could raid that sheet. I think early Flowers may not have had the venturis. I'm not even sure that Spirea had them. I don't see them in the colour plate of Spirea in the book and they don't show on the box art (highly authorative source!). Actually I haven't found them on many Flower photos online but they do look like a challenge to fit. I may see how I get on with the other side first. The instructions are horrible for this particular area. It looks like there are braces to hold the venturi panels in front of the bridge with the open slots folded back onto the upper edge of the bridge front. The remaining venturi piece can be seen just below the railing 

As light relief after the PE debacle I decided to see if the chipping fluid would work after multiple layers of paint on top of it and an extended drying period. Actually it worked quite well. Photos of home bound Flowers show them to be very beaten up with huge areas of paint missing. With a stiff toothbrush and a cocktail stick I worked the forward half of the hull over and ended up with some serious scruffiness. I'll be adding rust streaks next. It may be a little excessive but I have seen photos that show much worse.

 

 

 

I finally got fed up with my homemade box for spraying and got this. I generally use acrylics but would prefer not to breathe even fumes from them and I would like to try lacquer paints after seeing the results on this forum. The lighting is considerably better with 4 led arrays and the vent fan will make things a bit more comfortable.

Thank you for looking in and for the likes

 

Alan

 

[king derelict]

Another day of absenteeism from work and some slow progress building up the major PE structures. The White Ensign set is not one of their best, some of the PE items don't even look like those shown in the instructions but I am slowly muddling through. 

I never did find the missing venturi so I used one from my second PE set. I don't think Zinnia will need the parts. I have realised that putting the black primer on before making up the parts was a silly idea. The black makes it hard to see the tabs that hold the part in the fret and it obscures the fold lines. It also makes it harder to assemble accurately being all black on black.

So the bridge with the early radar lantern and the enclosed compass platform is complete. The replacement venturi is the brass one

The 4 inch gun bandstand

The 2 pdr gun tub 

 

As a bit of light relief I started adding weathering to the hull. I dirtied up the wooden decks and started adding rust at the port holes and scuttles along the hull. More or less complete on one side.

I am back on the test site for a twelve hour shift tomorrow and Friday so I don't expect any progress untill teh weekend

 

Thanks for looking in and the likes.

 

Alan

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Looking good  Alan,   PE  work  is  always   one of those   "Hold  your breath"  type  things.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

4 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Looking good  Alan,   PE  work  is  always   one of those   "Hold  your breath"  type  things.

 

OC.

Thank you OC. And now i realise that moving to 1/350 doesn't really make it easier. Its a bigger scale but now you can detail tinier elements. The braces for the venturis are absolutely tiny and there are ready use ammo holders for the 4 inch gun that are ridiculously small. I'm undecided whether to even try them If they escape the tweezers they will be lost forever.

Alan.

[mikegr]

11 hours ago, king derelict said:

Thank you OC. And now i realise that moving to 1/350 doesn't really make it easier. Its a bigger scale but now you can detail tinier elements. The braces for the venturis are absolutely tiny and there are ready use ammo holders for the 4 inch gun that are ridiculously small. I'm undecided whether to even try them If they escape the tweezers they will be lost forever.

Alan.

There is no cure. Whatever the scale there always will be tiny things that have to be worked with absolute precision. Its just the amount of work that differs like painting hulls in 1/200 instead on 1/700

[king derelict]

4 hours ago, mikegr said:

There is no cure. Whatever the scale there always will be tiny things that have to be worked with absolute precision. Its just the amount of work that differs like painting hulls in 1/200 instead on 1/700

Mike

You are right. The tiny parts just represent smaller items as the scale increases. The challenge remains

This is just a deviation from my usual 1/700 because I couldn't resist a few more Flower corvettes.

Alan

[king derelict]

Work resumed its busy schedule and long hours so no progress was made last week. Then on Tuesday we managed to set fire to the back of the test cell and now I have a ten day rest period while the welders get busy. No damage to the engine or crew thankfully. 

I've been starting to work on the details. I'm starting to like the Mirage kit; the plastic is quite robust even in the thin sections and the detail is nice. Removing the parts is a bit of a challenge. See the galley chimney in the fret below

 

I decided to keep the kit plastic mast and yardarm, its better than the 2D PE offering. I made two investments to help ease the thin parts off the sprues. A decent razor saw replaces the nasty thing ay right. The teeth are too large and it really drags at the plastic increasing the risk of breaking the part. The new ones are very smooth and cut quickly

A fine nipper has also been a great help

I also dipped my toes into the world of resin aftermarket parts. The kit 4 inch gun is actually quite good. The 2 pounder is okay and the 20mm Oerlikons are reasonable but I decided to get resin replacements for the 4inch gun

and the 2pdr

These make the Oerlikons look clumsy so I ordered some resin parts to use there too. These are all Black Cat parts and I think its going to be hard to go back to PE after seeing these. Naturally the aftermarket stuff reduces the cost of the kit to a small part of the whole experience.

After priming and adding the light grey to the guns I finished weathering the hull. 

I have also painted the PE structures in light grey and I think I am at the point of being able to add them to the hull and start building up teh detail.

 

Thanks for looking in and the likes

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work  Alan,    and  some   nice  tools  there.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking great Alan!  I love the Flower Class corvettes.

[king derelict]

On 3/15/2024 at 6:50 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Excellent work  Alan,    and  some   nice  tools  there.

 

OC.

Thank you very much OC. It sometimes feels like I’m learning all over again. The razor saw is a very useful tool, I’d be breaking the fine parts everywhere without it.

Alan

[king derelict]

23 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looking great Alan!  I love the Flower Class corvettes.

Thank you Mike. I was a bit nervous of the Mirage kits but they are really quite nice with decent detail. I wish they made a short forecastle version but I suppose it impacts the tooling and costs. I have the four ships that they make, some have PE for railings others not. The White Ensign PE is good for the later bridges and different radar lanterns but quite a bit of it won’t get used.

Alan

[Landlubber Mike]

1 hour ago, king derelict said:

Thank you Mike. I was a bit nervous of the Mirage kits but they are really quite nice with decent detail. I wish they made a short forecastle version but I suppose it impacts the tooling and costs. I have the four ships that they make, some have PE for railings others not. The White Ensign PE is good for the later bridges and different radar lanterns but quite a bit of it won’t get used.

Alan

I have the Revell 1/144 Snowberry kit with Pontos set (bought from a member here a few years ago) and the Revell 1/72 kit with the David Parsons upgrades.  Would love to start building them, but want to get my skills up a bit to do them justice.  Those Mirage kits look quite nice, especially at that scale.

[king derelict]

On 3/16/2024 at 10:17 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

I have the Revell 1/144 Snowberry kit with Pontos set (bought from a member here a few years ago) and the Revell 1/72 kit with the David Parsons upgrades.  Would love to start building them, but want to get my skills up a bit to do them justice.  Those Mirage kits look quite nice, especially at that scale.

Mike

As I am working through this (slow) build I am finding I rather like the Mirage Flowers. They are more accurate than I initially expected and with some aftermarket bits mixed in they are coming together nicely in my eyes.

Work is slowing me down more than I would like unfortunately

Alan

[king derelict]

Well two weeks seems to have disappeared forever. Work is currently on a noon to midnight pattern so not much else is getting done.. A little progress is being made at the weekends but its slow. I'm finding the usual Flower problem; very little information on individual configurations. I have found one (IWM) photo of Spiraea and that shows the bridge and mast configuration to be as the Mirage kit and not as in the profile in the Lambert Flowers book. It also shows a number of ventilators that aren't present in either model or book. The paint scheme doesn't match either. Zinnia will be harder (or easier depending on how you look at it) as I haven't found any images on line and she is not shown in Lamberts book.

I'm at the stage of fitting the PE and small details. The PE is binging the model up nicely although the interface with the kit is a bit dodgy in places. The PE 4 inch bandstand sits too high and had to be cut down as did the 2 pounder gun tub. There is going to be a lot of unused PE in the WE set. Some parts are for different standards of Flowers and others are too fiddly to use (4 inch ammunition clips) or are too flat to look good (secondary weapons). As noted elsewhere there is a risk of using PE just because its there.

No photos today. I'm writing this at work (Shhh) and can't upload photos.

The next decision will be whether to add rigging. Its an easy decision to not do it at 1/700 but at 1/350 I need to think about it, at least in a simplified form.

 

Alan

[king derelict]

I can't believe how fast time is slipping by. Too much time at work doesn't help but today I wasn't needed so after fixing the ice maker, replacing wipers on the car and changing out the blown license plate bulb (one of the disadvantages of driving home from work at midnight - if there is anything wrong with the car you're a magnet for bored cops) then it was time to do a little work.

I've had the hot wire cutter out to get the basic shape of the seascape. Its not a precision tool - at least in my hands but this would be difficult with a knife.

I think the basic form is good. Now I think I will need to start building up the sides and improve the shape. Possibly with Scultamold.

 

I'm adding the details and its great watching the model start to come alive. So far I am enjoying adding the PE. The White Ensign stuff seems nicely "dead" no real spring which makes bending easier.

A lot of small parts from the kit; mostly ventilators. I'm working on the rafts and boats off the model but did add the one mounted on the depth charge racks. That seems an unusual location and there is nothing to confirm it on any of the images of any Flower in Lambeth's book - but the one photo of Spiraea on the IWM site clearly shows the raft on the racks so good job Mirage. But now I notice I was too hasty and didn't add straps to hold the raft in place. Uff.

I did get brave and add the stays to the funnel which used up several months allocation of bad language. Trying to get the thread to adhere to the upper section of the funnel was difficult and eventually accomplished with bits of masking tape (and shameful words)

I think I have the forecastle railings, the weaponry, rafts and dinghies to add and a general tidy up. I've used Black Cat resin for the 4 inch QF, Oerlikons and 2 pounder and very nice they are.

 

I made up the twin Lewis guns from the White Ensign PE and they stretch my eyesight.

They even have separate magazines in the fret (about 1 mm in diameter). I think they are better than the kit parts

I had been wondering what they were on and on through the build and the penny finally dropped. I think the PE is a bit of an improvement.

 

Slow progress but its enjoyable. The Mirage kits are not going to get confused with Flyhawk but they are nice to work with and the detail is generally good. There are few location indications and the instructions are vague in places (and the part numbering is wrong in several places) but I suppose they are juggling four different configurations of the basic model). Its proving to be a fun return after a year of filing stone blocks

Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments

Alan

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Some nice work  going on there  -  cant wait  to  see  more  as  you progress  with them.

 

OC.

[yvesvidal]

This is going to be a spectacular diorama.

 

Yves

[king derelict]

On 4/10/2024 at 8:37 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Some nice work  going on there  -  cant wait  to  see  more  as  you progress  with them.

 

OC.

Thank you OC. Its amazing how much I had forgotten while I was working on the castle. I'm fairly happy with this so far but I am glad I hadn't dived back into something like Flyhawks Illustrious

Alan

[king derelict]

On 4/11/2024 at 9:11 AM, yvesvidal said:

This is going to be a spectacular diorama.

 

Yves

Thanks Yves

I hope I can pull it off

Alan