Baltimore is finished - Please comment it's my first ship

Is that thing 1/700th? 

I'm far from an expert but I like it.  I do have a question or two:

  Is the anchor supposed to be the same color as the camoflage:

  What about painting the windows, portholes and rafts?

ikar01 wrote:

Is that thing 1/700th?  I'm far from an expert but I like it.  I do have a question or two:   Is the anchor supposed to be the same color as the camoflage:   What about painting the windows, portholes and rafts?

Yes the anchor would be the same color as the bow patch.  Fresh out of the yard, definately.   After a few uses it may be more worn & rusted.

Yes, the bridge windows & ports could stand a touch with a fine-tipped black Sharpie to blacken them.  

No, the liferafts & liferings are supposed to be painted the same as the surrounding camouflage.

Looks good overall Don, especially for a first ship - and in small scale too.   IKAR's points about the bridge windows are good.  And when I looked at the anchor it appears that it may be upside down.  The fluke points should be pointing upward or inclined aft 30 to 45 degrees.  Yours appear to be pointing down.

Truth in advertizing -- I've seen the thing in the flesh in progress.

 

 

Thanks for the help guys.  Happy Holidays Ed.

Good thing I glued the anchor on with Testor's for clear plastic.  It will come right off.  I followed the instruction diagram...silly me.  I kept trying to decide where the windows were and gave up.  I'll take another look under the magnifier and see if I can find them.  There are a bunch of circular hatches around the front end of the superstructure that have covers on them.  I thought they were the bridge.  I'll figure it out.

FYI it's the 1/700 scale kit from Trumpeter with the White Ensign PE set added.  From everything I've read and discussed with other ship builders the rafts should be the same color as the camo they are located at as the anchors if I'm looking at the pictures correctly.  Once I get them right side up of course.

dcaponeII wrote:

Thanks for the help guys.  Happy Holidays Ed. Good thing I glued the anchor on with Testor's for clear plastic.  It will come right off.  I followed the instruction diagram...silly me.  I kept trying to decide where the windows were and gave up.  I'll take another look under the magnifier and see if I can find them.  There are a bunch of circular hatches around the front end of the superstructure that have covers on them.  I thought they were the bridge.  I'll figure it out.

Hi Don.   Happy Holidays back at'cha!

I'm doing the Pittburgh after she lost her bow in a typhoon.   I've already cut the bow back to the wooden deck break.   I won't be using the anchors, so if you butcher yours I can replace them for you.    Don't worry about the windows right now.   I'll bring an  extra-fine rapiograph-type pen to the next meeting & show you how to blacken them easily

Overall it is an excellent job, especially given that it's your first ship.  I agree that windows could use either definition with a fine-tipped sharpie or, if covered, with a dark wash.  I would also try rigging the ship.  I have seen it done with fine nylon line, fishing line, or even human hair!  But, please do not construe these comments as detracting from your model; it is an outstanding job!

Bill Morrison

Unfortunately a lot of my human hair isn't the right color anymore.  Ed at least I'll expect you'll show me where the windows are at least (if I don't find them first)

It's a good first build. A couple of points

Bearing in mind, "It's your kit, build it how you want:" 

-Bridge windows: if they are large, rectangular windows will look better if you blacken them. However, the round portholes had metal covers that were painted the same color as the camouflage around them so leaving them unblackened would be closer to appearance to an unopened porthole.

-Some of your 20mms are the lighter gray color; generally they were painted to match the camouflage of the buklhead inboard of them, so if the bulkhead was Navy blue, so were the shields and pedastals, and if it was Ocean Gray, so were the shields and pedastals.

- Not all deck edges had railings. Some areas around the twin 5" mounts did not so that the turretcould turn and because they turret would theoretically block someone from getting near the edge in that area. This is one of those "check your references" types of details as it varied. 

- Camouflage measures called for all horizontal surfaces to be a specific color. On yours it look slike you have the wood decks in blue, and left the metal decks up higher in gray. In actuality they would be painted deck blue as well.

 

Still, very well done for a first effort! 

Thanks for the tips.  I was wondering about those upper decks.  I figured out from photos that the 40mm gun tubs needed the deck blue coloring so I went back and applied an acrylic wash using the fine tipped brush.  By flooding the area with wash I got a pretty good demarcation line between the floor and the sidewalls.  I'll try the same thing on the upper deck areas.  I've got a couple of high res photos that showed one of the 5" gun turrets with the railing going along side of it so I just made the assumption that the railing went all the way round.  I'll see if I can find a few more photos and take out railings where appropriate.  I haven't actually figured out where the bridge windows are on this ship.  There are a bunch of round windows with closed hatch covers that I thought were the bridge but I could be mistaken.  A bit of additional wash will bring them out.  I've been applying a wash just slightly darker than the base colors to bring our the details on ladders and such and can do the same thing around the hatches and windows.

I'll double check the 20mm mounts and paint them accordingly.  I hadn't thought about those too much while straining to install them.  I should have used the kit supplied ones but they just looked too heavy for the rest of the ship.

Very nice...I can only echo what others have pointed out, especially concerning the bridge windows, etc...darkening these will add a lot of "pop" to the overall look...also, even if you aren't into intense rigging, just rig the major lines (don't worry about every last one)...that also will add a lot of mileage to your model...also, are the top of the funnels supposed to be a darker color or are they supposed to be all the same color?

Did you brush paint this? I love the camo... 

Thanks for the comments. On one side the funnel is haze grey but on the other side it's the light grey.  Most of the camo is masked and airbrushed.  I did smaller sections on the superstructure by hand brushing.  I'm going back now and fixing the upper decks by hand painting them deck blue instead of the light grey I left them before.  This is tough but manageable in most places.  I'll apply a wash afterward to smooth everything out.

I'll take a crack at rigging when I get the deck colors sorted out.  I think I found the bridge windows and will try and tackle those during the finishing up phase.

My problem with rigging is that I can't find any good references for where and what and how many lines should be where.  Ashley's book is helpful but not ship specfic and with so little knowledge of crusiers I don't know what is right or wrong.  A biplane I can do easily but until I find a decent reference for where the lines go I'm going to hold off.

Check Norman Polmar's book on American Cruisers.  Also, check the web pages for BALTIMORE's veterans.  A Google search will lead you to it.  You will find many reference pictures there.

Bill Morrison

Hi, your Baltimore looks good. Can't offer too much more than what has already been said. If you try rigging you can probably do just enough to indicate the rigging. Fine nylon "invisible" thread preferably in "smoke" color but clear will also do. Most good craft or sewing shops should have it. You can probably use a tiny drop of slow zap to secure one end, let it dry and then do the other end. Old time ship modelers that I know also advise working from in-board to out-board (seems to help keep the fingers out of what you've already done). One source of pictures that might help is www.navsource.org there's lots of photos so you might have to go through several to find ones that are clear enought. Also might want to look at pictures of other ships in the same class. Most rigging on modern warships especially WW2 consisted of "long-wire" high frequency transmit/receive antennas sometimes running between foremast and mainmast. I believe in WW2 they were made of braided phosphor-bronze or copper wire but they will darken immediately due to corrosion and stack gasses. The modern ones are covered with a tough rubberized finish usually black in color. The only other "rigging" would be signal halyards running down from the yardarms to the signal flag boxes (called flag bags) located on the signal bridge. Sorry this post is kinda long-winded, hope there's something here you can use. 

Thanks for the tips Rick.  I've got the upper decks painted deck blue now.  Got the anchors turned right side up (and added a couple of links of anchor chain to match a photo I got from navsource.  Still haven't rigged it yet but I'm working up the courage.

Merry Christmas

It look very good. But perhaps, riggings will improve it further more.

Nicely done , especially for a first attempt. You've already seem to have adressed the minor flaws that I saw in the pics, so I just say go ahead and try rigging it. A method that I use involves precoloring and folding back {so that you have a very tight hairpin shape} a piece of fine wire { .006 inch diameter seems to work best for me } then glueing the V shaped end into a predrilled hole on the deck or in the flagbag. Once dry, then glue the free ends to the yardarm to have two signal lines. Alternate between port and starboard on the mast so that you keep the tension even and not get a mast that leans to one side. After all lines are secure then trim the excess from the top. Again, an impressive first effort.           Regards,  Bill

What can I say - for your first ship you tackled a dazzle scheme, and in 1/700 no less? And a warship to boot (lots more stuff to deal with than a cargo ship or auxiliary).   !

Thanks for the advice.  I'll give it a try when I return from San Antonio

...came out better than mine!  Great job!

great job et al.... 

one more thing to add; you seemed to have some problems with some of the right-angle/butt joints... I noticed because I have the same problem in a current build:

 

getting rid of guiding pins, careful sanding & dry fitting, Tenax use, and follow up with Mr Surfacer 500 helped my "seam" problems.

and welcome to the Light side!