New to Building Model ships. Intoducing myself, and I have a few questions!

I will tell you why this works. Measure, draw up and build the missing part.

At that point, you will find the original.

Make the piece. I end up doing that a lot. For airplanes, there's usually two of everything, mirror image. For ships, it depends.

I want to see the missing part. I can find the instructions on line- what (#) was the part?

Bill

Aw, C'Mon Bill!

    You know what that is. Just put " Panty" in front of it and you can find many different types at Wal-Mart! Victorias Secret does carry " Hose" of the old type and the gear to hold them up too. My wife told me!

Well I looked again and still nothing. Unfortunately all of the empty bags that the sprues were in have been thrown away by the old lady. So if it was in there, it is gone. I will reach out to trumpeter and see if I can get this piece. If not, then I will have a 99% completed QE when it is all said and over with. Which will bug the crap out of me!

What is "hose"?

Seem to remember those hanging over the shower curtain pole...in 1976!

CapnMac82

Vacuuming (with sheer hose over the nozzle) can find things, too.

Good idea Capt, I never though of that.

If you are on carpet, sometimes a flashlight laying on the floor will cast a shadow of the part that otherwise your eyes won't see.

Whatever you do, do not throw out any "trash."

Also, there's a thing related to "in plain sight" to where you ware trying too hard to focus on something else, you cannot focus on things right in front of you.  It's how you can loose a pen on a desk, or the like.

What can help is to change focus.  Go make a sandwich.  Swivel your chair at the workbench around and think of all the foriegn language words you know.  Sing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" or "Auld Lang Syne."  You have to engage different parts of your brain to do all these.

Aother thing that can work is to look again, only use a small mirror instead.

Vacuuming (with sheer hose over the nozzle) can find things, too.

Seriously, look in the box. Check the folded corners, the plastic bags.

Oh no, you got bit by the carpet monster!! At every builders work area is a wormhole that you must sacrifice at least one part to on every build, one that no matter how much you clean and investigate it's just....gone. One day after we go on the the great beyond, we'll find all these missing parts. Like the one missing sock, it may just run away or be taken by gremlins.

Seriously though, well, I was being serious, sometimes they fall off the tree and my be in the plastic bag, or fall on the floor and bounce to an area you'd never think of. Those little suckers can have a mighty bounce, better than a football (not socker ball).

Once all has been exhausted, one may try to get another piece from the manufacturer. I'm not familiar with Trumpeter's customer service, but they should have a US contact center where you can email and see if you can get a new part. Some companes are fantastic about sending out a part, or the entire tree, right away free of charge (the old Revell) others aren't even responsive to your plite.

Do you have Testers extra thin cement? It works wonders and a small drop at the bow seam along with a clothespin will close that bow gap toot sweet. You can get it at Hobby Lobby with their 40% off coupon, along with other little goodies.

So I have an issue. I am missing a plastic piece from my sprue. I never cut it out, as i am very careful and only cut out pieces that i will be building or using directly. The piece is pretty large and i highly doubt that it just popped out since every other single piece had to be cut using my sprue cutters, even the very small pieces.

Just to be sure, I literally cleaned my entire work area and floor surrounding it with a fine tooth comb..... No where to be found. I am feeling pretty mad about this, as it is just gone or was never there in the first place.

What do you do when you are missing a piece?

goldhammer

Nice job on brush painting.  Way better than what I can do.

One little nit ... On the bow pic it looks like you have a gap in the hull halves seam.  Might want to fix that before you finish painting the rest of the hull.  Easy to fix and touch up at this point

 

Yeah I intend on puttying that too. I didnt want to just go throwing that putty on everything until I saw how it worked. After using it on the gap in the bow, I now feel comfortable enough using it that I will fill that gap as well. Well before finishing my painting of the hull.

Nice job on brush painting.  Way better than what I can do.

One little nit ... On the bow pic it looks like you have a gap in the hull halves seam.  Might want to fix that before you finish painting the rest of the hull.  Easy to fix and touch up at this point

Over the past 3 days I have been working on the front and rear parts of the superstructure. There are no gaps and using some advice given to me in here, all parts went together seamlessly. (except some excess glue in a few spots where I guess I went a little heavy on it) The rear part of the superstructure is done, minus paint. And the front part of the superstructure is about 85% done, not including paint.

Untitled by Matthew Brumage, on Flickr

Untitled by Matthew Brumage, on Flickr

Here is a dry test fitting of the rear superstructure.

Untitled by Matthew Brumage, on Flickr

Untitled by Matthew Brumage, on Flickr

Here is the center superstructure all finished up. Like I mentioned, the camo color is way off. I tried mixing the paint to make it look close. But the learning experience has been great, and I have done all of it by hand.

Untitled by Matthew Brumage, on Flickr

Now it just needs sanded down and painted in. Turned out pretty good. The gap is gone and that tamiya putty is awesome and super easy to work with. It honestly doesnt look like it shrunk at all after drying.

Spent a bunch of time redoing my decking and it is coming along nicely. Using some of the suggested method mentioned before, I used the white tamiya putty to fill the gap in the bow.

Untitled by Matthew Brumage, on Flickr

Revell has had their own brand of paint for years, but sold only in Europe. I'd heard they were finally bringing it to the U.S. but not until later in the year.

If you're in San Antonio, be sure to visit Hill Country Hobby on Bandera Road and tell my old friend Gary Emery I said hello.

Revell? Hmm, I might have to give them a try.

Yeah,Don;

     I still get them there. Oh! In Micheals yesterday near San Antonio. Well in a place called the Forum in Selma actually( North of S.A.) I ran across something that surprised me. Brand New bottles of REVELL Lacquer and Acrylic washes, and tins of paint. What's the deal ? Do you know?

Well the past few days I've been busy working on the QE. Gotten a little bit accomplished. 

I received my King George V and sat it up for now, waiting for my QE to get finish. Hoping by the end of the month (being optimistic). With it I received my other supplies that I had ordered. With it including my tamiya white putty. 

I used some tips from Bill with the putty and it's been sitting for about 8 hours now. Looks good and the bow gap is gone. Just need to sand it down and paint it to match the rest of the paint. 

I also got some testers plastic cement. Using some other tips I've gotten on here, I used a toothpick to apply it and bought some nice angled tweezers. Man has this helped with the process! 

I finished up the center piece of the superstructure and am honestly pretty happy with it. Mixing paints to get the color desired is something i will have to practice. As the camo color most definitely is not correct to the time. But it does look prettt good. I will post some pics up soon. 

I started on the next piece of the superstructure, the rear most behind the cranes. And man using some advise and methods mentioned. No gaps and everything is smooth and seamless. 

When you go about filling a gap like that, might I suggest:

Try to fill as much as you can with sheet styrene. There should be some laying around that can be slid edgewise into the gap. It might only be an inch or two at the widest area there at the very bow. Look around for stuff like the top of a clear plastic clamshell food container and cut a piece about 1/2" wide and as long as it can be and still fit it into the gap. Slide it in there with some sticking above the deck. Flood it with solvent glue on both faces, making sure it doesn't run down the hull.

After it is hard, take an Xacto or a razor blade and tgrim off the extra as flush with the deck as you can.

Now mask with tape along both sides of the gap, leaving a very small extra area along each side of it.

Run a somewhat abrasive sanding stick up and down a few times to make it flush without destroying the tape.

Squirt out a little putty onto something you can scrape it up from, like a length of blue masking tape stuck to the bench top.

Take something like the scrap that you trimmed off and scoop up a little putty. Trowel it onto your gap between the edges of the pieces of tape, using the thickness of the tape to allow you to "screed" it flat. I save my dull #11 blades for this. Holding them by the tip in the handle, the square end of the tang makes a great little one-use tool.When it is dry, another light pass with a medium grit stick, and remove the tape. 

Do a little fine touch up with a fine grit stick. The edges of the tape will have created little ridges that you'll need to get rid of.

Prime.

When dry take a look at it and try to touch up any rough spots.

I learned a while ago, the hard way. Arbitrarily loading a seam or gap with uncontrolled application of putty takes out all kinds of surrounding detail when you go to remove it. And starting out with a hump of putty just creates unnecesary extra work to remove.

Go to it Chief,

Bill

I have no idea how that gap got in the bow. I started with laying the rear deck in and glued into place. I then aligned the front deck with the seams it lays on with the rear deck. Once it was glued into place and set. It was then i noticed the gap.... So i ordered some white tamiya putty that I will apply carefully with a toothpick. Let it dry, sand it down and paint it in to match.

I have started redoing the deck back to the base tan. I will clear it and let it be. I will start the practice of making my own washes and perfecting the art with my cheap lindberg hood model. Progress and work my way up to using the washes on the nice models I am doing like the QE.

I do not think you guys are picking or anything. Like mentioned I appreciate the criticism and advice. It has all been taken to heart and i am using it with the my new build.

I just ordered a 1/350 HMS King George V from Tamiya. I will not be touching it until my QE is done.

B.B.;

      Hi there! I hope you won't think we are picking on you.Bill and I have built a few over the years and have gone throughall the growing pains you are facing as a first time ship modeler. I hope you don't mind a little cinstrictive counseling. First off,I have to wonder,On a Trumpeter ship how did you manage to get that seam at the Bow? Did you perchance squeeze the hull while it dried? Also your wash is way to dark. Now this all comes with time.

     The Gap in the bulkhead can be covered and dealt with. I always try to check before to much time has passed and if possible to re-arrange the parts. I had a bear of a time, first in a long time, assembling the Charles De-Gaulle Aircraft Carrier because of the lousy fit of the Island parts. It was a Heller Kit! I was somewhat surprised because I built their La-Suroit ( the Titanic finder) before it became that. It fit together like a Tamiya kit!

     You'll pick up on these things but be patient, the good stuff is ahead if you Don't Hurry!

Hi;

 Number one - Use a sprue cutter with a flush cutting edge.

 Number Two - use a very sharp X-acto for trimming the spot lightly. Then use an emery or sanding stick to make sure it's smooth. Tread lightly here or you might get a divot!

I'm not sure BB is quite at the point to concentrate on washes just yet. Other than the Lindberg Hood, this is his first ship kit. He probably needs to concentrate on seams, squareness and general construction before worring about weathering, washes and dot filtering. I built beautiful ships for 40 years before I ventured into washes, weathering and even all but the basic rigging.

To put it in Navy terms, he's a newley graduated boot.

Just my 

Well, that clears up some confusion on why anyone would use glazing putty.

For OP, I think where Bil (GMorrison) was going with the deck was towards a paler, more straw like color to reflect the RN habit of holystoning (in the days of the sailing RN, they used sandstone blocks about the size of Church Bibles, hence the term "holy stones" which were used to scrub the decks with seawater every morning but Sunday).

Tamiya's XF-57 Buff would not be a terrible place to start, especially if you can get a spray can, to get a nice, even coat.

Using a fine brush to steak some narrow (like width of scribed planking) streaks of XF-55 Deck Tan (no more than an inch or two long, an not too many, in fact, it ought to look like too few.  If those are too strong (I'm actually cunting on the Tamiya paint to be a bit thin here) brush over with lightened colors.  Less is very much more here.

I would drybrush the raised detail a very pale gray.  Then, a bit of graphite dusted in.  Or seall that all in and go with a very thin dark was, and then wipe nearly all of that away.

But that's just my 2¢ worth.

Yeah I bought the acrylic Tamiya. I havent painted a bunch with it yet. But I have painted the hull and some decking and it has went on fine with a brush. But I dont have anything to compare it too either.

Tamiya now has a lacquer range but I'll assume you bought the more common acrylic. The thing is, Tamiya acrylic is not the best for brush painting, esp for a beginner. It's rather tempermental and not a true 'acrylic' in the sense it is closer to lacquer and not entirely soluable in water. 

For brush painting, acrylics such as vallajo/lifecolor or game colors (from table top game stores) are much easier to use. 

If you bought enamels, what you need is a lot of patience (to paint, to dry, and waiting for paint to dry). 

I have ordered an abundance of stuff to help me on the route of achieving a build that I want. All kinds of stuff to help me along the way, help me do the job right, and do it well.

I have ordered the following:

-Numerous different tamiya paints

-2 different brush kits

-Tamiya clear and thinner

-Trumpeter sprue cutters

-2 tubes of testors plastic cement

-1 bottle of thin cement from squadron

-1 tube of tamiya white putty