Battle of the Atlantic - 2011

Beautiful work on the Condor Aggie! I really like the weathering! She must be quite impressive hanging in your display area

Well tonite I began. I glued the hull halves together on my Graf Spee. She is gonna be one big ship. Not quite battleship size, but pretty dang big I am really looking forward to this build. I am not adding anything to the kit... straight OOB, so no extended delays waiting on an AM item to come in  like on my last ship build. 

A little more progress this morning on the Graf Spee. I built most of the main gun turrets after filing off the splash strip that should not be there on the turrets' forwards slope plates. I need to do a little filling on the turret base to conceal the mounting lugs before I glue the turrets to the base plates. And I built the torpedo mounts. Still need to add a few mor pieces to the lower hull before I can paint it.

A few pics so far:

main battery turrets- the barrels even have the bores hollow molded, a nice touch. But they had the erroneous splash strip molded across the turret upper front plate which needed to be sanded off and if you look closely where the turret sides meet the base plate, you will see a small gap over the mounting lugs. I will fill those in before I glue the turret tops to the bases.

The hull glued together with the main deck held in place and main turrets and torpedo mounts palced next to the hul. I will attach the main deck after I paint the hull.

The main hull with the main turrest and torpedo mounts placed for showing.

Awfully quiet in here the past few days.... Anyways, between the heavy winds here today and surprise family taskings, my painting time was wiped out for today. But I did continue with progress on my Graf Spee. First off, late last nite with some sheet plastic and putty, I filled the gaps on the turret bases. This morning when the putty was dry I sanded it smooth. here are a few pics to show the base plate with sanded plugs

same as above with turret top

One glued turret with corrections and second turret with corrections not yet glued

close up of the glued corrected turret

and another view showing the same turret with the molded hollow bores

And then today I began construction of the major superstructure components. once I was done with that. I then placed everything on the lower hull just to get a pic of the basic silhouette including  superstructure, main turrets, and torpedo mounts.

This is such a neat kit to build., I am having a blast with my second grown up ship build. Once the colors I ordered arrive I can begin some basic painting.

Thanks for looking...

Well got some more build time in finally on this brute. Cockpit cage is complete and fuselage is almost ready to go together after a few touch ups.

Have photographed on a 1x1cm grid mat plus included a tamiya paint bottle for size refrence.

This is gonna be a long build for an aircraft, I'm used to the cockpit taking the most time then the wings and body falling together, this kits gonna take alot more than norm for me. Gonna be FUN

Andrew

Andrew

Well got some more build time this evening and as norm for this thing so far 75% was dedicated to research, mostley cockpit controls and colours. Still some guess work has been done mostley on colours but a couple of item on the cockpit wall dont quite figure so I had to guess there as well as to what they are suppossed to be. Anyways heres the shots, shes ready to be glued together tomorrow.

Andrew

Very nice, Andrew. The interesting gunner figure you have there.

Stick, also very nice. How do plan on painting the decks? 

I'm literally coming apart at the seams with my build. I picked up the hull in my hands on Saturday and hear cracking noises. The hull started popping apart at the keel. My cross braces started popping out. With just a little pulling for my effort, the entire assembly I had done so far came apart! 

I used a tube of Ambriod cement and I guess it was too old. I typically don't use it but I thought it would be ok for such large surface areas of the 1/72 Corvette hull pieces. I got a strip of dried glue 18 inches long that pealed of the keel join. At least nothings damaged or marred but I've never had this happen to me before.

Aurora, I was thinking his aircrew was looking a mite too chipper myself... lets see how he looks after launching...

As far as my Graf Spee's decks go. All the major components are only placed for the time being. I will paint the wood portions first, then mask off and paint the metal after it has dried. I am still trying to decide the sequence for paining the hull colors. I am going to to paint her in the camo scheme she wore for the Battle of the River Plate, instead of the prewar markings the kit directions show. And I am still waiting for some colors to come in by mail that I have ordered.

I would suggest you try one of the good liquid cements such as Pro Weld or Tenax if you can find it for a better joint. Tube glues just do not seem to have the good bonding powers over large surface areas.

Aurora I'm definitely onboard. I started the Trumpeter 1/350 SS Jeremiah O'Brien this weekend. I've got a great set of PE from Gold Medal that's super comprehensive, so right now I'm going through the exercise of carving off all the stuff that it will replace, plus some tips from online builds. I've got two tins of Ocean Gray too, and a spare resin 3" and 5" gun.

First I carved off and sanded flush the bilge keels. There are two nice long thin ones in PE.

I'll post some pictures soon. I actually have an oak base ready as I ordered it in a batch of bases I had made a while back.

The kit came with two each of two patterns of rafts- go figure. I'd like to trade two with anyone, doesn't matter which.

I made more progress today. I added  the keels, prop shafts and rudder. Everything on the main hull is now ready for painting. So on my days off this week I can get some painting done.

Today, the first paint was applied- black all the way around the hull for the boot topping. Once it dried enough this evening I masked it off, so tomorrow I can paint the lower hull red and the wooden decks wood. She is coming along nicely so far. Makes me want to build more ships...

I think ships are a great change of pace. I plan on building a couple every year, in between all these airplanes. I like the research a lot, they tend to have lot's of character. Also Ms. Bondo likes them on display.

Yes,ships certainly do have character. They take on an almost living aura when you research them. I am having so much fun with this kit.

As of today the wood decks are painted and the lower hull. I just need to mask the upper edge of the boot topping and paint the rest of the hull. Its coming along...

Good going on the Graf Spee and Swordfish guys.  They both are looking good.  On my Ju I've managed to get the wings attached to the fuselage yesterday.  I am also well into the tedious task of masking all of the glazing.  So far, I have drilled out the ends of the gun barrels or replaced with brass tubing.  You have to be pretty close to notice, but since most of the nice detail is buttoned up, never to be seen again, it at least is visible.  I added some detail into the wheel wells.  Not much, but it helps.  Once I get the masking done, I hope to get some primer then maybe some pre-shading done shortly after.  The camo scheme will be a new challenge for me, and I am looking forward to it!

Cheers,

Greg

Wow! That  is a big bird Greg! A very impressive looking machine so far!

I finished plenty of painting this weekend, and a bit of building too. Here are some pics of the latest progress...

Painted hull with painted wood main decks placed on the hull

painted wood decks on forward and after superstructures

upper forward superstructure and gun directors/range-finders

Secondary battery 6" guns and heavy/medium FLAK guns (twin105MM/ twin 37MM)

cranes and catapult

everything placed just to see how it looks...

next step, masking off the wood decks and painting the gray superstructures.

Nice looking battleship!  That is really coming along great.  That looks like a really good kit.  Is that all out of the box?

Cheers,

Greg

Thanks Greg. Yes it is all out of the box. The only mods I have made to it so far are on the main turrets. Just filling some visible gaps and sanding off a raised detail that should not be there. It is the new release Academy kit. It is the first new technology ship kit that I have built and I am really having fun with this kit. It is not perfect, but it is very enjoyable.

NIce work Stik,

Had a bit of benchtime on the swordfish, no real probs except the since I'm building her wings folded the fold areas should be sealed and the thr supplied parts are to small so will need a bit of filler (which I cant get till late next week :( . The fuselage seams wern't to bad a little sanding but ok otherwise. On with the pics

Andrew

Your Stringbag is coming along quite nicely Konig! I like how your gonna make yours with the wings folded. Keep up the progress pics please.

Stik, I ummed and arr'd for a while about which way to go. It being the biggest plane I've ever done I wanted wings out for full impression, space not a problem. Its also the first folding wing plane I've ever built so that was something else to consider, with the wings folding alot compared to most aircraft I was finally swaying to do the wings folded and then the kids voted 3-2 to fold them so thats the way shes going.

Andrew

No, I'm not out just very, very delayed due to real-life issues and have not done any building since I got the hull pieces together again. 

Sorry for the absence, all. I should have popped in just to keep the thread alive. 

Well, I'm building again and will post some things by the end of the week. 

Andrew, I hope your Sword fish is still in the works or even completed. 

Same with your ship, stick.

I've decided to make this thread on going because I'm just getting back into the build again and want to try some new construction techniques for the Spikenard and don't want to rush it to get it done by a deadline and regret things I did not do. Also, there are other BOTA projects I'll be jumping into when I'm done with the Spikenard (Recently I've been thinking of the Revell  4 pipe Cambeltown destroyer kit done up in Western Approaches scheme).

I'll be trying to keep the image updates of my progress at least weekly and hopefully I can get some of the original builders (and maybe some new ones) back again. But text is cheap so I'll be back with some images to share.

Hello A7, I'm still working on my Ju-290.  It isn't too far off from the paint booth.  If it fits, that is.  It has a lot of little bits that go on the outside of it too.  A lot of masking! 

Cheers,

Greg

Here's my first images of the hull. The last images is of the Ambroid glue that pealed of after the first assembly attempt. I dried brittle and the hull pieces just snapped apart.

Not much to look at now but I'm started again. A lot of mods I need to do the hull and superstructure to make this an early 1942 Flower.

Greg, I look forward to seeing something of the 290.

Been all quiet here for several months it looks like. I am guilty as anyone else here of letting my build gather dust on the sidelines. Today I pulled out the Graf Spee and began masking off the "wood" portions so I can start spraying the metal parts gray on the main deck and superstructure. Very intricate work cutting around all those little deck fittings.. I hope I am not the sole builder left here...

No Stik, you are not alone.  Here and there I do little bits on my Ju-290.  It is about to get some attention though.  I had to order some p.e. antennas, some of the kit ones were broken on the sprue.  I am hoping to at least do some panel line preshading this week.

Cheers,

Greg

Well thats good news! Even though this is very much a solitary activity for the most part, on here it is not...

I finally was able to complete all the masking of the wooden areas of the deck this afternoon. So tomorrow I can get Graf Spee out to my paint area and begin the next step of painting. Boy these big ships are a bit of work. Not like I remember when I used to build all those Revell ships back in the day...

I (finally) did some pre-shading on the Junkers.  The wingspan and little bits and turrets conspired to make it more difficult than it should have been.  I am going to have to make some sort of device to hold it, if I am going to be able to paint it.  In no way, will it fit in my paint booth then!  Since the bulk of the A/C is going to be painted rlm 65 hellblau, a light blue color, I decided to take a different tack on my pre-shading.  I used a flat sea blue, instead of black.  How it will turn out?  Hopefully good, and hopefully soon.

Cheers,

Greg

I am not one to do pre shading so I find the concept quite interesting to see how it is done by different folks. Your use of a medium blue under the Hellblau makes perfect sense. It wont be so harsh as black underneath. Very wise in my view.

Well today I was able to get the light gray airbrushed on the major portions of the main deck and superstructure. I have not worked with Testors Acrylics much so it was a bit of trial and error on mix ratios of paint to thinner... eventually a much lower ratio of thinner to paint than I am used to worked out. I am finally starting to see what I need to do to wrap up this build and how I need to approach it.

 Here are all the portions that I painted in the light gray today...