Ships of the British Flag GB.

Made a start on the Vanguard last weekend.

I am doing this OOB, its a far size, twice as big as the Trafalgar. After an hour or so i had the main parts together. Has to do some filling along the side.

Then added the final smaller pieces. I decided to leave one of the launch doors open and will put a Trident in there.

Then after the primer, some paint. The instructions atre not very helpful, indicating only flat black for the walk way and semi gloss for the nose. But i found a pic of the boat out of the water prior to launch, and then combined with lookin at a few other builds online, i have an idea. The lwer hull was painted with Tamiya German Grey.

Thats all for now, i'll leave this for another day before masking.

Cool sub Bish. That one's actua good size. does it have the rubberized coating on it and are going to try and replicate it?

Oh wow! Looking good mate.

Thanks guys. Mongoose, looking at the photo's it doesn't lok like it and from the pics of it in service, its doesn't seem to have the weathered look that the Trafalgar has. I think i will just do a panel line wash on this one.

Edit: Was just checking some photo's and some of the inservice pics do show the tiles and a rougher look. But the in service pics also show a large rectangular section jutting out along the side of the boat which is not tehre at its launch.

I think i will just go for the cleaner less worn look.

Bish

Thanks guys. Mongoose, looking at the photo's it doesn't lok like it and from the pics of it in service, its doesn't seem to have the weathered look that the Trafalgar has. I think i will just do a panel line wash on this one.

Edit: Was just checking some photo's and some of the inservice pics do show the tiles and a rougher look. But the in service pics also show a large rectangular section jutting out along the side of the boat which is not tehre at its launch.

I think i will just go for the cleaner less worn look.

 

WTH? Is that a trolling billboard on the side ROFL too funny tho I'm sure it has a real purpose :-)

Guys, i am hoping you can help me out here. I am just about to get the last colour on the Vanguard, but i am not sure how to piant the blades of the pump jet. I can't find any photo's anywhere. Would these be the same as normal propeller blades  or somthing else.

Thanks.

I'm not sure Bish. I would imagine they would be brass But don know for sure. Hopefully another ship guy will chime in shuch as GM, Capt Mac etc 

Time to wrap this one up, i have just spent the last few days plowing through to get this and the Chieftain finished. It was all painted with Tamiya colours, Smoke, NATO black an d flat black. After decals it got a light Flory wash and several different clears to give the variation. The little name plate was awkward to paint, but once done its nice then a decal.

For the pump jet blades, i remembere that the Trafalgar kit also has the option to build the other boats in the class, which all have pump jets. So i checked the instructions and that said the same colour as a normal propeller, so i went with that.

And one final pic with the Trafalgar. Can't believe its been 2 years since i built that.

The Trafalgar itself is now retired, being replaced by the Astute Class, thouhg there are still 3 boats of the T Class in service. By the end of the decade, the 4 Vanguard Class boats will begin to be replaced by the Dreadnoughts.

Thanks for the GB Steve, please use which ever pic you choose.

Sorry mate!

My noticifations sent this post to the spam folder and I noticed it this morning.

Cracking job on her! Thank you for participating, it's always a pleasure to have you a part of one of my GB's. I believe you have completely out paced me on my own GB! 3 builds to my 0. You are the man!

I have the first pic up and I think and approate quote for the times from Churchill. Not navy related though.

Thanks Steve. But then my builds were easy, the 2 subs probably didn't add up to 30 pieces between them. When i tackle one of those big warships, you'll se me slow down.

Nice quote, never heard that one, thanks. And thanks for a great GB.

Had some time to get back on the KGV. Thought I'd share a few shots with the Tamiya masking paper. New for me as ive traditionally used Maketar masks but shipping time and cost now from Europe is just too much. I do like the printed ruler. Tried to print on it and it doesn't work well with an inkjet.

Finally some color 

This is all Vallejo acrylics. I used Model Color, Vallejo Retarder, and Tamiya Acrylic Thinner with much success. I prepped the surface using Createx Acrylic Cleaner then laid down a mist coat of color, let dry 5 minutes, then 2 more color coats slightly heavier. I added white and gray to the base colors and resprayed a few spots to add some variation to it.

next up is satin varnish, probably tomorrow. I'm thrilled that no paint was removed by tape in this process! That is a 1st for me. Now I'm really looking forward to painting the superstructure!

Beauty job Chris. 

Thanks MC!

today I'm back looking for some advice. I see a few guys stillchecking in on this so I'm hoping a few of you could share your advice and experience on making a plastic deck look good. Take a look and let me know what you think
Here's what you're looking at and critiqing(funny is that a word?). I have a coat of deck tan and khaki mix down as the base color. Then i added flory model wash in brown. the bow section has a sand color florywash on it, done last which lightens it all up i think.

Chris, I'm terrable at palstic decks. I admit it, that's why I go with wood, so I can't give you any pointers. The deck does however look at little on the dark side for the RN, but that's just my opinion.

Tamiya what were youthinking? The notches in bow and stern all match up yet I'm still left with a gap. Ugghhh, off to find some styrene and some of the roof siding so i can keep some of the deck board detail.

No worries MC. One of the guys from Wright Scale Modelers up in Dayton gave me some advice. I've gone over it with burnt sienna oils and next will do a light gray wash to give it some age and lighten it up some. Here's the latest

Good God, what a gap! At least some of that should be covered by the superstructure. Another reason I use wood decks. Those who can work with plastic decks have my admiration.

While waiting on the oil paints for the deck to dry I have been working on the superstructure. I've got all the color coats on. Now I am just dry fitting all the parts and making sure the lines match the drawings that I have. This has been a great experience with Vallejo paints, in that it's the first time so far, and hopefully I haven't jinxed myself, they have not peeled up with the tape!

you can probably tell I'm still working on the deck. I started adding a gray wash to whether it and then next I'll start working on the hull again to try and show all chipped and salt weathered paint.

Looks awesome Chris. I like Vallejo for ships but yes, it can lift with tape.

Tamiya's 1/350 KGV

Building my weathering skills up some more. One new idea here, tell me how it worked out...for the chipping on the hull i used the lacquer paint for airbrushing. Thinking the very thin nature of it would allow it to be applied in a splotchy pattern i poured some in a cup then dipped a sponge into it. Dabbed the excess off the sponge and applied it along the hull.

next i moved on to weathering the hull. Standard stuff here. It's alot about technique so i keep trying to get the hang of it. Oil paints used for rust, algae at and above the waterline, and a gray mix to establish the waterline and show some streaking down the hull. The red won't be seen much at all in the ocean scape i have set up but for the few places it will i rubbed the gray along the hull to try and fade the paint a bit.

Intresting technique Chris. Looking good.

Just thought I'd keep the progress pics coming. I'll probably feel like its almost done right up until trying to rig it  doing assembly and touch up now. Also added another gray layer to the deck. 

the pompoms had some ugly pin marks on them! Tried a couple things and decided 0.005" evergreen sheet looked best Given how obvious the rear ones were. The front ones are under the guns So the scraping won't be seen unless you're a contortionist 

I started with a 0.030 piece, cut that in brass next, then used brass to trace  18 copies onto the plastic sheet. Just a little trimming on each to get snug fit and all set :-)

That's quite the job Chris. Nice work. 

One thing I find about these posts is that it turns out it's the 1st time i stand back and look at what i did. Funny it seems a part looks good and then you look at the pic and go, "huh?". Case in point the little pieces i added to the base o f the pompoms looked silly extending past the vertical sides of the gun mount. I cut them at an angle to follow the lines of the part and they almost disappear from your sight. 
That said i will say these look better in person lol the macro lens is never good to me. I added the shells to the pompoms overnight and did some detail paint on the gun barrels.

I know exactly what you mean Chris. I can attest to that with the Akagi. 

The Pom Poms look good from here.

I've spent the whole day assembling parts, parts is parts so no need for pics at this stage. I am trying something unique and time consuming to avoid buying any PE for this one...

i did a top and bottom cleanly with only 1 small cut that required glue. The sides are the tough parts to cut. Will just have to work slow slow slow

Those look good Chris. I don't like thes solid palstic cranes the manufactures put in there kits but it's understandable. Sometimes the time spent modifying the kit parts far outweigh the cost of PE

MC can't agree more On the cost of photo etch. I keep looking at the prices for the ship kids I have been thinking how the heck do you justify it? Then I look at the kits bill with it compared to my oot of box stuff and it looks so much better!

today i got the flat coat on. Weathering turned out OK in most spots. The flat coat made it much bolder and so the bow starboard side and stern port side are a little heavier than I want. Good thing it will be kind of hidden in my seascape.

Her good side

camera shy on this side hehehe

and a few closeup While I'm working on the final pieces to add.

That looks really good Chris!

As far as PE, I really like Infini products but they are twice the price of the kit. They come with so much stuff though, kinda worth it it you want to really spruce it up.

Thanks MC. I checked out some infini models detail sets. I may try one for a build to see what the max effort looks like.

 I'm working on the base now. Holding off on the masts and small details until the base is finished. The more i work around the ship the more likely, read 100% likely, i am to break something lol

Here it is with the heavy gel wet so you can see the shape of the ocean swells.