Diorama HMS Warspite get's a few scars

[fordrodnkustom]

The explosion looks great. I agree it needs more black added to the smoke.

[kpnuts]

Well its not my birthday till Sunday but I am busy most of the day tomorrow and we have the whole family round Sunday, so I've negotiated a start today on my Warspite model so here is the start.
I have placed a few planes and Warspite in different places which do you think looks best (obviously the planes will be in the air on the finished dio) I just want an idea of which you all think looks best.

[kpnuts]

Hi all made a really stupid total nitwit mistake in my eagerness to start this kit. There are parts on the deck you are supposed to cut off before you attatch the wooden decking, which I didn't. That made the job of removing it now a real b@'!:er, still done it now I've bitten the bullet and done a tiny amount of PE (the gangway which goes across the bow there are 2 gussets underneath which measure 2.5mm x 1.5 mm after an hour of getting them in the right place and upright I have to wonder is it worth the effort, once it's on the dio no one will see it, even off the ship when turned upside down you can barely see it with the naked eye. Still we will see how long I keep the PE up as although they are small the gangway was a simple bend the sides up (oh by the way the Mk1 detail up set instructions are vague to say the least) they show a picture of the part in place and one pic of some of the folds you are left to guess the rest of the folds.

[fordrodnkustom]

I admire your perseverance with this project. Overcoming these challenges are what separate modelers from kit assemblers.

[kpnuts]

Hi all here is a bit of an update of where I am now.
I am a bit peeved now, I realise I made the mistake with not removing the plastic before I laid the decking but now i've started putting the PE on I've discovered ther are other bit which should be removed which are not on the instructions and now i've laid the wooden decking and cut it to fit whats on the deck the PE is not covering all the plastic.

as you can see from the pic the only part outlined is the gangway which is to be removed but as i've now discovered the ramps should have been removed too.

as you can see the PE ramps are too short and I can't remove the plastic ramps as I've cut the decking to fit, so I'm hoping that when painted grey it wont notice. (yes I know the middle blast shield is crooked in the pic but that has been sorted now)

led in place ready for the only direct hit on the poor old lady.

I know I swore I would never use PE again but this is all fairly simple stick it on stuff at the moment so will stick with it for now.



first start at the explosion and I thought I would try an experiment with Optic Fibres will bee using those for the tracer rounds Warspie will be firing, I have discovered if you scratch the firbre every so often light escapes at the scratches over a length of about 12 inches (it does gradually get less as it goes along but I think 12 inches will be enough for me) anyway keeping it straight at anything more than that is almost impossible

















Obviously there is no smoke yet nor any debris in the explosion , I am wondering whether to put an unfortunate sailor in the smoke of the exlposion sans a limb or 2 ( the 350 scale sailors I've got I'm not sure it would notice, but might be fun to see if anyone does).

[fordrodnkustom]

That explosion looks quite good! Very realistic in scale. I'd call your experiment a success.

[geezerman35]

Interesting to watch.
I think you're getting some neat effects.

[kpnuts]

Hi all I think I've got too many balls in the air at once, at the moment so I am going to finish some of the planes before I get too involved with Warspite, so got on with the FW 190 and apart from painting the canopy and matt coating it I am calling the 190 done.














I've done the all the decals on one side of the JU 87 so I recon that will be ready for matt coating tomorrow.

0tWIZ7u.jpg

[dogfish7]

Some great effects going on! Want to see more!

[kpnuts]

Hi all here is an update, and a querey I have used humbrol matt varnish for the first time, But I have an unusual effect the varnish has white patches (which in this instance is great I was going to add something like this anyway, and think it works ok) but what if I didn't want it, whats gone wrong ( I stirred it thourgherly)

[geezerman35]

Man. I like those.
If your brushing on that matt paint, the whitish spots could just be thicker paint.

[dogfish7]

I believe you can put acrylic paint on top of lacquer, but not lacquer base on top of acrylic. It will eat through the paint. You must use acrylic clear coats, such as Future and some of the newer MIG and AK acrylic matte clears.

[kpnuts]

Thanks for the comments guys, the paint was Humbrol enamel as was the matt coat so not a reaction from even different makes, not worried with this one as I quite like the effect, will try spraying it the next time I use it, it was only laziness this time couldn't be bothered with cleaning the ab out after so brushed it on, teach me not to be lazy.

[kpnuts]

doing some work on the base today
as you can see not a lot of room in my man cave for it

drilled the holes for all the leds and put and wired the leds into the board



not wired the explosion in the stern of warspite cant do that till Warspite hull is permanently atattched same for the FW 190
the 2 blue leds are for the water plumes for the near misses.

[fordrodnkustom]

This just keeps getting better! I like the work you're doing here.