Topic: HMS Suffolk

[paul swainson]

  such great detail and the help with the boats from deans will help me when I have to do my set nearly 20 of them.  Great work James.

[karlgalster]

Superb model. Very clean. I notice you have not as yet done the railings. Have you a strategy in mind for stanchions and railings? I am very interested in this as I am at a similar stage with my long term project - KM Admiral Graf Spee at 128:1 scale.

Robin

[colin]

very nice ships boats.. 
i am working on the 24 and 25 foot Motor boats.. in 1:96.. at the Moment..

@Robin.. is there something particular that you wish to know about the stanchions and railings...
for example attaching them to a painted model with out heat sinking them and damaging the paint work..!
I for one drill a 0.3mm hole for the etched single stations (1:96 scale), so no need to heat sink them..

it will be interesting to see how James goes about this task... 

[swiftdoc]

I also drill holes and fix the stanchions with epoxy glue. 

At the moment I build the life boats for my Velarde (scale 1/96th as well). Does anyone know which colour the covers had at the period 1950-1960?

[karlgalster]

Yes I drill holes as well. Never tried the hot melting of plastic method - sounds a bit tricky.

No, I was actually wondering what stanchions/railings would be used. I am contemplating soldering them in strips from 0.33mm and 0.2mm diameter Silver Nickel rod. I have used this before including HMS Bulldog and it works well. There are etched brass railings available and they are fine and indeed very practical at the lake side as they can take enormous punishment and still be bent upright again but tend to look too heavy - each to his own.

Robin

[ship's doctor]

Hi Robin

Sorry for the low reply! I'm planning to use the single etched ones from John Haynes -just need to work out what to use as the rail. Looking like 0.2mm nickel silver at the moment - as used by raflaunches on  HMS Humber here

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,51385.50.html

I've used them for some of the inboard railings which are a bit more substantial but I think should be OK. I will airbrush them to try to reduce the effect of paint making them look more bulky 

Another thought I had was to use fine thread which would then be painted in matt varnish to make it a bit more rigid and get rid of the 'fluff'

I think this will be the last job though - next is to do the boat handling booms, rigging and ladders. Need to get the surgical microscope out...

Thank you for all the kind comments, lots of excellent builds going on the forum at the moment. The Velarde is a fantastic model - the covers are grey on the Dean's showroom one. As a slight aside I also put one of these together in 1/72 as a bit of a break from 'proper' building!

[swiftdoc]

Thanks for your help, James. I have found an old handkerchief which is beige - a colour quite similar to canvas. I think I will try to use that.

[karlgalster]

Hi James

On the subject of rigging. I have used 0.1mm thread from Jotika in the past as it seems reasonably hair free 

http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Fitting_ThreadA.htm

Mind you its claimed to be 0.1mm diameter but its larger than that in practice.

Last November I was on the SWA stand at the International Model Boat show and I took the opportunity to talk to Alex MacFadyen who was displaying his awesome models on another stand. He said for rigging (presumably at 96:1 going by the size of his HMS Vanguard) he uses black invisible thread for rigging (has to be black otherwise you won't see it ). I have purchased some of this on eBay manufactured by Merlin. Its nylon and looks the business but I suppose it would need painting as black might not look right(?).

Robin

[ship's doctor]

After a few experiments I've made a start on the rigging - I found some of the black invisible thread in Tesco which seems to be effective! Trying to remember my stitching skills, should have borrowed some heamostats from the hospital but needle nose pliers work OK! Photos to follow...

[karlgalster]

I look forward to your photos. I have not attempted to colour the black nylon and it does look effective.

[ship's doctor]

Thanks for the tip on the invisible thread - I agree I think it looks fine unpainted, much sharper than cotton thread. I've also used some thicker fishing line (0.2mm) for the mast stays which is a greyish colour. The photos are a bit hard to see - need to get some white paper as a background.

The attachment points are photo-etched eyebolts, mixture of John Haynes and from the Deans Marine 'Destroyer' set (a really good set - I used it on my tribal class HMS Tartar and have been using leftover bits for ages).

Knots are secured with cyano before trimming the ends.

I've also rigged the 32ft cutter, and made some of the paravane/boat booms. These are approximated from photos & drawings in 'Anatomy of the ship' series.

At least a bit of progress for Wicksteed Park in a few weeks time!

James

[colin]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nylon-Black-Invisible-Sewing-Thread/dp/B00424O0TC

is that the stuff by any chance..?

[ship's doctor]

Hi Colin,

I think it is - the one I found is a 'generic' one so the Merlin one might be better quality!

James

[karlgalster]

The rigging looks very good. Thanks for the information on the Deans Marine destroyer brass etched product. I will look at that next time. 

[ship's doctor]

More slow progress but HMS Suffolk is nearly finished!

Some small details - debated whether to put figures on, in the end I have just done 6 to give an idea of scale. These are preiser 1/100 that I've modified with milliput/swapped heads. Also painted the ship's badge.

I've also finished the railing, rigging and ladders. 

Will try to take some photos of the model overall if it's good weather this weekend.