Trumpeter 1/350 HMS Dreadnought 1907

[wbill76]

Last step in the hull painting gone done today. Applied a custom mix of roughly 70/30 Model Master Panzer Gray and Light Gray over the primer coat while leaving the boot stripe and hull red portions masked with blue painter's tape.



After that had dried, the tape came off and there were a couple spots that needed some touch-ups around some of the 'ribs' on the waterline, so I re-masked carefully with short strips where needed and either sprayed more gray or more of the Flat Black as the case required to tighten up the boot stripe.



The sharp eyed will notice that one of the rudders is missing in the last photo...it came off during the painting session and has since been reattached. Now I have to decide whether to go ahead and permanently attach the wood decks or wait until later...decisions, decisions!

[deafpanzer]

Loving it... the paint grey sure made the details pop this time!

[wbill76]

Thanks Andy! agree with you there...the Flat Black + Gray combo really did the trick nicely.

[406 Silverado]

Man this is really shaping up now with the colors on her, really makes me want to start one of my ships OTTB.

[wbill76]

Aug 15, 2014 7:34:17 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

Man this is really shaping up now with the colors on her, really makes me want to start one of my ships OTTB.

Thanks Rob!

The hull really looks neat with the paint on. I ran a couple of 'control' tests on the wood deck to see how it would respond to an application of Future only, Testors Lusterless Flat lacquer only, and a combo of both Future and Flat as a precaution. All three look just fine after waiting 24 hours, so I think that gives me the green light I needed to move ahead with fitting the main decks now vs. waiting until later or having to do some kind of special treatment with the painted areas before fitting the decks, etc. Since this is the first time using the wood deck, I didn't want to take anything for granted and end up with a horrible mess later on.

[Leon]

Looking forward to seeing the decks go on Bill.Should really make the hull colors stand out.

[wbill76]

I think so Leon, didn't get to it today as other things took priority but tomorrow's the weekend so will be 'clearing the decks' in a literal way!

[406 Silverado]

I am sooo weak. Been coming back to this build and just had to glue the two hull halves of the Cruiser Varyag.

Looking forward to seeing what the weekend brings with your updates....wooden deck.

[wbill76]

Aug 16, 2014 8:35:06 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

I am sooo weak. Been coming back to this build and just had to glue the two hull halves of the Cruiser Varyag.

Looking forward to seeing what the weekend brings with your updates....wooden deck.

Love it! Nice to see you've got a start on the Varyag. It's only fair considering it's your fault I ever took an interest in ships in the first place. Have some solid time set aside for Dreadnought for sure and will post the results as soon as I've got enough together to make it worthwhile.

[dupes]

Looks good already, Bill!

600 parts in the kit alone? What does that put you at with all of the aftermarket sets???

[406 Silverado]

Aug 16, 2014 9:36:15 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Aug 16, 2014 8:35:06 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

I am sooo weak. Been coming back to this build and just had to glue the two hull halves of the Cruiser Varyag.

Looking forward to seeing what the weekend brings with your updates....wooden deck.

Love it! Nice to see you've got a start on the Varyag. It's only fair considering it's your fault I ever took an interest in ships in the first place. Have some solid time set aside for Dreadnought for sure and will post the results as soon as I've got enough together to make it worthwhile.

LOL yeah I know it's my fault Bill, but you know you love it right , a nice break from armor and to test new techniques and skills.
I have to finish a few articles before I can really concentrate on the Varyag. I decided to do it OOTB and the next ship, a Russian pre WWI Battleship, will get PE rails. I will take a pic of the hull and start a thread this weekend.

[wbill76]

Dupes, the 'official' kit part count is 630+...the Eduard detail set has about another 100...the rail set is another 20 or so...then you have the wood decks which have little tiny individual parts for the boats in addition to the larger decks...so I think it's fair to say it all lands in the 900-1000 parts range...given that there's some duplication/overlap too in terms of some of the parts in the Eduard set that replace Trumpeter parts and so on. Definitely an 'involved' project on that score!

Rob, oh I don't deny that I'm enjoying this project. The Z-38 Destroyer was like a nice appetizer though compared to this one! Get that thread started, no slacking allowed on that front mister.

[wbill76]

I've been busy the last few days but have been getting in some progress here and there to keep the Dreadnought steaming ahead! I wanted to be sure that the wood decking wouldn't have any adverse reactions to either Future or my preferred flat lacquer, Testors Lusterless Flat, so I rigged up a simple test using the turret cut-out pieces from the Wood Hunter deck and sprayed one with Future only, one with the Lusterless Flat only, and a third with both to see if anything negative would occur. After letting it sit for 24 hours, all three test subjects appeared perfectly normal and fully functional so I went ahead and attached the decks permanently in place for the main deck and super deck areas.

The Wood Hunter deck is self-adhesive backed with a very thin plastic film that needs to be removed for the adhesive to be exposed. I found the best way to do that was to use a strip of masking tape to 'lift' the film at the start and then peel it back as needed. Occasionally the backing film would leave a section behind or not peel completely and in those cases the masking tape trick worked perfectly to lift those sections away quickly and easily. I used some wooden toothpicks and a paint brush handle in different spots to ensure the deck laid down evenly and experienced no bubbles or buckling in the process.



After the decks were on, one thing I needed to validate was that the breakwaters would sit at the right height and not interfere with the turret gun elevations. So a quick dry-fit was in order and I also took the opportunity to fit the breakwater along with the rectangular piece it relates to on the X turret so that I could paint and work with it as a single piece vs. two separate pieces. The breakwaters will be painted a bit later along with the turrets to take advantage of having the AB out.





That left me free to continue working on the turrets so I could start their paint work in the next phases. First up though I needed to remove the molded on detail on the turret top in order for the Eduard PE replacement parts to fit and sit level. I used a square micro chisel to do that quickly and relatively pain-free.



Each turret received its three sight scope housings and kit-supplied PE top covers. The Eduard overlays are dry-fit only at this point as they will be painted separately in a darker gray before they get permanently attached and it's much easier to do that with them off the turrets vs on.



Sunday is my 18th wedding anniversary so might be a little busy with other things...so the next update might be delayed until Monday or later depending.

[Leon]

Wood decking and turrets look great Bill .Happy 18th to you and the Mrs.

[dupes]

18th? Already? Congrats!

Some serious detail going into this one. Those wood decks look GREAT.

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon!

Dupes, time has flown...my wife and I only dated for about 3 months before were married and people who knew us back then that we bump into still ask about how our 'child' is doing...even though we never had kids. They just assumed things moved that fast because of a pregnancy issue. 18 years has surely flown by quickly that's for sure! I hear you on the wood decks, I'm very impressed with this particular product. Even though Trumpeter provides molded on deck detail for the planking and that could be painted and detailed to get a similar result, that would take a lot of masking and detail effort vs. just using the wood deck. I view it as almost the same dilemma as whether or not someone should DIY a zim treatment on a German tank for example. Always good to have options!

[Teabone]

Some very nice work here particularly the method for the "ribs" your doing a good job on the details for this build.  It sure helps when you have some detailed drawings.

Bones

[deafpanzer]

Man, the wooden deck looks stunning! This is it... I have to order one for my ship! LOL

[406 Silverado]

Looking really good there Bill. And congrats on hitting the big 18 with the missus. Getting closer to my Silver and 50th B-day....oh boy time flies.

I'll get a thread started but not much going on at the bench ship wise.

[mrt51]

Looking great!

Terry

[wbill76]

Bones, thanks and you're right about the drawings. Considering that photography wasn't all that advanced in 1907, there are still quite a few nice reference photos of the ship itself available but those to-scale plans have proved invaluable.

Andy, you're hooked man, no going back now!

Rob, one year at a time and before you know it, they've added up to quite a pile!

Terry, thank you kindly as well!

[wbill76]

Made some progress today in the area of the superstructure decks. I started in on the boat deck level and the first order of business was checking the fit/placement of the wood deck panel for this area. Did a quick test along with the conning tower to make sure everything would play nice and no major issues to report...so the deck will go on later after some paint for the deck components.



Then the real fun began, the actual construction for the boat deck. This involves about 25-30 different parts depending on how you attack it. I decided the best bet was to start at the ends and work toward the middle, especially since all the support posts/rods are separate pieces and they all need some time to dry while still keeping their alignment. Since there are a lot of pieces that fit to these, I opted to leave the middle connection unglued for the time being. The bases of the funnels are only dry fit and not permanently secured yet.



Everything in this area is a tight fit and fragile, so I suppose it's a good thing that Trumpeter didn't try to mold them all as integrated pieces. More effort will be spent on this area tomorrow to add the relevant details like the signal flag bins and such.

[TRM]

This is looking really great Bill! I am very much loving the contrast with all the decking! Great to hear things are going together well too!!

[wbill76]

Thanks T! Slowly but surely, now I'm in the tall grass part of the build for sure...lots of little details to decide on when/how they should all go together.

[TRM]

Gotta love building ships!! Whole different animal!! All part of the fun!!

[Leon]

Nice start on the boat deck Bill ,glad to hear things are playing nice.

[deafpanzer]

Deck looks so sexy!!! Have to ask you... what did you use to glue the wooden deck to the ship? Not too sure about CA because it dry too fast unless I get one of those slow drying CA...

[wbill76]

T, oh yes, totally different beast. I spend more time thinking through how to do something than actually doing it more often than not...have to be very careful on when and how you commit to stuff at these stages.

Leon, boat deck is probably the most fragile and complicated piece to the whole ship. Definitely a 'handle with care' component!

Andy, the wood deck is self-adhesive, so no glue required at all. Didn't even have to tack down the edges. Just work with it carefully to make sure there were no 'bubbles' in the middle and press it down firmly only when you're sure it will not be moved any longer. It's neat stuff!

[wbill76]

Carrying on from yesterday, I spent some more time on the boat deck. I installed all the signal flag lockers and some other odds and ends that populate this area. The admiral's day cabin was replaced courtesy of the Eduard set. Both halves of the boat deck will be left in this condition until after painting to make it easier to handle them and do the installation later on once the super deck has all its stuff added.



I also devoted some attention to the funnels and the conning towers. The Eduard set provided the cable stays and I used a #78 finger drill to open up the vent pipe tops on the funnels for a little added detail. It's worth pointing out that the Trumpeter instructions call for a pair of PE ladders, PE16B, be added to the base of the aft funnel but the fit is so tight for it as it slides in with the boat deck that I left them off. I might be able to figure out a way to still add them later...but not sure.

The Eduard set also provides a replacement for the range-finder platform on the aft conning tower but has you bend it up into a weird configuration that resembles a baby cradle. The Trumpeter part, F14, has the wrong type of base, so I opted for a hybrid solution. I kept the base portion of the Eduard piece but removed the railings and will add those later using either some of the Eduard or Trumpeter rails that are duplicates of each other.



Just to make sure everything is still playing nice before we commit to paint, I did a test fit of all the components.



This is as far as I'm going to take things before doing some painting and working on the super deck interior as the boat deck pieces are too fragile to leave laying around for long.

[Leon]

Really taking shape now Bill.More great looking PE work.