Airfix 1/350 Lusty

[kingpin141]

Hello again. This is my first 1/350 scale ship and hopefully the first ship I finish. I've got White Ensigns air wing PE coming and some crew. If I can I fully intend to light her too. So far the rear hanger, island and quarter deck are sort of . She's a big bugger. I had to make more space on me desk to fit her. I mocked up the hanger to see what I've got to work with. I'm going to light her with a cheap string of LED's and fibre optic strands of a defunct Xmas tree. The battery pack will have to live in the forward hanger. 



I'm going to have to blank off the hanger just aft of the forward lift. The rear lift will be down with 849 cabs around it and a Merlin being towed off it. 
I couldn't wait for the air wing to arrive so I started playing with the air group. The sponsons on the Sea Kings are Enormous and need some fairly drastic work just to get close. First up, my attempt at a Jungly. I trimmed about 90% of the sponson off. This leaves a hole in the fuselage. After filling it I used a piece of photo etch fret as the support strut. 








I had ago at shaping the sponson. Still not right but closer.    


Then I got ambitious. I cut the engine cover out then used plasticard to make the fire wall and base. Then I cut the foregrip off a 1/35th MP5 to use as the engine. A tiny angled piece of an Xacto pack became the open engine colour. 


And with an attending grubber.

[dupes]

Haha...I didn't know Illustrious's nickname was "Lusty". Nor did I realize that Airfix had any 1/350 ships. Cool!

[deafpanzer]

Another ship?!?! Oh lord, you are not helping me at all... tempted to start my ship now! LOL You have my attention... nice work on the little rotory!

[wbill76]

Should be a fun project there KP! Looking forward to more on this one.

[Leon]

Count me in KP,all this ship building has me wanting to build a ship now .Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[kingpin141]

I've been sat staring for a while, trying to work out how i'm going to light her. What I've come up up with is this.


With the battery pack going in the forward hanger I'm going to cut out a piece of hanger wall from the marked A area. This will then be used as the forward hanger bulkhead. Not only will the battery pack be there but the 5 LEDs and the bundles of optic strands too. Hopefully with the wall out there will be enough room to fit them in. After looking at the bridge and how it goes together. The only way I can see of doing it is up lighting it. The strands will come up at B then up into the bridge. I'm torn between lighting it red for night ops or green from all the cool electronic displays I'm going to pretend are in the real ship. I'll put some chrome tape on the ceiling to hopefully make them a bit brighter. For the hanger I'll just route the strands along the top of the hanger and some more to go to the quarter deck.

[Leon]

Sounds like you have things all planed out KP.Going to look sweet all lit up.

[kingpin141]

After a happy evening with the tape i've mocked her and had another "stare". And I've completely changed how i'm going to light her. The battery pack Can't live in the hull as I wont be able to get to the switch without taking the lift off. Seeing as how she will be in the water the pack will go in the base. Also instead of 5 LEDs and really long strands, more LEDs and shorter strands. With one or more LEDs lighting each area.


15 LEDs should do the trick. I think i'm still going to shorten the hanger to give me some more room to play with. I'm going to put a mirror at the front of the hanger and make it look longer that way.

This is the extent of the infamous hull warp. Cue a huge sigh of relief.



She will be populated with crew being busy. In this area will be a crew member being violently ill over the side. This would be me on my first night at sea. My one and only time thank god.



And finally this has arrived. I am resisting the urge to get started on them until im actually ready. Which, I fear, will not be for some time yet.

[kingpin141]

I've been sat staring again and had another change of plan. I'm lowering the hanger deck head down onto the top row of stowage racks where to white card is. This gives me room to route the optic strands.
The stowage racks looked empty so some quick cutting later we have this.



Another detail i'm going to add is tool control just forward of the seakings nose. the view through the lift

Because the strands wont bend sharply 'm going to have to bring them in at an angle from the back, hence the need to lower the hanger. Here is the first test

[Leon]

This is looking way cool KP.Nice work on the hanger deck.

[kingpin141]

Evenin all. This is a catch of of me last few nights work. First up. Tool control has been added to the hanger. Hopefully it work be lit with an AEM at the counter.


The stowage boxes has been painted. It's Vallejo sand partially mixed with brown so that when its painted on it look a bit like wood.



I've knocked up a Merlin with some of the photoetch. Putting the wipers on is a step beyond my capabilities





I've been experimenting with the lighting. I cut a section out of the overhang under the hangers rear bulkhead.


For the forward hanger i lay a piece of really thin plasticard along the top stowage shelves and put the LEDs on that.




This be the result. Must get a white set of lights.

[Leon]

Nice work in the details department KP.

[kingpin141]

Another fun evening playing with LED's. I was going to use fibre optics for the bridge and the (Insert correct name here. I have no idea and i'm buggered if I can find out) below it, but I cant find the fibres. So LED's it is. Two for the bridge and one for the ?

[deafpanzer]

Way too cool!!!