Chris's Cobbling Bench

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chrism
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by chrism »

Good to see some of you who are looking in, adding and commenting, it is appreciated and does makes doing a workbench thread worth the effort. I have certainly been tested with this one, and have indeed needed the patience of a saint with this coastal craft.

I think however with the progress this week, I could be turning the corner, and a coat or seven of paint can hide a multitude of mess:

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Still quite a considerable amount of work is needed to get this across the finish line, but at least I now feel assured in myself, that it will make it.

I have previously mentioned that I intend to tackle the venerable Airfix Vosper, sometime soon; so I have now started to give some consideration to the fittings and upgrade parts, and work out my plan of attack; as this is going to be my next build. The Coastal Craft upgrade pack consists of this motley selection of goodies, and I will be starting on this one early in the new year now,

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iggie
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by iggie »

That's looking really smart already Chris......and I like the look of the upgrade for the Airfix Vosper!
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
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Ratch
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by Ratch »

Fine work Chris, you're giving her a full refit :razz:
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chrism
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by chrism »

Ratch wrote:Fine work Chris, you're giving her a full refit :razz:
I am planning on utilising most if not all of the upgrade set, and I also have the Eduard etch set for a Revell Vosper, and some of that could be useful, but only in very limited areas now; so having studied that etch set, I am still scheming ideas for making my own evergreen and bacofoil tin cooking tray foil scratch adjustments in a couple areas, so as to leave the fret intact for use on the Revell kit, which will still benefit from it the most.

The CC resin bandstand base is so much better moulded, (I will need to cut a small notch out of it) as are the torpedo tubes, and the mounting bits for them being metal are nicely done; I do just still need the long base pieces off the kit parts which attach to the deck.... they will need some hacking to get off cleanly ...

I need two carley floats which are stacked on top of each other; the resin replacement one will be fine for the upper visible one, and I shall need to take the two kit ones and cut them up and take a section from each so as to make one new one; as the resin replacement is slightly larger ...
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chrism
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by chrism »

The "plan" that family and christmas has put before me a few days ago had left me thinking that time and space for modelling was off the cards for a week.. However things change ;-)

It was the turn of the huey helicopter to get a coat of paint, as I was chugging away with it, in between adding little fiddly bits on the MGB and waiting till there was enough to warrant an update here...

I need to say, as a rider, there was a time a few weeks ago when I had thought I was going to complete the year without building a 3-footer. Alas it is not to be ... and in the same context, this one is now best photographed non too clearly too. Trust me, it has a bad side, and an even worse one.

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I am (or as I now write this a few days after that photo) was hoping that things would improve once I got onto the decals ... but here we are now. I did manage to get a couple of decals on the tail pieces on back to front, and only realised once it was Cleared down, so I swore profusely once I realised the blast-up; then repainted and masked the red/yellow/black

With the decals on, it was starting to look just about passable at 3-foot, then the side window fell in, :oops: and there was absolutely no way I could coax it back, so there was no choice the windcreen had to come out, and it did without too much effort :roll: Given how badly everything fits I really should not be surprised:

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More on this in a day or two... I would like to try and get this as complete as I want it, (at the moment) in the next day or two; so that it can be put away in a box, to await the figures and rest of the "scene" components sometime next year.

The MGB is now complete apart from the addition of a flag, and it is going to have to wait a month or two until I have a few other boats requiring flags to get some more suitable silk ones, as they are my preferred choice, and this kit certainly deserves one now. I will leave you all with a few images of it:


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I will be looking to complete the LRRC craft from coastal craft, in the new year. The kit was missing a couple of very small but essential etch frets, for two of the gun assemblies, and will be contacting them once everything gets back to normal in January. Nothing too dramatic that a phone call to them cannot resolve I am sure. I noticed that omission a few weeks back, and decided then to wait and see what if anything happened with this one, but everything was there, and eventually as you can see from these photos, I managed to achieve something resembling what it should.

The kit is a nice kit, and the parts and presentation of the components is excellent. The only thing that really could benefit from some thought and improvement and refinement is the instructions. Given the price point for this and other products from the same company.

As for recommending it to others - I do feel that anyone attempting this and forking out the level of money that these CC kits commands, really does need to have some good idea of the concept of what is involved in building all the sub-assemblies, and a good idea of what they are supposed to look like built; before attempting one. (Hence the rider that they give of needing a shelf-full of reference matter .... )

I have built and worked with both resin parts and instructions from other 1/72 and 1/76 scale military kit manufacturers that are a lot worse than those from this company.
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splash
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by splash »

:wanw

The MGB is stunning. Your ship builds are inspirational.
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
ShaunW
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by ShaunW »

That Huey is putting up a fight, Chris - I've had windows fall in before now and it is a real PITA if to retrieve the offending transparency requires the removal of other transparencies! That MGB really does look the business, great work. I recall looking at your kits at Telford and the quality of the components is really something and it's a shame about the instructions. These kits are expensive but the best is never cheap and if these boats are your interest then why not treat yourself? Personally I'm too tight :ha:
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skypirate
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by skypirate »

Very smart pair of models!

Cheers,

David
chrism
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by chrism »

Thanks for the comments Gents. I will just make one last post for the year, so you can see that the Huey did get back to where I wanted it too, by the year end ....

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and before I get stuck into the Vosper, I found this little offering which I had painted on the resin fret a while back, and having refound it, now felt inspired to hack it off the blocks and assemble and give it a further bit of paint .... it went together nicely and now just will sit and wait until I have something else requiring decalling to get finished:

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I can certainly feel a few more purchases of AA products coming on in 2018
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splash
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by splash »

That’s a smart little tractor, what are your plans for it to pull?
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
chrism
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by chrism »

splash wrote:That’s a smart little tractor, what are your plans for it to pull?
Alas no plans for it to pull anything at the moment. It really was just an initial purchase, from the range from AA, just as much as anything so that I could get a handle on their quality and style, and test the water as it were, as their kits are not cheap either.
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ShaunW
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by ShaunW »

That is a great looking DB tractor, Chris. As far as I am aware, Accurate Armour have built a solid reputation as being producers of excellent resin-based military vehicle kits (both full kits and conversion kits requiring a donor kit from another manufacturer's range) and they have been around for a number of years. I've never built one of their kits though due to a combination of their high retail price and my inbuilt tightness :ha: Was this kit good to build?
Doing - Tamiya 1/35th Universal Carrier.

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chrism
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by chrism »

So it is a new year, and a time to wish all readers and commenters in this thread a happy new year.

I have been starting to dabble a little with some of the deck fittings for the Vosper. The hull I will admit is well entrenched in the paint shop, and will be shown in a few days time, once I have it sorted. The paint scheme being a curved contoured camo one, is going to take a day or two to mask and sort out, so inbetween times I have plenty to do on the bandstand and other upgrade areas.

With some of the replacement fittings, it is no-brainer over whether to use the replacements or not - such as for these torpedo tubes and fittings:

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The bandstand however is something I am going to need a day or two to ponder over, as I am not sure in my mind whether to infact use the Airfix parts for the bandstand as it is a little smaller and fits closely upto various lockers ...
but then put the splinter padding around the Airfix one, from the upgrade, and still use the replacement gun which is so much better moulded.

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As for the deck lockers, there is no question which are the ones to use.... the resin parts are so much better here:

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As if I haven't got enough on the go, I was itching to get this one started....
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and as is becoming customary for me now, I opted for an upgrade set too....

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Thankfully this kit is one that can be worked in three main stages: the core hull, the bridge and accommodation block, and then the 18 or 19 blocks of containers, even then, each block of containers are going to be separate projects in their own right, with the amount of masking involved to make it look authentic.
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iggie
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by iggie »

Enjoying the mix of builds going on Chris, but I have to admit the thought of PE at 1/700 gives me the creeps! 1/350 is bad enough :shock:
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
"Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow"
chrism
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Re: Chris's Cobbling Bench

Post by chrism »

ShaunW wrote:That is a great looking DB tractor, Chris. As far as I am aware, Accurate Armour have built a solid reputation as being producers of excellent resin-based military vehicle kits (both full kits and conversion kits requiring a donor kit from another manufacturer's range) and they have been around for a number of years. I've never built one of their kits though due to a combination of their high retail price and my inbuilt tightness :ha: Was this kit good to build?
It was an absolute breeze to build. It came of the blocks nice and cleanly and just needed a light rub with a wet sanding stick at the bench, as opposed to resin parts that need a good fettle with proper wet n dry paper over the kitchen sink. The instructions were a nicely laid out and well photographed item to follow too.

I will be taking a good look at other kits from their range and compiling a shopping list for November I think.

Another company who do some excellent resin kits are Kit Form Services. The price of their range is eyewatering by comparison to AA's, but they do remove all the resin blocks apparently ...
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