The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Airfix 1/600 HMS Ajax



Initial thoughts.

Simple enough, Ajax steaming in front of what appears to be smoke -- either from a flaming ship or laid as cover. I have seen, in an Airfix book, a print of this showing an aircraft falling in flames. I assume this would be in the Med and not at the River Platte, which I'll be doing. Fortunately there are no other ships in view.

I see a backdrop with smoke and sky, and a base of a semi-active sea, with splashes,

I have the White Ensign PE set for this ship and will use it to add/enhance some of the major features -- crane, catapult, railings, radars, etc. There is more detail on the boxart than in the kit.

I really should save this for the Ship GB, but really wanted to do something else for that.

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome !!

John, I think this is the original box-art that Bruce is referring to:




Helps to explain the origin of the smoke

Regards

Tom

Ah-ha !!! I see, thank you both very much !!!
Looks like someone in marketing shaved a half-inch off the box when they flipped the image.
I can do that easily enough; and hopefully I can find that kit box so we have it for display.

In retrospect, I should be embarrassed about the flipped image. I should have recognized it right off ...

No, there are boats on each side -- it's the flat structural piece then the "X-X" further aft, on the port side it is two "X-X" structures. And then a difference in the boats them selves.

Glad to see you doing this John, look forward to following your build.

Irony ....

I took Ajax to my club meeting today to fiddle with and one of the other members brought the Academy Graf Spee ....

Well, I found the original boxing ....



The box is a bit ratty but good enough to send along for the display unless I come up with better. At least I can start to craft my base and backdrop. This gives me a 2nd hull to work the base separately and some spare parts.

I can now start work on this. I don't think I want to wait for the Ship GB, I had plans for another in that ....

Even better -- I found another original boxing, this time complete and unstarted so I can use the kit (I remember an Airfix Magazine article that talked about converting HMS Ajax to the fictional HMS Ulysses).

Most important is the box is in wonderful condition to be displayed with the diorama. Yay!!

And it was really inexpensive !!


NO, this is not it!! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... SS:US:1123;

Great news John I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with the Ajax, it was my first Airfix ship kit.

Regards

Tom

I am away from the workbench for a couple weeks, but here is progress to date.




The hull, being long and thin is difficult to put together cleanly, but I have done enough test-fitting of it and the decks to think I have a plan. Even though this will be a waterline scene, I am building the full hull, just not putting on props & rudder -- it's less than a 1/2" deep from the waterline and thus will fit into a base easily.

I drilled out all the portholes, IMHO, it always looks better. I'll fiddle with it later to see if I need a black "vanity strip" inside the hull or just leave them as is.

I also have painted the boot stripe and the lower hull; the picture reflects this. When I get back I will paint the upper hull and the main decks then put them together.

Here's how/why I paint my hulls.
1. Lay a strip of narrowest Tamiya tape such that the top of the strip is right on the line where the top of the red hull should be.
2. Run a strip of narrow tape, in this case 1/16" detailing tape, right along the "red-hull" tape -- this is the boot stripe line.
3. Then run another strip of narrow Tamiya tape tightly against the 'boot strip' -- the bottom of this strip will match the upper hull color line.
4. Pull off the boot stripe tape, make sure the other two are tightly pressed, and paint the boot stripe black.
5. Pull off the red-hull tape and wait until the black boot stripe is completely dry.
6. Lay down the boot stripe tape again, this time being sure to get it snug against the bottom of the upper hull tape.
7. Paint the lower hull, pull off the boot stripe tape, and wait for it to fully dry.
8. Retape with whatever tape you like, the boot stripe & lower hull -- a single piece of the narrow Tamiya tape, or the next size, is fine depending on how sloppy your paint work is. Lay this tape down snug against the existing upper hull tape.
9. Remove the upper hull tape and paint the upper hull; remove the boot/lower tape and let it all dry.

I do this because I find it very difficult to lay down a very thin strip of tape over a long distance, having much better luck with something broader. I don't just slop on black for the boot stripe, it is often too hard to cover with upper & lower hull colors. While lots of taping, it does keep things tidy. Right now I have just finished step 7.

Generally I would put the hull together before painting, but since most of it below the boot stripe will be invisible, I decided to paint the two pieces first.

You can also just use a temporary wide tape as a guide for the thin tape so it goes on straight and parallel to the horizontal.

Yes, there are simpler ways, but between Mike Ashey & some other guys, I learned not to get extraneous paint, particularly black, on the hull.

Been a while, but I have been working.

Here we are, hull together, and the stern half the deck in place and drying. I have been working a few structure pieces -- all have the wood deck painted, port holes drilled, and I put on some hatches and doors. The WEM set gives me about 3 dozen total of 4 various styles, but no real indicator where to put them, so I scattered them around appropriately -- hatches on the deck near armament and doors in the superstructure. I have thinned some of the bulwarks, shields, etc, but decided not to do wholesale replacement with thin card.



The clamps are a bit of overkill but I want the deck tight to the hull sides and level so I don't have to touch up much.

Next I'll paint the deck structures and detail and start to put the deck houses on and their detail …

The problem I see is that the turrets appear to be very undersized and just look terrible sitting in place. I am thinking I might bulk them up with a .010 or .015 strip. This won't hold up the rest of the work.

Great progress John and i have to agree drilling the portholes does make a difference.