HMS Iron Duke - Airfix 1/600

[JohnRatzenberger]

Well, life sure got in the way of this one (and Mary Rose). I have had little bench time and progress has been slow.



Nonetheless, here we are. The hull is painted as is the deck and the deck is on.

I am using WEM RN03, AP507C Admiralty Light Grey for the hull sides (and superstructure later), but it is so thin that I first have to give a 1-2 coats of Humbrol 147 as a base, then at least two of the WEM -- all these coats, with drying time, just adds to the build time. BTW, Humbrol 147 is a good match to Admiralty Light Grey, perhaps just a tad bluer. I painted the deck Hu103 as a base, then used WEM Teak.

This requires getting all the barbette guns mounted and that isn't fun. First they all have a strange "bulb" near the muzzle -- what that is meant to represent I have no idea. Rather than try to sand them off, I just cut the barrel right behind them and left them a bit short -- I doubt anyone will notice. The barrels take a bit of cleaning up to remove seams. The barrels do not fit down on the pegs, and the pegs do not fit into the holes on the underside of the deck, so I had to make all holes bigger and in some cases sand down the barbette portion of the barrels to get them to fit on the pegs right. And the barrels are really thin and delicate …

Anyway, after much work and numerous test fits, I have the deck, with barbettes, glued down. Unfortunately I now have some gaps to fill and that means more paint ….

The struts & rudders are on, the props and propshafts are painted and waiting to be installed. Once I get the deck/hull cleaned up, I'll be ready to move on.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I'm afraid you'll have to do Dreadnought in either 1/350 or 1/700 -- or get a paper kit and rescale it to 1/600. If Airfix ever looks for a new-tool 1/600 ship, it ought to be Dreadnought.


I spent what little time I had today trying to fill gaps. Unfortunately some of my barbettes don't turn and I can't swing the barrels out of the way so I cut them off and will remount them later. I didn't get as clean a join of that hull-platform-deck join that I thought I would; it's a fairly difficult maneuver. I wondering if it wouldn't be possible to fit the platforms to the hull and let that dry, using the deck to hold them in place. Then the deck could be pulled and the joins cleaned and finally when all neat and clean, the gun barbettes put over their pins and the deck seated and glued. That may be just as difficult as the kit method, just a thought.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Deck-to-hull join is fixed up, except a few gun barrels which need replacing.



Sooooo, I'm fixing up the hull paint job, painting the various fittings and such on the main deck, and touching up the deck itself. Time to start looking at the superstructure, get building and paionting on that.

We are back in motion ….

[MerlinJones]

Oooooh...all those lickle pieces on deck to paint!

[JohnRatzenberger]

Yes, they exceeded the "is it really necessary" standard there ...

[JohnRatzenberger]

The Adm Lt Grey is repainted, tomorrow I touch up the deck and we are definitely rolling along. Meanwhile I started on the superstructure -- and I believe I mentioned before that it appears to be too tall.



The problem is not the total height but that the portion between parts 39 and 61 is too tall and then part 65 is too short. It is hard to tell where the problem is, because it isn't just one part that I can isolate. I suspect that the non-scale thickness of each platform has contributed to the problem, that and maybe that part 39 is a wee bit too tall.

Regardless, I'll work with it tomorrow and see what I can do …. plus continue with other structures and some of the detail PE that I'm putting on ….

[JohnRatzenberger]

Honey, I shrunk the superstructure !



I took a little bit off each of the 4 levels -- parts 39, 49-50, 54-55, and 62. This brought the top down close to the funnel top. I believe it should be a bit lower even, but this is good enough. If you have the kit, compare the profile in the color guide to the boxart and you'll see the difference.




I also put on some PE doors and hatches. I am painting anchor chain, which I hate. And I'm working the rest of the superstructure. Got to get started on the gun turrets one of these days. I have paint on all the PE and all the little kit parts like guns, searchlights, etc …. Got to start the PE admiral's cabin also …

I am close to a decision point. The kit boat davits are way oversize but the WEM PE ones are equally tiny. I am sure the kit ones would be easier to put on, I'm just not sure which I want to use. I know I have lots of clean-up of the boats and then hole filling if I go the PE route.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Lots going on. Two main superstructures mostly done and base painted. Lots of bits & pieces put on the main deck.



The major pieces are the turrets and all the boats. The more I work with the WEM PE set the less useful it is -- there just isn't enough to really dress up the kit and then some of it, like the boat davits, just looks too small in comparison. I'll be using less than I had thought ….

[JohnRatzenberger]

Here's where I got; most of the structure onto the hull. It shouldn't have taken this long, but I had a bunch of things come up and then there was too much on the workbench.



I'll finish this in the Ships forum when we get back …

[JohnRatzenberger]

Not a completion, but I did get to work on it today. I took it down to our display at Fort Fisher and fiddled with it when not explaining all sorts of British things to the visitors. I'll post more pix elsewhere. Surprisingly there were many "What is that?" questions directed at Iron Duke; it is probably some spill-over from many having also been to see the USS North Carolina, BB-55, and seeing vaguely the same shape in Iron Duke.



I did get some parts glued on, the turrets assembled (and filled), and the flare sanded off the main gun barrels ….

I'll finish this in the Ships forum when we get back …

[Dirkpitt289]

It seems to be coming along nicely. Keep up the great work

[omi]

did anyone ask you why do they paint them red on the bottom? i get asked that alot?

nice work JRATZ.