Heller 1/400 Colossus Class Carrier Long Term Project

[PaulBradley]

I have a bunch of aircraft carrier kits and it's about time I built one of them! I managed to get the Heller 1/400 Arromanches for a steal on ebay, because the box was badly water damaged and the decals destroyed, but that's no issue to me. Subsequently, I got White Ensign's comprehensive PE set for about half price in one of Squadron's constant sales, and I treated myself to some of L'Arsenal's resin 40mm Bofors
to replace the poor efforts in the kit.

I'll be fiddling around with this as the fancy takes me - don't expect a constantly-updated build thread, as I have very little enthusiasm for modeling at the moment, but perhaps this will be the kit to re-kindle the mojo....

Some sprue shots:













I will be doing this as either HMS Ocean or Glory during the Korean War. These little carriers were a great addition to the Allied forces and really punched above their weight. Air groups were Sea Furies and Fireflies. Unfortunately, neither is available in 1/400 scale, so I'm going to try to convert the crappy Hellcats and Helldivers included in the kit.....

[martin hale]

A lovely kit of a beautiful class of ships. I shall be following this one avidly!

Martin

[PaulBradley]

Cheers, Martin. I agree, they are a pretty class. I'm waiting for a book to arrive before I decide which particular ship to build. They had different bridges, and I need to see what I can cobble together for the kit and the PE set. Really wish I could find some aircraft...

[Dazzled]

This looks great Paul. I've been considering picking one of these up, on and off, for years. There always seemed to be other things to buy at the time though.

If you can get motivated with this I'll certainly be watching how it develops.

Best of luck with it

[Chris]

Hang in there Paul, things will get better modeling wise.

Its a cool kit BTW, I built a few of these Heller big boys back in the old days.

[PaulBradley]

Cheers, guys. I will probably tackle sub-assemblies amidst work on other projects, so this is long-term. I am aiming for a diorama based on either launch or recovery during Korea.

[martin hale]

I know somebody doe or did 1/400 Sea Furies and Fireflies. I think it was L'Arsenal but I can't find them on their website. It might be worthwhile giving the guys at White Ensign Models a bell, they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Martin

[PaulBradley]

If L'Arsenal did them, it was a long time ago! John at WEM had no suggestions, unfortunately.

[Dazzled]

L'Arsenal still do some aircraft in 1/400th Paul.

This is their website http://www.larsenal.com/GB/index.php

Click on "catalogue" at the top.

Click on ".l'arsenal" in the blue boxes on the left.

At the top of the page there are search boxes. Pick the small one next to "scale" and open the drop-down menu.

Select 1/400 and click "OK".

The third group of products down are the aircraft.



SIMPLES

[JamesPerrin]

Interesting. I can't believe that an aircraft carrier could look nice. The end of the deck has almost an aerofoil shape.

[SJPONeill]

For 1/400, you could probably get away with printing some on lightweight e.g. 80gsm paper; folding the fuselage around a small rod would give the impression of depth...

[PaulBradley]

L'Arsenal still do some aircraft in 1/400th Paul.

This is their website http://www.larsenal.com/GB/index.php

Click on "catalogue" at the top.

Click on ".l'arsenal" in the blue boxes on the left.

At the top of the page there are search boxes. Pick the small one next to "scale" and open the drop-down menu.

Select 1/400 and click "OK".

The third group of products down are the aircraft.

Correct, I knew this, but there are no Sea Furies and Fireflies. I have their Fulmars and Swordfish for my Illustrious project, and they are very nice, but they don't do the a/c I need now.

[PaulBradley]

For 1/400, you could probably get away with printing some on lightweight e.g. 80gsm paper; folding the fuselage around a small rod would give the impression of depth...

Interesting idea - I could 'pre-paint' them. I'll think about that if my efforts to convert the kit a/c don't work out.

[PaulBradley]

Interesting. I can't believe that an aircraft carrier could look nice. The end of the deck has almost an aerofoil shape.

Nice, isn't? They are some of the nicest-looking 'modern' warships, I feel.

[bobblelink]

What cracking artwork on that box