Micronaut Only Thread

[Mickel]

Brooklyn vs Honolulu. - Folks

Obviously, the Honolulu model is to represent her early on. Does this mean that the Brooklyn is later in the war, or was she significantly different? I'm using the Brooklyn model for Boise around Guadalca-nal. But I suspect that Honolulu might be a better representation. Brooklyn's cut down bridge suggests that it's a bit later in the piece.

Nice work Chris. Always good to see your efforts on here.

I've never been brave enough to wash ships, even in 1:6000.

Mike

[cbovill]

Thanks guys!

As regards blackwash and rust - yes, I did apply rust to the ships and then applied a blackwash. However, I have not mastered this yet, and this time the blackwash was too thin and dissappeared from the ships. I need to work on the rust highlighting more - I'm sure practice will make this come out better.

Chris

[av8rmongo]

Chris,

Do you mask off your lines or do you just have a very steady hand?

Paul

[cbovill]

For HMS Gloucester and HMS Dunedin, I masked off the areas with tape, for the rest I did it free-hand with a very fine brush.

[Donald M. Scheef]

Mickel's last posting prompted me to take a closer look at my Brooklyns (USN14). These have four twin40mm mounts molded into the main deck. All the photos I have of Brooklyn and a two-view drawing of Brooklyn in 1945 show several single 20mm mounts in these locations. The only photos I can find of Brooklyn class with twin 40mm mounts on the main deck (and not having twin 5" mounts) are Philadelphia, Nashville, Boise and Phoenix.

Can anyone confirm or correct my conclusion that USN14 is actually one of the other Brooklyn class in late-war configuration and not Brooklyn herself?

Don Scheef

[groundlber]

Mickel - Apparently the French Navy had fewer artists than the French Army. According to Arco's "Famous Ships of World War 2"' French ships were painted in an overall light grey. The only distinction was that the anchors were painted black. Italian ships were also light grey in this period, although they were starting to adopt a 'hard edged' splinter scheme for camouflage. After July of 1940, the Italians started painting the 'barber pole' aircraft recognition stripes on the forecastles of their large ships.
I hope this helps.
groundlber

[av8rmongo]

Has anyone ever tried to convert one of GHQ's excellent Knox class frigates (shameless plug) into one of Spain's Baleares class frigates?

Thirty minutes spent on Google has provided a handful of pictures but nothing which provides enough detail on the deckplans to make the conversion easy.

Paul

[SeaHarrier2006]

HI Paul,

i had a quick look at a modeling website and found so very good clean pictures of a 1:700 scale which someone had made, and posted pictures of the finished model.

The Main differences I could see were that the, Helocopter hanger is cut down the half the height od a U.S Knox class, and that it has a harpoon Misslie system on the Helicopter Flightdeck, and the raised part of the bow has been removed to make the bow of the ship flush with the deck.

There may be a few more minor changes, but they were the ones which i noticed right away.

I have 6 knox class frigates waiting to be painted, so when I have finished making my own 1:2400 Scratch built Leander Class Frigate, I may have a go at trying to convert one of them to the Spanish coversions.

If you are interested the ships pictures can be found at this Web Address

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Anyway, hope this helped a little,

Mark. (SeaHarrier2006)

[av8rmongo]

Mark,

Thanks those pics were very helpful. I can't believe I failed to notice that the raised bow had been cut down until you mentioned it. I'm sure I would have picked up on that when I sat down to do the conversion I have three Knox that I just picked up on ebay so I'm looking to convert two of them to this configuration.

Paul

[cbovill]

I finally finished HMS Belfast. She was in the last batch I did but her camo scheme came out all wrong, so I started over with her, and am I glad I did. I've still got to keep practicing with weathering technique, but I think she looks quite well in her Admiralty Disruptive scheme for 1942 - 1943. This is the pattern she wore during the Battle of the North Cape and the one she wears today in London. I had the pleasure of seeing this ship in person back in '97, so I was particullarly glad to complete this great ship.

Here she is...


Port side view of her four color disruptive pattern (507A, 507C, B5, B6).


Starboard overhead view.


Starboard side view.


Port side view at sea level.

The GHQ version omits the aft-mast, so I cut down a spare from another kit and fit it in the empty space in front of the second funnel. I also added the spars and upper-masthead to the foremast. Enjoy! Next batch - a whole lotta u-boats.

Chris

[jb]

Chris,
Really great stuff!

[av8rmongo]

Who else here has a chaotic life? I've been converting a 1/3000 Type 21 Amazon FF into a 1/2400 Vosper MkV and now I can't find it. Aft deckhouse and funnel were reshaped, exocet launchers removed, gun replaced and I was ready to apply the styrene for the quarterdeck with the Limbo cutout. The ship is gone! Maybe I have a Boats of Cherbourg type of gremlin thing going on here. Well guess I have to start over with the other one.

Paul

[David F]

cbovill, Your weathering looks great to me. At 1/2400, I would be worried to over-weather the model and end up with your ships all looking as horrid as a RCN corvette after a convoy escort mission.

What paints are you using? Are you toning them down with white? I like their tone, not too dark and not too light.

[cbovill]

JB, David,

Thanks for the comments, I've been wrestling with what colors best match the actual colors at this scale and it has been very difficult to say the least. What used to be my AP507C light grey for the RN I now consider way too dark, and have switched to a much lighter color - the same for many of the other colors as well. If you compare the base 507C color of Belfast above with some of my earlier stuff you can see the difference, the others look much darker.

With this latest batch of German ships I did the same, only I had to change it up because I had never noticed that the Germans actually used a two-tone scheme called 50/51 at the start of the war with the hull being a darker gray and the upper works being a light gray. I also understand that some sources suggest that the steel decks and turret tops were painted black, but I am not sure about that one, so I've left them dark gray. See below:


Light Cruiser Koln in the early war 50/51 scheme, I've added masts and spars where necessary to the original model.


Light Cruiser Leipzig in same scheme.


Gunther Prien's U-47, the "bull of Scapa Flow" he penetrated the giant naval base and sank the battleship HMS Royal Oak in one of the most daring raids of the war on October 13/14, 1939. He served with the famouns 7th U-Flotille and would go on to sink 31 ships at 180,000 GRT. Although I really need GHQ to build a Type VIIB to portray it accurately (hint, hint), the one shown is a Type VIIC.


U-41 a Type IX boat sunk February 5, 1940 while serving with the 2nd U-Flotille.


U-126, a type IXC serving with the 2nd U-Flotille commanded by Kptlt. Ernst Bauer (Knight's Cross) who sank 24 ships for 111,564 GRT.


And finally a wolfpack of boats from the 7th U-Flotille based out of St. Nazaire. I'm depictning quite a few u-boat aces in this pack, can any of you name them?

Good hunting!
Chris

[jb]

OuwOOoooh...WOLF PACK! Nice job Chris. Love the entire package-ships-water on the bases-and the tags-Neat!