BP Models

I've been busy the last few days but have been getting in some progress here and there to keep the Dreadnought steaming ahead! I wanted to be sure that the wood decking wouldn't have any adverse reactions to either Future or my preferred flat lacquer, Testors Lusterless Flat, so I rigged up a simple test using the turret cut-out pieces from the Wood Hunter deck and sprayed one with Future only, one with the Lusterless Flat only, and a third with both to see if anything negative would occur. After letting it sit for 24 hours, all three test subjects appeared perfectly normal and fully functional so I went ahead and attached the decks permanently in place for the main deck and super deck areas.

The Wood Hunter deck is self-adhesive backed with a very thin plastic film that needs to be removed for the adhesive to be exposed. I found the best way to do that was to use a strip of masking tape to 'lift' the film at the start and then peel it back as needed. Occasionally the backing film would leave a section behind or not peel completely and in those cases the masking tape trick worked perfectly to lift those sections away quickly and easily. I used some wooden toothpicks and a paint brush handle in different spots to ensure the deck laid down evenly and experienced no bubbles or buckling in the process.



After the decks were on, one thing I needed to validate was that the breakwaters would sit at the right height and not interfere with the turret gun elevations. So a quick dry-fit was in order and I also took the opportunity to fit the breakwater along with the rectangular piece it relates to on the X turret so that I could paint and work with it as a single piece vs. two separate pieces. The breakwaters will be painted a bit later along with the turrets to take advantage of having the AB out.





That left me free to continue working on the turrets so I could start their paint work in the next phases. First up though I needed to remove the molded on detail on the turret top in order for the Eduard PE replacement parts to fit and sit level. I used a square micro chisel to do that quickly and relatively pain-free.



Each turret received its three sight scope housings and kit-supplied PE top covers. The Eduard overlays are dry-fit only at this point as they will be painted separately in a darker gray before they get permanently attached and it's much easier to do that with them off the turrets vs on.

Made some progress today in the area of the superstructure decks. I started in on the boat deck level and the first order of business was checking the fit/placement of the wood deck panel for this area. Did a quick test along with the conning tower to make sure everything would play nice and no major issues to report...so the deck will go on later after some paint for the deck components.



Then the real fun began, the actual construction for the boat deck. This involves about 25-30 different parts depending on how you attack it. I decided the best bet was to start at the ends and work toward the middle, especially since all the support posts/rods are separate pieces and they all need some time to dry while still keeping their alignment. Since there are a lot of pieces that fit to these, I opted to leave the middle connection unglued for the time being. The bases of the funnels are only dry fit and not permanently secured yet.



Everything in this area is a tight fit and fragile, so I suppose it's a good thing that Trumpeter didn't try to mold them all as integrated pieces. More effort will be spent on this area tomorrow to add the relevant details like the signal flag bins and such.

Carrying on from yesterday, I spent some more time on the boat deck. I installed all the signal flag lockers and some other odds and ends that populate this area. The admiral's day cabin was replaced courtesy of the Eduard set. Both halves of the boat deck will be left in this condition until after painting to make it easier to handle them and do the installation later on once the super deck has all its stuff added.



I also devoted some attention to the funnels and the conning towers. The Eduard set provided the cable stays and I used a #78 finger drill to open up the vent pipe tops on the funnels for a little added detail. It's worth pointing out that the Trumpeter instructions call for a pair of PE ladders, PE16B, be added to the base of the aft funnel but the fit is so tight for it as it slides in with the boat deck that I left them off. I might be able to figure out a way to still add them later...but not sure.

The Eduard set also provides a replacement for the range-finder platform on the aft conning tower but has you bend it up into a weird configuration that resembles a baby cradle. The Trumpeter part, F14, has the wrong type of base, so I opted for a hybrid solution. I kept the base portion of the Eduard piece but removed the railings and will add those later using either some of the Eduard or Trumpeter rails that are duplicates of each other.



Just to make sure everything is still playing nice before we commit to paint, I did a test fit of all the components.



This is as far as I'm going to take things before doing some painting and working on the super deck interior as the boat deck pieces are too fragile to leave laying around for long.

They say the devil's in the details...well today the devil tasked me with working on the searchlights. Since a few of these go on the super deck and the boat deck, I decided it was as good a time as any to tackle them all and get them ready for painting along with the other details. The kit supplies you with 14 but only 13 are needed. I went ahead and prepped all 14 just to have a spare since the Eduard PE set includes 14 bezels as well.

First up was drilling out the faces of the lights. This was done with a pin vise by hand while the lights were still on the sprues. This made it much easier to handle them and control the drill bit vs. trying to do it with them off the sprues.



Once that was taken care of, they were removed from the sprues and cleaned up where needed. The Eduard bezel faces were added using liquid glue and a spit-moistened toothpick to help in the pick-up-and-placement of each little bezel.



Once painted, these will get further detailed for the reflective surfaces and what not.

Lots of progress to report today. First up were the baffles and screens for the funnels. Trumpeter provides these as multiple PE parts (5 different parts for each funnel) and they are all extremely fine/fragile. The internal baffles are probably the most fragile as they require a lot of bends but the part itself isn't that sturdy to begin with. One thing that Trumpeter does that I like is they provide their PE with a laminated adhesive sheet...if you only peel off the top sheet, the bottom sheet remains stuck to the back and you can use that to your advantage for parts like this. By only freeing one leg at a time and bending it up into place, it was possible to get all the legs into position where needed...then one last cut to free the baffle from the fret.



Then the real fun begins...I opted to glue the baffles into place first inside the funnel cap using liquid glue, then added the outside ring, and finally the top portion of the screen. The funnel tops are only dry fit for now to make it easier to paint them separately from the funnel stacks as masking due to all the PE is clearly not an option.



After studying the rigging diagrams, I decided to add some rings for the signal flag lines that will be rigged later on. I used the fine copper chain that came with the Hunter deck and clipped out 12 links, cut them in half with fine wire cutters, and glued them in place with CA.



Then it was finally time for some more paint to fly...I primed everything with Flat Black since I needed to spray some anyway for the funnel tops. The turret tops were sprayed with Panzer Gray and everything else got the same custom gray mix that was applied to the hull. In order to paint the 12 pdrs, I stuck them in small blobs of blue tack putty and then stuck the putty to the masking tape so I could paint them more easily since they have mount pins on their bases.



That will get a chance to cure up and this weekend will see more detail work in terms of getting the gear installed on the first super deck level so I can secure the boat deck and continue to work my way up in the superstructure.

Building on the paint progress from yesterday, today's efforts were all in the detail department. Turrets received their 12 pdrs along with the Eduard platforms and guard rails. The 12 pdr mounts as-is were all pointing downward, so some gentle pressure on the breech portion of the gun 'elevated' them so they would sit at a level height once installed into the platforms. Took a little trial-and-error but eventually I got all 10 sitting at pretty close to the same height. The 12 pdrs got a little extra detailing in the form of some Model Master Non-Buffing Metalizer Brass applied to their breeches.



The funnels got their caps permanently installed and the signal flag deck area and aft searchlight platform were painted with Panzer Gray to detail the crew walk areas. Same thing for the aft conning tower's fire direction platform. I'll wait to install some railings for it until I'm ready to finally install it in place to avoid any possible damage or complications.



Front portion of the boat deck received its wood decking as well as a permanent install. This is much easier to handle with the deck 'loose' vs. fixed and today was as good a time as any to check that off the list.



The boat deck levels are still dry fit only at this point as I need to work on the super deck level details next. Doesn't hurt to do a quick check though to make sure everything's still playing nice with each other.

I started in on the super deck's interior details today and immediately encountered an issue when it came to installing the 12 pdrs. The added fractional millimeter of the wood deck is a partial contributing factor but the bulk of the issue had to do with the bases of the guns and how they needed to mount into the various slots in the super deck structure. The mount pins work great for open spaces like the turret tops or the open decks...but when they have to fit into the tight spaces like most of the superdeck's openings, it was virtually impossible to get them into position.

I ended up removing all of the mount pins and sanding the bottoms of the bases smooth and using CA gel to mount the guns into position over the mount holes instead. It's also worth noting that while the guns themselves are installed in Step 16, the exterior port covers that also need to line up with the gun barrels aren't dealt with until Step 26 and they have to fit just so together to look right. So much flipping back and forth in the instructions was called for as I worked on getting the guns installed as a result and it's a slow and tedious process as the panels have only a very tiny contact surface for gluing. I suppose you could also opt to pose the covers in the down position and have less hassle that way but it definitely doesn't look the same.

I also hunted through the instructions and added all the little exterior parts like the hose reels, ladders, and the walkways for the wing turrets. I also discovered that the rectangular hatch covers D29 are meant to sit right up against the aft funnel's base, so they have to sit just right for there not to be any interference. I glued those in place first and then left the funnel sitting in position until the glue had set to make sure there wouldn't be any issues later on in that area.





Next up will be getting the boat deck components in place and continuing the upward climb on the superstructure components. I should also note that the Wood Hunter provided coal scuttle PE inserts are a perfect fit for the openings in the deck vs. the Trumpeter items which are too small, I tried out a couple that were needed for the super deck and they fit like a glove.

Building on yesterday's efforts, I permanently installed the boat deck levels in place over the super deck. Funnels were also permanently installed after I used a #80 finger drill to create mount points for the bracing wires. Wires were added using the Fine grade of black EZ Line and CA. The final pair of bracing wires for the fore funnel will be added once the mast tripod is in place since they connect to the legs vs. down to the deck itself.





There's still more detail work for the boat deck level including the aft searchlights and railings, the pair of 12 pdrs on either side of the conning tower, and the admiral's walk left to do before I can move on up to the bridge deck.

Made some more progress on the boat deck level. The next element that needed attention was the admiral's walk. I immediately encountered an issue with its fit in relation to the admiral's day cabin and the little box on the other side of it. I'm not sure if this was a combination of using the Eduard replacement for the cabin, a fit issue with the kit part, or some combination/variation of the two. Regardless, I needed to modify the walk by cutting a notch into it so it could clear the box, part B6, which the instructions have you install in Step 22 prior to the walk going in. I also added the side sponsons (B8/B11) to the walk instead of installing them directly to the superstructure sides as I wanted to sure they would fit flush with the walk and not cause issues. Last but not least, I also added the supports, F23, that the instructions would have you install independently in Step 26. That's not a good idea as they have to attach at an angle and getting that right is pretty difficult without using the walk itself to ensure they sit correctly.



While the walk supports were setting up, I added the PE access ladders from the super deck up to the boat deck and worked on the aft searchlight platform as well. I found an error in the Eduard railing PE instructions, the correct railing for this area is #12, not #4. #4 gets used on the small searchlight platform on the main mast and is too small to go in this area, so a small note for anyone looking to use that set! I used the small section of railing that I clipped off from the fire direction control platform earlier as the back railing section for this platform, installed the front railing, then added the pair of searchlights to complete the aft portion.



Then the real fun began in terms of the railings for the admiral's walk because of all the complex curves involved with it. I opted for the Eduard rails instead of the Trumpeter railings as the Eduard railings have the correct lower height vs. the Trumpeter railings which are all the same standard height type and the Eduard rails have the added bonus, at least for the inner rail, of having etched bend lines to aid with the shaping of some of the key areas around the searchlights. I added the inner railing first, then added the 4 searchlights, then the outer rail came last. The forward pair of 12 pdrs rounded things out as well.





Next up will be working on the bridge components so I can get them integrated in fully in with the rest of the superstructure.

Assembling the two-level components of the bridge deck is a delicate operation that requires a lot of patience, mostly due to the fact of the way its supported relative to the boat deck. I decided the best way to tackle it was to install all the support legs first on the underside of the platform and use the conning tower and the openings in the wood deck to ensure everything aligned properly and then let it sit overnight so the glue could set thoroughly before moving ahead. Before doing that, I also made some minor adjustments so I could use the Eduard bridge house components instead of the kit-supplied parts. The notches in the platform were filled with putty and a combination of the little tabs cut free from the kit part where needed and then the brass house installed with CA gel. After all the legs had set up, I cut the cross braces from the Eduard support legs (which are too 'spindly' IMHO to be used by themselves) and attached those to the styrene legs to add a little more detail.



Out came the airbrush for some quick paint work and then the real work of assembling the two levels together began. The first level received its wood decking and then the Eduard external bridge face and railing were installed. The searchlights and compass stand were added to complete the first level.



Moving up to the 2nd level, it too received its decking and was glued in position over the bridge house. Compass stand and other details were installed prior to the railing to make life a little easier there. The chart table is extremely delicate as Trumpeter provides it as a PE part and the legs aren't very sturdy, so great care is needed there. The railing for this area has to take on a lot of complex bends/shapes, most of which the Eduard rail has pre-etched to help with, but it's still a delicate dance. I bent it into shape first, brush painted it by hand, then installed it in place. Last little piece of the puzzle was the Eduard-supplied access ladder to the upper deck.



Time for the moment of truth, the whole module was installed in place, integrating with the conning tower and boat deck below.




Rounding things out, the Eduard tall access ladder was added to the rear of the bridge structure.



Next up will start work on the masts.