Building 1/700 - 1/350 ships

[Lokasenna]

Those battle pics are amazing. I aspire to do something smaller (Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the CAs vs. Kongos one) for a coffee table someday.

[Mundy]

I've pretty much wrapped up my CVL-22. I just need to get the rest of the planes done.

[Mundy]

More.

[Mundy]

More

[SierraJuliet]

Fabulous work there Mundy. Thanks for posting. Great encouragement to keep myself occupied in this hobby.

[Mundy]

I did go through burnout now and then.  It wasn't an easy build.  Not a fault of the kit itself, as it's well detailed.  The instructions weren't well organized, and it was easy to lose track of where I was and miss parts.
 
I tried to capture this look, with the Measure 11 poking through the Measure 22.
 

[HansBolter]

A few works in progress on my desk:

[SierraJuliet]

I like your detail work on the bows Mundy. I must make time to build models... no need to worry about burn out.

A diverse collection you have there HB.

[m10bob]

Dad had a hobby shop across from the main gate of Tech High School (Indianapolis)in the early fifties once he returned from Korea. My brother and I were involved with all the models from then till maybe 15 years ago?
Renwal, Palmer Plastics, Aurora, Revell, Monogram, Airfix, Hawk, AMT, Pyro, Frog, Tamiya, Hasegawa, Bowser, Athearn, built everything they ever made up to maybe the mid sixties..

At 1/700 scale, the color difference is not really going to be noticeable, but just for fun, you CAN make a difference by painting your model and then giving it a "wash" using india ink and wiping it off.
You can also dilute the ink with a bit of water for weathering models.



TIP OF THE DAY:....cars these days lack chrome, but for the old farts amongst us who still have some...Never buy "chrome cleaner"..Instead, wrap up a ball of aluminum foil and rub it across your chrome bumpers..It will remove tarnish and rust, and is too soft to scratch chrome..
Commercial cleaners contain acid which is bad for the chrome and will force you to use their product more often..........

On bigger model cars, use an exacto knife and cut the chrome strips from your foil to glue to the sides of your model cars..A pencil may be used to get it into the details of the molded model body.[;)]

[HansBolter]

m10bob,

There are specialty products around now that fill the needs of scratch built items like your chrome:

http://bare-metal.com/bare-metal-foil.html

Still, sometimes good old fashioned ingenuity triumphs.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: SierraJuliet

I like your detail work on the bows Mundy. I must make time to build models... no need to worry about burn out.

A diverse collection you have there HB.

I'm terrible at actually finishing.

I get half way through a kit and start another.

I have 5-7 projects going at any one time.

The function of a very short attention span I'm afraid.

[Mundy]

I have the attention span issue also.  Probably why I can never finish a Warhammer army.  New books keep coming out.
 
I'm going to give her the drybrush treatment to pop out some of the detail.  I like Citadel's foundation paints 'cause they pop out more.  For a bland monotone scheme like Ms.21 you tend to need to.
 
I've got the planes to do, but they're not too bad, despite the microscopic parts molded in brittle clear plastic.  I did put two in the hanger.
 
Not sure what's next.  The stash is pretty big.  I may work on my Necron army for awhile, as I've neglected it for awhile.  I do have a DD-805 USS Chevalier Gearing class with a big aftermarket set.  I also have a barely started Chikuma and Indianapolis.  It's a little early for a new Carrier.  I have a CV-2, CV-5, CV-13 and Gambier Bay waiting.  Lex would probably be the easiest one of the bunch.  I also have some 1/700 stuff for when I feel like doing a water base.

[Admiral DadMan]

I remember building model ships, making them water tight, launching them into my local lake, then throwing M-80's at them...

If only we had YouTube back then...

Good times...

[KenchiSulla]

Nice job guys...

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

A few works in progress on my desk:

That is ALMOST as cluttered as my work desk. [:D]

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: Admiral DadMan

I remember building model ships, making them water tight, launching them into my local lake, then throwing M-80's at them...

If only we had YouTube back then...

Good times...

Nothing quite as satisfying as playing with M-80's!

[wdolson]

My father was a professional photographer who did difficult color commercial work starting in the early 50s. He was also a model railroader back then and got into model aircraft in the 60s. When I was in high school we went to a model railroad convention and the guy who was going to do an airbrushing clinic didn't show up. The organizer overheard me telling my father he could do it and he got drafted. His advice was so popular he was booked into every model railroad convention in Southern California until we moved away from Los Angeles. As demonstrations of weathering he printed up some of his color photographs from the early 50s and they were almost more popular than his clinic. He never thought his work was all that valuable, so he didn't print any up to sell.

Anyway, one of his points was scaling color to the light conditions and scale of your subject. He points out that a steam locomotive is painted black, but out in the full sun, it is more of a dark gray. If you paint your model locomotive that will be seen under indoor lighting the same color, your going to lose a lot of detail in the inky blackness. Instead, mix a bit of white in to make it a dark gray and under indoor lighting the model will look more like the real thing in sunlight.

We did the same thing with camouflage. German aircraft often had the two tone green on the top sides, but if you paint a model with the authentic shades, you're not going to be able to tell the difference when your done under indoor lighting. I always lightened one of the greens to make more of a contrast under indoor lighting.

With a small subject like a 1/700 scale ship, you have two problems, it will be seen under weaker light than the original and it's such a small subject, the eye is going to blend similar colors. When putting to small patches of color next to one another, the eye will blend them together into one color if there is too little contrast between them. Instead if you make the contrast more pronounced, the colors will be more obvious to the eye.

Bill

[Mundy]

I used to have a handy formula somewhere about what ratios to use in lightening paints, depending on the scale used. At 1/350, I don't do a lot, except to highlight panels (post-shading), whereas in 1/700 I'm more likely. I haven't experimented with pre-shading yet, like I normally do with aircraft. Yorktown would be a good candidate for this as heavy as the hull plating is molded on the hull.

[SierraJuliet]

Do so like seeing your work as it progresses... keep those photos coming.

[KenchiSulla]

Mundy, so its here that you try to rebuild your fleet? Can you build me a new Fuso?