I have a headache just contemplating working at such small parts.

May want to invest in one of these if you are going to continue working with parts that small.
Headband Magnifier Headset: https://www.amazon.com/Headband-Magnifier-Headset-Magnifying-Optical/dp/B073RMHXC8?


Wheels

Here’s a bit of trivia about Warspite.

Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been named Warspite. The origins of the name are unclear, although it is probably a pun on the word 'spite', in part embodying contempt for the Navy's enemies, but also the common name for the green woodpecker, suggesting the 'Warspite' would poke holes in enemy ships' (wooden) hulls. Until 1919 a woodpecker was used as the ships' crest; the official badge was a cannon, although the woodpecker continued to be used on the ships' tompions or gun muzzle plugs.

I have one, real handy.

I got one given to me as a gift at chrissy but it's a cheapo pos that has a terrible led light and a really weak magnification I've thought about buying a decent one myself but atm i just use two cheapo pairs of glasses on top of each other for the smaller stuff.


Grog you do get a small crest on the Warspite bridge but chances of adding any detail is zilch unfortunately. It's about as big as the tip of a pencil and i will just have to paint it gold and if lucky get a splot of green in the middle. I've been watching and reading stuff about ships called Warspite through history in the RN, so many great yt channels these days that delve into this stuff.


Small update, just pottering along doing bits and pieces. I've drilled out most portholes and will use the kristal clear to fill some and shut some others up with pieces of plastic to give it a hopefully varied look. The kristal clear just seems like standard pva type wood glue as far as i can judge when i did a few test windows.













Hacked up the original Walrus and chopped the hangar door so i can stash it inside. I didn't like my paint work and the kit supplies two so lucky me I also mucked around with some sprue to see how hard it would bee to make some basic rigging for a bit more detail. This one is too thick but i managed to make some about half as thick for the one that will be displayed on the ship.











Chopped out the cockpit, hopefully it won't look too bad once cleaned up and with some 'glass' added.








Aft balcony tarp struts added




My paint never turned up today which is a bummer as i wanted to get started on the hull and get it completed over the weekend. Plenty of other small stuff to still do of course, just getting itchy to use my airbrush!

Plenty of putty seam work on nearly all of the other parts, all drying now and awaiting sanding. I've looked at a lot of finished Warspite kits and the seams/joins stand out and can let down the kit, i'm happy to put in the ground work now rather than kick myself later.







Last night was all about the Walrus. The amount of time such a small thing can soak up is near ridiculous This is pre sanding..yes i sanded the stupid thing and pre flat. The white is the Kristal Klear hoped for cockpit look.







And a night of drying. Turned out about as good as i could expect.









Rigging. Heated and stretched sprue painted matt black. The worst part about this was the Tamiya thin glue would eat the sprue and shorten it so it was a fun half an hour getting the length right to fit. I wanted to rig the rear as well but didn't want to have it looking off kilter so i left it. If it bothers me i'll have a crack at it tonight.







End result was really cool though, i'm fairly happy with this little beast, much better than my first attempt and she will sit nicely on the deck. I added a small mg to the front made out of a couple of stretched sprue pieces to finish her off. The other one has bits taken out of the wing to be able to fit in the hangar. Alas, she will never fly again.

Got some spraying in after much mucking around thinning the Lifecolor paint. That stuff eats thinners alive and keeps asking for more. I started spraying the steel parts of the deck that will protrude through the Pontos wooden deck kit and the other parts of the different decks around the bridge and other areas. I got a couple of thinnish coats on before calling it a night. Laid down the first couple of coats of the lighter hull camo as well but it hardly shows in the shots at night so i'll wait until i put down the darker colour to get some shots.







These cranes were fun...not. The bases were a couple of hours of shaving and rebuilding with putty and glue as the two halves appeared to have been made in different countries at different times for different ships by different companies. Seriously, they were terrible. The pe crane arms were cool even though i managed to magically make one piece become three by overworking it and separating all the joins. Glue fixes all! (and lots of it)

Oh good grief, man!

Insert the "we're not worthy" animated GIF from Wayne's World here.

Top work Ajay! that Walrus is great, and the PE crane arms are super effective. How much rigging is there on a ship like this, and are you going to install it?

There is quite a bit (for me) going by the pictures and rigging line drawings i have managed to dig up. About 24 odd aerial lines and signal halliards. The supplier i use has discontinued Ez Line so i'm looking around for some Uschi line as sprue experiments have shown i won't manage to get it all uniform.

Quick update. The Badger brush has been a constant annoyance so i'm upgrading to an Iwata Eclipse HP with a .35mm needle. Last night and todays spray session was maybe an hour or so of spraying and two hours of troubleshooting. Spraying the hull today was an exercise in frustration and i just had to put it all away before i launched the airbrush down the street The air valve which gave me some issues doing the 190 continues to get stuck and results in constant air randomly and a sticky trigger. New orings and cleaning the valve (multiple times) hasn't sorted it and the place of purchase will take over a month to sort the issue. I'm just putting it all down to being a newb, probably having too fine a tip to learn with and getting a cheapo entry level airbrush when i should have shelled out another hundred bucks for a better quality one.

Fishing expedition out to Stradbroke island this weekend with the daughter on a mates boat so that will blow out the cobwebs and have me fresh for a new start on monday!

If these first pictures are any indication it will be an awesome build when you are finished.


Wheels

Hoping so Wheels.

I'll just drop these here. That was as far as i got with my hull work before calling it. I've pulled all the tape off so it doesn't sit for half a week and get goopy or something similar plus i wanted to see how it looked with a couple of light coats on and how much it may have bled. I'll lightly sand the edges before retaping and hopefully finishing the hull next week.

I'd definitely use something like EZ Line for the rigging. It stretches massively and returns to the original length, and if you're anything like me I GUARANTEE you will snag something in it while working on the model. It's very forgiving for that. I don't want to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but all the ship modellers I've talked to at shows say the most important thing with rigging is to work from the inside out. Looking forward to more.

Gorgeous work, as always!

Still searching for some EZ Line Goon, inside out and make sure to snag something, got it! Cheers Dart!


Well, talk about chalk and cheese. The Iwata Eclipse brush is awesome! Love it, sprays and sprays..and sprays. This is more what i hoped airbrushing would be, more spraying, less mucking around and super easy clean up. Much better cup finish inside, far nicer fit and feel of parts, much better valve and spring setup and a really nice smooth finish needle..and it's shinier. Very happy with the purchase. Sprays lovely fine lines and opens up fairly nicely for bigger applications. I can also grab a .50mm nozzle and needle and change out the .35 further on down the track if ships become a thing.






I couldn't wait to get cracking with it so today was finishing off the remasking and hull camo and then getting started on the hull red. This is about four coats in. Hopefully by tomorrow i will get the red finished and then lay down the black stripe and get some decent photos of it. I'm fairly keen to see how it will turn out with all the contrasting colours.








Managed to finish off the light AA guns but didn't manage to get a non blurry photo. These will get a slight wash but not too much or i think i will undo all of my work and end up hiding any detail.

That new brush sounds great. It is amazing how good tools make things so much better.

Well despite my new brush performing wonderfully i can still muck it all up Grog!

Todays example. I was going along wonderfully, laid down the last couple of coats of hull red, removed the masking paper and then let her sit for a few hours before laying down a semi gloss coat. I decided to put down the gloss before i do the black 'boot' line on the hull to keep it all clean while i am handling it. So i make a mix, and spray away. The hull starts to go slightly chalky and i think, hmmm, maybe it will come good, i must be holding the brush too far away and it is drying before hitting the hull. Long story short, i had both of my clears next to each other except one is a flat base, the other a semi gloss. The flat isn't really a clear, more a mixer to flatten out colours. I wanted the semi gloss but simply grabbed the wrong one. So an hour later, a 1500 grit rub down of the hull, a clean up, a remask and respray of hull red and i am back at nearly having the hull done, again I swear i double checked which one i had grabbed before i mixed, maybe i am slowly fuming myself out. There was a moment of initial panic when i realised what i had done but the rework was easy enough.

Tomorrows (semi) gloss top coat should hopefully give her a bit of a sheen and smooth it all out a bit. The camo needs some minor touch up but nothing worrisome.







Now i just need to work out which way to go regards the boot line. I've seen thick and thin, and both look good. I was leaning towards the thicker line but it takes a bit away from the camo and shows more hull area whereas the thin line looks. well..thin, but splits the camo and hull more evenly. I cannot really find a definitive picture or subject about it and nearly every build is a bit different regards hull to camo ratio dependant on where they have placed the boot line and how thick it is.

Ajay, why put the line on after and not first?

I want to seal in what i have before i tape the line over the camo and the hull colour Krazi. Do you think it won't make a difference?

Edit- i taped the line and as it runs over about 6 vertical square blocks on each side i sealed the edges of the tape with some clear to hopefully minimise any leak through.

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