Wow! That deck is impressive! I love the effect.


A nice dark walnut stain and it could be a great coffee table!

Thanks Paul, better than I could do with brush.

On with the Salmson.

The Instroment panel, a mix of an injection moulded panel, decals, etched bezels and decals. also visible is the bulkhead behind the pilot.



The kit gives a choice of etched or injection moulded throttle and mixture quadrants, I went for etched, for ease I built them and painted them with the mounting frames still attached to the fret.



all fitted to the fuselage,



and the top decking fitted.



Most of the interior has now disappeared forever.

Back to the Tiger,

I have removed the moulded on bulwarks from the superstructure decks, they will be replaced with etched railing fitted with white glue dodgers.


The superstructure dry fitted, with dreadnought alongside to show how much bigger the battlecruisers were.



Si

My kits arrived today. Here's the starter pictures. Just for clarity, I had to use yesterday's newspaper (Dec 2nd). I'll be using one of RPM's FT-17s (35066) and ICM's German Assault Troops (35291). I went with the RPM kit over the Meng kit because of cost and the way I plan on using it. I'll pick up a copy of the Meng later to build with hatches open and such.

Hi Simon,

Those wood decks are really nice. What sort of finish did the Royal Navy use on them? I'm trying to figure out what to use on the wood decks of my Paris gun build, and since the gun crews came from the Kriegsmarine and the commander was a vice-admiral, I'm guessing they may have painted them to German navy specs.

Cheers,

Dick

Hi Richard,

Thanks, I do like the real wood veneer decks. Wood decks of this period were not usually stained on ships, either in the Royal navy or the Kaiserliche Marine. Prior to the outbreak of war both navies were very hot on "spit and polish" so their precious teak decks were kept scrubbed.

I don't know what the army did with regard to staining bare wood for camouflage or protection, but the neither navy went in for it, may be worth looking down that route.

Sorry I can't be more help

Si

Hi Simon,

Nice work on the airplane.

After my last post I found several sites dealing with WWI ship camouflage, and indeed, the decks of capital ships were holystoned to where they were nearly white. Of course in those days, nobody was greatly concerned about being attacked from the air.

I've studied all the photos of the German Lange Max 38 cm guns I can find, and a few show camouflage paint on the barrels but not on fixed mounts or railway carriages.

Most pictures of the Paris guns were taken at the test range, and those have no camouflage at all. The same is true in the few photos of Paris guns in field emplacements. Apparently the Germans relied mainly on netting with attached grass stretched between trees to shield the guns from aerial observation.

Col. Miller's book on the Paris gun mentions that when spur tracks were laid to the emplacements, boxes were placed at intervals between the ties (sleepers). When the track was not in use, saplings were placed in the boxes to conceal the newly laid track. At the same time, dummy emplacements were built well away from the guns, and those had more visible track leading to them.

Cheers,

Dick

Update on the Tiger.

The breakwater is supplied on the etched fret, but no supports, so some lengths of plastic strip have been cut and attached to the etched locations for the supports.



whilst the glue was drying, the vent covers painted.



the supports were trimmed to triangles, painted and the breakwater fitted, along with the first of the vents.



Si

I started on the FT-17. It's a mixed bag of sprues. Some look good, some look bad. Lots of flash on one. As expected, the pieces are way over-engineered with too many pieces. Instructions are iffy. A lot of the parts in the instructions don't really look like the actual pieces. Of course, the sprues are not marked and you'll need to refer to a parts map.
First up is the suspension and running gear. This is probably where the bulk of the build work will be spent. It's not pretty or simple, and I'm basically slogging through it. I'm taking lots of breaks, namely working on my Puma for the Big Cats Campaign.








And that's where I am. I still have the support assemblies the idlers. I'm really worried that the running gear assemblies aren't going to be strong enough for the kit's rubber band tracks. I'm taking a couple of days break from this one to decompress and work on some other things.

Hi all

A little headway on the Paris gun build, mainly on the complicated suspension used to counter the droop in that 34 meter barrel. The only certain dimensions are that the rifled section of the barrel was 18 meters long, plus a 3 meter chamber, and another meter for the breech. Everything else was scaled from that, using photos taken on the test range, and there is considerable variation between some of the guns tested, both in suspension and length of the smoothbore section of the barrel.

In the photos below, the suspension components are dry fitted to the breech/barrel assembly, and some parts are not properly aligned, but it gives a sense of what it will eventually look like.

Right side view


Left side view


Rear quarter view - close up of tower.


View from muzzle end. The straight pins holding the suspension joints together will eventually be cut off. Lacking exact dimensions from which to make the parts, a lot of cut-and-try fitting was necessary, and in the process I was stuck a good many times by those damned pins.


I'm hoping to have everything glued together in the next few days, as the holidays are upon us and I have to get the mess cleaned up and stowed before then.

Cheers

Dick

Hi Dick,

Looking really impressive, keep up the good work

Si

Hi Dick,

Excellent work.

Al

Dick,
Some great work on The Gun.

Simon, Alan, & Alex:

Many thanks for the kind words.

Dick

More progress on the Salmson,

Slight problem with the fit of the upper fuselage, my fault, not the kit's. I did not quite get the upper frame down tight enough. I have masked the gap and applied some green stuff



The masking removed, just needs a swipe with a file.



The engine halves assembled along with the mount.



The engine "furniture" on the sprue, It is an overused cliché that the engine is a kit in itself, but this time I think it is a valid use.



Rocker arms fitted, all 18 of them,



Ignition leads and induction pipes.



Push rods, these come in three etched parts, a small and easily rectified fit issue, the ring upon which the arms are mounted do not fit over the top of the crank case. as shown I just cut each one in half, problem solved.



The engine and mount have been sprayed black, and the cowl front has had the exhaust pipe sprayed silver leaf.



detail painting on the engine and cowl front next. still really enjoying this kit.

Si

And on the Tiger, to avoid confusing myself mostly, I putting the models on separate posts.

All the vent covers have been added to the decks.



One issue with this the kit is that no allowance is made fo the access ladders up the outside of the superstructure, so the first deck platform is taped down with the areas to be removed marked out with the tape.



under process of removal.



a quick view of where I am at. Funnels and turrets cleaned up and the superstructure piled up.



more soon

Si

Hi Simon,

Your Tiger is looking really elegant.

As to the Salmson, a pity there isn't some way to leave a trapdoor so one could see the now-hidden controls.

Cheers

Dick

Excellent progress Simon.

Al

Thanks Al,

appreciate your comments

Thanks Dick,

A lot of the detail on the Salmson has disappeared, but at least we know it is there.

On with some more disappearing detail, the engine.

Engine detail painted, and the exhaust collecter ring picked out in good old citadel tin bitz.



All 9 exhaust pipes have been fitted, and they do fit perfectly. Here awaiting a coat of tin bitz.



The kit supplied jig is assembled, a plan is provided on a sheet of A4, along with a die cut card jig.



The wings added to the fuselage and dropped into the jig to set.



Again all credit to Gaspatch for including the jig it really seems to work. I cannot praise this kit enough. It has no real vices, (so far) and for an aircraft that holds no real interest for me, the joy of building the kit is enough for me.

More on this and Tiger soon.

Si

Hi Simon,

Engine is looking good, coming along well.

Well with my Somme dio almost complete I've done a bit more work on some figures I might use with the Crewe Tractor.



I hope to make a start on the 18pdr or 6 inch howitzer during the holiday season.

Cheers

Al

More updates.

Suspension and running gear. With that done, I think the worst of the assembly is done.




So now onto the hull. The kit comes with a rudimentary driver's station. The sidewalls are pretty sparse. Since I plan to display the driver's hatches open, I decided to add some interior ribbing and rivet detail using styrene strips. I doubt you'll be able to see beyond the driver's seat so I won't worry about those.


I pre-painted. The kit's instructions call for light gray but most sources I've seen call for white, even on the interior of the hatches. I shot a coat of gray primer and then a coat of white. A quick wash of black for details.


Hull assembly time. It's a multi-piece deal and it's going to involve several stages of clamping. The side pieces went on pretty well, though one piece had some bizarre molding lumps along the bottom seam that needed cleanup. For that matter, the entire sprue for the hull is heavily flashed over.




I think that's it for now. This kit really has been a pain but I am really enjoying it. It's challenging and some of the engineering makes absolutely no sense. Lots of test fitting and at points the instructions really don't match the actual parts. And you'll learn to appreciate parts numbers on the sprues. They could have at least printed the parts map on a separate sheet so it minimizes the flipping back and forth to check.

Outstanding work as always gentlemen! I unfortunately had to pack up all of my modelling goods into storage for an emergency situation, don't know when I'm going to be able to get back to them. I'll continue to keep an eager eye on everyone's progress here in the meantime. Cheers

Nice figures Al, looking forward to seeing more.

On with the Tiger, one of the kit's weaknesses is the lack of detail on the funnels. Each funnel has three bands, the upper supports the top of the vertical rigging, and the other two the stays. The bands are added from plastic strip.




Whilst the glue was drying I found some ladders for the first platform on the accommodation, nad fitted along with the searchlights.



The second section level of the bridge added, and the supports for the compass platform fitted.

also shown are the two out of thee funnels I completed the bands on.



More soon.

Si

Gentlemen,

Some incredible modeling going on here!

Paris Gun, Somme dio, Tiger - I look forward to more! Alan, where'd your Light Railway come from?

Hi Fredrick,

It is the Resicast offering: the Ford Draisine 1916 kit no 35.1154.

Cheers

Al