Tag Archives: model-building

Modeling: Gee I Wish I Was Better At This

These are the three destroyers that escorted Prince of Wales and Repulse. They include the Australian destroyer Vampire, and the two British E-class Express and Electra.

Over the years I’ve had all these genius ideas for games that required building plastic models. There was the Golden Age of Air Racing game. These mostly really old Hawk air racing models were pretty simple. I even bought an air brush and compressor that I stopped using after the planes were done. Pretty serviceable stuff. I built a model of a Littoral Combat Ship when Dave and I ran our Bulldogs Away game for a Gulf of Hormuz scenario back in the mid aughts. I took advantage of a local hobby shop’s estate sale of models. But there are some 20 boxes of 1/700 scale ship models sitting in my garage, none larger than an Aoba class cruiser waiting for construction.

What would I do with them? Well they are mostly scenic pieces waiting to be bombed in an air game. I have a few Americans, including a Liberty ship. I have a lot of Japanese. Thinking Rabaul. I have two friends working on Bismarck Sea projects, so that’s probably unnecessary. The two Aobas are for the day after Cape Esperance and what happened when American planes based at Henderson Field tangled with IJN planes from New Ireland over the damaged, fleeing cruisers.

This is kind of a tag-along I thought I’d go ahead and finish. It’s a Tamiya O/P class that I finished as Pathfinder with it’s green-gray/dark gray camouflage.

Now there is Force Z. I ordered the necessary ships in November. There are three destroyers plus the two capital ships. I’m not dilly-dallying. I finished building and painting the small ships last night. Tomorrow, I’ll start on the Prince of Wales.

This is so not my long suit. Painting figures just comes a lot easier to me. For painting, I always know what I’m trying to do. I know what colors I’m using. I know how to modify those colors if need be. I have appropriate brushes that I’m really picky about. I paint every day, it’s a matter of routine. For model building, I lack experience an confidence. I have to fight off urges to be impatient and press on when things should be drying. Ack.

The Vampire was a V and W class WWI era destroyer in Australian service. Sunk in 1942 by Japanese carrier planes. The first of the destroyers I built and a good learning model.

I have learned some lessons from building the destroyers. The models were Tamiya ship models and easy to work with. I made a commitment to actually using model glue, the Tamiya thin brush on glue that worked fine. In the past I’d used CA glue, which is pretty unforgiving and allowed me to accidentally glue searchlights to hulls and my fingers. I bought some really great tweezers for use on applying decals and that helped with some of the really small parts. Just a heads up, these were purpose-built tweezers for modelers that were really inexpensive on Amazon. I think it was three pair for about six bucks, and more than worth the cost. Yes, I’m sure they’re from China.

The Express was the second of the two E-class boats. Always good to learn, and find a way to apply one’s failures.

I also learned that sometimes things just have to dry before trying to move on. Honestly, the Tamiya glue acts fairly quickly, but it does its work by melting plastic pieces together. That can take some time. I can always fold clothes, take the dogs for a walk or read a book for a bit before heading back to the den for another session.

Two views of the Electra. Electra was a challenge. Lost a boat davit somewhere on my dining room floor so she is short a boat. Managed to cover up the holes. Though I sprayed all the ships with primer after completion, Electra just didn’t want to take my Lifecolour light grey, so the base coat for both the E’s was Vallejo Sky Grey. Did complete the decks and camouflage with the Lifecolour paints.

But amid all that learning there is still some frustration. Ships have lots of little pieces. Gun directors, searchlights, boats and boat davits. I don’t really have a model builder’s table, it’s a painting table littered with painting stuff. It’s easy to lose tiny pieces or, worse, drop them on the floor even if I’m being super careful. I can’t tell you how many times I managed to find a tiny 20mm gun lodged in a little fluff of dog hair on my floor. I actually managed not to lose anything. Well . . . there is the matter of some misplaced decals. Sigh.

Painting is likewise a bit different. I’ve tried to use accurate naval colors based on what I’ve learned are the camouflage patterns on the British destroyers. HMAS Vampire is blacks and grays, while Express and Electra used grays, gray-green and blue-gray. I used the Lifecolor paint set for the Royal Navy. I’d used these paints before for 1/1200 scale ships and really liked them. The problem with many specialty paint sets, for me at least, is that many are really intended for airbrushing while I am a brush painter. So the paints tend to be pretty thin and require multiple coats. That’s a pain, but I lived through it.

But the good news is that the three British destroyers are done. And they were just rehearsal for what is coming. This weekend I hope to complete the Prince of Wales. It is likewise a Tamiya model. I’ve popped open the box and looked at the directions, and like the destroyers is a lot of sub-assemblies that eventually all go together and then requires some paint. A pretty complex camouflage pattern. It’s too large to build at my painting table, so I’ve gotten permission to work at our dining room table, but at least I have a plan. The Repulse looks even more daunting. It’s a Trumpeter model instead of a Tamiya kit. 300 pieces. Lord.

Tiny Searchlights: or Why I Can Never Be a Great Modeler

I took some time off from painting last week. The rush to finish The Buffalo hunt kind of wore me out.  I’ve managed to pick up a brush the last couple of days, though I’ve been torn about what to work on. I still have a couple of units on my painting table: William Washington’s 3rd Continental Dragoons, all six figures of them for Rebels and Patriots; and twelve figures of Old Glory Volunteers for the Philippines. I’m making progress and hope to finish them soon.

Volunteers by Old Glory and #rd Continental Light Dragoons are under way, but a ways from being completed.  Hoping for this weekend (Sept. 8th.)

But on the horizon are a couple more important game days.

In September David Sullivan and I will host a Rebels and Patriots game at Fix Bayonets in Steilacoom.  I think we probably have all the figures we need, so I just want to wrap up those dragoons.

In November there is the Museum of Flight game.  I’ve suggested to Dave Schueler that we run an air attack on a convoy.  I have bombers suitable for the purpose to raid Italians, Germans or British, and can likewise put up defenders and escorts for all the nationalities.  All I need is a convoy. And maybe some escorts.

I’ve started putting together some British escorts.  I have a box of the 1/700 scale British O Class Destroyers from Tamiya.  The kit was cheap, and it comes with two destroyers!!  I think I ordered directly from Japan. It was ten bucks plus reasonable shipping, and did I say it came with two models?

I started assembling the first ship last night.  As I was doing so I realized either how terrible my vision was or how poorly I can manipulate small pieces, or why I should just never be a modeler.  The kit is pretty straightforward and actually has very nice detail  There are a bunch of sub-assemblies to put together before putting attaching them to the hull.  Makes sense. But some of the parts are oh so small.  There are the individual 20mm guns that are very nice but pretty little. Getting them to fit into those tiny little holes is really a challenge.  I was able to pull it off only by using tweezers.

But the absolute death of me is the eeny-teeny searchlights.  Each ship has three.  One is very small, the other two are grain-of-sand sized.  I did everything I could do to try to align them properly in their very small spaces, arriving many times at some version of upside down, glued to the hull, or adhered to my fingers.  When two of them finally fell on the floor, invisible to my 64-year old eyes, I gave up and called it good.

O-Class

This is the ship assembled.  No you won’t find any searchlights, but the rest of the pieces are there to the best of my ability.  Note the slight list to the main mast. The ship will be the G98 Orwell, because I just can’t help myself. Orwell was a 4-inch armed destroyer.  The second model will be the G 04 Onslaught, a 4.7 inch armed version. The model was spray primed with Humbrol light grey.  More painting to come.

The August Tally

I have no idea what I actually completed in August.  Not much from my historical projects.  I did complete the Buffalo project.  I think that was:

12 Comanches on foot

6 Foundry grizzly bears

8 wolves by Foundry and Alternative Armies

16 buffalo by Acheson, Westwind and Foundry.

That’s 42 figures in about three weeks of painting time.  Not bad.  Not great.

August is also my little work gig for the Washington State Journalism Education Association, and I get a paycheck for that.  Lorri usually allows me to invest part of it in game goodies. So I did some buyin’

By far the biggest purchase was a big pile of Litko bases that should keep me pretty well stocked for the year.  Mostly bits for the Daniel Mersey rules.

I also bought some planes for up and coming projects.

Daveshoe, George Kettler and I really want to do some Vietnam era stuff.  Dave and I have most of the planes for the Navy, but I wanted some A-4C’s for the Air Force.  I decided this was a job for Raiden miniatures, so I ordered the Phantoms.  Of course I couldn’t help but pad things out a bit, so I also picked up six of the excellent Bristol Beauforts.  They were the prime torpedo bombers for RAAF, and participated in the air campaign against Rabaul, so that’s a future side project.

Dave and I also plan to run a game based on the American bombing of Ploesti.  I have some of Phil Bardsley’s beautiful B-24D’s, but needed six more, so I sent off an order to Scotia for more.  Well, actually I ordered ten B-24’s and I’ll figure out what to do with the rest.  Probably something to do with Rabaul.  Hey,  the RAAF flew those too.  I also slipped in some Beaufighters, which the Australians also flew against Rabaul.  Anyway, there are plenty of airplanes to keep me busy.