I decided that I’d been away from the shipyard for too long. It was time to get some progress done on some of these ships that had been lying around for awhile.
Case in point: The Dragon 1/700 scale USS Porter Arleigh Burke class destroyer I started for a Destroyer Group Build that has long since ended. Well, I found this puppy lurking under a box and decided it was time to get more work done on it. So, I painted the main deck in preparation for more progress:
Next, I decided to get more work done on my 1/600 scale French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. I assembled all the side sponsons, elevators and decks to the main hull, and then glued the flight deck down on the main hull:
Next I started assembling the island. This was very tough as these pieces were all slightly warped. I’m surprised it turned out this good! Still, there are alot of areas where some filler and sanding will be needed.
Here are a couple of pics of the main hull and the island dry fit together:
My apologies for the glare in the one pic.
Finally, since I was building a French aircraft carrier, I figured, why not a French battleship? So I laid the keel for my 1/700 scale French battleship Richelieu. Here it is built up to the main deck:
Well, so far that is all I have to show. Thanks all for looking, comments are welcome.
I’ve also made progress on some helicopters and an artillery piece. Feel free to go to the Helicopters and Armor Forums to see my progress on them as well.
Some day I’m going to figure out how to build more than one thing at a time. as a way to thin the stash if nothing else. All of your builds are looking good so far.
Not too much more progress to show. Here I just aassembled the mast, and then some other attachments got added on. I also took some time to fill a couple of seams as well:
Thanks to anyone who wishes to comment. They are very welcome.
Thanks! No worries about rushing me. I just need to find time to get to my bench. Got a ton of stuff came at me at once and so I’m having a hard time getting to the bench lately. I’ll keep you posted, and thanks for the enthusiasm and encouragement!
I filled and sanded some seams, and then added a few detail parts to the destroyer. Then started painting everything. After painting everything, I lost one of the yardarms. Two steps forward, one step back. Story of my life:
After seeing that come off, I just didn’t want to deal with it. I moved on to my Charles de Gaulle.
On the Charles de Gaulle, I filled some holes, sanded things down, and then shot a basecoat of gray over the hull to see where I needed to touch up. While that was drying, I finished assembling the island and filled and sanded some more gaps in that. When that was ready, I shot that in gray as well. Here it is with the first coat of gray:
Kinda hard to see that it is painted. It looks the same as before in these pics, but I assure you it is painted. The red on the island is from my trying to sand some rough spots smooth with a red sanding stick…
Well, that is about all I got done for now. Feel free to check out the other models I made progress on in the Armor and Helicopter Forums. I’ll keep you posted on further progress.
Thanks JMart. I actually paint in subassemblies. I still have the carrier’s island separate for painting. The destroyer is completed except for a couple of detail parts that I’ll paint separately then add afterward. I still need to make mmore progress on my French battleship though. I’ll post pics in a day or so.
I’m also going to keep an eye on this thread as I just finished my 1:700 Richelieu and would like to see how yours turns out. I have only just started modelling and very keen to learn from the experts!
Pics of my Richelieu can be found in the following thread:
Aussie, welcome to the Forums, and thank you for the compliment. I’m no expert here; I barely get any comments at all when I post my ships because there are so many more masters here that far outshine me and make my models look like toys.
I’ll keep going though, and hopefully have soemthing later.
Your Richelieu turned out excellent and your boot stripe looks fantastic. Way to go.
And now and update from my Shipyards. I have made a small amount of progress on my two French ships.
The Charles de Gaulle has finally got a smooth enough join on the lower sponsons that run the length of the ship on both sides. I kept finding seams and imperfections for awhile. Now, after four attempts, and three coats of Mr. Surfacer, I am finally satisfied with the way the hull looks now:
Here it is with the island dry fit to the upper deck. You can see that I did a preliminary painting of the windows. Gotta touch them up next:
Now on the Richelieu, I installed all the deck fixtures. The only things missing are the stacks of life rafts and the weapons. Next up is the superstructure:
Next I figured since I was building two French ships, why not three? This is Heller’s Jeanne D’Arc helicopter carrier. It is a it bigger in scale than I like, but what the hey…
The main deck and superstructure are dry fit on the hull. You can see there’s quite a bit of fit issues on this kit. Typical Heller…
That’s all I got going on in the shipyards so far.
DUKE ----I like your moxie! The thought of working more than one project at a time scares the bejeepers out of some folks. I HAVE to work that because the clients come first,then pleasure. This takes the form of shipbuilding,scratch,paper,wood and dear old plastic. I also build cars,planes and an occassional oddball thingy from here or there. This truly makes the hobby fun. I am not comfortable working in anything smaller than 1/500 though (I have dabbled in 1/700) With the last I had a constant headache until it was done, guess what? EYESTRAIN! The bottom is now 1/500 and it,s getting close to bye-bye soon. Your builds look nice and clean and organized.This is good,very good. Good luck and keep the pics coming! Tankerbuilder P.S. try using acrylic paint on windows and ports,if you boo-boo, it cleans up easier!
Thanks Tankbuilder. I have made a bit more progress here on these but haven’t had a chance to post pics yet. I’ll have to get that done. I’m still good with 1/700 scale, but I wish more carriers and battleships came in 1/500 and 1/600 scale. I’d love to have been able to keep a consistency in those scales.
Thanks for the compliments. I’ll try to get some more progress pics up. And thanks for the tip on acrylic paints for the windows. I’ll start doing that.
Well, I know it’s been awhile but here is the progress I made so far on my Navy ships.
This is my Charles de Gaulle. I had taped off the deck to paint the lines for the landing strip area on the flight deck. Here is the landing area of the flight deck all hand painted:
Now when I can find the decals again, I’ll get them on the deck and finish this bird farm up.
The last one I’ve gotten progress on is my Richelieu. The upper hull and superstructure is painted, as well as the deck. I just need to touch it up and then add the pattern if I can:
Meanwhile, I picked up a Hobby Boss 1/700 scale submarine and went ahead and got it built. Here it is, the Hobby Boss’ 1/700 scale Russian Oscar II class anti-carrier submarine:
It was a simple and easy little model to build so I thought, ‘why not?’ Now I have an Oscar I and an Oscar II in my Russian Navy.
I had also completed a helicopter and four more armor models but they never stay on the front page long enough for anyone to comment so I didn’t post them!! LOL! [swg]
Mark, those ships are coming along nicely! I really love the Oscar! I wont be going to this months meetings for AMPS or IPMS due to change in shift and days off, but I should have weekends off to go again in November and December. Think you will be at either of those and bring any of these along?
