Hi All,
I’m building an ISW 1/350 HMS Lance. Many of the thin molded gun and bridge shields are swiss cheesed or see through. The main armament gun shields are a mess. I brushed thin CA over them to do gap filling, and that worked reasonably well. Question for the experts - will this add any strength to the shields? They are very fragile in their native state.
Steve
It might, but probably not. Things like gun shields are problematic in resin because of the inherently brittle nature of the material (ever had a HUGE fricking crater be the end result of trying to drill a small hole in a resin model?)
If you can’t get a smooth enough finish treating the gun shields and coamings with CA, I’d bite the bullet and replace the parts that don’t look good with suitable styrene strip or sheet.
If the styrene sheet you have is too thick try cutting out strips of aluminum soda can. WS
Good ideas, guys, thank you. My big concern now is the main battery gunshields, which are peppered with holes and badly warped. Their complex shapes are beyond my scratchbuilding skills.
Steve
Never say never, cruichin!
I felt the same way when I tackled updating the ancient Revell USS Enterprise kit to her current day appearance. There were these weirdly shaped sponsons on the side, I would have to chop off the top of the island and add a whole new deck, and on and on … scratchbuilding is not so daunting when you realize that most complex shapes are just simple shapes stuck together. If you can build a styrene box, you can scratchbuild. Go forth, I say!