SPA Modeler

Thanks Stuart. I’ll get some more progress on this over the next few days. But being a ship project, and the amount of changes that I will be making, this will not be a fast project.

Stikpusher wrote:Thanks Stuart. I’ll get some more progress on this over the next few days. But being a ship project, and the amount of changes that I will be making, this will not be a fast project.

I bet - they've never struck me as quick builds. I've got to do that tall ship soon and I'm sure that'll be a learning curve!

Well, if had built this straight OOB, it would have been an afternoon build followed by a week or so of painting, depending upon what paint scheme I chose. But here I am going to upgrade with PE, 3-D printed parts, scratch work.... I am going to try soldering, something I have not done in decades...

That is what I admire about your work. I have band-aids.

LyleW wrote:That is what I admire about your work. I have band-aids.

Thank you Lyle. I think my biggest problem here will be keeping myself from getting too deep into changes.

So today’s update...
first up, I added a PE hatch from the flying bridge for the pilot house (research is teaching me all sorts of new terms on this one...) then I glued the superstructure sides together and the pilot house overhead/ flying bridge deck in place. Afterwards I added some styrene for the optical rangefinder platform. I also sanded off the molded on windscreen and evened out the soundroom extension top to blend it into the surrounding area.





After that had dried a bit I had to make some changes. The kit is a Rudderow Class DE, which had a rectangular mount area for the Mk.51 director for the forward 40mm gun mount. The Butler Class has a round mount. Here’s a before and after shot of the surgery area...





I had bought some appropriate size aluminum tubing for the mount area and cut a length to fit. I also added some thin sheet styrene for the decking and forward bulkhead there, and then I drilled out the three forward portholes for the pilot house.





The lower deck for the 20mm and 40mm mounts is just placed on for now, pending my thinning of the splinter shields. I also cut them back a bit at the after end of the 20mm galleries, per the plans that I have....

That’s all for now...

Thanks Bruce,,, but it looks so bad blown up,with all those scratches and gaps... mind you in reality those are tiny... but here...

Stikpusher wrote:Thanks Bruce,,, but it looks so bad blown up,with all those scratches and gaps... mind you in reality those are tiny... but here...

I apologize my friend! I edited my post. It was the plasticard that was fitted so well that caught my attention. Excellent work.

Looking good Stik - I'm loving the conversion work!