Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt15

So, I'm literally scared of rigging... It scares me.  I therefore try to keep my technique simple, a single pair of sharp scissors, a single metal tweezer, my hands and superglue.

I then let out a pool of superglue and let it cure a little whilst I unfurl a length of rigging elastic, I'm using mig's here.

Then I use a cocktail stick to put a dot of partially cured glue at the start and end points... The start I then let the rigging rest in the dot of glue and hold with my left hand and then my dominant right hand can move the rigging into place and let it sit at the right tension (or slack) in the end dot of glue.

If I use fresh glue it simply takes too long to cure, partially cured already going and it's just right, but you can end up with thick layer upon layer of it, specially when doing multiple runs - we will look at the stern of my ship in part 16 maybe....

However, for now here are some pictures of the rigging to the signal deck and bridge wing struts.

Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt13

Well, it's been eleven months since I started her, and now it's been nearly eight since I last touched her, but finally, after a tumultuous period I'm back at the model making bench... Working on finishing the Rodney, the first task was to remove the dust which had gathered.  Then to start to fit the out rigger boats.

I took the ship off the weighted base, and the turrets off to dust her.

The waves were the worst thing to dust.

I spotted this section of the deck, behind the middle turret mount needs painting.

The first starboard side boat, the cleats added with poly cement and left to set, then the boat gun with super glue.

Close up of the port-side boats through my new magnifying boom.

And a general look at my work bench.

Highlights are the use of my new magnifying lighting boom... lovely.

Ship Diorama Build Blog : HMS Rodney : Pt3

Today I'm starting the broad strokes of the superstructures, now I don't want to attach these to the hull and I want to be careful even connecting parts together as I don't want to occlude any of the "wooden" deck areas... because, I'm awaiting the delivery of a wooden effect transfer to stick on and help make the model be that little more believable.

Unfortunately I've been waiting for this sticker for over a month, and I'm writing this two weeks a head of your even seeing this post, so yeah... a long time, from China.

What I can do however is look at the bridge, which comes as four pieces, two sitting inside the main outer to give us detail and the general watch platforms.

There's than a piece to add into the rear to close the rear and give a deck aft of the direction of travel...

Next I took to the funnel, this is two halves, and I immediately got a finger print into the wet cemented plastic here, a really annoying problem.  But I took a breath and continued adding the four vertical tunes the halo and two search light platforms.

I avoided adding the searchlights themselves, intending to pain the platforms and then add the lights after.

I now started to put the larger super structure pieces together, starting with the main platform and the fore then the bridge on top.  All slipped together and none occlude any wooden desk effect areas so I can glue these three composite pieces together into one whole.

I decided to keep the funnel separate at this point to make painting the detail between the aft bridge platform and the funnel itself a lot easier.

But it does push on and sit rather well....

Placing this whole thing onto the hull I got my first glimpse of the build and it's look on the base.

The shadows above help with this look, clearly under a stack flash they are very much still plastic and so I'm planning how to start painting this, and I'm thinking about playing about with painting the deck and possibly getting a second model if the plastic transfer sticker ever shows up.

See the other posts here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4

Revell Airbrush Review

Check out my review of the Revell Airbrush Starter Kit for plastic model kit making.