GazzaS

Thank you for sharing! Very interesting. My wife's Grandfather served in the RN on HMS Malaya and HMS Euryalus. He was a Stoker, but also did some diving. One of his stories was about a time when he served on an HMS Euryalus, they decided to make a gun crew out of stokers. Apparently those stoker-gunners shot a lighthouse by mistake. He had some great stories, but never talked about the actual combats he was involved in.

I reckon a lot of lives were saved by the fact that the main fleets didn't engage until late in the day. It was a calm day with good visibility early on. What was your grandfather's job/position? I've read a book by one of the German guys at the battle. He was below decks... so there wasn't a lot for him to tell.

Welcome back, my friends! I've been working on the two main structures of this vessel all week... when I wasn't doing my day job, anyway... and there are only six pieces of plastic to go. So I'm feeling really close to the end. ...Except for the big photo-etch hump barring my way. One of the things I consider odd is the lack of photos and film footage from the Jutland Battle. Despite all of those great advancements made since the days of Matthew Brady, we only have a few stills from the battle. One shot that purports being from the battle is this one: This is definitely taken from the crow's nest of a König Class battleship during a major action. It was captioned as being from Großer Kurfürst during the Jutland battle. And for me, that's great... because it was my intent all along to portray this ship at Jutland. This photo has a ton of information for those willing to look. Even though it is a unremarkable photo in many ways, it tells us many things about how dreadnought battleships went to war. At Jutland, the Kaiserliche Marine ships had their after funnels painted red for identification purposes. Another problem for admirals of the day was the way their ships were constructed. Many had wing turrets and amidships turrets that were usually surrounded by cranes and the ship's boats. The muzzle blast from the wing and amidships turrets would quickly turn the boats into matchwood. So, when a big fleet action was expected, they all unloaded their boats. And this photo gives us a rare glimpse onto the top of one of the boat carriages. And this was one change I had to make. I left the boats off, and constructed enough structure to hold wooden strips that cradled the boats on their carriages. Fortunately, I hadn't thrown away the Artwox deck leftovers away. Another thing that was removed were many of the railings. The ones in danger were removed, and the ones not in danger were left in place like those at the base of the cranes and the searchlight batteries. Großer Kurfürst's large cranes were lowered and partially disassembled to protect them from muzzle blast. The booms would have laid on the deck, I imagine. What follows are my photos as of this afternoon. Happy modelling!

Only in Australia. Not my house...

I built the Monogram Corsair in 1979. I can still remember the terrible mess I made of the wing joins at the fold. You make it look easy, John. But I still don't think it would provide me stress relief...lol

haha... you got it right. The main difference is that the Aussie one doesn't have candied fruit. And is a little bit more moist. Unlike the American door stop.

See... you can do it. I'm trying to clear some out. Working on a ship model really eats up the time thought with slight progress.

John, Very nice looking builds. You do a nice mottle. That's something I don't get to say very often. I always do the open crosses with my Silhouette Portrait. It's probably one of the best investments I've made. I wish ZM would have handled the upper sides of the cockpit tub in a better way. It's really a horrible place to try to fill and sand.

Same in Australia. But I still prefer to have American pies on the holidays. have to say, Aussie Christmas fruitcake is slightly better than American Christmas Fruitcake.

Wow... looks great... but so tiny.

Looking good, Peter.

Never heard of a meat pie with Vegemite in it. And I live in Australia. I had to eat a half a vegemite sandwich at my citizenship ceremony to please my family. Nothing like being on the edge of vomiting for 10 minutes straight. Aussie meat pies are pretty nice.

Are you building, yet?

Very nice, Guy. Figures look good.

Looks very nice, Ern. Decals look like paint.

Tres bon, Monsieur!

Edgar Brooks describes the seat as plastic. Not Bakelite. Just plastic.

Great start, Peter. That's gonna be a big kit when done, I reckon. Those Quinta sets are nice.

Well... I'm not very happy. I was waiting on a bloke from TOS to make some decals that would be Aussie specific BoB pilots. But after a month of waiting, it seems they won't be happening any time soon. So, it seems like I'm gonna be doing an in-box scheme just to get it done. I hate it when other people's time tables don't meet mine.

The only problem, Rog... is that the A5 only exists in peoples stashes... or for blood money on Ebay. Only the A8 seems easily attainable. With nobody but PCM offering the early versions. And of course we're all waiting on ZM who seems to be saying they're only gonna make as many as are pre-ordered. So it's easy for Border to sell.

Very nice paint and weathering, mate. Wouldn't guess it was a smaller scale at all.

Thank you, Carl. Sometimes I'm glad I had the break, and sometimes I don't. On the positive side, so much is new. But on the minus side, I wonder just how much I have missed as AM providers retire or quit producing... like Northstar mentioned to DocRob above.

Thank you, Phil! I still don't know that my current ship would be any better.

Thank you, Rob. For the Grosser Kurfurst I needed more figures. I couldn't find any from Northstar. even a few years ago... so I went to Shapeways. I still have to separate the figures from their computer printed casings. So I'm not certain they are as nice as the Northstar figures. But at 1/350... it won't matter too much. And unlike a destroyer, most of the battleship guys are at work enclosed in turrets, barbettes, and other armored structures.