Author Topic: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984  (Read 7289 times)

Offline Cliffy B

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1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« on: December 26, 2012, 10:06:44 AM »
Hey guys,

Actually got some time to do some work on the bench today and figured its time I shared this one with you.  I'm currently working on a long and involved story about a full scale war in South America circa 1984 and currently have around 20-30 ships in various stages of completion for multiple dioramas depicting scenes in it.  One of which will involve HMS Invincible (R05) and her escorts and work has commenced so far on her and 3 escorts.

As far as the mods go I'm limiting them mainly to sensors and weapons right now, primarily in the ASW and CIWS departments.  She was meant to be an ASW helo cruiser so she'll be getting a nice torpedo decoy system on the quarterdeck and a big old door on her rear for a VDS.  For extra defense I'll be modding the Sea Dart launcher for ASROCs and adding Phalanx and Sea Wolf launchers.  Radars will be adjusted as well as the superstructure to make room for all the new toys.  More to come!

Anyone planning on working on any of the Dragon Invincible kits and have the inkling to waterline it here's some tips on how to go about it.  If you simply put the two hull halves together (its a full hull) it goes together no problem but once you slice the halves at the waterline you lose almost all stability for the remaining pieces.  Keep in mind the only thing marking the waterline is a VERY small raised line.  I wound up taping it off on each half before going at them with a box cutter and a razor saw.  "Hack job" doesn't my job justice at all  :icon_zombie:  Oh well, its flat enough to take a waterline plate and sanding and putty will fix the rest.

At the bow they molded two very large tubes for connections but left them hollow, add some appropriate rod (6mm I think) to one side.  Aft the connection point is a tube and rod but the rod is oh about 0.5mm in diameter and about the same length so its worthless.  I added some 4mm square stock underneath the quarterdeck to reinforce that area.  After all of that you'll notice that the hull sides are as floppy as wet noodles so some more reinforcement is needed.  I added a piece of 4mm square stock halfway between the tubes and the quarterdeck (at the lowest point to allow for another connection point for the waterline plate) which will allow the hull to hold its shape but still give you some play when you're gluing the flight deck.  Before adding the brace, tape the hull halves together and tape the flight deck in place so that you won't wind up deforming the hull with the brace(s).  You might want to add more braces and I probably will as well but I added a hangar deck that is also helping to stabilize the hull and keep its shape.  I'll probably add some more though to allow for more attachment points for the waterline plate that I cut from 0.5mm sheet.

The hangar deck is a piece of 0.75mm sheet I cut to fit after many measurements and trial and error.  It doesn't fit entirely flush against the sides but that's fine since their hangars don't go from bulkhead to bulkhead.  Next step will be to add said bulkheads and cut out the after lift so that I can glue it in place just above the hangar deck, having just picked up a Harrier.  I'm dreading cutting out the lift since the flight deck is a solid 1mm thick  :-\ 

To attach it I added another length of 4mm square stock to the quarterdeck bulkhead so that it rests on TOP of it.  The other end of the deck is glued to the undersides of the boat deck cubes.  This simplified anchoring it in multiple locations and assured me a level deck.  Yes its a touch too low in the hull but I'm not going to be too picky about it. 

And no, that's not the extent of the hanger deck in these ships for it extends well beyond the forward lift all the way up to the Sea Dart mag.  I chose to only depict the after part for two reasons; its a closed hangar so you can't see inside save through the lift wells and the after lift has a fire door immediately forward of it.  That way I can depict the door closed and only have to deal with the after section of the hanger deck.  You won't be able to see much like I said anyway so I figured why bother with the rest.

Anyway on to the photos!

Box:


Hull:




Size Comparisons all 1/700.  Front to back, DD-445, R05, KGV, Minotaur CL.  Really puts the different ships into perspective.  The Minotaur for those that don't know was essentially an RN Worcester CL, IE all 6" DP guns.  Look at it compared to the KGV, a CL the size of a BB!!! :-\  I'm going to build it as a CLG to my own design but more on her later  8)




Any and all comments, questions, ideas, etc... are appreciated as always.
-Mike
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 06:45:37 AM by Cliffy B »
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline Volkodav

  • Counts rivits with his abacus...
  • Much older now...but procrastinating about it
Re: 1/700 HMS Invincible (R05) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2012, 08:37:23 PM »
Whiffed, I can't wait, many physical changes planned to Invincible?  I have been temped to do an improved Invincible assuming Australia insisted on Invincible being delivered post Falklands and the RN built a new ship incorporating lessons learnt.

Offline Cliffy B

  • Ship Whiffer Extraordinaire...master of Beyond Visual Range Modelling
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Re: 1/700 HMS Invincible (R05) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2012, 03:57:58 AM »
I actually have a conventional CV the size of an Essex in store for the Aussies which will be full of A-7s, F-4s, and plenty of other goodies  8)

Only really noticeable change besides the extra/modified weapons will be the superstructure.  I'll be re-working both ends of it and moving the bridge around.  Need to do some measurements first and figure out exactly how much room I'll need first.

Working on the torpedo decoy system on the quarter deck right now.  Had to putty the fore and aft seam first.  Waiting for plastic bits to dry so I can clean them up and glue everything in place.  Also tried my hand at building a Sea Wolf launcher based on the Light Weight version but with extra rounds.  We'll see how that turns out later.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2012, 04:00:16 AM by Cliffy B »
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline Cliffy B

  • Ship Whiffer Extraordinaire...master of Beyond Visual Range Modelling
  • Its ZOTT!!!
    • My Artwork
Re: 1/700 HMS Invincible (R05) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2012, 08:10:04 AM »
Sea Wolf launcher still needs some work and I might just re-do it so photos later.  Finished the torpedo decoy and its fairlead though and sliced the after lift from the deck and sanded the flight deck smooth.  The stern piece is just dry fitted but you can see the fairlead.  I used some pieces of Evergreen I-Beams to make them.  There's another on a small piece of 1mm square stock in front of the cable reels to act as a cable guide.  I looked at photos of NIXIE reels and then made something simple that resembled it.





Cutting the lift out was a pain especially with those curved corners and thick deck.  Its looks OK now after I attacked it with a needle file and sanding sticks.

More later!

-Mike
« Last Edit: December 27, 2012, 08:18:46 AM by Cliffy B »
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: 1/700 HMS Invincible (R05) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2012, 04:20:20 AM »
Watching with much interest!

Brian da Basher

Offline Cliffy B

  • Ship Whiffer Extraordinaire...master of Beyond Visual Range Modelling
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Re: 1/700 HMS Invincible (R05) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2012, 11:50:21 AM »
Progress shots tonight as I started in on the hangar.  Scaled a drawing of the hangar I found and cut the bulkheads for the after bay.  Detailed two of them.

Had some help from my helpers tonight.  They certainly make the time more enjoyable.  Vinny likes the smell of my reference book piles and he and Sonny both like watching Firefly 8)







Waiting for the putty to dry on the after bulkhead and I carved out the quarterdeck access port on the CIWS sponson.

Some terrifying space monkeys broke in while all of the little pieces of square stock were drying and messed up my straight lines....grrr... 

More later!
« Last Edit: December 28, 2012, 11:58:11 AM by Cliffy B »
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline Cliffy B

  • Ship Whiffer Extraordinaire...master of Beyond Visual Range Modelling
  • Its ZOTT!!!
    • My Artwork
Re: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2012, 06:45:00 AM »
Hangar deck bulkheads are done.  Just need to putty a piece of patchwork and then paint them and the deck before install.  The space monkeys showed up again and messed up my alignment of all of the little bulkhead braces, little jerks...  Added some planking to the quarterdeck to keep with tradition but figured they would remove it around the decoy winch, hence the half coverage. 

The SAM launcher you see in the Goalkeeper's position is my custom Sea Wolf launcher but I'm not sure I'm going to stay with it.  I based it off the light weight version but with 4 extra rounds.  The LW version was produced in my world and it made sense to make a larger version for the larger ships.  I'm thinking though that I'm going to go with the twin arm, magazine fed version though since the CV has the space and weight.  Would make for a better system I think.





Enjoy!

Oh yeah, I'm changing the name of her as well.  Since Ark Royal was originally supposed to be Indomitable (was changed to keep the name Ark Royal alive in the fleet) she'll be the Indomitable on the count of HMS Ark Royal (R07) is still alive and well in my story and still slinging Phantoms and Buccs from her decks.  In fact she just finished up a major refit prior to the events of the story so she's better than ever!

Later!
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 07:44:32 AM by Cliffy B »
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline Volkodav

  • Counts rivits with his abacus...
  • Much older now...but procrastinating about it
Re: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2012, 06:04:54 PM »
I remember reading something about a twin rail magazine fed Seawolf in relation to the conceptual broad beam Amazon.  From memory it looked something like a scaled down Mk13 GMS with a wide twin rail laucher arm.  Would not have had much of a magazine capacity as the outfit for the BB Amazon was four launchers one each side of one deck infront of the bridge and each side of the helo hanger aft, locations which suggest less than a dozen rounds.  Still better than one or two, four or six round, manually reloaded launchers though.

Offline Cliffy B

  • Ship Whiffer Extraordinaire...master of Beyond Visual Range Modelling
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Re: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2012, 08:18:00 AM »
Volkodav take a look at this thread over on Secret Projects: http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,218.msg22045.html#msg22045

I have no idea what the magazine was supposed to hold but from the drawing I deduced that it was a twin, endless conveyor belt style mag, one for each rail.  In theory those style launchers can hold as many missiles as you can find room.  Given the nature of said magazine you basically have 4 rows of missiles so for example a 40 round magazine would only be 10 missiles deep fore to aft IE not a whole lot of space needed, especially with the relatively small Sea Wolf.

I'm thinking of going with something that size to maximize the usefulness of the two launchers.  They'll be fore and aft of the island with the 3 Phalanx mounts in their usual positions.  Also, the Sea Dart launcher will be completely re-done and the resulting system will amount to a USN style Mk-26 Mod 2 with ASROCs IE 64 missiles.

The world that my story takes place in is very different.  Short version, WWII lasts longer, the UK is successfully invaded and devastated both industrially and population wise.  They survive on a Allied help following the war until they can recover at home so a lot of their systems will be based on US and other Commonwealth systems.  Sea Dart for example will be an indigenously developed SAM based on the US Terrier/Standard SAM.  Also, there will be a very hot war in Asia in the mid-late 1970s that will act as a proving ground for all of the fancy SAM, CIWS, and other technologies and highlight all of their strengths/weaknesses.  Hence the very heavy AAW orientation for the weapons on my version of the Invincible.  A war in South America in the 1980's will be a test for all of the mods done to the systems after the Asian war.
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline Volkodav

  • Counts rivits with his abacus...
  • Much older now...but procrastinating about it
Re: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2013, 12:14:39 PM »
Interesting read, thanks for that.  I agree it would be an appropriate system for the carrier.

Offline Brian da Basher

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Re: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2013, 08:07:56 AM »
That's some mighty fine detail work, Cliffy!

Your work on that 1/1 scale pooch isn't bad either. It looks very realistic.

Looking forward to more!

Brian da Basher

Offline Cliffy B

  • Ship Whiffer Extraordinaire...master of Beyond Visual Range Modelling
  • Its ZOTT!!!
    • My Artwork
Re: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2013, 08:12:27 AM »
Thanks man!  My decoy winch turned out lopsided after it dried.... :icon_twisted:  Hopefully some paint and some line on the reels will fix that.

Yeah, ship modelers love to complain how tedious it is to plank large scale ships' deck with individual pieces of wood but try doing the pooch with individual hairs!!!  ;D
"Radials growl, inlines purr, jets blow!"  -Anonymous

"Helos don't fly.  They vibrate so violently that the ground rejects them."  -Tom Clancy

"If all else fails, call in an air strike."  -Anonymous

Offline finsrin

  • The Dr Frankenstein of the modelling world...when not hiding from SBA
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Re: 1/700 HMS Indomitable (R08) Whiffed circa 1984
« Reply #12 on: February 02, 2013, 06:12:41 AM »
Another cool addition to BTS Navy.
Is extra sweet with hanger deck.  More pictures ?