1/750 HMAS Sydney, the aircraft carrier - Unofficial GB.

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I also need to acquire some deck letters for the conversion HMS GLORY to HMAS SYDNEY. The deck line marking is basically the same, but the pennant numbers and letters are different.

I've sourced the following


1/700 Modern RN Ship markings


but I'm unsure if the size of the letters will be large enough for the deck codes/ the letter identifier for the GLORY is R, while the letter identifier for the SYDNEY is K. The letter needs to be just a shade over 1cm high and needs to be white.

can anyone shed any light on the source ive posted? Will it do the job. Are there better options that anyone knows about?
 
Thanks wurger, but I don't think the ship you have is the Sydney. it looks like her RN sister HMS GLORY

As best as I can tell, SYDNEY never displayed an R code as her Deck letter code. it was always a K. White in colour, the same size as the "r' you see on the GLORY and the same font as well. But I don't have a "K", I have an "R". I need to find a "K". I have found a site that sells 1/700 deck letters for the RN (ive posted the links previously, but im not sure if these "deck" (or hull???) letters are in fact the right size or not, given that the carriers always displayed an oversized deck lettering code).

There is some good news.....as far as I can tell the deck lines....the solid lines, and the dashed lines are the same for GLORY and SYDNEY. The only problem I have is the deck letter code.

The following is a shot of SYDNEY as she was returning to Kobe in January 1952. You can clearly see he deck code (a "K") in this photo. I will also post the page that I got this photo from...



The link for this image is as follows:

History of the RAN Fleet Air Arm

Something worth noting, RAN aircraft flown in Korea were all RN machines drawn from a batch of over 100 delivered to japan just prior to deployment of the BPF carrier forces, of which the SYDNEY was a part. the RN had deployed either 2 or 3 carriers by then, but only sent one into action at first, whilst the SYDNEY made up the second carrier in the commonwealth fleet contribution, flying brand new Furies "loaned" to her from the RN depots in Japan, until she was replaced in February 1952, I think by THESEUS.
 
parsifal said:
Thanks wurger, but I don't think the ship you have is the Sydney. it looks like her RN sister HMS GLORY .
Click to expand...

As it has been mentioned in my post above..

Here the HMAS Sidney with the" K" letter on the flight deck...

 
Last edited:
Hi wurger

That font as that which drawing and the photos are all very useful, and appreciated. You can see from the photo that relative to the aircraft behind it, the "K" is about 2/3 the length of the aircraft. I agree that the image appearing in the rendered drawing is not quite the same as the photo images. The left hand vertical arm of the "K" seems thicker than the diagonal arms in the phot, but in the rendered drawing its about the same.

I'm going to order the decals that are available.appear to be the right font but I have no way of knowing if height wise the letters are the right size.. If I need to copy and increase the size of the letter, basically making my own decals, it would be difficult, because the letter is white. I'm thinking I could colourise around the letter the same colour as the deck. a difficult process but not impossible.. The only other option, if all else fails would be to try and paint the letters myself. Pretty desperate as a choice I admit......
 
I see, Michael. However I would say making the decal letter isn't as difficult as it can be considered. Especially all you need is to use a clear or white decal sheet.
As far as the font size is concerned... the shot with the aft letter is very useful for getting the size. If you want I may show you how to find the size and make the decal marking.
 
I might wait until the premade decal sheet arrives. hopefully it wont be necessary to make my own decals

meantime I'm slowly putting together the aircraft.....
 
An alternative is to mask the 'K'. Since it is made up of straight legs, it would be relatively simple to paint a white patch, the overlay pre-cut pieces of tape, then paint the deck colour. If it doesn't work, you can always redo it with a decal and, in the process, you may learn a new technique.
 
It would be easier to make masks ( Tamiya masking tape e.g ) and apply these letters with the white using an airbrush..
 
Depends how small it is. Yes, that can be done but it involves cutting the entire letter our of a single square of tape and it would be tricky to get all the legs the same width for small letters. Using the method I suggested, a single strip of tape is cut to width and the letter is formed by cutting lengths of that strip and applying them to the white patch individually, adjusting positioning as necessary.
 
According to my calculation the square should be about 9X9mm. Cutting the masks out of the tape should be possible with a scalpel and a metal ruller. However using a white decal sheet would make it much easier and quicker.
 
I hoping it doesn't come to that, because ive never tried masking to that level of complexity. but very do-able I agree.

Anyway, for the moment ive begun to build some aircraft. mostly because they look easier than getting the resin body into shape . a few shots of the first four a/c , being 2 x sea furies and 2 x Fireflies.











I was toying with the idea of attaching a very thin wire to one of the aircraft, when I'm done, to try and creat the look of an aircraft just getting airborne. I might not either. Just throwing it out there to gauge the opinions really.....
 
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