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

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Quick update, no photos. Bit more work on the base, but not much, just to make the ocean colour a little more green.

Have built but not painted a total of 11 a/c, 6 Furies and 5 Fireflies. Currently trying to work out how to paint them. A bit tricky.


things I'm considering are to build a cuple more a/c with wings folded, I also am tossing up whether to have the elevator up or down. There are some risks with having it down, mostly loss of strength for the hull, but it would be cool I think to have an aircraft using the elevator...


Anyway, for now I'm pre-occupied getting my CAG painted and sorted....
 
finally have my CAG just about finished.

I will have to put this build aside for a while, whilst I get started on my Vietnam GB

Building these little planes was challenging . The decals didn't want to stick, so I finished up using a form of glue to keep them from lifting. the decals are strong, but the adhesive really sucked.....


Anyway, for better or worse here is my (nearly) completed CAG for the carrier

 
So with GB 37 complete Ive made a decision to pass for the next round of GBs so that I can spend some time on this build. lord knows it has spent years now languishing in the shadows as I work up the courage to have a go at what is going to be a very challenging build.

The main problem are the instructions. They are just awful to non-existent. There is a lot of detail to go into this kit and the instructions are almost worthless. Ive purchased the official scale drawings from the RAN Naval historical section, but even then the construction process is confusing.

So here are the instructions













 
Despite this I at least wanted to make a start....First up I trimmed and fitted the bridge to main hull

basically

Okay not a lot, but its a start.

Then I thought the most appropriate thing to do would be to paint the ships boats. I will paint the boat bays then fit the ships boats I guess, straight away I struck a small problem ....no information on the colour scheme for the ships boats . The whalers I have an idea on.... basically a royal blue hull to the waterline, standard RN grey below the water line, RAF light grey for the upper works except the roof which I think is white. The long boats I'm just unsure of.. I'm not sure about any of this, so any suggestions....go ahead.
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The kit has 8 ships boats, of which I think 6 will be needed for the Sydney. RN Carriers appear to have embarked at least two extra ships boats (the smallest motor skiffs which we called dogboats, as deck cargo. I never saw them on the later Melbourne, and have not found them in any of the period shots of the Sydney..


For the long boats I will paint them Royal blue hull to the waterline and grey below the waterline. The boat interiors I am intending to leave natural timber

I did find a pretty good web site on AWB colours and finishes. these aren't AWBs (Australian Work Boats) but I'm pretty sure they will be scaled down versions of the same.....
40' Army Workboats



This is an RAN AWB present day. Relative to the 1950s the hull colour has been lightened up dramatically, but it demonstrates the basic idea



This has a dark blue (Royal Blue) hull, RN grey below the Pplimsall line and RAF light grey for the superstructure




The RAAF WBs used a white hull colour, and are confusing since this shot is closer to the time period for the Sydney


So, any ideas for ships boats colours?
 
I found a website which has an excellent model of the carrier and gives a very good idea paint the ships boats:
ANMM - HMAS SYDNEY III mopdel images - Cutting Edge Models
An image of how the boats should look is here;




on how to Ive decided to paint the ships boats a mix of Tamiya XF-25 (Light sea grey) with white upper surfaces and white also below the plimsall. the long boats interiors I will finish in a mix of deck tan and some kind of oil for the raised seats. The XF-25 to the ships boats





 
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