by Eric Bergerud
1/600 HMS Iron Duke (Airfix)
This is my fourth ship since I started modeling again a year back but included a number of "firsts" for yours truly. The Airfix mast was not a serious effort, so I built one out of brass. Did surgery on the superstructure because the bridge was much too high. Sanded and bored main guns because originals looked like they had bells attached. I've never rigged - used stretched sprue here. The halyards and crane cables are much thicker than rest of the rigging (much of which you can't see in the photos) and no doubt out of scale. Also first major use of PE - set from White Ensign supplied the railings, funnel cap cages, stern canopy and a number of details not readily visible. Next time around I'm going to use brass spars (only the top one is here) instead of PE because I don't think the embellishment was worth the lack of strength. Both stays are brass. Wasn't sure what to do with aerial. Maybe I should have left it off, but decided instead to expend my entire PE stash to rig a couple sets of 600 scale railings: four in 350 would have been better, but it was that or nothing. The boats are really lame, but I just didn't know what to do with them so I chickened out.
I am very grateful to the members of the board generally, but especially to those who put their "Iron Duke" in the Gallery and those who moderate and/or contribute to the "tips" and "scratch build" forums.
