Evan Dwyer
Should be uploading pictures in a moment. The base is primed, Everything I wanted on the boat before priming and first coat is installed, built a depth charge and rack out of milliput and sprue, quite crudely I might add. Wrapped it around sprue to give it shape, went with indentions instead of protrusions for the details on the front and back of the charge. Added a rudimentary lever too. This is only the second time I've scratch built any thing so I'm pretty pleased, but I know at the same time I have muchhhhh to learn! I also used Milliput to add missing vents, 'window' and frame, and lights to the sides of the chart house. Sanded off the windshield ribbing, did my best to trim down the turret rails and join those in a mostly circular fashion, filled in the back of the day cabin, installed the deck fittings, and most importantly, joined the deck and hull. In the future, I'd like to figure out how to replace railings with those unique curves in a scale this big. I also assembled the anti-tank gun for the foredeck, although I lost a PE grab handle and left them both off since my scrap detailing is crude and my CA bottle is a mess so why bother this time?

Tomorrow I'll double check my deck details and probably install the searchlight mast, but leave off the light. Most references seem to agree it wasn't there at time of sinking, so I'm going with that. Then I'll prime the boat and the topredo tubes and start airbrushing guns and guys. And probably handpaint the life rings and propellers. Hopefully I'll have a mixed first coat of my version of tropical green ready to hit the tubes, mounts, and boat by evening!

Still have to make an anchor, I think I'm going to use bits of the mast for that...

Evan Dwyer
Made a lot of progress, some more assembly and detail painting before I hit the first clear coat and do decals and overall weathering. Quite happy so far, this has moved very quickly despite how much work I've been putting into it. Also a lot of steps I consciously skipped, like adding a casing bag for the 20 mm and scale planking the deck, and re-doing the toe rails. I put the 'damage' from the depth charge plunging through the foredeck in the wrong place on purpose, reason mostly being that I didn't re-do the planking and toe rails! But really I just wanted it to be noticeable enough that it would prompt whoever looks at it to ask why the paint's different there, then I can tell them, and maybe they'll find it interesting. Who knows, but I'm excited about that part. I also need to do something to highlight the front three windows on the charthouse, I just haven't decided which approach to take. The crew is a whole different story, I can't decide where to put them. I also built an anchor based off the kit part from the Italeri 80' model, I have a feeling that kit didn't have it 100 % right either, but once it's sanded it'll be a nice addition. If anyone has any knowledge about the deck features, there are some circular items coming out of the deck on both sides of the cockpit and two further ones behind the wheel house. One is indented in that area. On another manufacturers plans they're red, I assumed they were mushroom vents. Does anyone know?

Anyways, more tomorrow. Any and all comments welcome! First time I've ever posted much on here, and definitely first time I've posted throughout a build instead of just the finished product. I type a lot, I bet that's annoying. But yeah, I'd love to hear thoughts about this!