Foredeck

The hull completed, painted and with all appropriate Decals in place.

The picture shows the completed Fantail, so now it's time to move topside!

This picture shows the complete deck fitted with the superstructure cutouts in place.

The deck has received three coats of hand-brushed coach paint and are now ready for flatting prior to final coats being applied.

A fair amount of time has been spent over the last few days beginning the super structure sub assemblies, the first of which is the Sea Wolf missile silo. A considerable amount of time was spent researching, mainly on the internet, for the exact equipment fit for HMS Monmouth.

The picture shows the missile silo almost complete, prior to painting.

A trial fit for the missile silo on the hull, prior to final fittings and painting.

On this build the author decided to try a "hi tech" approach with regard to lighting the model.

Here we see the underside of the Sea Wolf missile silo with a fibre optic installation. The power sorce is an ultra-bright white LED.

The six fibre optic strands feed the deck lights on the outside of the module.

The Sea Wolf missile silo completed and ready for installation onto the main model.

For our next sub-assembly build we move along to the Harpoon missile launcher blast defelector, of which two are required on the model.

The picture shows components being cut out ready for assembly: the material in use is 1.5mm veneer plywood bonded with super glue.

This picture shows one of the blast deflectors completely assembled and ready for the attention of the paint shop!

Here we see the major components placed on the bow section for a "dry fit".

The Harpoon blast deflectors still require paint prior to being fixed permanently in place.

Making a start on the components for the foredeck.

The picture shows the two anchor capstans. These have been modified from a generic capstan moulding to suit the type 23: i.e addition of a wider base and side cheeks.

A start on the foredeck installations.

First in place is the breakwater: the picture shows the breakwater being put in place with the help of a piece of stock material to aid the alignment.

Cutting out the components to make the bow fairlead.

The picture shows the components cut out from a sheet of cleading brass, prior to bending and soldering. An interesting operation which took some time!

A dry run for some of the foredeck components.

The Bow section, as far back as the Harpoon launchers, almost finished.

Only fairleads, anchor chains, pipe bonnets and railings are required to complete this section.

Further work on the bow section, including installation of the Bow fairlead and making a start on installing the deck-combing, as far back as the missile silo.

This section now requires only the railings and anchor chains to complete.