Hi Everyone

An introduction to my next big plastic kit build - Airfix 1/350 HMS Illustrious. The kit will be built with extra airwing kits and also a full WEM etch upgrade. This will be a tribute build to the ship as she is being retired shortly after 32 years of service.
A build diary will follow in the near future when I have a bit of an idea of what I'm going to include.



About the ship:
HMS Illustrious is an Invincible class aircraft carrier and was launched back in 1978, although only bought into service in 1982 in a hurry to get her to the Falklands to join here sister ship HMS Invincible.
Today, "Lusty" in a changed role of Helicopter and commando carrier, can carry 22 helicopters made up of a combination of Merlin, Lynx, Sea King and also Chinooks and Apache's depending on operations. She also used to carry up to 22 Sea Harriers before their retirement in 2005.



The real reason for this post is to gather the thoughts of forum members and to request any info and photo you may have of Lusty.

My build will be a waterline model in a resin sea base and will be lit up with fibre optics / leds etc.

What I need is any information any members here have of where the lights would have been placed:

I need to know the placement or configuration of the landing deck lights, I know it is not a conventional runway but Im sure there must be border lights (blue?), possibly red end lights and maybe white strip lights?
I also need to know where the green / red nav lights are and if any other lights can be included on the island structure maybe?

So, I'm looking for ideas and suggestions, any Ex-RN members? Do you have some pics of her at night when in port maybe? There is a real shortage of night photos so I have no clue as to where I place the fibres.

The kit also has some good internal hangar deck detail so this will also be lit up - any idea what colour light would be there?
Also, if you have any good tips on using fibre optics in a build let me know.

Feel free to post any info and any Photos that you own, it will all be useful to my new build, Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers
Steve

Thankyou Jase,
The second pic in your links is good but I just wish it would show the deck lights too, to further explain I want to recess the ends of the fibre optics into the deck through holes drilled to the exact diameter of the fibre, poss 0.75, or 1mm.
I have been searching for an overhead photo in low light but no luck
Steve

Just to give you some idea what they looked like from above, although this is Invincible a few years ago (a lot actually) and there are a few differences........






The hanger lighting was/is normal white light unless the lifts are down and it turns to red as that is not visible at night..

I only ever did Illustrious for 2 weeks coming back from Norway in 84, but did 8 years on the "Ark" in various drafts, but if I can help in any way, don't hesitate.

I do have pictures of her "Razzing" with us on the RFA Resource in 83 somewhere, I will search them out for you............Tony

Nice looking project Steve

Hi Steve,

in the past I used either a gloss silver paint for the glass and a toothpick with camouflage colour for the larger glass frames or a gloss midnight blue for the glass without the frames being painted.

This worked well on 1:700, so in 1:350 should be looking better than the perscribed gloss black. I used the silver if I imagined the weather to be sunny, to mimick the glare off the glass.

Adrie.

Thankyou Adrie, Jase

Adrie, I think you are right about the silver maybe looking like a bright day, nice idea - however, I am going for a low light look as I will use lighting and intend on a grey sea too. Like the idea of the gloss midnite blue as well
Jase, Yes, canopies molded in grey. The pic certainly does look two-tone dosent it, Id have to try it and see how it actually looks on the plane though.
The resin interests me as Im sure I have seen someone do this before, especially as the harrier canopy is so dominant, makes it worth doing. I think I remember once the ships planes were often made of clear plastic and you then just painted everything except the canopy?

I think it all depends on the viewing angle, on the photos looking directly down the canopies look black, but at deck angle they are various shades or clear.
Steve

Hi Stevie.

Here's a couple of links you might find useful!

http://www.jeffhead.com/modelbuilds/uk-r06.htm

www.flickr.com/photos/defenceimages/6195134637/

One trick you could try with the Harriers is to get some thin clear acetate and cut it into a small square about two inches in size. Sandwich that between two cut outs of either wood or tin for example then gently heat the acetate with either a gas or electric hob until it goes floppy. When it reaches that stage, quickly pull the floppy acetate down over one of the kit Harriers and hold it there for ten seconds. If all goes well you'll have a transparent copy of the top half of the Harrier which you can (very carefully) trim off the cockpit canopy, remove the solid canopy from the original and replace with the new clear one.
I've used this way back in the past, it does work but I always had a lot of wastage with maybe one good one for each three or four attempts! It's a sort of poor man's vac-forming without the vac!

Best of luck anyway!

(PS, Ive never seen any deck lights lit up on the Invincibles either! They were never designed for the 'fast jets' so maybe they weren't needed. The night time shots during the Falklands just showed the whole flight deck illuminated by flood lights on the side of the island)

Robin

Hi Stevie.

That's a damed good idea regarding the canopies, it would be much easier than doing the whole airframe. I think many years ago I read of making a cheap vac form machine from a biscuit tin and a vaccuum cleaner! Possibly in the old Airfix magazines?. A heat gun would be perfect (and much more directional too, (you should have heard that gas hob splutter when I tried it upside down!! )
Just thought, another possibility might be to carve/sand cockpits from a length of clear sprue off another kit. I know there are plastic 'polishing' products available out there, but I must admit that was a task even my patience wouldn't stretch to!

Looking forward to watching this one!

Robin

After a little bit of a search I have found out that there are in fact lights along the center of the runway distance markers (on the white lines), they appear to be yellow dots in pairs as can be seen from the pics below. Just noticed on my kit too that these are marked on there as tiny dots which will help a huge amount in getting the holes in the right locations.
Anyone with any experience in fibre optics please feel free to post here, I need to know the best glue to fit the fibre into the drilled holes? , how many fibres reccomended per led etc?

Thanks again in advance,
Steve