Quote from: Weaver on March 31, 2024, 06:50:09 AMYes. The hangar was lengthened and raised to take a Cougar (Puma). Before they got those Phalanx guns, they had Seacat in that position with the director on a platform where the INMARSAT dome is in your pic. Looks like they updated the gun's fire control from MRS3 to Type 912 (i.e. Selenia-Orion RTN-10X) at the same time they did the Phalanx.

Correction: the new fire-control system that replaced MRS.3 is an Israeli ELTA EL/M-2221GM according to Wikipedia. That makes sense since Chile uses Israeli Barak VLS SAMs on some of it's ships (they had them on the Counties they bought).

As an ongoing thread, this build is quite a nice idea.

I was talking about drawings that I have of Leanders from Quaycraft on Britmodeler, this led to my thinking about how to interpret them to get the cutouts I need. So using my trusty printer/scanner/copier I printed off a couple of copies of the Port side of the VDS well and got out my ruler and protractor.

A bit later I had these two drawings





The left-hand measurement of the upper image is a badly written 1' measurement. I may well update this with an image of the stern with a couple of dimensions for the aft view port. I did notice when digging out the drawing that the drawings I have for the gun-armed ship which had the well but no VDS fitted, had no view ports that I am trying to model here. This may explain why earlier some people were saying they had not noticed such a port on the stern of the ship. As a rule of thumb, I am sticking my neck out by suggesting that if the ship is fitted with a similar VDS equipped well then the view ports are fitted.

Gondor

Good job; it's always satisfying to interpret a bunch of data and make a diagram for yourself.
Not always the easiest, but still... 

I decided to transfer the measurements I made on the drawing, onto thin plastic card.



Then I cut it out



Test fit



Close, but needs some work.

The top of the viewport recess has been deliberately cut off as it was too small in depth to stay in place when opening the recess, easy to replace later with some plastic strip.

Rough marks for how much needs to be trimmed off.



And afterwards



Not too bad I think. I have quite a few centimetres of this thickness of plastic card so I can easily replace this first piece if I so desire. Certainly enough to make the other side of the well and another pair for my HMS Daring project as well. One hull at a time though.

Gondor

After a suggestion on Britmodeller, and a need to make more sides, I need another three immediately and probably another four for other Leanders. The strip I was cutting out was about the correct size for the corrected forward aft length, see the entries from around page four I think, which shows that both the drawings and the Atlantic Models 1/350 Leanders have been simplified in this area.



Anyway, here is a picture of the first drawn in pencil, possibly 0.7mm, but it's the only one I have at the moment so it will have to do.

More are being drawn, I might as well work on them while catching up on YouTube and posts from Britmodeller and here.

Gondor

I have been using my HMS Daring build to test out the parts I need for the window recesses in the VDS well. However, I have decided that I needed to enlarge the hole in the well a little bit to make sure that I have enough space to fit the new parts. So the Port side of the well now looks like this.


Hopefully, during the coming week, I will get around to bringing up the VDS well and rear of this ship to that of my other one, or am I Daring too much?

Gondor

"Who Darings, Wins!" 

Chin Chin, Old Chap! 

Quote from: Rick Lowe on February 02, 2025, 08:14:01 PM"Who Darings, Wins!" 

Chin Chin, Old Chap! 

  

Quote from: Rick Lowe on February 02, 2025, 08:14:01 PM"Who Darings, Wins!" 

Chin Chin, Old Chap! 

Or even, if you stretch it a bit further; "Two Darings, Wins!"

As I was on a bit of a roll I went ahead and tried a slightly different method to construct the VDS viewing recess in the well wall. Silly me didn't take a picture of the first part which consisted of me glueing two strips of plastic together at roughly right angles to each other. Once that was reasonably dry I attached one of the side walls I had previously cut out. I did however lengthen the cut-out as my intent this time was to fit the viewing recess through the wall and then cut the arms back so they are flush with the wall. Easier to see with a picture than just words


A bit blurry, I think I am pushing the phone to its limits with the focusing a touch.

Here is a comparison shot of the Daring and Dido's VDS well internal viewing port cut-outs.


The next couple of things to do will be to add the underside of the cut-out which will also add strength, followed by cutting back the excess walls of the recess.

Gondor

Further work has been undertaken. Here is a picture of the assembled viewport and well side in place but not glued there.



And here it is with filler on it after the sides of the viewport were trimmed to size and filed down. There is a bottom shelf to the port that's helping the parts stay together as well.



Lastly, the aft viewport under construction and still wet with Liquid Poly. This part will have to be fitted before the well wall is fitted or I could be trying to fish it out from inside the hull at some point in the future.



It's not as far as I had hoped to get this weekend but at least it is some progress.

Gondor

Once trimmed I fitted the new aft Port hull plate, though it needed a bit of tidying up.



I made sure it was secured properly by adding superglue behind the plastic card so it would not get in the way.



Still a big hole to fill, so let's try adding the well side I made earlier.



Well what do you know, it fits, sort of 

I still have lots of holes to fill and such like as well as adding the final walls and doors to the well, but that is 99% of what has been scaring the poo out of me done. The next parts of a similar level of "how the heck am I going to do this?" are the bridge wings, the floors have been cut out, its the sides along with the navigation light housings that are the next bug bare, along with the replacement deck for the holes I made 

Gondor

Progress! And another scary bit crossed off the list, well done.