Interwar HMS Rodney | Tamiya

Dry fitting the turrets and some parts of the superstructure. Taken shortly after I began building, around mid-August 2021.

By modern standards the kit is pretty insufficient in a lot of ways, but I can still appreciate the quality that this kit brought to the market when it came out in 1974(!). The deck especially is rather impressive, all things considered. It should be noted that, to my knowledge, this was the only Rodney-class kit out on the market for something like 30 years. 

Day or two later, the bridge section is complete. By now I believe I had glued the waterline plate to the main hull and had done some sanding and puttying. 

Mainmast, funnel, and one of the fire control directors, as well as other small bits of the superstructure, are assembled. 

Aber brass barrels replace the original plastic, the molding quality of which was very poor. 

Just look at that improvement! 

All turrets complete, superstructure complete, AA guns added, and life rafts attached. 

Sprayed the deck with some Tamiya Wooden Deck Tan, and was in the process of going over the superstructure and guns with Tamiya Royal Light Gray. Here, the edges of the deck were masked off so that I could paint the hull. 

Mainmast masked off and painted. Another dryfit, prior to going over the windlasses, padeyes, anchor chains, so forth. 

Deck painting complete and funnel painting finished off. The superstructure and turrets are still not glued to the hull; I'm waiting to affix railings before even daring to do that. 

Carley floats painted, railings and davits primed and painted. Retouching the ships boats a bit before preparing for assembly. 

These railings are frustrating. But it's a learning experience! The good news is the superstructure railings will be the hardest part. 

Railings on the superstructure wrapped up, I think. 

The result isn't wonderful but I'm just glad it's over. The old ship tooling wasn't doing me any real favors here, honestly. 

Attached the main ship's boats and the mainmast. Some minor retouching will be required before moving on past assembly. 

Davits affixed to the hull; same thing here with regard to retouching. 

Ship's boats attached and the superstructure is complete. 

The ship is fully assembled! Now, to varnishing and weathering. 

Final image I'm comfortable sharing of HMS Rodney, post-gloss varnish. To make a long story short, I shouldn't have installed the deck pieces nor glued the entire kit together prior to the deck wash + other weathering effects, as I messed it up and it was basically impossible to fix it. It was a very strong and painful learning experience -- one I won't be forgetting anytime soon -- but I'm glad I learned it on a $15 kit, and not a $40 one. Maybe someday soon I'll come back to it, finish what weathering I can do, rig it, put on some flags, and call it finished. But for now, I suppose it's on hold.