Modifying FMG's Italian Battleship

  • Customizer

    What I did to fix this was I shaved the raised barrels of the B turret off.  I then used sheet styrene and cut out a square shape in the same size as the turrets on FMG’s ship.

    I glued this on top of the B turret.  I then cut out 3 barrels and glued then on top of the A turret…

    I didn’t take pictures of this,which is too bad, but here is the final result after priming and painting.

    BBg1.jpg
    DSCN2159.JPG

  • Customizer

    Here is the unmodieifed ship, and teh modified one beside each other for comparison.

    Cheers

    DSCN2160.JPG

  • '21 '18 '17 '15

    Messed up the mold with that then, good job,  will be fixing mine when they arrive……


  • are you using oob pieces to?

  • Customizer

    The battleship I modified was FMG’s.

  • Customizer

    Unless you mean other pieces?  I used Table Tactics’ half track, and Avalon Hill’s infantry.  All other pieces I used were FMG’s.  I didn’t use FMG’s trucks, armoured cars or infantry.


  • how come you dont use their infantry? too small?

  • Customizer

    Jim010,

    Good Job!  And on such a small size as well.  Well done.

    “Tall Paul”

  • Customizer

    @Tall:

    Jim010,

    Good Job!  And on such a small size as well.  Well done.

    “Tall Paul”

    Thanks.  Wasn’t hard to do, though.  I still have a couple Italian BBs I will do, so later on I’ll post a how to.

    CHeers

  • Customizer

    OK, here we go:

    First, here’s a shot of teh FMG BB again before modification.

    Use an exacto knife to trim off the B turret barrels so that you have a level plane from the top of A turret to the top of B turret.

    DSCN2201.JPG
    DSCN2205.JPG

  • Customizer

    Here the BB is showing how it is to be trimmed.

    DSCN2206.JPG
    DSCN2207.JPG

  • Customizer

    You’ll need sheet styrene.  Cut out some pieces and glue them on top ofeach other in a stack equal to the height of the FMG BB turret.

    Then trim the piece into the square shape of the turret.

    DSCN2210.JPG
    DSCN2217.JPG
    DSCN2218.JPG

  • Customizer

    Glue the new turret on top of the BB’s B turret.

    DSCN2219.JPG

  • Customizer

    Next, you’ll need to make the barrels.  I used styrene strips .022 x .033 .

    Cut 3 equal length strips the same length as the BB’s barrels.

    Glue them in place using cyanoacrylate glue.

    DSCN2220.JPG
    DSCN2221.JPG
    DSCN2222.JPG

  • Customizer

    All 3 barrels in place:

    DSCN2223.JPG
    DSCN2224.JPG

  • Customizer

    And then paint whatever colour you wish.  I primed the ship first, and then used an acryllic avocado green for the ship, as I did all the Italian pieces I have.

    DSCN2159[1].JPG
    DSCN2225.JPG
    DSCN2228.JPG


  • Nice job! Wished some one made a generic triple turrent for smaller(cruiser) ships.Some of my metal models have bad mounts due to old molds.

  • Customizer

    Looks like you did a terrific job.  The final painted version looks almost like it was made that way.  Seems like an awful lot of work though.  Of course, not everyone is a piece junkie like me and bought 5 sets.  I would have to modify 30 battleships if I wanted to do this.  A couple of questions:

    1 - What if you just want to keep your ship(s) in the original molded color?

    2 - Why did you choose that light green color for your Italians?  FMG is coming out with a Canadian set after USA, UK and ANZAC and I think they will be about the same color.  What will you do then?  Or do you not plan on adding the Canadians?

    Just curious.

  • Customizer

    If I wanted to keep it the original brown, I would use a colour matched acrylic just on the BBs.  No need to repaint all the pieces the same brown.

    I chose the green I did as it was a close match to the green Avalon Hill used for their British in the AA Revised.  I thought the colour stood out nicely against the other nations.  And it was similar to the green Avalon Hill used for their Rise and Decline of the Third Reich.

    I don’t plan on buying the Canadian or Anzac sets, but if I do, then there’s always more colours to choose from.  :-)

  • '14

    How about taking a good turret off another battleship? HBG has a lot ships and to keep the color cut a turret off one battleship to use for the messed up turret. 1 battleship to make 2 good ones!  Just an idea!!

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