1/700 HMS Invincible from the HP Models kit for HMS
Inflexible
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History
 The
Invincible-Class battlecruisers, like the HMS Dreadnought, were the brainchild
of Britain's visionary First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher. They were the logical
development of the armored cruiser and were designed to carry the same
large caliber weapons as the new battleships of the British fleet. However,
they would retain the same lightness of armor that characterized cruisers
so that they could become, with their speed, the "greyhounds" of the fleet,
according to Fisher. The theory was that they could run down and destroy
lesser-armed enemies, while outrunning any adversaries that could penetrate
their armor.
When used as they were designed, they performed spectacularly –
running down and destroying a German cruiser raiding force at the Battle
of the Falkland Islands in November 1914. But when they were put in the
line of battle and had to withstand salvoes of large caliber shells, the
result was tragic. At Jutland in May 1916, three battlecruisers (including
HMS Invincible) were lost when large caliber shells apparently penetrated
their magazines.
The Kit
 I
had wanted to build an HMS Invincible, but my favorite on-line ship model
supplier, Pacific Front Hobbies, only had kits for Inflexible and Indomitable
in stock. Thinking it would be easy to convert one of the sisters into
Invincible, I ordered the Inflexible. From a thorough examination of the
parts compared with drawings of the class I found in three sources (mainly
in the bridge area), it appears that the kit can only made into HMS Invincible
at around the time of the 1914 Falklands battle. Good news for me because
that is exactly what I wanted, but the box says "HMS Inflexible, 1909."
Both the Invincible and Indomitable kits are listed in catalogs as 1909.
I would hazard a guess that either there was a mix up on my box or that
all the kits depict Invincible in 1914.
After an in-box review of the kit was published in the August 2003
Internet Modeler, I received an e-mail that pointed out another inaccuracy.
All four of the kit's 12" gun turrets were the same shape. This would
be okay for Inflexible and Indomitable, but Invincible's midships turrets
were shaped differently. This is because they were powered with electricity,
not hydraulics, and were built by a different manufacturer.
Construction
 The
first step was to remove most of the parts from their carrier wafers.
Some of the wafers were thin enough that the parts could be removed with
a sharp knife; other wafers were so thick they had to be sanded down until
the parts came free. Some of the smaller parts, guns and searchlights,
were left on their wafers for painting and were removed only when they
were being added to the model. Once this was finished, the parts were
washed with detergent soap to remove any mold-release fluid.
 Because
the instructions were very basic, I tracked down two books that ended
up being very helpful in the construction of the kit: "Battlecruiser Invincible,"
by W.E. Tarrant; and Warship Monograph of "Invincible Class Battlecruisers,"
by John Roberts. The former has a good set of photographs of the Falklands
action, while the latter includes a general arrangement drawing (including
a detailed rigging layout) by Roberts of Invincible in 1914. It also has
several photographs and line drawings of the three ships in the class
as they appeared over the years.
 Prior
to painting I assembled about 80 percent of the model, encountering the
most difficult part of the project while assembling and affixing the forward
superstructure. Before assembly, I had conducted some dry-fitting and
was pleased to note the HP Models had conveniently arranged the deck fittings
as "locating tabs" on the deck of the model. Both forward and aft superstructures
are uniquely shaped with all kinds of angles. I was very pleased with
how tightly each piece fit into the "locating tabs." Each face of the
casemates on these "polygons" is cast separately. It required the judicious
use of putty and sanding sticks, as well as cotton swabs soaked in acetone
to get the casemate walls to blend in. Before gluing them onto the deck,
I drilled out the gun ports and used a hobby knife to square them off.
When the pieces were ready to glue onto the deck, I encountered a surprise.
The forward superstructure didn't fit into the "locating tabs" because
the casemate walls made the pieces too wide. The walls of the aft superstructure
were not placed in such a way as to interfere with the "locating tabs."
I had to go in with a hobby knife and slice away portions of the "tabs"
until the piece fit.
 I
left the boat decks and bridge decks off, sticking them onto a tongue
depressor with double-sided tape for painting. The masts were assembled
at this time, dry-fitting the legs of the tripods into the decks in order
to get an accurate alignment. The instruction's diagram was used to assemble
the upper portions of the masts. Styrene rod was used for the tripods,
but brass rod for the uppers. I tapered the ends of the brass rod using
two power tools and a cutting disk. I chucked a mast/yard into a slow-turning
portable tool and used the cutting disk on a faster turning tool to achieve
the taper. The cutting tool was used to put a tiny nick into the masts,
serving as locating points for the yards. The yards were glued onto the
upper masts with CA glue.
 The
last major bit of construction before painting involved reshaping two
of the model's four turrets. Roberts' plans in the Warship Monograph were
indispensable for this portion of the project. First, I sanded down the
sides of the turrets in order to get the right angles and shape. Then
I glued on strip styrene to add back the bulk. Sanding then blended the
whole amalgamation together. I discarded the resin barrels and used my
mast/yard tapering method to fabricate barrels out of brass rod. I added
some short lengths of railings onto the fore and aft superstructures,
while the other railings were cut, bent to fit and placed on two-sided
tape for painting. The more you put on the model before painting, the
easier the final assembly. But if you put too many things on, it makes
painting the decks more difficult. It's best to make sure that you can
get a brush into areas before gluing parts over them. The small guns and
some boats were replaced with parts from the Seals Models Early RN/IJN
Equipment Set.
Painting
 Before
applying any paint, I sprayed the model with a gray, sandable enamel auto
primer. I was able to detect some small flaws that were corrected before
the final paint job was applied.
In order to get an as accurate as possible paint scheme, I read Alan
Raven's discourse on early warship camouflage over at the Ship Model
Camouflage site. He notes that early in the war, Royal Navy warships were
painted a light gray made up of 20 parts white to one part black. I followed
this formula, made a paint chip and found a good match at the hobby store:
Tamiya Medium Gray.
 After
everything was airbrushed with Tamiya Medium Gray, I went back with a
brush and painted the decks with Humbrol Deck Plank. This paint is no
longer produced. Because I think it is the best out-of-the-tin/bottle
tint for teak decking, when I found some at a hobby store a few years
ago, I bought up all the remaining tins. The metal decks were painted
ModelMaster Gunship Gray. After painting the decks, the bulkheads and
deck fittings were touched up where I slopped over. After all the painting
was finished, all the rest of the parts were applied.
Rigging
The ship was rigged with .003 fishing tippet line, coated with black
permanent marker ink. The only place I did not use tippet line was on
the mainmast boat crane cables, where.005 steel wire was used. The Roberts
plan shows a peculiar-looking wireless aerial strung between the fore
and main masts. I replicated this with a length of Tom's Model photo-etched
railing. I coated it several times with black permanent marker and attached
"Vs" on either end with .005 steel wire. When everything was glued, painted
and rigged, the model was sprayed all over with flat clear.
Conclusion
This kit was a very challenging build, but was extremely rewarding
as it tested and broadened my skills as a ship modeler.
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