By Vlad Cimpan
1/700 HMS Illustrious (Aoshima)
This is my model of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. I built her from the old 1/700 Aoshima kit. A lot of modifications have been made to the model. I drilled out all the porholes, cut out the openings in the hull and scratchbuilt some interior behind the openings. In the process I also installed a system of lights inside the model. The front of the bridge is scratchbuilt as are the platforms along the hull sides for weapons and directors.
The HACS directors are scratchbuilt with the RADAR on them taken from a GMM set. The 4.5" guns and the multiple pom-poms are resin replacements from WEM. The pom-pom directors are scratchbuilt also from scrap PE. I adapted the WEM 1:720 HMS Ark Royal photo-etch fret for this project. Ships boats and the Seafire and Fulmar fighter planes are also resin parts from WEM, and the paints for the camouflage pattern are WEM too. The arrestor wires are made from the same material as the rigging.
I tried to take some photos in the dark to demonstrate the lighting system in the model but they are not of very good quality, and they are taken when the model was only about 90% complete. Still, I included them to give a general idea of this feature.
Finally, many thanks to Jim Baumann for the photography of the finished model. The photos were taken at the annual IPMS (UK) show in Telford where the model recieved a commendation.
