Without hijacking Russells build, the whole series has had big issues from the word go. i think one issue one the engines were no good in hot climates … doesnt sound like the best thought out plan in the world lol… when you see the actual time along side for one reason or another (mostly maint or repairs) for the whole class, its pretty appalling to be fair.
Ah well, same thing and similar issues basically everywhere. We have different problems, but really not less…
That’s actually a standard procedure, during most refits and maintenance periods holes are cut in the sides to get certain equipment out and in. Sounds a little awkward, but really nothing special at all.
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@G-man69 @Johnnych01 Hi guys! 
I see the mainstream media has once again struck, and given the T-45’s an (undeservedly) bad reputation. In fact the media has done a good job of tarnishing the reputation of what is one of the finest ships in its respective class: Even the US Navy assigns the lead Air Defense roles to the T-45’s when involved in their carrier strike group operations.
You can read more about how the unavailability of the ships was caused by a singular design flaw here, and how they are improving their availability here and the final solution here.
Truth be-told, they are an 80% new design to the royal navy, but the cause can be nailed down to the procurement process… 
and it’s lack of funding that has delayed the fix for so long.
PS. You’ve got quite a view from your house, @G-man69 
Meanwhile, progress on the 1/350 has bogged down as I battle flight deck details. The line marking decal went awry the instant I tried to get it onto the deck, and so now I’m going to have to paint the markings on, but somehow I think the results will look much better 
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Ahhh - decal…I struggle with them whenever I get across one, you know that mate! (And thanks for your help and advice, I have it printed out next to my workbench, but was able to avoid further decals since…but they will come, earlier or later). Glad you were able to fix it!
They are fine ships, no doubt. And their AAW performance is outstanding. The early 2000 generations of major air defenders like Type 45, but NL Seven Provincien, Horizon and DEU F124 all are great ships, but all are really complex and beasts to maintain and keep them running, they all struggle with limited availability from time to time.
Yep. And not enough funding for e.g. highly specialized “spare parts” mainly for their radar systems, that’s for the F124, but I’d be surprised if the RN was so much smarter… And new designs always cause troubles, air defender or not… 
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@JJ1973 So true Jan: all the politicians see are the 
and expect that the services should be able to more with less, in this case combat 5th and 6th gen aircraft.
They also expect them to do it with cheaper and smaller equipment; and as you know far better than I, what they often fail to see is that it’s not the size of the vessel that adds to the cost, but the electronics suite required by modern vessels. Then they moan about the unit cost, and so, instead of building 12 as originally planned, they got 6, and so when units are unavailable, it is felt all the more, and so once again the pollies are not happy 
Anyways, back on topic. I’m not sure if it was me or the decal, but as soon as I attempted to remove it from the backing, it shriveled up into a small wad of soggy plastic and no matter how I tried, it just wouldn’t play nice. But on the bright side, the painted on deck markings will look so much better 
I just hope I have better luck with the f’wd deck decals as there’s no way I’ll be able to paint them on-well, not without going a bit more crazy! 
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Hi folks! 
It’s been a while since my last update, so hopefully lots of photos will make up for my absence 
To be honest, I’ve found it a bit odd as I’ve never done so much painting on a single item (the deck) without any assembly to speak of.
First up, the PE Boat davits.
Gantry Crane
Then I added some more details to the hangar roof to locate the gantry crane
Ship’s boats assembled and the non-visible side super glued to cocktail sticks to facilitate painting
And now for the unspeakable of unspeakables
masking the deck to apply the deck markings after destroying the decal and the first shot of paint.
The reveal
Then masking for the next set of lines. Measuring up the painting guide I made a template to assist the correct placement for them
Painted
The red!
Masking the angular lines
Nearly there
Now the tricky part, adding the “M”. I printed out a set of "M"s over which I laid some Aslan S79 masking film and carefully cut out a “M”
I’ve now applied a coat of gloss clear and then a coat of mat clear to the deck to seal in all these details. I can now finally start assembly of the hull.
Also finished are the ship’s boats
and gantry crane
So, now I’ve got enough to finish the hangar and the boat deck and start on the hard part-getting the hull together…
Thanks for looking everyone, I’ll try to have some more progress soon
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Russ,
That was a lot of work on the flight deck, but you did a masterful job on those markings! The RHIB looks good too.
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Flight deck looks awesome. Great work on such finicky detail!
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Russell,
Great job on the flight deck. Glad the template worked out as well as it did. I think it beats any decal you could have used.
Mark 
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Hey mate,
fantastic work! As Mark says, I’d think it looks better, sharper and smarter than any decal! Completely worth the effort, even though I can feel your pain…
RHIBs look really smart, too!
Cheers
Jan
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Hi Russell,
Very impressive attention to detail, and an amazing paint job on the helicopter deck, 
.
As an aside, today I’ve had HMS Albion moored off of the back garden, .
Keep up the amazing work, really enjoying following your build, .
Cheers, ,
G
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@TimReynaga @McRunty @d6mst0 @JJ1973 @G-man69 Thanks so much guys for your kind words. Very much appreciated-keeps me motivated to continue with the build.
I started fitting the hangar/boat deck walls last night and already they’re giving me headaches, being oversized and requiring a lot of sanding to the bring them into correctly fitting.
The RHIBs look quite good don’t they? 
Not bad for a single plastic part and some PE. Although, I’m thinking I’ll build one boat deck open and the other closed, so I’m not sure what to do with the spare???
@G-man69 that’s one helluva back garden!!
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Morning folks 
Another update for your viewing pleasure…
The Hangar and Boat Bays are now completed after quite a bit of fettling to get the plastic parts to the correct size (the hangar/boat bay walls were over 0.5mm too tall!).
The gantry crane fitted to the hangar roof
Close up of the boat bay. Of all the PE the “claw” holding the RHIB was surprisingly easy to fit.
The front of the mainmast fitted off
And roof of the Hangar fitted and the rear of the mainmast
So far the PE has been a real battle, as it doesn’t seem to want to fit very easily into places it’s supposed to. For example, the Hangar wall upper level railings needed some pretty heavy handedness to wrangle (mangle) into some sort of position, and the platforms in the boat bays just were a nightmare to get square, and have the railing look half decent.
Thanks for looking more soon!
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Great job, Russell…this is really turning out to be an EXCELLENT build!
Cheers,
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Lovely masking and marking for the flight deck … that really lifts it up
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Hi Russ,
awesome work, mate! It’s a shame that the kit seems to suffer from bad fitting, and the PE as well, but you can’t see that on your build log, great job overcoming the issues! Dauntless is coming along really nice!
Cheers
Jan
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Thanks so much for looking in guys🙂
@JJ1973 indeed, mate: the kit and AM are not encouraging me to go quick on this one. I’ve been considering the veteran models resin replacements for the armament, but at this stage I’m holding off until I get the hull sides and bottom on to see if it’s worth investing the
I might need to go off and complete the Emil that’s been sitting on the shelf for the last few years until my mojo returns 
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Aw, c’mon Russ, you’ve overcome so much poor fit on this build already you should treat yourself to the Veteran upgrades! Even if you take break with Emil (a worthy diversion, by the way), those lovely parts will be waiting to inspire you to overcome the next set of hurdles the destroyer has in store for you!
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I know you are most likely talking about the plane but I have a hope you mean a Sturer Emil. Would love to see your take on an armour kit 
Question though. Do you think you got a bad kit with your fit and alignment issues? I have read a few reviews and build logs online and none of them seem to have had these issues.
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Hi Tim and Rory! Thanks so much for the words of encouragement! Definitely keeps me going on the build.
@TimReynaga I know, the kits come a long way so far, but maybe I’m just getting too old to have the time to mess around with ill fitting kits when there’s so many better kits left in the stash… Either way, I’ll fit the hull sides and see how she looks before making a decision on spending the on the veteran AM
@McRunty Sorry mate, I have to disappoint as I’m not an armour guy! 
The Emil in question is a 1/72 Me109e that’s been sitting half built on the shelf for a couple of years since the big three campaign 
somehow I think it’ll be another Paint and Run kit in that as good as the design of it is, the moulding doesn’t keep up it’s end of the bargain when it comes to the canopy… 
I’ve seen a lot of builds on the net too, some with, some without issues… Maybe having worked in the tooling industry for 25 years now, I just expect too much