Search the Community

HMS Radzeer "The aircraft was flying low enough, and the pilot could clearly see through his binoculars the beautiful armoured ship, gleaming in the sunlight, gliding at full speed towards Calcutta, skimming the smooth surface of the sea, and the white uniforms on her deck and the name of the cruiser on the side of the ship, clearly visible: "RADZEER" - "I don't understand," said Bradford, "I hear aeroplanes flying overhead, I see warships through the window, and they let the 'Balmoral' pass under their noses. It's a world scandal. - But I think I have the solution: the 'Radzeer' has sunk, and if I'm not mistaken, they've painted the word 'Radzeer' on the side of the cruiser. They are telling all radios that they are on their way to Rangoon with us, and that is consistent with the position of the ship, which is otherwise made doubtful by the name. These are not stupid people, my friend. I just want to know what they want with us..." The above excerpt is taken from the book "Lost Cruiser" by Jenő Rejtő (pen name P. Howard), a very popular Hungarian pulp novelist. I translated into English for this very buildlog as I could not find any official translations on the internet. Probably it is not translated at all. This was the first Rejtő book I ever read at the age of about 9 because the title sounded very exciting and the front page had naval ships that really inspired my 9-years old boy fantasy. Although the story had little to do with the Navy, the story was tremendously adventurous and entertaining, but mostly it was devastatingly humorous. In a couple of years I read practically all the books about sailing and the Foreign Legionby Rejtő, I still tell a lot of jokes by heart and so does about the entire Hungarian population of my age. If anyone is interested in Rejtő's life, this Wikipedia link will give you some insight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenő_Rejtő I don't know how many books have been translated into English, but there may be some. It's quite difficult to translate these stories full of puns and situational humour into a foreign language in a way that captures the original mood, but they are certainly very good to read in Hungarian. After this introduction, here is the buildlog and model of the '(HMS) Radzeer'. Inspired by my reading experience above, and by Trumpeter's increasingly popular warship scale models, I decided to build the lost cruiser '(HMS) Balmoral', which the members of the 'Joint Stock Company' renamed '(HMS) Radzeer'. It was very easy for me, as there were no British warships under either name in the 1930's (and ever), so I didn't have to try very hard to get it to look true to life. The best fun of scale modeling, I think. The biggest challenge was choosing the right model ship. Rejtő described the '(HMS) Balmoral' as the newest cruiser in the British fleet, which is why I originally chose 'HMS Exeter', but I had to think twice when I managed to get on board 'HMS Belfast' in London. In Rejtő's book there were 18 men operating the stolen cruiser, the same number of men in a single turret of the HMS 'Belfast'. The next issue was the size of the '(HMS) Radzeer. In the book, when the stolen cruiser docks at Calcutta, the men on shore are astonished to see "Dirty Fred, the captain", standing on the bridge, occasionally taking a cigar out of his pocket and putting it back in because he realizes that smoking is forbidden on the bridge. Since the 'HMS Exeter' is not a small cruiser and the crew of eighteen is unrealistically small, and the captain's cigar would not have been so easy to spot from the shore, I had to look for another model. It was a complete coincidence that the choice of 'HMS Calcutta' was made by Trumpeter, which is funny because the book says that the '(HMS) Balmoral'-'(HMS) Radzeer' is heading for Calcutta to rescue the brother of the "Kid". Midship section (port side): Midship section (starboard): Building the model was fairly quick, with some 290 parts and a very straightforward assembly, except for the railings on the machine gun stands on either side of the bigger chimney. I had glued these in the wrong position, so that the gunners would have to step on the chimney from the ladder. This was somehow corrected, but the two sides are not mirror-symmetrical in the end (my mistake). I'm not particularly bothered, just noted here for the record. Stern (starboard): As an upgrade I used aftermarket copper gun barrels, which improved the appearance of the half-open gun emplacements a lot. When replacing the eight barrels in total I had to make small holes in the breech of the cannons, this did not go without problems as one of the holes was a bit offset and I could not correct it. Because of this, I adjusted the two barrels at different angles to optically mask the error. Finally I am satisfied with the look. Turret 'A' (port side): I also replaced the machine gun in front of the turret 'A' with a Quadruple 2 pdr MKVIII pom-pom from Flyhawk. I added it last as I was very apprehensive about my skills in 1/350 scale. I'm not an experienced shipbuilder (mainly build 1/35 fighting vehicles), any etched parts in the 1/350 scale are a huge challenge compared to tank model phot-etch parts. I finally got the pom-pom assembled, just needed to redo the railings (twice), so I got the finished system on the boat. Pretty busy looking detail. Turret 'A' and the pompom (port side): Turret 'A' and the pompon (starboard): Pompom (bird's eye view): The other upgrade was the handrails all around on the hull. Trumpeter only provides rails for the superstructure in the kit, so I bought the Royal Navy railing set from Eduard. Unfortunately the Trumpeter railing is one size taller than the Eduard's aftermarket set and I only noticed this after the Trumpeter railing was already on the model, that is why the height of the rails on the model is so strikingly different (hull to superstructure). As I found it too risky to dismantle, straighten, cut, re-bend and re-glue the Trumpeter's etchings, which are made of thin material anyway, I left it as it was. A good learning point for the HMS 'Exeter' kit, to be built soon. Midship from above: Midship from above: The next step awaited is to prime the model, which I plan to do with Gunze (Mr. Hobby) 1500 grade Finishing Black Surfacer. As I am a tank model bbuilder, this ship model will also be made using the techniques and skills I learned there - this is expected to be controversial for a ship build, and will definitely produce an interesting result. Have fun! Tamás

Hi well with Victory near complete and the need to start another build. Its to a second hand buy of a mostly wood ship I have my grey cells fixed on. Along side Victory this will be another kit built, but with lots of wood work. The box art but renamed the Frigate. Started with the hull frames. http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff152/fox-3/HMS-President/DSCF5418_zpst95qgpgc.jpg Some of the components. One extra so far is some balsa wood to go in between frames. All now waiting on the glue to dry. That's it for now. foxy