mollythedog Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 A life long interest in the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm means that I don't find it hard to be motivated into building some quite odd models,well off the beaten track. A couple of years ago I was reading a book by one of the greatest,if not THE greatest naval aviator of all time,Eric "Winkle" Brown. One of his many exploits was landing and then launching a Bell Aircobra from the deck of an escort carrier. As I had wanted to build this particular ship for some time,I had the excuse. Wanting to build and actually being able to find enough info to allow it is another thing,and much of the time taken after the decision to make it was taken up with research and amassing (a true oxymoron) the information available-which was not a lot.In fact all of the British built escort carriers,or more correctly,converted CVE's are poorly documented,the work being undertaken in the dark days when convoys were being hammered by U boats and the need was for decks at sea. In the end,the RN turned to the USN and its programme of CVE's,and the rest is history,but the small number of British CVE's played an important part,particularly in the training of aircrews,developing tactics and ironing out problems with new aircraft before they went into action,and HMS Pretoria Castle was at the forefront of this important work. She also happened to be the largest of the CVE's in service in the RN,and on flight deck size possibly the largest in the World,though I haven't been able to confirm this. She was built as a passenger ship of the same name,and at the outset of war converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser. In 1942 she was bought by the Admiralty and converted by Swan Hunter,the considerable amount of work taking almost a year to complete. My model took twice that in the end...... As she was unmistakably a merchant ship,the only way was to build the merchant hull first,and follow the same route that Swan Hunter took,in miniature to end up with an aircraft carrier.As usual,100% scratch,plastic card,some glue,filler and Milliput,and later some custom etch for fiddly bits,as well as my own scratch built aircraft. The hull pretty much roughed out,ready to start building up- 1 by plastichacker, on Flickr 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Definitely got my attention! Unusual scale - is there a reason? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangor Lad Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Got my attention too! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shar2 Posted July 28, 2014 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Oh, this is gonna be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxy Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 Got my attention that's for sure, anything scratch built is well worth the looking . Foxy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomastmcc Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 cool ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollythedog Posted July 30, 2014 Author Share Posted July 30, 2014 I'll admit straight away that the initial photos of this thing aren't very good-I didn't photograph it with a WIP in mind.I tend to photo my builds either as an "aide memoire" or as a way of keeping me motivated.A lot of my builds span several months,if not years,and it helps on occasions to look back and see how much (or little) progress has been made. It sometimes helps to get me started back on a project that has stalled. This model spent a lot of time stalled. Although the initial construction of the hull went without a hitch,once at the hanger deck the fun started. On the next 2 photos some progress has been made,though it can be seen that the stern openings have already been changed-it was so long ago I have no idea what went went wrong,but anyway,it had to be changed. Green stuff is in evidence,this will be taken care of later. 2 3 b Still doesn't resemble a carrier does it? I should add that there is a fair bit of time compression between shots here,I wish i could build them this quick! y plastichacker, on Flickr by plastichacker, on Flickr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorpion_1925 Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 this looks really good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 Brilliant work and I think 1/700 is small enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollythedog Posted August 1, 2014 Author Share Posted August 1, 2014 A characteristic shared by all the British built CVE's was the substantial supports and plating used as the basis of the flight deck-in comparison,those on American built CVE's were much lighter in appearance,using cross brace supports under the flight deck,particularly at the bow.In addition, US boats were welded,something that the British yards were lagging behind in.It has been stated that the Britsih ones were preferred for the Arctic convoys as their riveted hulls were less likely to suffer cracking in the extreme conditions,though their generally heavier hulls and pre war construction may have played an equal part. M_V_Pretoria_Castle_1943 by plastichacker, on Flickr I had intended from the start to make this as a master for casting,pretty much in one piece,so a great deal of time was spent working out the arrangement of the bow supports and how they could be made to allow for this. As much time was spent just trying to interpret the limited number of photos I had to try and not miss anything. Pretoria Castle bow by plastichacker, on Flickr The hull has now been plated up to the flight deck level,and the bow supports added.It is,finally,starting to look a bit like an aircraft carrier. Unfortunately the lighting washes out white plastic card and the filler shows up far better than the actual model....it isn't as scruffy as it looks. 4 by plastichacker, on Flickr Here,the large sponson for the aircraft loading crane has been roughed in-there are still a lot of these sponsons to add to the hull,which will give it the typical CVE shape. 6 by plastichacker, on Flickr Up to this point the model was fairly zipping along,now the fun starts,spending about 1 minute building time for every half hour spent studying photos....onwards and upwards. mtd 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollythedog Posted August 5, 2014 Author Share Posted August 5, 2014 With the addition of the basic "bridge" and a couple of the large sponsons it is starting to take shape. 7 by plastichacker, on Flickr Almost all references state that the armament consisted of 2 x twin 4" HA,and 8 x 2pdr,plus 20mm guns. The large sponsons fitted equally spaced on the 4 quarters would clearly indicate that had she become operational she would have carried 4 x quadruple 2pdr mounts here.Apart from taking part in one convoy,to Iceland and back,she remained in a training role,and these large sponsons only ever carried single 20mm. The remainder of her light AA consisted of twin,power operated 20mm mounts. I made the various projections from plastic card and Milliput. To ensure that I have got the shapes correct and show no joins,they are painted red,as this shows faults more clearly than white plastic. 8 by plastichacker, on Flickr Some of the etch has been test fitted and the screens at the stern where the twin 4" mounts will go have been started.The white plastic still doesn't photo well,and the Green Stuff shows up as a lurid green,which it isn't,so clearly the white balance was way off when I took these. 9 by plastichacker, on Flickr mtd 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Coming along nicely! Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted August 5, 2014 Share Posted August 5, 2014 Very intersting project. I was looking at pics of HMS Tenacity the other day with a similar project in mind. I'll follow your progress. Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollythedog Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 Some progress. A casting,blown over in primer. 28 by plastichacker, on Flickr 27 by plastichacker, on Flickr 26 by plastichacker, on Flickr 25 by plastichacker, on Flickr 24 by plastichacker, on Flickr 23 by plastichacker, on Flickr 22 by plastichacker, on Flickr 21 by plastichacker, on Flickr 29 by plastichacker, on Flickr 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Very, very good indeed, it certainly looks the part. Thanks for sharing your pics. Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czechnavy Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 That is very, very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bootneck Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 There's none better! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shar2 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Stunning. I still don't know how you can work in such a small scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Cannot wait to see the rigging on those Swordfish aircraft?? No seriously - that's absolutely marvelous. We seem to always dwell on the largest and shiniest models, however I doubt too many of us here could ever do that. That's a masterclass in modelling if ever I saw one. Cheers .. Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Glorious (I mean the standard of modelling; my carrier recognition is not that bad!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Amazing! Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntPhillips Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Simply stunning, the level of detail is superb for such a small scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollythedog Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Not a huge leap forwards in these photos,one of the castings has been blown over in a top coat and some of the painting done-obviously to the deck,which does make it look more like a carrier.In my rush to get one put together I also put some bits on the mast wrong,and these remain to be corrected.Whichever way I tweak it,it always appears bent in photos! Still quite some work to do,including aircraft and painting. Thank you for the kind remarks-if you can forget about the size (or scale if you prefer) it is just plastic modelling,and hopefully shows that you don't HAVE to have a kit to make something you like. 31 by plastichacker, on Flickr 32 by plastichacker, on Flickr 33 by plastichacker, on Flickr 34 by plastichacker, on Flickr 35 by plastichacker, on Flickr 36 by plastichacker, on Flickr mtd 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewa Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 That looks terrific Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forlornhope Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Hello mate, been a while and sorry about the lack of contact, I do hope you are well. loving your little escort carrier, she has really come up nicely. I have to admit I have gotten cold feet with the scratchbuilding, and am looking at 3d printing instead. But you certainly have it down to an artform. Well done. All the best Callum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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