HMS Barham - Trumpeter 1/700

[Bonhoff]

Hi All,

Bit of a back story to this one.

A couple of years ago we were looking through a big tin box full of old photos that belonged to my mum's side of the family - Amongst the many pictures of family was a newspaper cutting from the mid/late 1930's showing four RN sailors on a gangplank disembarking from (If memory serves me right from what was said) HMS Arethusa.

"What's with the cutting?" I enquired,

"Well," said Mum, "One of those sailors would have been my Uncle Frank. He was the brother of your great uncle Fred."

Uncle Fred had married my Nan's sister and we occasionally went over to visit Auntie Aggie and Uncle Fred (as we knew them, none of this great uncle/aunt thing for us back then), who lived in a little village in Northamptonshire when we were kids.

"So," Said I "What happened to Uncle Frank then?"

Dad pipes up "He was on the Barham"

Ah.

A bit of a conversation then ensued where Dad said he'd done a bit of research when he was in the navy himself (1959-1967/8). It turned out Frank had been a signalman and that he was one of the 862 lost when the Barham was torpedoed, rolled over and exploded. Dad had spent a couple of hours trying to find Franks name on the memorial at Southsea back in the day.

I'm sure you've all seen the newsreel - I used to wince every time I saw it anyway but it takes on an added poignancy for me now.

There is now a fair bit of information available on the internet about the Barham such as the HMS Barham Association Website, crew lists, the aformentioned film, details of the cover up/news embargo carried out by HM Government at the time combined with the story of the last prosecution carried out under the Witchcraft Act when a Spirit Medium announced that the Barham had been sunk before the government had announced it.

The last item is quite an interesting tale in itself and can be found at http://www.webatomics.com/jason/barhamconspiracy.html

There is also a list of all the names on the Southsea Naval Memorial and whereabouts they are located within the memorial, which meant it was only a matter of minutes to find Frank's name when I went to Southsea the other month.

As for the kit, it's in 1/700 scale and made by Trumpeter and claimed to be the ship in its 1941 fit - If it isn't could somebody let me know?

I picked it up earlier this year and started building it at work during my lunchtimes but hadn't really progressed very far before I paused, realising it'd be a good subject for this GB.

Here is where it is at currently - Just under the 25% rule. I've also ordered a set of etch from Starling Models and might even get some replacement 15" barrels as the kit ones aren't very good.

More to follow in the next few days hopefully.

IanJ

[Greg in OK]

Wow! Great, meaningful selection for the group build. Good luck with the model and I look forward to watching your build.

Greg in OK

[stevej60]

Great stuff Ian,look forward to seeing another ship progress.

[Bonhoff]

Delivery today at work.....

Etch courtesy of Starling Models, barrels from Master - It all looks marvellous.

Hope I can do it justice.

[rob85]

What a back story, I had never heard of it!

Looking forward to this as I have never tagged along a thing that floats

Rob

[Bonhoff]

If you want to see one done properly (Although not a Trumpeter kit) then I suggest that you go here..... http://www.finewaterline.org/hms-barham-by-mike-mccabe.html

Mike (Mr Starling Models) - I salute you! (Whilst simultaneously cribbing from your photos)

Spent a little while assembling one of the quad .5" machine guns this lunchtime, pictured alongside Trumpeter's moulded version.

[Bonhoff]

Some progress.....

In this shot you can see a before and after on the 15" gun turrets - The left turret shows a couple of "eyebrows" atop the turret which I assume facilitated a greater angle of elevation of the guns.

Reading various threads on the internet seems to indicate that Barham didn't have those so I took them off - As per the one on the right.

Then on to some more photo etch - Thumbs up to Trumpeter for putting a layer of film on each side of the fret - This means that, in theory, your precious pieces can't go pinging off into the ether while cutting them out.

Here we see some overlays provided to clad the Bridge/Conning Tower (I can see my dad frowning at me now for not knowing the correct nomenclature )

Hopefully more soon.

IanJ

[tonyot]

Glad to see the Barham being modelled,.......looking good so far and good luck for the rest of the build,

Cheers

Tony

[Bonhoff]

After consulting my father - Apparently the Bridge/Conning Tower thingy is called a "Fighting Top"

Anyway - Picked up a set of Lifecolor paints for RN warships from Starling Models at the Sutton show and set to over the last couple of lunchtimes.

Take the decision to brush paint as it all looks far too fiddly to mask so as a starting point I took a pot of Humbrol No.1 (Primer) thinned some down and brush painted it on to the back half of the hull.

I then painted some of the planks in differing shades hoping to get some variation once the deck colour goes down.

And then after one coat of thinned Vallejo "Stone Grey"

Still quite stark..... So a second coat.

Lost most of it now - Might not bother on the rest of the deck and just rely on the variation caused by the brush strokes.

Thanks for looking.

IanJ

[Bonhoff]

Hi all,

 

Have been doing some more work on the Barham when I can and it's starting to come together.

 

Main deck done but still need to do the darkened area around the 4" guns, incidentally the 4" guns have the smallest parts I've ever managed to glue together, the two brackets that attach to the trunnions on the gun barrels, must be all of 1.5 x 1mm. My eyes may eventually recover.

 

Other decks and superstructure have been primed and first coats applied.

 

 

 

[Bonhoff]

Greetings,

 

Have been doing more to this over the last few lunch hours and while most of it is only priming and painting I've finally plucked up the courage to do some more etch.

 

 

The shiny piece of brass at the front is Trumpeter's take on the catapult, I managed to mangle it whilst folding it up right at the start of the build, looks a bit anaemic too.

 

The one at the back is the one from the Starling Models fret complete with its walkway and it is the one that's going on, it folded with no dramas and the photo on the instructions said a thousand words so I didn't mangle it in the process.

 

Crane next.

 

 

[vppelt68]

Good to see this progressing! One day I may dare to try build a ship again... But not that delicate and complicated, maybe a Matchbox one... 😊. Regards, V-P

[rob85]

Definitely looks like a boat now! I have trouble with etch on an aircraft your brave doing it on a boat! There must be tonnes?

 

 Rob 

[Bonhoff]

Well,

 

Seeing as it's the 75th anniversary of her sinking today I thought I'd quickly lash everything together to show you where I am with this build.

 

Nothing glued yet...

 

 

KR's

 

IanJ

[VMA131Marine]

It's a bit late now, but Artwox does a wood deck for this kit:

http://freetimehobbies.com/1-700-artwox-wood-deck-for-trumpeter-hms-barham-1941/

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff, especially with the family history.

 

i trust you are going the add rigging to the walrus ? 

 

cheers Pat

[Bonhoff]

Project still progressing, fitted the replacement 15" gun barrels to the turrets then started test fitting the final sub-assemblies.

 

 

 

 

Could be a close thing getting her finished before Christmas day but have got a day booked off next Weds to hopefully finish her.

[Bonhoff]

Most unexpectedly, Mrs Bonhoff announced that she would be out for the day and that I would be left to my own devices, could I cope?

 

Of course.

 

I'd noticed going through the photo's of Mike McCabe's build of the Barham that there were a few differences between my Trumpeter kit and the resin kit he used, mostly centred around the bridge area.

 

One of the bridge decks in the Trumpeter kit appeared to be missing some searchlights and there weren't any spares in the kit.

 

No worries, I had this. (Apologies for the blurry photo)

 

 

I built this a few years back but there were so many spares and sprues that remained unused that finding the 4 searchlights and two wing platforms required for the correction was no problem at all. Would recommend the Belleau Wood kit to anyone requiring a ready made 1/700 spares box once the model was built.

 

A bit of fettling and we had this work in progress,

 

 

The upper decks of the fighting top were corrected to a red lino colour at the same time, and the crane jibs were rigged with ezee line. Some additional carley floats were purloined from the spares too.

 

 

 

Still not glued together but won't be long now.

 

 

 

 

[rob85]

She is looking great! Very nice work and some lovely detail.

 

looking at the picture I was surprised at the size of its armament, until I realised it's actually what looks like a marker pen that behind the model.... not part of it... could have taken out a few more boats with something that size mind!

 

Rob

[tonyot]

This is looking brilliant.....great job,

 

Cheers

           Tony

[Bonhoff]

So today was my day off, I'd booked my car in for a cambelt change just round the corner from my dad (25 miles from home, but I couldn't get disturbed either ) 

 

Got to my dad's and once he'd finished looking over it I got started with the ship's boats, attach the waterline plate, fitting a yardarm to the rear mast (not included in the kit) and messing with some of the etched metal railings, then pottered around with other bits.

 

Once the car was done it was back home to an empty house so I tried my hand at some rigging and gluing the first of the rails on the starboard side.

 

 

 

 

 

Certainly beginning to look the part, the sea plate is a download from the web.

 

 

 

[rob85]

It's really looking the part, very nice work!

 

Rob

[rob85]

Oops, deleted 

 

Rob

Edited December 23, 2016 by rob85

[MikeR]

Coming along nicely, that is!

 

It's not a bad kit, here's my effort from a few years back: Link.

 

Mike.

[Bonhoff]

And she's done...

 

 

I'll put some more up in RFI once I've finished catering preparations for tomorrow

 

Thanks for dropping in,

 

IanJ