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1/350 HMS Sheffield (Iron Shipwrights)


Sal82

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A second build thread as I like to switch between projects every now and then. This one I suspect is going to take a while though.

The Airfix 1/600 HMS Belfast was the first ship model I ever built so returning to the beautiful Royal Navy light cruisers is a bit nostalgic. After seeing Steven Allen and Andrewas wonderful takes on these ships I wanted to try my hands on these myself. The (relatively) cheap and easy route would be to simply build Trumpeters Belfast kit. But comparing the Belfast to the Fiji and Sheffield, I always felt that the lines on the Belfast wasn't as sleek as the other ships.

Thus I recently picked up the Iron Shipwirghts kit. In many ways this will be new territory for me: It is my first resin ship kit and the first kit from Iron Shipwrights. It is also a fairly old and slightly simplified, compared to the highly detailed CAD designed resin kits being created these days. With this in mind I knew from the beginning that this would be a lot more work than a normal injection moulded kit, and that it would involve a lot of scratch building and use of aftermarket parts.

Upon arrival I was a bit disappointed by the casting quality though. Some critical parts were completely useless and beyond repair, while others, like the ship props and the Walrus seaplane were missing completely. I wasn't sure if this was a packing error or if the Ebay seller wasn't being completely honest. Either way, I decided to contact Jon from Iron Shipwrights and he has kindly offered to replace the missing parts free of charge. Their casting may not always be perfect, but the customer service certainly is! Still: When working with resin a lot of filling and sanding is probably unavoidable!

I did some january sales shopping and this week my purchases began to arrive.

The shopping list look like this:

WEM HMS Sheffield PE set
Master Oerlikon mounts
Master Brass masts and yardarms
North Star Models 4" guns
North Star Models winches
North Star Models Searchlights
North Star Models HACS
North Star Models portholes
North Star Models quad Pompoms.

6" guns, some boats and possibly torpedo launchers will probably be 3d print, though I am still unsure exactly what route to go with these.

Other than that I will be using a bunch of spare parts from my previous Royal Navy builds.

Some critical parts are still missing though, like the radar lantern (inclding platform supports), main battery directors and replacement bollards and fairleads. It seems a bit excessive to purchase the Belfast kit and WEM upgrade set  (which definitely contain suitable replacements), but I am hoping that over time it might be possible to obtain some of these things from people who might have spares from their own Belfast builds.

 

sheffield.jpg

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This is one WiP that I will definitely be following with interest.  The 'Shiny Sheff' was my first experience of life onboard a warship as I did my training on her in the 1960's.   I could never afford the WEM kit so I plan to make a scratchbuild of it if I can get some proper plans.  Until then, I shall be sat here, notepad and pencil ready and keenly watching your progress.:)

 

Mike

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I am looking forward to watching progress on this build as well.  I have the WEM 1/700 (waterline) kit to build some day.

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Hi Kevin,

 

the Shiny Shef refers to the original Town Class cruiser (C24) although many seem to have taken the name over to the ill-fated destroyer of 1982 fame.  Nonetheless, your build should be interesting; especially if it is as good as your HMS Fife.

 

Mike

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Thanks all.

A 1/72 scale  Town class Sheffield would have been amazing tough. Your HMS Fife build is extremely impressive Kevin.

Incidentally: If anyone happen to have some 1/350 Town cruiser spare parts they'd be willing to trade, I am definitely interested. I suppose I should cross post this in the trade section though ;)

Edited by Sal82
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2 hours ago, bootneck said:

Hi Kevin,

 

the Shiny Shef refers to the original Town Class cruiser (C24) although many seem to have taken the name over to the ill-fated destroyer of 1982 fame.  Nonetheless, your build should be interesting; especially if it is as good as your HMS Fife.

 

Mike

We live and learn Mike, i either never knew that fact or forgotten it a long time ago

1 hour ago, Sal82 said:

Thanks all.

A 1/72 scale  Town class Sheffield would have been amazing tough. Your HMS Fife build is extremely impressive Kevin.

Incidentally: If anyone happen to have some 1/350 Town cruiser spare parts they'd be willing to trade, I am definitely interested. I suppose I should cross post this in the trade section though ;)

have seen a hull for the Town class but in 1/96

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The cruiser was called Shiny Sheff because the city’s steel mills had given lots of stainless steel to help fit her out.  

 

The same was true of the Type 42, but I don’t recall hearing the Type 22 being called that

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3 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

The cruiser was called Shiny Sheff because the city’s steel mills had given lots of stainless steel to help fit her out.  

 

The same was true of the Type 42, but I don’t recall hearing the Type 22 being called that

I served on the Type 22 back in 1991 and I don't remember ever hearing the ship being referred to as Shiny and I don't recall much in the way of shiny items on-board either. What I do remember is the fish tank in the PO's mess (by the way fish get sea sick!) and the 1:96 model of the Type 42 outside the NAFFI on 2 deck. 

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3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Fish get sea-sick?!?!😲

Wow - the things you learn!

 

How can you tell? What do they do? 

 

Poor things - they can’t go for a walk and get some fresh air! 🤢

 

 

They sink to the bottom of the tank don't move and generally look miserable. 

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7 hours ago, Paul E said:

I served on the Type 22 back in 1991 and I don't remember ever hearing the ship being referred to as Shiny and I don't recall much in the way of shiny items on-board either. What I do remember is the fish tank in the PO's mess (by the way fish get sea sick!) and the 1:96 model of the Type 42 outside the NAFFI on 2 deck. 

Forgot there was a 22 

 

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On 22/1/2018 at 21:26, Paul E said:

They sink to the bottom of the tank don't move and generally look miserable. 

LOL. That's a fact for QI right there :D

Anyway: Not much of an actual build update, but my WEM order arrived today with the WEM Sheffield photoetch set. Obviously this set was meant for a different kit and I have already noticed a few fit issues, but this was to be expected. Overall I am quite happy with the level of detail, which should upgrade or supplement the existing kit parts quite nicely. One particularly pleasant surprise was the inclusion of the platform supports for the surface radar lantern. I was already considering sculpting this in CAD and have it 3d printed or scratch building something from spare parts, but this will definitely save a lot of time!
The upgrade set also comes with the original kit instructions for the WEM Sheffield kit. This is quite comprehensive and quite frankly much better than the ISW instructions (which are very basic), so they should come in very handy when placing a lot of the smaller details. Another nice feature is a layout for mast construction, complete with measurements.

img_2459-e1516979322608.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

This week I recieved the replacement parts from Iron Shipwrights. I think it is safe to assume that the kit I got was an old one, as the resins used and quality of the casts are considerably better. Quality control still isn't the best, as there were some issues with uncured resin on the replacement funnels and some weird miscasts due to insufficiently cleaned moulds (Parts with bits of miscast parts in them). Still there were plenty of extras, so I think I have what I need to proceed with the build. Interestingly it seems ISW themselves have improved some parts of the kit over the years, as the replacement torpedo launchers I recieved look different - and better - than the originals.

Thanks to the generous offer of Salmo G there should also be some spare parts from the Trumpeter HMS Belfast en route, which will definitely be an improvement over the resin originals.

I still haven't solved the issue with the bollards and fairleads. As much as I like Micro Master's stuff on Shapeways, it does seem a bit too expensive for such a simple part, so I think I will end up designing my own and 3D printing them myself. Hopefully Shapeways will have some kind of special offer during spring, to cut down the cost a bit.

 

Befire I really begin the build I better stock up on sand paper and dust masks! Resin can be nasty to work with!

 

img_2507.jpg

Edited by Sal82
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3 hours ago, Sal82 said:

I still haven't solved the issue with the bollards and fairleads.

For 1:350 stuff I normally go to L'Arsenal.  Their castings are detailed and crisp, as can be seen here and here

 

They can be ordered via the links above or, if you are not in a hurry for those parts, they usually have a large stock at SMW in November.

 

I've used their bollards and fairleads, plus various other accessories, on my scratchbuilt LST.2 and they looked fine.  All the vehicles and DUKW's are also L'Arsenal.

144_Broadside_view_resized_1000_wide.jpg

 

Mike

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  • 4 weeks later...

Still not an actual build update (sorry about that! :P ), but I noticed that Eduard has just released a PE upgrade set for the Trumpeter HMS Belfast kit. As mentioned elsewhere, I have mixed feelings about the Eduard Hood set - mainly that some parts are just too fragile. However in terms of detail some of these newer Eudard sets are truly top quality and fairly reasonably priced as well. After some deliberation I've decided to purchase the set as it contains a number of useful parts. Nost noticably the surface radar lantern, but I have also come to the conclusion that I will need to rebuild the characteristic bridge wind baffle, and the Eduard set will provice a nice source for all those little triangular supports. Furthermore the kit provides me with a bunch of other useful bits like flag lockers and extremely detailed cranes. Well: At least that's what I keep telling myself, since I've already spent much more money on this kit than I normally would! ...But hopefully the result will be well worth it!

https://www.eduard.com/store/eduard/hms-belfast-1-350.html?lang=1&cur=1

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