HMS Battler - 1:700 scale

[mdesaxe]

This is the start of my construction of a 1:700-scale model of the escort carrier Battler at the time of its participation in Operation Avalanche, the landing at Salerno. The basis is the Tamiya kit, itself a modified re-issue of the Pit-Road original, of USS Bogue.

 

This kit definitely shows its age. My hull was replete with mould shrinkage and also featured very odd bulges along the sheer just abaft the fo’c’sle. The fit of parts also was not very good: the various separate decks required filling and there was a large void between the fo’c’sle deck bulkhead and the main deck. Green putty and plastic strip dealt with the voids.

 

 

Unfortunately, filing and sanding eliminated much of the moulded detail but that turned out not to be too great a loss, since most of it was not quite correct, so I eliminated all of it.. I also decided to excise the vastly-overthick bulwarks forward. Before doing so I stuck masking tape over the outside of the bulwarks and cut around the upper edges to make patterns that I transferred to thin plastic sheet to replicate their shapes.

 

Several corrections were required to obtain a more accurate hangar. The after bulkheads are not parallel to the centerline but rather to the line of the after gun sponsons. Rather than cutting off these bulkheads I filed the back of the moulded angle at 45 degrees until the bulkheads could be bent to the correct orientation. The aft transverse bulkhead does not have the roller doors featured in the kit, so it was replaced with plastic sheet.

The kit’s forward face for the hanger is completely wrong, so I rebuilt that area with plastic sheet. I also added the 20mm clipping room and ammunition trunk abaft the fo’c’sle. A small deck still needs to fill the angle – it will be added after I have installed the watertight doors inside the space.

 

All the sponsons suffered from shrinkage. Filling this destroyed the moulded reinforcements, so I will have to add new ones from plastic strip. I also reshaped the sponsons to give them flat faces rather than bulges where this was necessary.

 

My next step is to replace all the detail using photo-etched parts, brass turnings, and scratchbuilt parts from scrap. This may take a while because I have a more than full time job and also have to travel quite often, so this may not be a very entertaining thread.

Maurice

[czechnavy]

You said "so this may not be a very entertaining thread" but fear not and keep up the good work as it will be followed closely and your thoughts appreciated!