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Explicit Women - LONG TERM HMS Fearless 1982 double build


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On 13/02/2018 at 11:58, moaning dolphin said:

........ Just hope you weren't out on deck waving away during that time!

 

I was!

 

You don't think I wasn't going to miss something like this do you?

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I didn't have a decent camera in those days, only a little pocket Instamatic, so the images are quite grainy.

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Also, I didn't get much time to focus on anything specific; everything was happening so fast I couldn't decide whether to try and catch a jet or see where the bombs were landing etc.

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Mike

 

Edited by bootneck
Photos re-uploaded
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7 hours ago, bootneck said:

Did you get the Dropbox link I sent you Crisp?

 

Mike

 

I did, and I cannot thank you enough; some detail and/or confirmation of things that I'd never have got from elsewhere.

 

Top man.  Thanks.

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Thanks, everyone.  (PM inbound, Ant).

 

Thanks to Mike's excellent photographs and finding some other photos of 82-variant Fearless, I have gone back and made some amendments to the plan view.  In particular, Mike's pics meant that I could at least work out the communications rig - ID at his time seems to have had the same rig as FS in mine [by no means a given; these two ships were never exact sisters at any point in their lives].

 

To make the rig stand out better from the lines of solid things, I have coloured it blue.

 

First the whole ship - changes to starboard quarterdeck, both flight deck catwalks, the whip aerials and other details on 03 deck above Flyco, both funnels, the layout of assorted cabins etc on 04 deck between the masts, the foremast, both bridge wings, the GDP (on top of the bridge), and the 2 LCVPs.  If you can find them all, give yourself a gold star - but this is a much more accurate pic of her in 1982, which is the whole point of this.

 

39572471284_938e3c3806_b.jpg

 

Now the centre part of the ship, including all of the comms rig (in blue):

39572471444_dd38470131_b.jpg

 

I am enjoying this!

 

Crisp

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1 hour ago, Courageous said:

A lot of the fun in any build is the research beforehand. Great work so far Crisp, what's next?

I hope... the restoration of my left hand to full working order, followed by resumption of work on Walrus, Seafire/-Fang and Brinton builds.  

 

Yes, then picking up Ark Royal & Sea King again, before someone starts (cos they always do).

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On 13/02/2018 at 08:14, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Pictures like the bottom, LCVP, one are gold dust when you’re modelling ships that no longer exist

As you can see in the background, the LCVP, pre-Falklands, was green deck; grey hull, black waterline and red lead below the waterline..........  unless,....... whilst you are painting the green deck, you knock over the tin and a half gallon of the stuff runs down the stern; over the grey, black and red!! :analintruder:  :oops:   The biggest problem was that we were at sea and the LCVP was lowered to the waist which meant there was a drop of about 40ft to fast-flowing sea and so we (me) wasn't allowed to lean over the edge to wipe it off before it set!  The Cox'n wasn't all that impressed :fuyou_2: :chair::rant::jump_fire:

 

Mike

 

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Thanks, everyone.  Today I have been working at the top and the bottom.  Firstly, the mainmast - after staring closely at a lot of 1982 photos, it looks as though FS had an identical mainmast to the one which is detailed in one of Mike's photos (other than the fact that FS had SCOT aerials and ID didn't, at this stage - this is the 100% definite way you can tell them apart in Falklands photos).  So by my reckoning it looked like this:

25433572047_918709c19c_b.jpg

 

[Mike, I don't suppose you have any idea what that platform ¾ of the way up the mainmast was for, do you?  It was removed in her next refit, and I THINK it was empty in 1982 (but that would be odd, since she'd had a major refit only 6 months before)]

 

Secondly, the hull, where I have added the very characteristic deep "boot topping" [the horizontal line in the middle of it is the normal waterline], assorted drains and discharge pipes - and the bumps under the LCVPs etc, which I assume were to protect the hull.  I have also moved the pennant number (L10) down; for most of her life it was high on the hull (above the chine), but at this stage it was much closer to the waterline - and eventually painted out for the war (-ish; you could still see it close-up).

 

26432115738_58b976387c_b.jpg

 

It's not hard to see how far I have got; basically anything abaft the port funnel is preliminary only [i.e the davits for LCVP F8 were not floating in mid-air, you'll be shocked to learn!]

 

Busy tomorrow, but more over the weekend, no doubt.

 

Crisp

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Hi Crisp,

 

Both ships had a small rotating radar on that platform, possibly navigational, and they were removed before 1981.  Intrepid had hers removed, along with platform, mid-career whilst Fearless appears to have had the radar removed between 1975 and 1979 but the platform was retained.  I've searched through my books, including Jane's Fighting Ships, but cannot find a reference to which radar that was yet.

 

Mike

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23 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

Think this shot is at the Navy day in August 82, is it my eyes or us there something mounted on that little platform?

 

 

Ignore me, there might be something, or someone there, but comparing to earlier shots it's not the rotating radar that Bootneck refers to.

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Interesting to note that the 82 Navy Day pic seems to feature “Y Turret”; a captured Rheinmetal twin 30mm that we chained onto the port aft corner of the flight deck in the later stages of the war - but by Navy Days [only a month or so after our return to UK] it seems to have moved up to 03 deck, by the aft Seacat launcher!  Considering the fact that the photo must be less than 2 months after our return, then the boys have been very busy with paint brushes in the interim...

 

Yes, there does seem to be something on that mainmast platform.  Definitely not the original radar - there was no radar there from Oct 81 to Jul 82, when I was on board.

 

 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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I've just dug out my copy of the Jecobin plans for HMS Intrepid and scanned the mast area.  It shows the platform with the radar fit.

mast_2.jpg

 

 

 

 

A close in view

mast_3.jpg

 

HTH

 

Mike

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