JohnWS

Those of you who are familiar with my previous builds might remember that the last thing I've did on those builds was put the model in virtual water (since I don't know how to make seascapes ). This build is no different. So, here's Brave Borderer underway in virtual water. Stay safe! John

Ah, recycling & doing your part for the environment. Looking forward to following along. John

Anytime, beefy! I might need help when I start my next 1/350 build. John

I've always liked Laurence J. Peter's definition of an expert - 'a person who makes three correct guesses consecutively.' L.J. Peter was the author of the Peter Principle .

Hi Dmitriy, The only museum I found with information about Brave Borderer was the Imperial War Museum. No model, just a few photos. There are a few privately owned models I found searching the Internet, but none with the detail I was looking for. John

The repurposed & reworked display case for Brave Borderer is complete. Rework included a new coat of paint, & new clear plastic panels. Brass picture frame 'turns' were added to secure the end clear plastic panels & to allow the panels to be removed to access the case interior. I've posted new photos of the completed Brave Borderer model in the 'Ready for Inspection' section here. Best wishes to you & your families for the holiday season. Merry Christmas & let's hope the new year is less stressful than 2020. Stay safe! Hope to see you soon for my next build. John

History: HMS Brave Borderer P1011 was one of two of Royal Navy Brave class fast patrol boats, designed for offensive operations in coastal waters. She carried a complement of 3 officers & 17 ratings. She was launched at the Hants yard of Vospers Limited, in Hampshire, on January 7, 1958, was accepted for service by the Royal Navy in January, 1960, and retired in 1970. She was named by Lady Grantham, who was the wife of Admiral Sir Guy Grantham, Commander in Chief, Portsmouth. Brave Borderer was the first vessel to be powered entirely by Bristol Marine Proteus gas turbine engines. No diesel or other reciprocating machinery was fitted. In addition to her main power plant of Marine Proteus engines, each developing 3,500 HP, Brave Borderer was fitted with Rover gas turbines that drove 40-kilowatt generators to provide electric power. The Marine Proteus was basically the same as the Proteus engine that powered the Bristol Britannia airliner, but operating at a much lower rating to ensure the long life required in naval service. During trials, HMS Brave Borderer achieved a top speed of over 50 knots. She achieved recognition as the world’s fastest warship in 1959. She was designed to carry four 21” torpedoes, two Bofors 4 mm guns, two rocket flare projectors, two depth charges, or ten 21” mines. In addition to her armament, she could carry an additional 6 tons of fuel in four external deck tanks. These tanks could be quickly jettisoned in the event of imminent action. The presence of the auxiliary fuel tanks placed some restriction on the amount of armament carried. Although Brave Borderer did not see combat action, she was damaged in September, 1965 , in Waterford Harbour, by IRA anti-tank rounds. The build: My in progress build thread can be seen here. For this build, I decided configure Brave Borderer in an effort to show a number of the different weapons & auxiliary equipment she carried over her decade of service. These include two Bofors 40mm guns, two depth charges, two 21” torpedoes, two rocket flare projectors and two external deck mounted fuel tanks. I’ve also added a Zodiac inflatable boat on her forward deck as was used by Brave Borderer during her service with Fishery Protection. As the basis for this build, I was able to use an old damaged 1/72 Tamiya Perkasa model I had in my parts bin. What I thought would be a relatively easy build converting the Perkasa model to Brave Borderer turned into 18 months of conducting research and scratch building the majority of the model. 3D printed torpedoes & Bofors guns in Mark lX mountings were added. Unfortunately, for such a unique & special boat, there’s not a lot of detailed information available. As a result, I’ve included a number of photos below, that I hope will help future modellers who want to attempt building Brave Borderer or her sister Brave Swordsman. A walk around: Some Details: On display: Thanks to all the Britmodeller members who helped & encouraged me during this build. And thanks to you for looking in. John

Thanks everyone! Very much appreciated. The Brave Borderer build has been on my bucket list for some time. I was introduced to her when I was a young lad in the early 1960's. My parents gave me a 1960 second edition of the Boys Book of the Navy, by Lt. Cmdr. P. K. Kemp, R. N. (Red.). Brave Borderer had just entered service, & there was one of her first photos at speed in the book. Not as exciting as seeing the boats in person like Kev did, but still I was in love. Needless to say, there were no models of BB available, so I jumped at the chance a few years later to buy the Perkasa model. It was disappointing to find Perkasa was not an RN boat, but I still consider it to be one of the best quality plastic model kits. Many years later, using that same Perkasa model as the basis for this build actually meant a lot. It feels great to finally have BB checked off my bucket list. It's too bad there isn't more detailed information about the Brave class boats available, but being able to find enough info to build this model made finishing it even more rewarding. No rush for the new notebook beefy. I received the frigate model kit yesterday, & I was very disappointed to find it was missing a couple of important parts. The box & parts bags were unopened so it looks like Iron Shipwrights were at fault. Now the work begins to contact the vendor & see if I can get the parts. Even if the vendor can send me the parts, they'll be coming from the US & it'll probably take a few more weeks to receive them. If the parts aren't available, I'll be returning the kit & starting the process all over again. John

Could this be my last Brave Borderer in progress post? Could be! Two small pump action fire extinguishers are finished, one on each side of the turbine air intake structure. I was surprised to see this type of extinguisher in use in the late '50's. It turns out this extinguisher type was around for a long time, e.g. used in bomber aircraft during WWII. Aircraft designers influenced BB's design, so I guess that's why these extinguishers were on BB. This design of extinguisher was manufactured into the 1960's. Next, radio antennae were made using black plastic stretched sprue. Antenna terminals on the bridge superstructure were made from pieces cut from small gauge wire insulation. So, that's it. With the exception of a few paint touchups, I'm calling this build complete. The build celebrated its 18 month anniversary last Tuesday. Here's a few quick photos showing how she looks today; Display Nameplate: Bow Views; Starboard Side; Stern View; Overhead View; I'll wait for better lighting & take some better close-up photos before adding this build to the 'Ready for Inspection' section. A special thank you to 'longshanks' for providing the information & encouragement I needed to get this build started. And, thanks again to all of you who have followed along and added your feedback & encouragement. See you in the Ready for Inspection section soon. Stay safe! John

Regina does stand out in a crowd.

Are you sure it's not just something in her eye?

Groupies? Gee, any more groupies & I'm going to have to enforce social distancing & mask wearing on the frigate build?

There's always one ... Terry, Shipping from the US to Canada isn't cheap. It cost me just a little under a third of the price of the model alone. John

Ant is correct, it is the Iron Shipwrights kit. For those interested, it's available on e-Bay. They're pricey, though. Luckily, Mrs. Santa loaned me some spare cash. The resin kit represents the original frigate configuration circa 2006. I chose this kit for a number of reasons, including being able to use it as the basis to scratch build the current ships with modifications added in a 2012 - 2016 refit program. HMCS Regina was painted in her camo scheme after she finished the refit program in 2016. So, I've got three options to choose from; 1) an OOB build to the 2006 configuration, 2) scratch build the refit mod's to bring the model up to current standards, & 3) build the model to current standards & add Regina's paint scheme. All look very interesting, so it's a difficult decision. Apparently, my kit arrived by mail on Canadian soil today. Hopefully, I'll have it in the next week or two. At least it'll give me some time to finish Brave Borderer & try to decide which frigate configuration I'm going to build. Here's what each option would look like. Decisions ... decisions ... John

Good eye, Ant. A 1/350 RCN Halifax Class frigate resin kit. John

Not to worry, I've got a plan in place. Here's a teaser photo of what I hope will be my next project. Note that after spending a year & a half with 3 holes in my transom, the new project could have 3 holes as well. Stay tuned! John

The 40mm Bofors guns are completed. I purchased these guns from Shapeways, as a last resort. Shapeways was the only vendor I could find that supplied 1/72 scale single Bofors in Brave Borderer's Mark lX mounting . I've been unhappy with Shapeways products in the past & really didn't want to buy from them again. The printed surface quality IMHO is crap, and these parts were no different. However, the parts did come with some terrific detail, something that I wouldn't have been able to achieve by scratch building. The only design criticism I have is that the detailed open gun operator's position was printed as one piece (top, sides & floor) &, as a result, the interior was very difficult to paint. For additional detail, I drilled out the gun barrel & spent cartridge chute, & added a scratch built manual gun sight using PE parts from earlier builds, for each gun (Brave Borderer's Mark iX gun mounts had both gyro & 'eyeshooting' gun sights). Here's a before & after photo showing the completed guns. And, one more photo showing the guns dry fitted on Brave Borderer's deck. Well, only a few more things to make - a couple of fire extinguishes and radio antenna rigging. Oh, & most importantly print out & raise the White Ensign on the main mast. Once all the parts are glued in place on the model, I need to finish off a repurposed display case I found at an antique market for this build. As always, thanks for looking in. Stay safe! John

Awesome work as usual Steve. Don't you just luv how scratch building & locating most parts & assemblies is interdependent on one or more other parts & assemblies. Challenging & frustrating at times, but in the end it's just a big jigsaw puzzle. Luckily, i think problem solving like this helps keep our ol' brains in relatively good shape. John

John

Thanks Dmitriy & Steve for your feedback. Lots of ideas came to mind when I was trying to determine what these things were, eg. a speaker, a fog horn, a siren, an electrical receptacle, a connector for a hard wired communication headset/microphone for the gun or deck crew, etc.. You would think if they were a connector or receptacle, they would have some sort of cover to prevent corrosion when not in use. One photo from Getty Images does show a coil of what could be a hose or cable just to the left of the round objects. Steve, the lower one does look like a loudhailer, but I wonder why it was mounted so low ... maybe to deafen the gun crew? One of those mysteries that probably will go unsolved. John

Hi Dmitriy. I don't know for sure, but from my experience the nameplates (or name boards) are made from a wood that would stand up to the maritime environment, eg. oak, mahogany, or teak. The lettering was usually corrosion resistant metal, either brass or plated chrome. It looks like it could be a rotating 'clear view screen' window. It might be covered inside to prevent sun damage to the boat's interior. John

Stanchions, hand rails ... and more detailing. As described earlier in this thread, I decided to rework the Perkasa model's handrail stanchions for the Brave Borderer build. Many of Perkasa's stanchions were damaged after years in storage, so the first step was to repair & modify the stanchions to suit this build, as shown in figure 1 in the photo below. Next, a coat of paint (figure 2). Then adding a little more detail by making mounting 'feet' by cutting discs from 1/16" dia. aluminum tubing & gluing the cut tubing to pieces cut from Evergreen sheet (figure 3) . I cut the stanchions to length & then glued them to the 'feet. The assembled stanchions were then glued in holes I pre-drilled in the deck, as shown in figure 4. The wire handrails were made using silver thread. In hindsight it would have been a lot easier & quicker just buying pre-made stanchions but, hey, that wouldn't have been as much 'fun'. After the handrails were finished, it was back to finishing the remaining details to the bridge superstructure. Photos of Brave Borderer show a couple of round 'things' mounted on the front surface of the superstructure. Unfortunately, I don't know what they are or what their function was, so I just copied them from the photos. Also, I made & mounted a bracket for the ship's bell & added inkjet printed nameplates, as shown below. Finally, I added one more printed nameplate to the stern handrail. Now, all that's left to do is finishing the 2 Bofors guns, making a couple of fire extinguishers, & glue the remaining pre-made bits & pieces to the deck.'' Next up, assembling & painting the 3-D printed Bofors guns. Thanks for looking. Stay safe! John

Another beauty in the making, Steve. I can relate to your 'mistakes'. One of the big advantages to scratch building is these kinds of mistakes can be relatively easily corrected. I've got to the point to where I don't make mistakes on my scratch builds, I just make multiple versions of the same parts.

Thanks again everyone for the 'Likes' & nice comments. I bet you say that to all the cute little boats. You're making me blush. I like building unique boats & ships. I'm thinking I might build a kit next time. One kit that's caught my eye is a resin model of a late 1/350 RCN Iroquois class destroyer. Not many models of these ships, probably because the kit is very expensive. I might have to start a go-fund-me thread. John

No plans at this time, Dmitriy. John