Chewbacca

Don't usually frequent the GB forums and I only came across to place my vote for the Salty Sea Dog GB when I saw this. As a former Observer who only ever usually models Fleet Air Arm or RN subjects, this is a no brainer for me so have placed a vote for this as well. Do count me in (subject to start date). I have multiple options in the stash.

Sorry, have been a bit tied up this past week so missed the voting. Is it too late to add my vote now? But glad that we've got through anyway. When do we start? Need to consider what I do.

Thanks Crisp. BOXER was still doing CACS trials when I joined her as Flight Observer in 1986! I know I said that the next task was the yardarms but on reflection that would be a bad idea because at the moment I can at least use the mainmast to pick the model up and move her around the workbench which when the yards are fitted will be a whole heap more difficult. So I need to get it attached to the baseboard so that the baseboard can be used for that function, but before I do that I needed to fit the decals because once she is alongside a jetty, fitting pennant numbers and ship's quarter nameplates will be challenging if not impossible. I ordered a set of the excellent 1/600 RN warship decals from @Peter Hall at Atlantic Models (first class service, ordered Wednesday night, invoice received and paid Thursday morning and decals arrived Friday) and they will suffice for the pennant numbers and flight deck markings. I've started with the first batch of those and now waiting for those to dry before I add the next round. But not everything I need is on that sheet, so I have drawn the bridge windows, the quarter name plates, the polished wood/chrome nameboards and the 6th Frigate Squadron funnel badges in PowerPoint suitably sized and will print those on decal paper. I've been wondering if there is a simple way of making the named deck treadplates. Every ship I have ever served in has had these, generally on the upper deck alongside where the accommodation ladder is fitted like this one: Difficult to print on decal paper as they are predominantly brass. About 600 mm wide so 1mm in this scale. I was wondering about some 10 thou styrene sheet, painted red and then dry brushed brass. or perhaps I just put it in the all too difficult box given the size - after all I've never done it before in any other builds! I'm taking a slightly different approach to the seascape. I usually put a layer of Plaster of Paris on the board and craft the swell and waves in that while it is wet, then before it sets, plunge the hull wrapped in clingflim into the plaster and wait for it to set. However, if you look at the top photo in the first post, you'll see that we were actually riding quite high in the water and when I put the hull together 6 odd years ago, I didn't leave sufficient hull beneath the boot topping. So she will have to sit on top. It's also compounded by the fact that in addition to LONDONDERRY, I have to fit RMAS Agile and two Dog class tugs and I think I will struggle to get all 4 hulls embedded in the relatively short drying time that PoP affords. If you look at the water, there is just the merest hint of a ripple across the surface so I certainly don't need to worry about a swell or any significant waves. I am therefore going to try using a 10 mm thick sheet of insulating foam that I think when painted will give that ripple effect. That's in the garage while the glue sets securing the foam to the MDF base. I've also started drawing RMAS Agile in CAD. The hull's just about done - now got the superstructure to go. Thanks for watching

Thanks If she wasn't open to visitors, it wouldn't have been 1983 as I was onboard for that and was Officer of the Day for at least one of the days possibly both of them. This photo was supposedly taken at Portsmouth Navy Days 83 but I'm not 100% convinced because we should have been dressed overall. That said, I don't actually recall dressing ship ever as an OOD and we may have been exempt because of the aerial array we were carrying off the mainmast which would have fouled the dressing lines. And I think I am one of the two officers you can see standing on the gunnery direction platform just aft of the bridge so it may well be 83. Certainly the other aerial fit aligns with my time onboard. Your uneducated guess was absolutely correct Jeff. Not only would they have been uncovered, they would have been loaded. Not much work over the weekend - it was Trafalgar night on Friday and we had guests for our local Royal Naval Association dinner - but I did get some work done on the aerials. This shows the FH5 DF masthead array in course of production on the left, the 1010 IFF aerial in the middle and the 993 (or was it 994?) aerial in the tweezers? The only difference between 993 and 994 as far as I can recall was the processing; the antennae were identical I think. I wasn't overly happy with the way that the omni aerials at the bottom of the FH5 array came out (you can see one is not quite central) so remade that aerial but the other two are shown here fitted to the mastheads. Next task is the yardarms which will come from WEM PE and then before it starts getting too fragile to handle, I shall have to turn my attention to the base which in turn means drawing 3 tugs in CAD and 3D printing them. Or think of a different way of doing the sea... Thanks for watching

Hi Jeff, Sort of, it was the only way I could think to get the shape roughly right. I made the support from 40 thou rod and cut the top of that to about 30 deg (couldn't remember exactly what angle the launch tubes were set at). Then instead of adding 6 launch tubes, I added a square of 40 thou styrene sheet 1.8 mm square at 45 deg to the angle of the cut. Then added the two additional launch tubes from 20 thou rod that aim directly ahead on top of the styrene sheet. Draped the whole thing in tissue soaked in CA. Didn't think to photograph them as I went along. With hindsight, I think I would have been better off using thin foil for the cover but I didn't have any with me. Looking at them now in relation to the photos of the real thing, they look a tadge too big but at this scale they'll suffice. When I did Puma, because I was portraying her after her refit when the Corvus system was fitted, I asked the very nice @Peter Hall at Atlantic Models if he could buy a spare set of rocket launchers from one of his other kits that did have them and he duly obliged. If I were doing this again (certainly in 1/350 and potentially even in 1/600) and wasn't going for the cover, I think I would 3D print them. Haven't decided what I'll do for ALACRITY yet as I can't remember whether we put the covers on for the passage from the Falklands to S Georgia or not. They were certainly covered when were moored in Grytviken Harbour.

Little more work completed although making the liferafts seemed to take an absolute age. Still got 2 to make to go on the aft superstructure stbd side. All they are, are strips of 40 thou Evergreen rod cut to just under 3mm in length and the ends rounded of with a diamond file then the rubber seal painted in with a cocktail stick. Given the scale, I have represented the frames in which they are stowed with simple strips of 10 thou plasticard, 1/2 mm wide and 1.5 mm long painted brown (a bespoke mix made from Vallejo rust and dark grey as I didn't bring my burnt umber with me). It's not perfect and in 1/350 I would make the frames more accurately but at this scale I simply don't have the dexterity or eyesight to do so. Also added the 3 in Corvus rocket launchers (with covers), a few more guardrails, the odd vertical device at the forward end of the foremast superstructure (no idea what it is but suspect it related to our trials) and removed the guardrails from the aft superstructure ready to repositioned guardrails to accommodate the liferafts.

Thanks Ray, that would be very helpful. There are some good tutorials on here on how to post pictures - in short you have to host the image elsewhere (I use Flickr) and cut/paste the link.

It does fade quite quickly. It also shows how rubbish we were at painting in the early 80s (not sure if it was done by the ship's company or dockyard staff, but look how much grey paint is all over the wooden spurnwater! Back to the model. I think I am realising why I have shifted allegiance to 1/350. 1/600 is so small! At one point yesterday I was wearing my usual glasses, an optivisor type magnifying headset and an illuminated free standing magnifying glass. But even though I could see it, the 000 brush I was using was still way too big. Anyway, as I started to tackle the bridge wing guardrails to make space for the fo'c'sle ladders, the more I looked at what I had already done the more I realised that it was incorrect. Firstly that the lockers on the forward end of the bridge wings were in the wrong place which meant that I had insufficient space to fit the liferafts behind them. In 1/600 scale, the canisters are a fraction under 3mm in length which meant that with a little space either side I would need 6.5 mm and as the photos below show, I had 4 mm on the port side and about 5 on the starboard. Then I realised that I hadn't left any space for the navigation lights which I thought from memory and my recent PUMA build should have been forward of the liferafts - but more of that in a moment. So in the end I ripped off those lockers and all of the guardrails back to a position about level with the wardroom scuttles (the 3 scuttles in the superstructure area). Of course having taken off all of this the first task was to clean up and repaint the deck which was when I realised I hadn't brought any Humbrol 27 with me. Fortunately, I did have Vallejo London Grey with me which I occasionally use for decks, especially when they are faded, which was a near perfect match. I had obviously noted the point that Terry made earlier about the light deck colour when I originally painted the decks. I ended up repeating that exercise about 3 times as each time I fitted the replacement lockers, they were in slightly the wrong place and of course, when I didn't want the CA to take immediately, that was when it did. Refitted the guardrails and this time left sufficient space for the fo'c'sle ladders. Painting them again made me realise why I now prefer 1/350, especially after I painted them before folding because I thought I wouldn't get a hairy stick in there once I had painted them, and then of course the paint flaked off in a couple of places while I was fitting them so I had to get in there anyway. Then we come onto the nav light saga. Having convinced myself that they should be just forward of the forward liferafts, I constructed them from 10 thou sheet styrene and 20 thou rod but very quickly realised that they couldn't go where I thought they should because the lockers would blank off between 5 and 10 degrees of the ahead sector each side. Eventually after trawling through my LONDODERRY photo library, I found a couple of photos that showed much better that they were slightly further aft - the black objects just forward of the after liferaft cannisters here: Now because of the location of the liferaft cannisters, they have to be mounted outboard of the guardrails or again the ahead sectors would be blanked, which this photo does appear to correlate, but I got very confused because I have another photo taken from dead ahead (I don't own the copyright and can't find the link online so can't show it) which shows those sides to be flush with no nav lights obvious. Given that I have some evidence to support my logic and only one photo that counters it, I'm going with the "outboard of the guardrails" theory. I've also added the small deckhouse just aft of the bridge though I have yet to finish painting it. Next task (I think) will be to see about making the liferaft cannisters. In the past I have tried casting these from resin without much success and have always used 40 thou Evergreen rod with the ends rounded off. I'll try that again but since I now have a liferaft cannister drawn in 1/350 scale in CAD, I may simply wait until I get home, scale that down and 3D print them. Similarly I need to add a 3 inch Corvus rocket launcher either side (which you can see in the photo taken alongside in Gibraltar were under covers. That may be easier to draw and 3D print then drape a tissue paper cover over the top. Thanks for watching

Thanks Jeff. I have another 3 or 4 BELFASTs in the stash to be converted to other Towns but after my return to 1/600 recently with LONDONDERRY I'm wondering if I should stick with 1/350. It's just so tiny! I suspect the issue is simply that I have got used to the level of detail that you can apply in 1/350 and am now trying to do the same in 1/600. Best rgds

Yes that's the one I was thinking of. Oh really? That's good to know as we may be visiting family close to there on Tuesday or Wednesday. Where are they in Harrogate? The only model shop I seem to recall was a section in WH Smiths where I picked up a 1/48 Sea Vixen and a couple of 1/600 ships for an absolute bargain a few years back. Thanks

I'd endorse that. I needed some 1/350 Flight Deck nets for my HECLA scratchbuild. Emailed Peter if he could do anything and 2 days later a spare set of T22 PE arrived in the post.

Probably the wrong place to post this (Mods feel free to move it) but I looked in the shops forum and there only appeared to be dedicated threads to each of the small manufacturers. On holiday in Yorkshire at the moment and I was wondering if a trip to Pennine Models was worthwhile. There are a few mentions on here which say they are good but nothing for about 3-4 years and their limited website only talks about railway and armour kits. It's a fair hike from us but we were thinking of a trip to Guisley for fish and chips at Harry Ramsdens so not too far from there. Anyone have any recent experience? Thanks

Theoretically yes, as the photo at the top of the thread which I tool while she was alongside Gun Wharf in Gibraltar shows, but the whole time that I was onboard we never landed any helicopter IIRC. The nearest we got was a couple of fo'c'sle transfers, one by Lynx while I was on watch so didn't have my camera with me and one by GALATEA's Wasp when I did, as shown here: I'm guessing that the fact that we had to do a foc's'le transfer meant that we weren't cleared to operate helos.

In the early 1980s SCOT was a "fitted for but not with" for many ships and the actual kit was moved around between ships depending upon priorities. I'm not sure what GLAMORGAN was tasked to do post her refit but if it was operations in UK/North Atlantic without a Admiral's staff on board, I doubt that she would be a high priority.

I don't think aesthetics was on their Lordships' minds when they converted LONEDERRY to a trials ship role. Functionality was the definite priority. I think there is little doubt that if I were starting this now, I wold be using either Shapeways or designing my own replacement parts in CAD and 3D printing. If nothing else at least that aft deckhouse in which the scientists carried out their experiments would be square! I note that you are in Dorset. Depending upon where in Dorset, we have an active club in Poole, Poole Scale Modellers, at which you would be most welcome. There are a fair few of us on here including @Terry1954 and @Martian.

I think you're right Steve. This website also confirms the dates 81-85 in Gib: http://www.historicalrfa.org/rfa-agile and she certainly looks the same. Thanks

I don't know about the large tug I'm afraid. The two smaller tugs further aft are definitely Dog class. If anyone can identify her I would be grateful as I may need to scratchbuild her as well to complete the diorama!

So a bit of background to LONDONDERRY. Laid down in 1956 and commissioned 3 years later, she was the 2nd of the Rothesay Class Type 12 Modified frigates based on the earlier Whitby class. The hull shape of both the Whitbys and Rothesays was similar to the previous Type 41 Leopard and Type 61 Salisbury class frigates but was extended by 30 feet to replace the Leopard and Salisbury diesel propulsion with two Y100 Babcock and Wilcox boilers coupled to steam turbines which delivered 20,000 shaft horse power, more than twice their predecessors. Whilst this meant hat they lacked the endurance of the Type 41/61, it did mean that they could achieve 30 kts and therefore act as ocean going escorts to the main fleet. They were designed predominantly as ASW platforms aimed at countering the rising threat from Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic and as such were equipped with two 3-barrelled Limbo mortars, Type 174, 170 and 162 sonars as well as a 4.5 in Mk 6 twin turret and a solitary 40 mm Bofors for air defence. In the late 1960s she was extensively refitted, removing the forward of the two Limbos to make space for a hangar and flight deck for a Westland Wasp helicopter which could carry two Mk 44 torpedoes and thus attack a potential threat submarine at much longer range than the Limbo could achieve. The Wasp could also carry the 600lb nuclear depth bomb but we'll not go there! In 1975, LONDONDERRY was selected to become the Fleet Trials Ship and was extensively refitted in Rosyth. This involved removing the Mk 6 turret, hangar, flight deck, Limbo and Bofors and replacing them instead with a much larger main mast, and even larger mizzen mast (making her at the time one of only three Royal Navy three masted ships, the others being VICTORY and HMY BRITANNIA. She also had her propellors replaced with multi-bladed propulsors which were, I understand, far quieter than the propellors, much less prone to cavitation but utterly useless when you applied astern power. There was a joke onboard that when coming into Portsmouth and heading for North Corner or Noth West Wall Jetty that we would have to go astern as we entered the narrows which is over a mile. Other ships would go astern about 2 ship's lengths off the berth She emerged from refit in 1979 and over the next 5/6 years or so was used extensively for a series of above water sensor trials - radar and electronic warfare - and training for both officers and ratings. I was only onboard for a short period of time between courses between August and October 1983 as an additional watchkeeper, mainly because during that time we undertook sea training for the advanced navigators course which I always described as taking a frigate into places that a frigate really shouldn't go. This included the east ship channel into Devonport where we had literally inches under the sonar dome and into a number of Scottish lochs where having navigated to the top of the loch, there was no way of turning around and so the exit was a 1-2 mile sternboard. Annoyingly it was the student navigators who had to take the ships into these places but the ship's watchkeepers, (myself included) who had to get them out. During this time we also went to the aid of a Scottish fishing vessel that had caught fire in the North Sea and a series of long range radar trials in the Mediterranean where we operated extensively with Buccaneers from I think 208 Sqn who always used to delight the ship's company at the end of each two hour serial by beating LONDONDERRY up with a flypast below bridge wing level. Now the astute of you will notice that I said she was fitted with a mizzen mast. At some point around 1981/early 82, the mizzen mast was removed and she reverted to a traditional two masted frigate, albeit with a main mast that was taller than anything fitted to any other ship. As far as the model is concerned, the first job was to assemble the LEANDER hull and deck and then to take the razer saw to remove the hull below the waterline and replace it with a sheet of, I think, 40 thou plasticard. The quarterdeck cut down came next and a new quarterdeck and screen made from 20 thou card. I made up some supports inside the Limbo well and filled that with 20 thou card sanding it until it was flush. Next up was the forward superstructure which was a mix of 40 thou supports skinned with 10 and 20 thou and a good amount of filler. IIRC, i hadn't discovered Vallejo filler in those days so I think the filler was predominantly Humbrol. The bridge was challenging as it is a series of complex angled shapes and to be honest, if I were making it today, I would probably not be happy with the quality of what I have done but I will do far more damage now trying to modify it. The funnel was especially challenging, trying to get the right curvature and angle and again that involved a copious investment in filler to get it vaguely right. That would be so much easier with 3D printing. All other superstructure was made up from styrene sheet and then doors/hatches etc added from WEM 1/600 "Ultimate" Post-War Royal Navy Set 2 (PE 625) or, in the case of the upper deck vents, 10 thou sheet. The bollards are the moulded one from the LEANDER kit but the fairleads are made from 20 thou styrene. The way that I have always made them n this scale is to cut a strip about 1.2 mm wide and then near to one end drill a couple of 0.3 mm holes. Then using a rat tail file that I have owned for over 40 years carefully open up the holes until they join together to form an oval. Cut any excess strip above the holes leaving about 0.1 mm remaining and carefully sand the corners to make a curve then cut the bottom a similar distance. If I were being really picky I would add a flat base (and now I probably would do that) but 6/7 years ago I didn't bother. The hull was then sprayed with Vallejo Sky Grey 70989. Now I fully admit that it's not accurate and that I should be using Colourcoats weatherworks grey. However, if we look at a 1/600 scale ship from a distance of about 3 feet (which is probably the average distance that most people look at them at shows), that is the equivalent of looking at the real ship some 600 yards away or nearly 1/3 nm. Now I don't know about you, but my eyesight (which when I was serving was better than 20:20 according to my annual medical) can't easily tell the difference at that range. As regulars on here will know, masking is not one of my strengths, certainly not at this scale, and so I had little choice but to tackle the decks with a hairy stick. I wish I could remember which colour I used. I think the flight deck is Vallejo dark grey 70994 and I think the rest of the decks may be Humbrol 27 slate grey. I guess I will find out if I have to touch up anything! Guardrails came from the WEM PE625 but looking at the model today, I can immediately see that I am going to need to modify that as I have not left space on the bridge wings for the two ladders down onto the fo'c'sle. That will be an early correction. The 27 ft motor whaler comes from the LEANDER kit with slight embellishment while the Cheverton is modified from the kit's motor cutter; the Gemini dinghy just aft of the mainmast comes from the AMAZON kit. There is a lot of detail to be added between the bridge and foremast and in the well between the funnel and mainmast so that will probably be the next job. With hindsight, I should probably have put the flight deck decals on before I fitted the flight deck netting so I'll have to live with that for now. Thanks for watching.

As regulars on here will know, I finished the scratchbuild of HMS HECLA in 1/350 a few weeks back and took a short break away from the bench to try to get on with other jobs (including stripping all the paint from the body of a 1982 TVR Tasmin in preparation for a full respray). But with 2 weeks holiday looming in a cottage in the Yorkshire Dales, I thought I had better find something in the stash to take with me that I could progress when the weather precluded getting out into the fresh air. Problem was, what to take as most of my builds tend to start with a lot of spraying and there was no way I could justify airbrushing on someone else's kitchen table! So with that in mind I thought how about trying to progress a couple of the kits on the shelf of doom which for the most part have had all of the spray painting already completed. One of these is the venerable 1/600 Airfix HMS LEANDER which I am converting to HMS LONDONDERRY as she was when I served on board in 1983. The intent is to portray her alongside in Gibraltar to represent this photograph that I took of her in September of that year from the top of the Rock. Now I started this conversion aeons ago well before I joined BM and at a time when I didn't tend to take very many photos of the models as they went along. So I have these 2 images that were taken in late 2015 that show progress to that point: And then a couple of months later: Since then I have done some more work on her mainly with PE additions and some paint so today she looks like this: First job I sense is to clear away about 5 years worth of dust and rationalise what next. Problem that I have is that there is so much on here - notably things like the funnel and main mast that if I were starting this today, I would simply draw in CAD and 3D print. But I'm not going back - to do that I may as well start afresh with another Leander class hull so best make the most of a poorly started job. Thanks for watching

Some cracking work here Jeff, especially on that scratch built Sea Slug launcher as I commented in another thread. You're right that 0.25 mm strip is slightly overscale - it equates to 150 mm/6 in in full size but those launchers were hefty bits of kit and the tubing was not lightweight. It's a long time since I was last on board a County class (probably HMS KENT as a Sea Cadet in about 1978) but IIRC the main tubes were around 100 mm/4 in so I don't think you're too far out. As for the Sea Cat covers, there is a photo here taken I think towards the end of the conflict that clearly shows the individual missile covers. One observation I would make if I may concerns the boats. You're right about the colours - the motor whaler and two Chevertons were painted grey while the Fairey Huntress had a red hull and white upperworks, but the shape of the Huntress isn't quite right as you can see from this image. However, as the image below shows, the Huntress (and Chevertons) had a grey plastic cover over them during the Falklands campaign. I replicated mine using tissue paper. I also not that you've painted your 965 and 978 radar aerial antennas black. I think they were originally but certainly by 1982 they were ship side grey. Hope that helps

Looking great. Despite having joined the RN with the intent of becoming a submariner, after a career shift into the Fleet Air Arm I have always just looked on submarines as potential targets so have never felt the urge to model one but I totally get why a lot of others do and these latest crop of kits from @Mike McCabe (and others) are so good I could be tempted. I now have the image that I cannot get out of my head of a cocktail stick permanently stuck to your tongue. It's interesting that you and others on here swear by Alclad as a primer especially for resin. I've only ever used it once (HMS PUMA) and as soon as I masked for the boot topping over 50% of the ships side grey and underlying primer lifted off with the masking tape. Went back to a Halfords rattle can and no problem. And I'm sure mine wasn't past its use by date as it was only 3 or 4 weeks old.

Some great stuff coming on with GLAMORGAN Jeff. To create a SeaSlug launcher of that fidelity from styrene is very impressive. I now consider that I had cheated by using PE! Your are correct that the 965 aerial is the large "double bedstead". It was a long rang air warning radar which at the time was probably quite sophisticated but it was a design from the 1950s that certainly by 1982 was distinctly showing its age which was why it was being replaced with the vastly improved 1022.

This Sir, is an utter thing of beauty! Like you, I am entirely self taught in Fusion 360 - I just wish I picked up your skills! Following with interest.

14 inches long and 1/100 - she's tiny! I had visions she was much larger. Good to see you've started. All journeys have a first step!

But that's all part of the fun Jeff! We'll have to get you using PE - the WEM 1/600 Sea Slug launcher is a thing of beauty! How do you plan to upgrade the kit blob that purports to be a 965 radar?