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When the Iron Duke class battleships commissioned in 1914 they were without doubt the best battleships in the RN, and arguably equal to any in the world at the time. Their ten 13.5-inch guns were superb weapons and although of a slightly smaller calibre to the 14-inch guns of the USN and IJN ships they fired a shell of equal weight, 1400lbs. But it was known that both the Americans and Japanese were building battleships with twelve guns, the Japanese had in fact launched one of theirs (IJN Fuso), and Britain was going to have to follow suit, and soon. The quickest way to do this was to repeat the Iron Dukes but with a stretched hull to accommodate the extra turret and this is what they did. As was now the norm four ships were authorized, the name ship HMS Culloden, with sister-ships Queen Elisabeth, Warspite and Valiant. Construction proceeded rapidly with Culloden but the others had to wait until longer slipways became available. Not long after, Vickers tested the first prototype of their new 15-inch gun and the RN immediately took an interest. After the second successful test the guns were ordered and while construction of Culloden continued the others were put on hold while the design was altered to accommodate the new weapon. As a result HMS Culloden like HMS Hood five years later was one of a kind. The remaining three ships had two others authorized and became the Queen Elisabeth class. HMS Culloden had the same beam but was fifty two feet longer than the preceding class to accommodate the extra turret. This was designated 'P' turret and was sited immediately aft of the funnels and super-fired over 'Q' turret. In nearly all other respects she was a repeat of Iron Duke. The power plant was almost unchanged except two extra boilers were fitted. The extra length allowed increased bunkerage and hence range, and despite the increased displacement her speed was actually 1/2 knot faster, again due to her length. Her tactical radius (turning circle) was slightly larger though. HMS Culloden fought at Jutland, and despite her shortened work-up period her gunnery was reportedly very good, her heavy six-gun salvos causing quite a bit of grief to her German adversaries. She was hit twice herself, and took a torpedo but kept her place in the line. The remainder of her war service was rather uneventful as it was for the remainder of the Grand Fleet. After the war she served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. HMS Culloden was to be disposed of under the terms of the Washington Treaty. Due to her length she was considered for a conversion to an aircraft carrier but this didn't eventuate, and she was scrapped in 1931. The major modification was to lengthen the hull by 26mm. My preferred method is to use two hulls but on this occasion that wasn't possible, I only had one. So it was a case of cut the hull across at about midships and bridge the required gap. I did similar with the main deck. The superstructure was lowered a little, the reduction spread over three levels. This affected the tripod bracing legs so I replaced those. I also replaced the kit 6-inch guns and casemates with scratchbuilt and omitted the aft-most casemate. In reality it was found to be too close to the water and was useless in any sort of seaway. I replaced the 3-inch AA guns and the barrels of the light surface guns. I replaced the topmast and rearranged some of the boats. The full build log can be found: Thank you for your interest. And a special thank you to @Rob S who gave me the idea in the first place. Regards to all, Jeff.

Gidday All, Earlier this year for the Falklands 40th Anniversary GB I commenced a model of HMS Glamorgan, converting an Airfix HMS Devonshire kit to do so. But as the GB is now well and truly over I've decided to continue the build here. But firstly I wish to say a big THANK YOU to @Enzo Matrix for running the Group Build. I won't repeat the trials and tribulations of the build to date, the build thread up to this point is below if you wish to see it:- https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235108448-hms-glamorgan/ Here is the state of the model now. With the exception of the turret and the large Type 901 radar mounted at the rear of the aft superstructure everything on the model is now fixed. About the only items I haven't modified or replaced are the rudders, the Exocet tubes, the whaleboat and that small radar scanner next to it. I scratch built the entire forward superstructure (except the fwd funnel) and modified the aft superstructure. On the wood block in the foreground I modified the three launches and davits (there's eight in total) and I scratch built everything else - the Exocet blast deflectors, bridge wings, foremast, double bedstead radar, SCOT domes, the gunnery and Seacat directors, the screws and quite a bit of extra stuff already on the model. I've still got to make the two 20mm Oerlikons, two Seacat launchers, two Corvus chaff chuckers, bollards and fairleads, the Seaslug launcher, finish the masts and busy her up a bit. Still quite a bit to do. So that's it for now. Stay safe, and regards to all, Jeff.

Gidday All, I finished my model of HMS Minotaur on Thursday night. However I'll only post one photo here as I think dual threads are frowned upon. I've done a post in the What-if section as the story I've written for the model is a companion piece to that done by Alan P and hence I thought they should be in the same place. The majority of the photos show the ship in 1982 when she carried Exocets but the story also says that these were replaced by Harpoons so I'll show a photo of that here. The platform carrying the Harpoons just forward of the bridge structure simply lifts off and another carrying Exocets can fit in it's place. The directors mounted on the forward superstructure are, from front to rear, the Seawolf director, the DCT for surface targets and then the HA director for aerial targets, both for the forward pair of 6-inch turrets. This arrangement is duplicated aft. The model uses an elongated Airfix Suffolk hull (I used two) and as much of the two Airfix Tiger kits as I could use. Parts of other Airfix ship kits are used also, plus some scratch building. More photos can be found in: The build log in the works in progress section: Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday All, for this GB I plan to complete a model of the flotilla leader HMS Hardy that I commenced about three years ago. To make the model I am converting an Airfix HMS Hotspur kit in 1/600 scale. This is as far as I got before the build stalled: Some of the alterations I knew I had to make was extending the foc'sle deck aft a little, adding a deckhouse bandstand and an extra 4.7-inch gun between the funnels, extending the upper bridge fwd a little and relocating the two quad .50cal mounts onto bridge wings. A couple of other alterations that I've only recently learned of are lengthening the hull oa, enlarging the aft deckhouse and making the foremast a tripod. Now that the deck is attached I think lengthening the hull might be the most difficult but I have an idea as to how I'm going the tackle it. Wish me luck. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday All, I've commenced my next build, a model of HMS Hood as she appeared at the time of her sinking in the Denmark Strait on 24th May 1941. Actually, I commenced it three weeks ago. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Bismarck chase, and to commemorate this the ATF is running a GB of the chase. As the name and tags suggest I'm converting a 1/600 scale model kit of HMS Hood to her appearance at that time. The kit OOB represents the ship at about 1932. I know there are kits available that depict the ship in the 1941 guise but a rule of the ATF is that it must be an Airfix kit. Besides, I like to work in 1/600 scale. Between the two dates the ship was altered a bit. The main alterations that I'll have to do (as far as I'm aware at this point) will be removing the 5.5-inch guns and adding twin 4-inch guns, quad .5-inch machine guns and those UP (unrotated projectile) launchers. Minor alterations to the upperworks and spotting top also, and no doubt I'll learn of some more alterations as I go along. Below is a photo of the box art, parts and instructions. I've included parts from other kits that I'll need, namely twin 4-inch gun shields and UP (Unrotated Projectile) launchers. I forgot to add an extra octuple 2lb pompom mounting. When I bought the kit some time ago I noticed that the box art is of the ship in May 1941. And as it turns out so is the colour scheme in the instructions. I didn't know whether to be pleased (it'll save me quite a bit of work) or disappointed now that the challenge had gone. But as you can see, the kit comes with single 5.5-inch guns, not twin 4-inch, so it is still the 1932 iteration of the ship. I believe this could be deemed false advertising by Airfix but I'm not going to quibble. Included in the parts above are six UP launchers (I only need five) from the twoAirfix KGV kits I used to build HMS Monarch many years ago (yes I plan that far ahead) and seven twin 4-inch shields from Airfix Ajax kits. The kit seems nicely molded with very little flash. And I've had a pleasant surprise - the gun barrels and 5.5-inch guns are attached to the sprues at the rear, not half way along the barrel which Airfix are prone to do. This will make them easier to use (the 5.5-inch guns I plan on using on a future build of HMS Eagle). Why can't Airfix do this all the time? I'm also going to need another octuple pompom mounting, which I have from my recent build of a 16 gun HMS Belfast. I forgot to include it in the photo here. I've glued, re-inforced and drilled the hull. This model is quite a bit bigger than those I've done recently. I think I need a bigger cutting mat. Therefore of course a bigger desk. And perhaps a bigger room? I don't think SWMBO will agree to that. Oh well . . . There was a bit of thick jagged flash on the lip of the hull. I checked with a second kit of this, same. It could be a fault with the molding but it's not a major problem. While the glue was setting yesterday I thought I'd start on the turrets. I have decided on a standard fitting method for cruiser and battleship turrets now, which is 4.8mm (3/16 inch) tubing for the trunking, and a keyway added to allow removal yet locking in. When I saw the faces of the turrets of this kit I said "erk", followed by "gosh" (or words to that effect). The slots for the guns are a little rough. In fact I could have done a neater job with a chainsaw. See below. The top row of turrets came with this kit. The second row, obviously from another kit. These are like those I remember when I did my first build, many years ago. The reason I have two kits is that when I decided to do this version of HMS Hood I had trouble finding a kit. When I finally succeeded in tracking one down the store had two so I bought them both. Greedy I know, but I've never claimed to be a saint. Regarding the turrets I had some options. Plan A, use them as they are. Err, no. Plan B, use the turrets from the other kit. Maybe. Plan C, use these turrets and make turret faces to cover the shoddy faces here. Maybe. Plan D, make my own. In fact I have already done so. About forty-odd years ago I had this idea of scratch-building a model of the ship, using my younger brother's build for measurements. Why I decided to copy exactly a model when I could simply have bought my own kit I have no idea. I can't remember what I thought last week, so definitely not my thoughts that far back. Anyway I made the hull from balsa, the turrets from balsa and matches, the 5.5-inch guns and started on the superstructure, this from balsa and paper. Plus a carved name plate. That's them in the foreground. The levels of the superstructure are dry fitted here. I include them here to show how skilled and talented I was back then. 🥴 Yeah, right! 😁 The hull was weighted with plasticine to make it float at the waterline but I put too much in and it floated with the quarterdeck nearly awash. Considering how wet this ship was in a seaway, particularly in later years this wasn't far from the truth. Anyway, the plasticine must have absorbed moisture from the atmosphere or something because it swelled and split the hull. So this I ditched, along with the ten 5.5-inch guns glued to it. Anyway, back to this build. I initially decided on Plan C (making turret faces) with Plan B as a back up if I'm unsuccessful.