Search the Community

I'm always slightly envious of @beefy66's association with Tyneside and the ships that were built there on his doorstep. I can't quite match that stuck in the middle of Wiltshire! However researching Hunt Class Destroyers when Peter Hall (Atlantic Models) released his 1/350 version I was rather pleased to find that there WAS an association with Bradford on Avon, my home town, in that the Bradford on Avon and Trowbridge sponsored the wartime Hunt class Destroyer HMS Avon Vale. https://www.bradfordonavonmuseum.co.uk/avonvale As per above I trooped off down to the Town hall at the town I previously worked in - duly enquired and was promised that the plaque and painting would be dug out of storage. Thank you Mrs C!!! Here they are ......... And on the reverse of the painting which clearly depicts a late or post war Avon Vale....... Very clearly a model of a Hunt Class had to be of Avon Vale. Here she is in 43/44 in the scheme that I'll be depicting and with grateful Thanks to Jamie @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies here's the profile from the Admiralty publications showing she matches the approved scheme quite closely Jon @Faraway has done an excellent build of Badsworth - WIP here: Clearly with the above profile there'll be less debate about the colour scheme - I know Jon still feels fondly back His RFI is here if you haven't seen it: I think there'll be sufficient differences in build to make a second WIP worthwhile. So to those differences; Avon Vale was torpedoed by Italian bombers in January 1943 and extensively damaged She was eventually towed back to UK and rebuilt by May 1944 to take part in D-Day and then return to the Mediterranean. The Above scheme dates from May 44. There are multiple differences from Badsworth that the Atlantic Models kit represents, mainly around the bridge area. I'll list them using the following 2 pics From Bow aft 1) 2 pounder Bow chaser with splash dodger canvas surround 2) "Flat" bridge forward-facing surface with wind deflectors and ?windows into the (?Asdic) compartment within. Badsworth had a differebt "ribbed" front bridge 3) There are no ducts leading from the gundeck to the half platform that the Carley float sits on. There are "square" ventilators atop that and also fwd of the 4"mounting wave deflector 4) There is a wall mounted cable reel where Peter has placed a deck locker 5) A duct runs behind that and the door adjacent that routes up 3/4 way of the bridge superstructure side 6) My red circle has partially obscured what appears to be a 10 signal light that is mounted on a support facing forward. Another is visible on the aft of the open bridge 7) The side wings house a double remote Oerlikon and to accomodate it's rotation there is an outcrop lip 😎 Denton floats sit on the fwd and aft portions of the sidewing 9) There are straight vertical supports x6 supporting these sidewings from the deck vs a lattice structure on Badsworth and on the side view I'll continue...... 10) If we assume the hull is G45 and the dark forward stripe G10 as per the Admiralty scheme, it follows the aft stipe extending onto the aft superstrucuture and mounting is G20. Superstructure is B55 as per the Admiralty scheme. However that leaves me with a minor quandry as to what colour the pennant number is (outlined yellow). Admiralty guidelines have it as G20 but to my mind it is a much lighter colour that the aft stripe. If it IS G20, the aft stripe is darker than the forward stripe which leaves B15 as a possibilty departing substantially from the Admiralty scheme. A lighter pennant colour might include B30 though I'm not aware of it being used as a pennant letter/number colour. @dickrd & @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies - or anyone else - any thoughts please? An additional minor hurdle is that there is not an obvious supplier of paint masks at the moment with Maketar experiencing all sorts of website down/stoppages. Current decals from Starling or Atlantic only do G10/G45 11) The HACs points backwards which appears similarly in many photos and was done to reduce spray when under way 12) There is a prominent semi-circular shield around the rear of the platform mounted Quad 2 pounder 13) There are prominent Flota nets on the Quad platform and the X mounting 14) she carries 6 fill depth charge racks at the stern 15) Radar is still 271 16) There are smoke pots at both stern and bow So that's the work list As is now my usual fashion the base is worked on from the start of the build And conscious that I've shied away from "Cotton-wool" waves in the past - I've worked on a dummy piece of styrofoam to try to get the feel...... Probably more successful than previous attempts, more of this later. The Hull parts are glued using Araldite And dry fit gives us this And finally searching Hunt class vessels on IWM I came across this pic that made me laugh - That's us that is !! Can you spot me and Jon? More soon Rob

I hope it's okay to bandwagon onto this GB. This was the ship my Grandad was serving in during D-day, which was assigned force O to bombard and provide close support to the landings on Omaha and La Pointe du Hoc. The reason for the Rangers' assault on the Pointe was to neutralise a suspected battery of 15.5cm guns, which were in a position to do immense damage to the landing and support craft on Omaha and Utah. In fact, they had been moved some weeks before and been replaced with wooden fakes; but the prospect of moving to within 4000 yards of this battery for the supporting destroyers would've meant likely annihilation had they been present. As it happened the landings started somewhat off course, and some landing craft had to make a long run westward, parallel to the beaches to reach the base of the cliffs. Talybont and USS Satterlee moved in pretty much as close as was possible (<2000 yards) to cover this and took out various machine gun installations that were targeting the Rangers landings and cliff ascent. Talybont was even able to use her short range AA pom poms to good effect at this range. This is a build I've had in mind for a few years, but it's been slow to get off the ground. Hopefully this is a good incentive to actually get started on it properly. HMS Talybont was a Hunt type III escort destroyer. Unfortunately, no kits in 1/700 are available for the type, but the hull was largely unchanged from the type IIs, of which IBG make several kits. The type 3s had a different funnel, the aft 4" mounting removed and aft superstructure moved back to allow space for a pair of torpedo tubes amidships. I've already made a very limited start on modifying the deck, but a fair amount of scratch work will be needed for the funnel and new superstructures. The IBG kit is nice, but a simple or out of scale in places. A PE set by Polish company Shelf Oddity does exist however, and I've made a start removing the bulwarks in order to replace with some ridiculously intricate photo etch. I've also a wide array of replacement 3d print parts assembled for various RN subjects, a selection of which is shown below. Starling Models has also since made a 3d print upgrade kit, of which I have a few copies, so that will no doubt be making an appearance. There might even be a chance to mess around with LEDs, cotton wool and brass gun barrels for a bit of a diorama, but that's well in the future. I've had a lot of help from the good people of these forums to narrow down the likely fit and camouflage that she was painted in during June '44. These posts can be seen on the build log for the last time I build this kit, here: Hopefully will make a proper start on this soon Andy