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I've quite liked the cute little IBG Models 1/700 Hunt II destroyers for a while and fancied building one or two, so I bought a couple. I desperately want something easy and relaxing rather than another deeply-involved chew that never gets finished. I appreciate that different people like different things and that being in a different place in life may mean there are more or less numerous competitors for time and energy but I'm almost maxed out on time at the moment. I say that because whilst cute, the IBG kits do look clunky in some areas; particularly the mast which looks rubbish and the weapons. Splinter shields are perhaps a bit thick but one has to draw the line somewhere. Trading money to save time, I've bought Micromaster and FineMoulds NanoDread replacement weapons as well as replacement brass masts and yardarms by Master supplied by Micromaster directly, MJW Models and Starling Models respectively. That's all that's happening to these kits - I do not plan to disappear down rabbit holes trying to improve anything else! This doesn't look quite so bad on the sprues but on the finished models these look like a great big Christian crucifix carried amidships And some more direct comparisons: I've also got quad Vickers 0.5in machine guns available: ... As well as single 20mm Oerlikons So, choice of subjects. Back when @dickrd gave me the National Archives file number for the Confidential Admiralty Fleet Orders and I learned about CAFO679/42 I've always compared destroyer and small ship schemes to the published standardised camouflage designs. One of the first I happened across which looked to be a direct match for a standard design was HMS Chiddingfold. Let's take a look... The original CAFO679/42 designs were printed in colour thus: We re-drew them like this: Whilst IWM FL8070 portrays HMS Chiddingfold like this: Sometimes these designs can almost be found on real ships but it's clear that it's been modified or colours substituted out somewhere. Might the dark panel forward be MS1 instead of 507A? Perhaps. The pixels are darker than the dark panel amidships, but it would not be the first time changing contours on a hull has misled the perceiver of black and white photographs. One of the kits is sold as HMS Middleton, and this one is another curiosity which piqued my interest: The artist who painted the box art has painted the ship blue and very pale grey. IBG have backed Hataka and Lifecolor, both of whom copied Snyder & Short's chips. They say: ...507A and MS3, for anyone who's neck doesn't bend 90 degrees. Now what's quite interesting about this is that I believe both the box artist and IBG's paint guide person are partially correct but I suspect neither knows why. Plate 38 of CAFO679/42 gives a Hunt Destroyer "Dark Admiralty Type" design with 2 colours in the same basic shapes as HMS Middleton, but it used MS1 (near black, as opposed to dark grey 507A) and MS3. Now let's compare to actual photographs of HMS Middleton: Now any fool can immediately spot two key problems with it as far as matching to Plate 38. Firstly, the stern isn't dark like the plate design. Secondly, whatever the darker paint on it is certainly isn't near black, so it can't possibly be MS1. Does that mean IBG is correct then? No, it doesn't. It means they haven't looked closely enough. Let's zoom in on that aft end: There's a demarcation there. It's subtle, but once seen cannot be unseen. It's apparent in this photo too, so it's not a feature of one particular image: This is a three-colour camouflage design, not a two-colour design. Now what do we do? Well, as it happens in October 1942 CAFO2146/42 was promulgated, and something happened which drew my atttention to it again a while ago. It said: It gave no diagrams, just tabulated conversions like this: ...which is fine but a little difficult to visualise so I decided to recycle all the illustrations from CAFO679/42 and make all the substitutions to produce a graphic representation to accompany CAFO2146/42. I found it has helped me a lot - but sticking with HMS Middleton for a moment, take a look at what happens to CAFO679/42's Plate 38 when converted to a "Dark Medium Tone" type design in accordance with CAFO2146/42's directions: and for direct and easy comparison here's HMS Middleton again. I think this is pretty convincing, personally. The apparently lighter front faces of each of the 4.7" twin mount shields is interesting though, and not something covered by the camouflage documents. There is then the matter of dates. The bum steer on IBG's instructions might possible be attributed to Iron Shipwrights' kit instructions which appear on the internet saying this. The dates are interesting and indeed one of the above photographs is captioned as having been taken during Op Neptune, which would be a remarkable lifespan for MS&B paints hinting that the design may have been carried forward to the G&B series, for which the equivalent tones would be B15, G20 and B30. B15 was a practical replacement for B5. G20 was a practical replacement for MS3. MS4 had the same tone as B6 and both were replaced by B30 which was more like B6 than MS4, so if the dates are correct then she may have looked more like this: The earliest photo I'm currently aware of showing HMS Middleton in this scheme is 4th August 1943, a few months after the promulgation of the new paints, however, sometimes the dates on the developed prints are known (again thanks to Richard) to be up to a couple of months after the date they were actually taken, and may be explained by who they were taken for and what purpose (e.g. for recognition purposes with our allies) and the time it may take for the recipient to get the films and annotate them. The annotated dates may refer to the date they were received rather than the dates taken, basically. I think there's still a reasonably good chance that those photographs claiming to show HMS Middleton at the beginning of August 1943 may depict the ship exactly as per CAFO 2146/42 in the last of the MS & B paints which were superseded that spring. Finally, a word of caution about the Imperial War Museum's photo library, and in particular their captions. Often the captions are wrong, and dates in particular are quite untrustworthy. Here is a great example. Someone has typed in 12 October 1943, whilst the photographs themselves have had 4.8.43 handwritten onto the film. It's quite unlikely someone back-dated the films on as a practical joke during the war, so it stands as a warning to at least question the captions rather than swallow them hook, line and sinker!

The Build log is here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235070426-1350-hms-kent-county-class-cruiser-1941/ Thanks are due to Richard Dennis @dickrd and Jamie Duff @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies for their considerable input into the Colour scheme, which differs substantially from previous interpretations. I've made extensive use of 3 D printed items from https://micromaster.co.nz/ which IMHO have set new standards in small scale detailed realism HMS Berwick, a sister vessel to HMS Kent along soon Thanks for looking Rob

This was a fun little painting project as a diversion from Cruiser modelling. The quality of the 3D printed models are just excellent and it was a chance to try out some North Star figures. Paints are Sovereign Colourcoats and Vallejo. The funnel stays were a trial and that was the thinnest stretched sprue I could manage. The B6 (light blue) boat has no rudder as this will be planted in the Berwick dio Thanks for looking Rob

Build log here..... Those of you who followed, know that HMS Berwick arrived as a slight after thought Thanks for looking Rob

I ordered these replacement Turrets from Micro Master on the Shapeways website last week , which arrived today ( he is based on Shapeways ) for the Trumpeter 1:350 scale HMS Hood. The existing Kit Trumpeter turrets to their 1:350 scale Hood are a dog's breakfast. With all the effort that the company put into the kit, it is amazing that they could so botch the turrets. The crowns are wrong. The front face is missing vision ports. There are missing details at the lower juncture of side plates and above all rear Turret vents for B and X Turrets . ( the 2 inner turrets ) These replacements add the correct Hex Nuts, Rivets, Periscopes, Stanchion Holders, Sighting Ports and Hatches This is the final parts I really need to get HMS Hood built ( in the future ) the reason for the delay , was the sheer upheaval and stress of a divorce early this year - which I have finally recovered from it , although the financial ' hit ' still stings . The 4 Turrets and Turret adapters were not cheap ( about 91 Euros including Shipping ) but I ordered the very best quality in printing - smoothest fine detail plastic ( you only get what you pay for ) hopefully of interest to the Forum ? kind regards 73north