1/350 HMS Ark Royal, 1987 - sailing back from the Shelf of Doom

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

As I sit here waiting for the final bits of glue to dry on my 1/48 Gazelle, I have decided what the next project will be. I've gradually been assembling the bits I need, and I have a 4-5 week window without too much work, so can make a decent start as the Autumn draws on.

If you follow aircraft WIPs, you might already know me from the Gazelle in the Helicopter 2 GB, and a long-running (and ongoing) 1/48 Barracuda III. But this will be my first ship since building the Airfix 1/600 Fearless about 45 years ago...

This is going to be Ark Royal (5) as she was when I served in her in the late 80s, on my first front-line tour on Sea Kings (820 NAS). Based on the Airfix Illustrious, obviously, but there are quite a few differences to be adapted / reworked / scratched. In no particular order:

- Different shape to the ramp; Ark's was built at 12 degrees right from the start, whereas the other 2 were modified, so Ark's was a different shape underneath as it faired into the hull;
- Ark had Phalanx as her CIWS throughout her life, rather than Illustrious' Goalkeeper. I have acquired some Veteran Model 1/350 Phalanxes, so that's sorted - but I need to modify the sponson on the port quarter, which is not as deep as Lusty's;
- Similarly the bow CIWS deck, and a much smaller one on the starboard side of the island;
- The port quarter of the flight deck is a different shape; my Ark didn't have the "bulge" alongside 8 spot;
- I have to reinstate the Sea Dart installation, which means completely re-working the starboard forward flight deck; no Spot 0, as in Lusty, different profile, visible fo'c's'le, capstans and other Fish-headery, DF aerial on a pole, rather than (as later in her life) up the mainmast;
- Speaking of masts, the mainmast needs major rework to reinstate UAA1 and the 992 aerial, and lose 996; the mizzen is much smaller, without the large radome she acquired in her later life;
- SCOT terminals further aft, just by the mizzen mast;
- Two 909 domes to reinstate, though at least the superstructure beneath them doesn't appear to have changed much;
- Different catwalks - the excellent WEM PE set includes the earlier catwalks, thank goodness - and Ark didn't have a stern catwalk at all at this stage;
- A Cheverton in the port midships davit (just aft of the SRBOC sponson);
- Different deck markings; I will be able to use some of Airfix's decals, but there will need to be some serious maskery later on in this build - at least the lines were all straight on the flight deck I knew, unlike these semi-circular things later on!
- A few other more minor differences to do with 20mm placement, configuration of liferafts etc

The CAG has been assembled; some extra Airfix aircraft sprues, 8 WEM Sea Harrier FRS1s, half a dozen Trumpeter Sea Kings a plus the WEM conversion kits, plus a couple of the WEM Air Group PE sets - the aim being to have 8 SHARs, 9 Sea King 5s, 3 AEWs & 2 HC 4s, which was what we carried for the trip to Australia in 1988. I know how I am going to do the HAS5s and the AEW2s; still working out how to get the HC4s right.

So lots of work to do!

I have made a start; the hangar deck is built, and I have cut off a) the stbd aft flight deck "bulge"; the forward area of the flight deck; c) the port aft CIWS sponson.

I'm working from a lot of reference photos, a couple of books, plus the excellent Jecobin plans (suitably reduced in size to make them 1/350).

More soon (including pics of the destruction); pull up a chair!

[swordfish fairey]

Sounds like you have your work cut out there mate....I had a few deployments on her around that period, including "Out back 88" (801) so if you need any more picture refs drop me a pm.........Smudge

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Aha! Old ships, and all that!

One thing you can probably answer straight away; what colour were the 801 cabs at that point? Our aircraft were still dark blue for that deployment, but the Bags had already changed to light grey, and our cabs went in for respray as we got home (and I left for my Lynx conversion). I seem to recall that the SHARs were DSG, with black checks on the rudder and the 801 trident on the fin. Am I right?

Yes, it's a challenge - but that's half the fun; besides, it's not going to be any worse than scratch-building the innards of a folded Barracuda with its engine bay open! [Famous last words]

Edited October 9, 2013 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Neal]

Ready, waiting & watching with interest

[AntPhillips]

I have an ongoing build of Illustrious, here's my initial efforts at a HC.4, I've cut the stub wing from the moulded sponson of the kit parts, still needs some details adding of course:

Good luck with your build.

Ant

[FZ6]

I have the Airfix HMS Illustrious. and want to do mine as Ark Royal but was unsure I had the skill to do the conversion and was going to do it as is but passed the point of no return last week when I cut off the rear CIWS sponson and built a new one. (although I'm not 100% happy with it yet.) I have also modified the ski ramp on mine yesterday so it's starting to look more like Ark now. Mine will be from operation Telic with an air wing of Chinooks, Sea Kings and Merlins.

I'll be watching this one with interest. As there are some changes that this thread has brought to my attention I need to make that I wasn't aware of so your build is going to be a great help.

Good luck with it.

Mark

[swordfish fairey]

Aha! Old ships, and all that!

One thing you can probably answer straight away; what colour were the 801 cabs at that point? Our aircraft were still dark blue for that deployment, but the Bags had already changed to light grey, and our cabs went in for respray as we got home (and I left for my Lynx conversion). I seem to recall that the SHARs were DSG, with black checks on the rudder and the 801 trident on the fin. Am I right?

Yes, it's a challenge - but that's half the fun; besides, it's not going to be any worse than scratch-building the innards of a folded Barracuda with it's engine bay open! [Famous last words]

DSG is about right, and the Admiralty had put a stop to the black & white checks on the tails and would only allow black ones.....

We (801) had one or two little mishaps on that trip, this was one of them....The Pilot claimed the ship had moved to Stbd as he was landing, (yeah, right!).....Notice the Roo' under the cockpit...

Perhaps you may like to have one of these onboard as well..........

Would make a change from the overall grey of our cabs.................

Smudge

PS Are you coming to the VL show??

[Forlornhope]

This is going to be interesting

[Shar2]

Cool idea, I'm looking at doing a similar conversion, but into Invincible around 1988 - 1990, when I was on board with 800sqn.

[swordfish fairey]

Cool idea, I'm looking at doing a similar conversion, but into Invincible around 1988 - 1990, when I was on board with 800sqn.

Didn't know second line squadrons went to sea...... ...........Smudge

[Shar2]

Shurrup jumper tucker.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Jets are for kids, anyway...

[Shar2]

I also spent some time on 846Sqn

[Sgeek]

When you two wafu's can put your handbags down, stop hogging the front of the scran crew and generally whining about not getting 12hrs kip a day (anything at night is of course a bonus) I may be able to help out with some phots of specific areas that the woo's rarely trod. Also being one of God's chosen branch (Bunting) I have a fair few looking down upon the rabble that scurried around on the deck hockey/volleyball pitches.

If there are specifics you may want pictures of let me know and I will see if I have any. I may just post the picture of the 992 radar that a Harrier decapitated while not being 'up-tiddly-up-up' enough during staff college sea days. How we fisheads giggled at the bits of 992 raining down on various big wigs :-)

Edit to add: time period was 88 - 91. ( yes I joined shortly after its return from Outback, but felt like I had done the trip after all the constant 'on Outback we did.........' dits)

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Cool idea, I'm looking at doing a similar conversion, but into Invincible around 1988 - 1990, when I was on board with 800sqn.

Had she had her refit by then? If not, good luck with reducing the size of the ramp to Falklands proportions; that would / will be a serious challenge!

[Shar2]

Yes she had the big ramp with the two mess decks inside, she had also had the Phalanx replaced with the Goalkeepers including the extra mounting on the new starboard side deck house. So apart from changing the foredeck and making a Seadart launcher and blast deflector, removal of the aft catwalk it's not too bad a conversion. Oh and adding the Type 909 domes, for which I've already used our 3D printer to make.

Oh no a fish'ead in our ranks, what ever next.

[foxy]

Nice going all you FAA's.

This is going to be fun, any piccies yet.

Cheers foxy

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

OK, the first pics; simply of destruction!

The port quarter CIWS sponson: 1 - from port

2 - from astern

The ramp: 1 - from port

2 - from ahead

The forward end of our Bunting-Tosser friend's hockey pitch (aka the flight deck):

Just crude sawing so far; tomorrow will be lots of sanding to get the exact shapes, plus maybe the start of some rebuilding.

More soon.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

We (801) had one or two little mishaps on that trip, this was one of them....The Pilot claimed the ship had moved to Stbd as he was landing, (yeah, right!).....Notice the Roo' under the cockpit...

Perhaps you may like to have one of these onboard as well..........

Would make a change from the overall grey of our cabs.................

Smudge

PS Are you coming to the VL show??

The Roo under the cockpit goes with the name; you can read Lt J P Millward RN. Jerry Millward was one of several Aussies who transferred to the RN from the RAN when they killed their fixed wing in the early-80s. Top bloke, actually; in fact all the Aussies were - they tended to be a lot less up themselves than some RN Stovies. Dale O'Meara was another - he banged out of a SHAR of the Western Isles the previous year and was picked up by one of our cabs; there's a photo of him climbing out of the back of a Sea King in the "HMS Ark Royal - Zeal Does Not Rest 1981 - 2011" book.

The 817 Sea King must have come on board between Brisbane and Sydney, cos I missed it; I managed to wangle some station leave as the ship sailed between the two (oh, it was rough, I can tell you!). Love the scheme (dig that funky striped rotor head!), but it might be a bit of a challenge at 1/350!

We had the odd mishap, too; I ditched a cab off Gib on the way out (engine ran away down in the hover - luckily by day - so we went splosh before realising that the engine itself was OK, just the fuel computer shagged, so over-rode it and took off again: I have the Green Endorsement to prove it!). I do recall FONA sending the ship a signal as we got home, though, saying that we were the first RN Carrier EVER to deploy East of Suez for 6 months without losing a single person. Pretty sobering thought, actually.

Re VL - probably, but not definite yet. Certainly going to Telford on the Sat, plus to Yeovilton for the Reserve Collection opening on 24/10 to research some more of the innards of my Barracuda.

Edited October 7, 2013 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Destruction of the port bow now pretty much complete:

Viewed from port

Viewed from ahead

Now to start building the jigs to get the replacement profile right.

But probably not before I have drilled out the plenum chamber grilles to fit the WEM PE replacements. I think to rebuild is likely to be best done when the hull is at least partially built - not least because I not entirely escaped the hull distortion for which this kit appears to be infamous. Mine is a lot better than many, it seems - and my flight deck and hangar deck were both beautifully flat - but the hull is only really going to be a stable entity against which to judge angles when it's put together.

So plenum chambers and a few other things before this starts to be re-built.

Big thanks to Shar2, who has contacted me and offered me a pair of 909 domes, thus addressing one of the areas that's been nagging away at me. Every time I come up against problem on this board, someone almost immediately helps me out; it's kind of humbling (though I know that's why we do this stuff!).

More later.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

More progress.

Plenum chamber grilles drilled out and a backing sheet added:

And then the port side of the hull (God, I almost wrote fuselage then!) glued to the hangar deck:

Though I intend to model her with both the lifts up, it's a blooming good thing Airfix provided the full hangar; it gives a lot of stability to the structure (and without it, I'd have had to build something like it to be able to rectify the hull warping).

Once this has cured, starboard side will go on - then some painting of the various deck cut-outs that will be much more inaccessible once the flight deck is on.

[i've just realised that in the second picture, in the background, second photo up) you can see me looking about 10, taken at a squadron dinner during the 1988 Australia trip - I think it was in Singapore. I am talking earnestly (if somewhat drunkenly) to my Observer at the time. He's a bleedin' Rear Admiral now...

Note also Gazelle with skids curing to try to make them strong enough to bear the weight; my third attempt!]

Edited October 8, 2013 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Dancona]

This is looking very good, you are a very brave man, by the way, if thats your Observer on the right, he looks

vaguely familiar.........

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

As does your surname! Small world. I saw your Pa only yesterday - though I haven't seen the Observer in question for a lot too long. And if I look ten in the picture, he must be about half that. "Skin and essence" (as they used to say in the Navy)...

[Kitshack Models]

I would like to advise that our latest model in the Kitshack traditional model boat kit range is a 1/144 scale R09 post war HMS Ark Royal. It is primarily made for the plastic kit makers who would like to fit out a genuine R/C or static model with commercially available 1/144 aeroplanes and helicopters, etc.

It is 2000mm in length with a beam of 236mm and a draught of 230mm. It is obviously not for the faint hearted, but is provided in kit form using 6mm, 4mm and 1.5mm precut birch plywood sections. Obviously it needs some wood working ability, as some parts do need fettling with trimsaw, plane and sandpaper.

It has been designed to be made in two sections which are bolted together at the waterside, so that transport is not too difficult. The kit does not have any driving parts, shafts, R/C equipment, paints, glues, etc. as that is down to the modellers preferences. (These can be provided at extra cost).

This kit is available for delivery before christmas and is at an excellent price.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Get thee behind me, Satan! SWMBO is just about buying into an Ark model which is a couple of feet long... 2 metres is a question I am not even going to ask! But I wish you the best of luck with it!

The hull is together. Warping not TOO horrible, though I had to use several feet of tape, a number of clamps and a lot of brute force to get it that way! Having had it recommended by a friend, I am using Slaters Mek-Pak liquid poly cement for the plastic bits of this build, for the first time, and I have to say so far it is the business; easy to apply with a brush, flows / capillaries (if that's a word!) well, and really grips, and quickly - and it the last point which is key with this beast.

The acid test is whether the flight deck fits, and after some dry testing it looks OK (though it too is going to need yards of tape and a lot of patience, especially to remove the final bends from the starboard side. The stern / transom fits perfectly, though, and the hull sits pretty happily on the underwater section (which I am not planning to use), so the general shape is not too far off now.

Starboard warping visible in this shot (the sides definitely shouldn't bend outwards just by the forward-most hull cut-out!). Note also the beginnings of a (dry-fitted) fo'c'sle deck, gradually being fettled into shape before detailing.