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HMS Somerset F82


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Having got my build of HMS Phoebe out of the way, it is time to move on to my third and favourite ship; HMS Somerset on which I served from December 1994 to May 1998. Somerset is the 11th Type 23 Frigate (although her yard number was T23-12). I joined the ship whist she was in build in Glasgow and had the privilege of being part of the team that brought the ship to life. I am intending to model Somerset as she was in the period 1997 to 1998 and the starting point is the Trumpeter 1:350 HMS Kent kit and White Ensign (now Atlantic Models) Etched brass.

I am hoping that unlike my model of HMS Phoebe that this will be a more straight forward kit build, although there are subtleties in the ships of the class which will no doubt require some attention. I will point these out during the build but I know there will be very little need for scratch building.

I need to say at the outset this is my first build at 1:350 scale and I am hoping the larger scale will be “easier” than my previous attempt at 1:600.

First steps, building the hull; I had previously started the model with the intention of having a full hulled model and then I abandoned it. But having successfully built Phoebe in the intervening period I have changed my mind and I have decided to convert the model to waterline as I think ship models look best when they are portrayed in their element. Unfortunately this necessitated a serious hack, once the waterline had been established.

Before hack:

16356085004_6266ddcefc_o.jpg

After hack:

16771082287_a83f61276c_o.jpg

and cleaned up:

16792253199_7d31cc979c_o.jpg

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From someone who has built mostly 1/700;doing HMS ILLUSTRIOUS in 1/350 has been a pleasure, looking forward to your build

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Thanks for the encouragement guys. I just hope I live up to expectation. :unsure:

To answer some specific questions.

Brokenedge, there are some mods that need to be done for the time frame but the sprue helpfully provides some of the answers, I will highlight these as I go along.

Darby, Somerset didn't get her tail in build, just a great big empty compartment that was the winch well which became an illicit canoodling parlour and an SDR, that quickly became a briefing room. I believe she eventually got the new towed sonar in her refit.

Beefy, I don't know what the Montrose or Monmouth versions of this kit are like but the Kent kit is only suitable for the later T23s from Somerset onwards. Which brings me to Andrew; the WEM kit is based on the T23s prior to Somerset and will need a bit of butchery to make Portland. All will become clear during this build.

I'll try and post an update soon.

Paul.

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Glad to see you are up and away straight after your Pheobe build. Will be following this closely. I've got the same kit but can't find a decent grey for it, I want to spray it in acrylic but in Canada I can only get Tamiya, Testors, Badger and Vellajo. I don't like Tamiya or Vellajo as they require mixing and i'm a lazy git. I just like to shake and go! Looking forward to seeing this one progress.

Cheers now

Bob

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It didn’t take me very long to find something that needed enhancement. The quarterdeck is devoid of detailing. To be fair the quarterdeck is enclosed and the lack of detail wouldn't be a big deal. However as I am building HMS Somerset in her early guise I cannot get away without providing some detail.

As I mentioned in a response to Darby, Somerset unlike all the ships that preceded her was not fitted with a Towed Array at build. As such the Towed Array fairlead that is moulded on to the quarter deck needed to be removed and the letterbox moulding on the aft screen needs to be filed flat.

Enhancements included the addition of a missing watertight door on the Port side which offered access to the Diving Store, scratch building the Sonar 182 winch, the towed bodies and launching net. Also manufactured are the bollards that locate on the centre line and a hatch which is not shown in the photographs which descends to the aft rope store.

16881699229_599fa8b357_o.jpg

16445474774_57daf18dfb_o.jpg

16447777693_b81f55065b_o.jpg

The other enhancement which is not currently show but will be applied when the flightdeck is fitted is the ladder that leads up to the flightdeck hatch.

Edited by Paul E
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It didn’t take me very long to find something that needed enhancement. The quarterdeck is devoid of detailing. To be fair the quarterdeck is enclosed and the lack of detail wouldn't be a big deal. However as I am building HMS Somerset in her early guise I cannot get away without providing some detail.

As I mentioned in a response to Darby, Somerset unlike all the ships that preceded her was not fitted with a Towed Array at build. As such the Towed Array fairlead that is moulded on to the quarter deck needed to be removed and the letterbox moulding on the aft screen needs to be filed flat.

Enhancements included the addition of a missing watertight door on the Port side which offered access to the Diving Store, scratch building the Sonar 182 winch, the towed bodies and launching net. Also manufactured are the bollards that locate on the centre line and a hatch which is not shown in the photographs which descends to the aft rope store.

16881699229_599fa8b357_o.jpg

16445474774_57daf18dfb_o.jpg

16447777693_b81f55065b_o.jpg

The other enhancement which is not currently show but will be applied when the flightdeck is fitted is the ladder that leads up to the flightdeck hatch.

I remember a log day in Fujairah in when we had to replace a section of tail by hand from a barge. All carefully wound on to sit level. Slow work.

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Darby,

Me thinks when you refer to the tail you are talking about Sonar 2087 with its monstorous towed body which hadn't entered sevice when I left the mob. Being old school I think of Sonar 2031 as the tail and I have fond memories of replacing modules from my days on Phoebe and being the Towed Array maintainer on Sheffield. Unfortunately it was never anywhere exotic like Fujairah.

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Darby,

Me thinks when you refer to the tail you are talking about Sonar 2087 with its monstorous towed body which hadn't entered sevice when I left the mob. Being old school I think of Sonar 2031 as the tail and I have fond memories of replacing modules from my days on Phoebe and being the Towed Array maintainer on Sheffield. Unfortunately it was never anywhere exotic like Fujairah.

I remember 2031 as well. 2087 was a new thing to me. When I started going back on '23's in '11 I thought they still had 2031. How wrong I was

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I am not documenting the progress this build as quickly as I had first anticipated, not on the account of any difficulty with the model but rather to do with pressures of designing a real ship. :yikes:

Anyway I have now completed the quarterdeck with the hatch, ladder and railings and the Flightdeck is now in place.

16957742388_493ca4d164_o.jpg

16957986530_4616da982d_o.jpg

Having got the quarterdeck out of the way I have decided to work on the forward superstructure. The reason for this is that this is where there are the most differences between the earlier and later ships in the class. So playing spot the difference:

Here is the forward superstructure of the first batch of ships in the class from Norfolk to Richmond.

16525351893_a044a4dbdf_o.jpg

And here is the forward superstructure of the second batch of ships from Somerset to St Albans.

17145521645_192fd65a16_o.jpg

As can be clearly seen the second batch of ships have an extended deck aft the bridge which is supported by struts from underneath. Also there are no visible lockers, as the magazines were incorporated into the superstructure.

Somerset is the first of the second batch of Type 23s which is why I chose the Trumpeter Kent kit. When I build HMS Argyll (my last ship) I will start with the Trumpeter Montrose kit to avoid the need of excessive hacking.

Anyway here is the superstructure build underway.

16938118147_24c41bb516_o.jpg

With supporting struts added.

16938117927_844896069f_o.jpg

17144880761_cfb720f2c9_o.jpg

Finally I wish to add credit to AndewA for the exellent Type 23 pictures he posted in the Maritime discussion area. :thanks:

Edited by Paul E
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Thought they looked familiar!

thanks for the detail on the Bridge wing extensions - I'd never noticed that. I took a set of photos of the devonport based 23s a couple of summers ago - I'll see what I got of Somerset.

A

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Thanks for the comments guys.

Here is a quick update. I have located a photograph of HMS Somerset as she was in 1998. I remember this photograph being taken, we were taking part in exercise Co-op Jaguar. We had a great day chasing Fast Patrol Boats around the Baltic. I have some great phots of the boats we were operating with, unfortuantely I need to spend some time scanning them into my computer.

16536239583_94af6ecde5_o.jpg

Anyway I have used this photo to make a change to the forward decoy sponsons. The decoys on the Kent kit are DLF2 which all Type 23s now have (although the kit is defficient in that there are two launchers each side). Prior to that Type 23s carried DLF1 which looked a bit like the liferafts. This system was not carried all the time and was only fitted for deployments. I have yet to decide whether to add them to my model of Somerset but I have alter the sponson anyway which was nice and easy as the framing under the sponson gives a guide to the cut lines.

16968827750_a85cb7cd05_o.jpg

Not a very exciting update I'm afraid. :hmmm:

Edited by Paul E
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Are you going to do a Ship's screen? That little white thing just aft of the bridge door. Looks like a miniature beehive and has the wet and dry bulbs in it? It would be quite small but an accurate addition

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