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1/600 HMS GLASGOW (from the Airfix BELFAST)


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The seventh HMS GLASGOW, built on the Clyde, was a Southampton-class light cruiser, a sub-class of the Town-class and commissioned in September 1937.   During the first 8 months of WW2, she was assigned to the Home Fleet and operated predominantly in Norwegian waters.  On 29 April 1940, she evacuated King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav of Norway, Nygaardsvold's Cabinet and part of the Norwegian gold reserves when they fled from Molde to Tromsø, escaping the advancing German forces.  She then departed to the United Kingdom on 1 May. King Haakon later wrote a letter of thanks to GLASGOW's Commanding Officer, Captain Frank Pegram expressing his gratitude. 

 

When I took command of the eighth GLASGOW in July 1997, that letter was framed and hung in the Wardroom and so this model was built as a dedication to that mission in 1940 and all "GLASGOW Old Boys".  It represents her as she was just after sailing from Molde with the King embarked preparing to engage a German destroyer at the mouth of the fjord.

 

The model is based on the Airfix HMS BELFAST. One would think it is a simple conversion, one Town-class cruiser to another. But it is not.  BELFAST was a batch 3 and as such was longer, had very different superstructure arrangements, massive torpedo bulges and it would be easier to list the elements that were not scratchbuilt!  Even they were modified and detailed such as the funnels and main armament.  Key changes included:

 

Cutting and shortening the hull
Removing the torpedo bulges
Scratch building the fwd superstructure and elements of the after superstructure
Dropping Y turret down to 1 deck level (and X turret to 01)
Super detailing the bridge
Thinning all bulkheads
Opening up the secondary armament
Extensive use of WEM photo etch

 

Not overly happy with the sea - the photos I found of GLASGOW during that operation show the sea to be around Sea State 6 with lots of white horses.  I'm not sure that this really captures that.  I have no idea if the camouflage pattern on the port side is correct; the only image I could find of her early war camouflage is on p148 of the excellent Neil McCart book on Town class cruisers and that only shows the stbd side.  I've also recently found out the catapult bed is the wrong colour.  I found a fascinating RN instructional film on YouTube about how to launch a Walrus from a cruiser catapult, dating from 1942, which clearly shows the track to be greasy steel rather than painted.

 

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Splendid job. May I claim that only somebody who has attempted a Belfast conversion (i.e. me!) can really appreciate all the effort you have put in? The WEM etch isn't as easy as it should be either (it was an early offering). Particularity good masts and bridge. The scale does help with the details - 1/600 is the true divine scale, it makes a big difference.

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Thank you - which one did you do?  My next planned BELFAST conversion is likely to be BIRMINGHAM which is harder still as she was the one ship in the class that had an un-chined "destroyer" bow, so even more hull reshaping!

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I did Belfast to Edinburgh, nowhere near as simple as it sounds! Firstly they may have been sister ships, but in details differed considerably. Then Edinburgh never got the rebuild that transformed Belfast, especially midships. Plus the shortcomings of the Airfix kit - loved it as a child but time hasn't been kind to it, so I know what you had to fix and how well you have done it. When I took off the bulges the hull basically fell apart! And finally the lack of documentation of Edinburgh's wartime fits, especially as sunk.
 

I still haven't finished it after about ten years - I need to add the masthead radars. One day...

 

I've built up a huge stack of data on the differences between the two ships, I'll post that as well if I can figure out a format that will work.

Edited by TallBlondJohn
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On ‎5‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 10:56 PM, TallBlondJohn said:

I've built up a huge stack of data on the differences between the two ships, I'll post that as well if I can figure out a format that will work.

I'd look forward to that.  When this kit first came out (1976?), I embarked upon a number of conversions to other Town class vessels of which Edinburgh was supposed to have been the easiest.  Alas it never progressed beyond the stage of rebuilding the central 50% or so of the hull once the bulges had been removed.  Not to say it won't ever, if some decent data becomes available.  I dimly recall having seen a photo of Edinburgh just before she was sunk in a camouflage pattern, but I may be wrong about that.

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1 hour ago, Seahawk said:

I dimly recall having seen a photo of Edinburgh just before she was sunk in a camouflage pattern, but I may be wrong about that.

 

There are a couple of photos taken from USS Wasp that show her pattern  - the port side anyway. I don't want to hijack Chewbacca's thread so stay tuned, I hope to get her finished at last this year and put up an RFI.

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There are some nice photos of EDINBURGH in the Neil McCart book on the Town Class though few of her post her 1941 refit.  There are a couple showing her post the torpedo attack with the sloop HMS GOSSAMER alongside taking off survivors that appear to show a camouflage pattern although its very indistinct.

 

On ‎06‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 00:07, junglierating said:

Top draw no1 ...or should I say Capt'n ....appointment or substatial who knows 🤫

Appointment only sadly!  I upset too many people (especially Captain D) to go any further.

 

 

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Thanks Jeff.  I have another 3 or 4 BELFASTs in the stash to be converted to other Towns but after my return to 1/600 recently with LONDONDERRY I'm wondering if I should stick with 1/350.  It's just so tiny!  I suspect the issue is simply that I have got used to the level of detail that you can apply in 1/350 and am now trying to do the same in 1/600.  Best rgds

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7 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

I'm wondering if I should stick with 1/350. 

       Gidday again, I think I've only ever done one 1/350 scale ship that I can recall, the destroyer USS Forrest Sherman that I did back in the 70's I think. And I botched it up. I've got a few of this scale in the stash, mainly because I got them at closing-down prices, too good to decline.

       I manage 1/600 scale OK, with my level of detail anyway, it's 1/700 I find a bit fiddly although some I've done have good detail. A couple of other reasons I've stayed with Airfix 1/600 without AM stuff is consistency of scale for comparison of size between ships, cost (I'm a self-funded retired school cleaner) with the need to be a bit careful with money, and the space required to display completed models.

       I've still got a few Belfast kits in the stash too. As I said above, one to become HMS Sheffield one day and maybe a Ceylon class with three turrets. I've found the Belfast kits to be good sources of spares for build modifications.

       Regards, Jeff.

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Ping... I'm told was slang for an  AZDIC (sonar) operator as back then (early 1940s) it made a ping noise. But I'm not sure if that's filtered through family retelling etc.  although I did once hear a contemporary RN sailor also refer to them as "pings".

Edited by Flying Badger
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Ah, understood.

 

ASW helicopter aircrew are known as pingers today for that reason.  Sonar operators are known as "TAS Apes"; I've never heard anyone simply called a "ping" but it mkes sense - language changes.

 

Interestingly, I'd never even considered that cruisers would have been fitted with sonar/ASDIC and there are very few references to it but Watton (HMS BELFAST - Anatomy of a Ship) and Wingate (HMS BELFAST 1939-72) both refer to BELFAST having Type 132 ASDIC in 1939 so I guess it was also fitted to other Town class.

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15 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

Interestingly, I'd never even considered that cruisers would have been fitted with sonar/ASDIC and there are very few references to it

Gidday, I don't think I can recall references to it either, other than by Alistair Maclean in "HMS Ulysses" but I think that ship was based on HMS Royalist, a ship that he served on. The ASDIC cabinet was on the bridge. AFAIK many RN and RAN cruisers carried depth charges so it seems logical to me that they'd be able to detect submarines to drop them on. Just my thoughts.       Regards, Jeff.

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