1/350 HMS Imperial D09

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Last year at Scale Model World at Telford I took one of Peter Hall's H-class destroyers off his hands for a project:

 

 

The kit is Atlantic Models ATK35058 HMS Hesperus, a Brazilian H with the later design of bridge.

 

Due to a family connection, I wish to build the I-class destroyer HMS Imperial, pennant number D09, which was built by Hawthorn Leslies in Tyneside in 1936. The I class was a continuation of the Brazilian H making Peter's kit a very good starting point, however there are some differences to be addressed. The easiest problem is that the I-class had 4 of the 4.7in QF Mk.IX single mounts. The Hesperus kit provides 3, lacking Y-turret. Peter kindly supplied my kit with a fourth mount knowing my plans for this kit.

Next up, the H-class funnels were unequal height but both had oval cross sections. On the I-class, the aft funnel was taller, approximately equal in height to the forward funnel. The forward funnel was circular in cross section. Armed with a set of plans (again, thank you Peter!) I set about extending the aft funnel and replacing the forward funnel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the aft funnel from the H-class in situ:

 

 

I cut out a piece of modelling board the correct thickness to insert into the funnel, then chopped the aft funnel in two. Unfortunately the steam pipes had to go to enable shaping of the insert. The modelling board was glue in between the two resin parts:

 

 

 

The fit of the upper and lower parts of the hull is excellent. I will go as far as to say that Peter's resin kit fits together far better than any injection moulded ship kit from Trumpeter that I have assembled.

 

 

I have purchased some photographs of HMS Imperial for reference. Whilst well photographed before the war, I know of only a single image taken during the war.

 

I have ordered (for £21) a high resolution copy of this image from the Australian War Memorial:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/133585/

 

I hope that in high resolution it can offer some clue as to how HMS Imperial was painted in the Mediterranean in 1941. If not, then she shall be painted in 507C in pre-war guise. There is a good reel of footage on Roland Smith's Royal Navy in Colour DVD taken from HMS Ivanhoe which appears to show some of the 3rd Flotilla in all-over Mediterranean Grey (507C) whilst others look to have Home Fleet Grey hulls with Mediterranean Grey upperworks. I cannot make out HMS Imperial's pennant anywhere on the footage, but all of the destroyers in the footage clearly show the 3 bands on the aft funnel to be in red. The neutrality stripes on B-turret are in the usual red, white and blue.

 

I have started work on the deck painting. Those who have been steering me on paint research have also been helping me more recently with deck coatings. What a minefield! The I-class were trialled with 3 comparable latex-based trowel-on deck coatings from 3 different manufacturers. Semtex Ltd was one supplier. The trouble is, that the three products were different colours, one described as "the colour of dry asphalt", one green and one brown. There may have been 9" high bands of contrasting colour around the base of superstructure items the troweled on stuff butted up against. So far, I cannot determine which manufacturer's product was which colour, nor even which groups of 3 I-class ships received the products from each of the 3 suppliers. Whilst I am keen on getting things right, I am also pragmatic and in the interests of actually building this model rather than pontificating until I depart this world, I had to make a decision. There is reasonable evidence to support the bridge and platforms being linoleum covered, which gives us some brown colour, so I chose a grey that looks like the roads around the North East of Scotland, on the rare occasions when they are dry. I have sprayed the main kit parts accordingly.

 

 

At this point, I realised that the little platform at the back is surplus to requirements, as Imperial carried two pentad 21in torpedo tube mounts. The H-class kit provides a single quintuple torpedo tube mount. I could scratchbuild them, but am exploring alternatives presently.

[Courageous]

Looks like HMS Imperial isn't the only project in your head Jamie.

She is looking very nice so far .

 

Stuart

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

My ideas for projects normally outstrip my available time resources

 

This turned up on Monday:

 

...to be built as HMS Saumarez as a sort of paint-mule for the forthcoming new camouflage colours.

 

Then, I need Peter's HMS Montgomery kit to lop off the two forward funnels to make the converted Long Range Destroyer Escort Town Class HMS Stanley - the other ship the aforementioned family connection was on. According to family lore, he was in the water for 17 hours that time. The sinking of HMS Stanley is described in detail from an aerial vantage point in Eric Brown's book "Wings on My Sleeve". I recall reading the book thinking "I know which ship you're talking about" before he named it.

 

HMS Stanley was torpedoed in the engine room by a U-Boat in the Atlantic off Portugal. The U-Boat was then rammed by the sloop HMS Stork and sunk.

[beefy66]

Looking forward to following your build Jamie looks very interesting 

 

beefy 

[salmo G]

Hi Jamie

 

Was nice to put a face to a name last week in Perth, looking good so far and will be watching this with interest!

 

Gary

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

10 hours ago, beefy66 said:

Looking forward to following your build Jamie looks very interesting 

 

beefy 

 

Hi Keith, thanks for looking in  Good to see you at the weekend again!

10 hours ago, salmo G said:

Hi Jamie

 

Was nice to put a face to a name last week in Perth, looking good so far and will be watching this with interest!

 

Gary

Hi Gary, I am likewise pleased to have put a face to your username

 

Having spoken with Peter Hall, I have now acquired the necessary pentad 21in torpedo tubes so in a few days we'll be cooking on gas. I can begin the detailing at this point I think, whilst awaiting my photograph to arrive from the AWM which will probably prove entirely inconclusive as far as camouflage is concerned!

[Courageous]

48 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

AWM which will probably prove entirely inconclusive as far as camouflage is concerned!

I took a look at this image...I could make out two ships 🔭. Let's hope your print will be of more help.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I made a modest start on the PE stuff

[beefy66]

Modest but very effective Jamie clean PE and makes a big difference to the look of the ship just know this will be good to watch  

 

beefy

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

This weekend was much too nice to stay indoors peering at tweezers, so I didn't. Instead it was invested in cutting and rolling some grass (there's a lot of it), vacuum cleaning the cars and cleaning the glass inside (there's little point cleaning the outsides though!), buying some soil and new plant pots (huge ones on clearance sale at B&Q for 50p each :D)  to replant some Jasmine, a new cherry tree and the girls' sunflowers, repaired a small puncture on a Lay-Z-Spa (best thing wot we ever bought) and did some maintenance, built a new picnic table, sat on our garden swing for a while and had lunch outside, drank a couple of pints of Belhaven Best and found my eldest daughter up a tree somewhat higher than I would like if I'm honest!

 

I did however do one task related to the model which perhaps isn't so visual as many, but was a worthwhile investment. The photo etched brass fret that comes with the kit contains the parts suitable for G, H or I class destroyers and indeed is the same fret used for all of Peter's kits of these classes. If you're the sort of individual who just seems to end up whining and moaning about everything, this may seem like a bad thing. For the rest of us though, this is excellent because everything we might need is right there. This includes the correct funnel cap for my new round section funnel (my reaction below)

 

It also includes the braces for the tripod mainmast that my I class has which Hesperus did not (it had a pole mast). A very nice touch is that the fret contains a pair of name plates for every ship in the G, H and I class. Roland Smith's DVD (the colour one) shows the name plates attached either side of the bulkheads below X-turret, so it's nice to have those which say IMPERIAL for this purpose.

 

Yesterday's task was to sit comparing my photographs, the I class plans, the kit instructions and the PE fret working out which parts I needed and which were surplus to my specific requirements, and marking up accordingly. I now (think) I know what I need and what I don't, which should simplify the rest. During this, I noticed that one of the photographs I acquired (above) and indeed the only one which clearly shows a breakwater fitted in front of A turret also shows no main armament nor the range finder fitted. I don't have a date for the photo, but I assume this was taken towards the end of construction. She looks fairly complete otherwise.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Love what you’re doing here, Jamie

[robgizlu]

1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Love what you’re doing here, Jamie

Me too - enjoying this and looking forwards to the paint job

Rob

[mdesaxe]

Am I the only one seeing a video of the Canadian corvette Arrowhead instead of a photograph of Imperial?

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The video is quite simply a "whoop whoop" sound recording of the steam sirens fitted to many small ship types, including the model subject destroyer

 

I haven't really dived into this fully yet because I'm waiting for the AWM photograph to either provide wonderful insight into how Imperial was painted in the Med, or convince me that that knowledge is lost to time and that I need to content myself with Imperial in her pre-war paint.

However, this has arrived yesterday. I don't think I'm lacking any pieces now.

[Courageous]

3 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

I haven't really dived into this fully yet because I'm waiting for the AWM photograph to either provide wonderful insight into how Imperial was painted in the Med, or convince me that that knowledge is lost to time and that I need to content myself with Imperial in her pre-war paint.

...or you can find an image of her sister ships...just saying.

 

Stuart

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

26 minutes ago, Courageous said:

...or you can find an image of her sister ships...just saying.

 

Stuart

 

That's a good idea - or at least, I had the same one and I is smart so let's go with "great minds think alike" in favour of "fools seldom differ"

 

It turns out though that HMS Imperial and (I think - my M.J. Whitley book is at home) Ilex were detached from the rest of the Flotilla and stooged around for a while on other duties - indeed a number if I-class were converted for mine laying duties (again - from memory). They were reassigned to the Mediterranean in the latter half of 1940. There's probably a reasonable chance that Imperial at least arrived back with her sisters in 1940 wearing a different type of scheme having been with the Home Fleet. What she may have worn after the damage from striking a mine was patched up I have no idea, but she may then have looked like her sisters as she was always meant to go back to the Mediterranean. Whilst I can find plenty photos of our cruisers and especially HMS Orion from the Crete evacuation, I can't recall seeing any which clearly show destroyers.

 

Indeed the closest I have got is HMS Defender, D class destroyer which was with HMS Imperial when sunk in July 1941 10 miles north of the Egyptian coast:

https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4369.html

 

Quote

10 Jun 1940
On 10 June 1940, the following destroyers; HMS Hyperion (Cdr. H.St.L. Nicolson, RN), HMS Havock (Lt.Cdr. R.E. Courage, DSO, RN), HMS Hero (Cdr. H.W. Biggs, RN), HMS Hostile (Cdr. J.P. Wright, DSO, RN), HMS Imperial (Lt.Cdr. C.A.deW. Kitcat, RN), HMS Decoy (Cdr. E.G. McGregor, RN), HMS Defender (Lt.Cdr. St.J.R.J. Tyrwhitt, RN) and HMS Waterhen (Lt.Cdr. J.H. Swain, RN) departed Alexandria for an A/S sweep to the west of Alexandria as far as 25°40'E as it is feared Italian submarines were en-route to their war stations although was was not declared by the Italians until 0001/11 but it was clear war would be decared soon. Around 2230 hours, HMS Decoy, sighted a submarine on the surface. She attacked made three attacks with depth charges and at dawn a two mile long oil slick was seen. The destroyers returned to Alexandria the following day. (6)

 

 

And a close up / different perspective of the above here:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C45093

 

This one shows most of the back end of Defender sinking:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C272549

 

And the front end:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C45092

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C45094

 

And starboard side:

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C45091

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C39407

 

 

 

There's also HMS Ilex almost a year later - too much difference in time to tell me anything really about Imperial's likely colour scheme

https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4413.html

 

 

[Courageous]

All you can do is best effort with the data available...who's going to tell you that it's wrong anyway.

[grahamwalker]

seen these     https://uboat.net/allies/warships/class/17.html

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

3 hours ago, Courageous said:

All you can do is best effort with the data available...who's going to tell you that it's wrong anyway.

 

Very true. The prospect of others telling me I'm wrong bothers me not, but I want to have confidence myself if you see where I'm coming from. Ideally I'd build it in 1941 guise with solid back-up, but I'd prefer to build it in pre-war guise with total confidence that it was right than guess at wartime guise  I'm only likely to build it once so I want to hit the mark

 

3 hours ago, grahamwalker said:

seen these     https://uboat.net/allies/warships/class/17.html

 

I have, thank you. The usual challenge is pinning down exactly when and where the more interesting photographs were taken in order to judge whether Imperial had been with the relevant sister for some time hitherto. In isolation and out of context there's too much risk of putting 2 and 2 together and ending up with 5!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Today I popped out to our nearest model shop to pick up some detail parts. After the 30 second walk we entered and I left with some accessories to dress up the model some more.

 

I picked up these Infini Model 1/350 Watertight Doors (Royal Navy) which admittedly look like a real faff, but I've learned that they are infact very simple to assemble and I personally prefer to leave the door frame attached to the fret whilst I insert the door and fold over the latch things. There are 6 types of door, each in open (with relief detail on the inside) or closed positioning. It also includes some portholes and scuttles in two sizes.

 

I also swiped another Tetra Model Works /350 Vickers .50in Quad Machine Gun set. I used these and was very satisfied with them on my HMS Hood, and they're still the best .50 Vickers guns available in 1/350 so not to use them again on Imperial would seem a backwards step.

 

 

I added a few more bits of detailing today, but without really getting too involved and burning out as I am prone to. The ship now has a name!

 

 

 

The I-class had two Vickers 0.5in Quad machine gun mounts located on this platform between the funnels:

 

 

And here's the back end with both of the pentad 21in torpedo tube mounts sat in place:

 

 

[jasper s]

Hey Jamie,

Thanks for your post - it's prompted me to start work on my own version of HMS Icarus which has been on a to do list for about 20 years

RE camo - the best I have is 

British and Commonwealth Warship Camouflage of WWII: Destroyers, Frigates ...

here for Icarus. No mention of Imperial sadly but might help

Edited May 13, 2018 by jasper s
Link change

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Jasper,

 

Good luck with Icarus

 

I personally don't rate Malcolm Wright's work highly at all and neither do my RN paints co-researchers - indeed his books are riddled with fundamental errors of a variety of flavours which are easily disproven by primary source references which reduces my confidence in anything else he says. Having said that, there is footage on Roland Smith's DVDs of the I-classes pre-war and some of them are indeed wearing two-tone Home Fleet Grey hull with Mediterranean Grey upperworks. I'd double check on Wright's timing for 1942 by finding a photograph even in B&W if I were in your position...

 

This morning I got a few more bits done. This started with cleaning up some of the white metal parts. No photos to show, but then again my value-added is not much to look at. I then added the remaining watertight doors and got a ladder and the handrailings around the searchlight platform fitted. A couple of portholes on the "Brazilian H" bridge that aren't shown on my photographs of Imperial were filled too.

 

 

 

 

I'm thinking I could really do with starting the paintwork about now, but I have been trying to hold off as long as possible. I shall need to commit to that very soon though.

[jasper s]

Ah - thanks for the heads up RE: Wright's work. I can confirm that that "1944" camo pattern was present interwar - 

But I'll proceed with caution!

In this image she still has all her guns...

 

Looking beautiful so far

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Ahh good. Do you happen to know the date of that photograph?

 

Tell me more about your plans - are you basing yours on a kit, or something different. It's a class very rarely modelled as far as I can tell!

[jasper s]

I've got hold the Atlantic model too as like you said - there has never been a lot of choice - especially if you want more detailed than 1:700.

Here is a shot dated October 1942 with that camo - https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205167511