HMS Dido (Ikara Leander) 1979 - [WAFU’s away match]

[Bugle07]

So much detail ! Excellent stuff! 

 

Geoff

[Silenoz]

Seem to have overlooked this one, but some nice work here. 

[Martian]

Looking good Crisp. Clearly your time at St Trinians is being used constructively.

 

Martian 👽

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Only a single photograph this evening, but it represents a full 2 hours of work - this time on the funnel.  The ladder on the front face was simple enough - more left over Ark ladder stock (you can tell because it’s the only thing that’s painted).  The starboard yard is only temporarily fitted to help me get the horizontal rail aligned properly - it’s.tacked in place with white glue.

 

 

So far, so good.  The thing that has taken the time is the horizontal rail (& I assure you it IS horizontal, though it doesn’t look it from this angle).  Dido’s funnel actually had two of these, and they’re important to how she looks - once painted, you’ll notice the difference even from a distance.  The upper one will be copper wire, slightly higher than the yard - that forms the base of the funnel cap, and is the structure the funnel covers attach to in harbour (so the sh*te-hawks don’t explore the boiler uptakes while shut down). [Edit:  If you go back a page to post #31, you can see these rails in the photo of Leander’s funnel and foremast]

 

The lower ring, added today, was a foot rail used while fitting the funnel cover (ask me how I know!) or working on the rigging.  This is yet more ex-Ark PE - it represents a similar rail round the top of the CVS funnel.  But of course Ark’s funnels are a totally different shape and size to a Leander, so I spent ages getting the profile right by rolling it around a brush handle.  It’s very thin, and thus both flexible and fragile, and I was trying my best to make it symmetrical.  In the end the best way to achieve it proved to be to cut it into two sections; the join is just about visible at the front of the yard. 

 

Anyway, I am really pleased with how this is going. Adding detail like this requires a lot of concentration, so a couple of hours at a time is plenty.

 

[You may be wondering why I have so much excess PE from the Ark build. If you have a really good memory, you may recall that I bought a second Airfix Lusty kit for a very low price from a mate whose teenage son had given up on it; much of the hull was damaged beyond use, but that didn’t matter to me because I didn’t need two hulls - but extra Shars, deck equipment and above all PE were well worth snapping up.  I already had the WEM set, and my second hand acquisition included Eduard’s.  There’s a lot of duplication between WEM & Eduard, and it’s the duplicates that are helping me to add more detail to Dido] 

Edited September 20, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Terry1954]

Catching up here after a while away, just got on the plane to return from Canada. Proper catch up at other end!

 

Great work here, really impressed.

 

Terry

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Back to work this evening (keeping in mind that this build is a mirror image of my usual stuff; I can only work on it during the week when I’m in London).

 

First, gradually adding the upper funnel rail - slow Gator’s Grip & tape, gradually fixing it so as to keep it parallel with the lower one; 0.2mm copper wire.  Still not finished, but coming on nicely.

 

 

Further forward, adding doors (From the WEM RN doors & hatches set) and an additional locker - the latter will have open vent hatches added once everything has cured:

 

You can also see in the background that I’ve added the RAS platform on the other side of the Ikara handling room; here seen from port:

 

[Note to self: close that outboard guardrail]

 

Finally for today, a couple more doors on the starboard waist & bridge wing - in the latter case I’m going to have the OOW just coming out onto the bridge wing to take a fix - the bridge door was always open at sea unless the weather was awful, and there was an inner wooden door to keep the aircon boundary, which makes it relatively easy to portray

 

Need to get rid of all that dust and swarf before any paint goes near her!  It’s everywhere, and these close-ups are unforgiving.

 

More on Wed 

 

Crisp

Edited September 24, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Martian]

There is some seriously good etch work going on here, well done that Earthling! 

 

Martian 👽

[Terry1954]

19 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Further forward, adding doors (From the WEM RN doors & hatches set) and an additional locker - the latter will have open vent hatches added once everything has cured:

Have caught up on this properly now and am seriously enjoying the attention to detail and admiring your dexterity! I like the open bridge door, nice touch, and the funnel rails look superb.

 

One small question relates to that little hook like thing on the top of the Ikara handling room - I'm curious to know what it is?

 

Thanks

 

Terry

 

 

 

 

[longshanks]

Great attention to detail, love the personal touches

 

Kev

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

17 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

One small question relates to that little hook like thing on the top of the Ikara handling room - I'm curious to know what it is?

It’s a davit, lying flat in a stowed position.  It being PE it’s flat when it should be round, but there is another stowed mast - a rather larger RAS stump mast - yet to build which will largely obscure it by lying across it, so I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to make one out of brass rod

[Terry1954]

12 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

It’s a davit, lying flat in a stowed position.  It being PE it’s flat when it should be round, but there is another stowed mast - a rather larger RAS stump mast - yet to build which will largely obscure it by lying across it, so I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to make one out of brass rod

Thanks for that. A davit, of course, it seems obvious now I look at it, and I hadn't ever gone through the rationale of where one might be stowed if needed. A bit large to take indoors! But presumably that is a smaller davit, unlike the ones either side of the funnel?

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

5 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Thanks for that. A davit, of course, it seems obvious now I look at it, and I hadn't ever gone through the rationale of where one might be stowed if needed. A bit large to take indoors! But presumably that is a smaller davit, unlike the ones either side of the funnel?

To be honest I’m not sure exactly what it was for, but my guess is something to do with RAS, because as far as I know that was all that took place on the roof of the Ikara handling room - the things immediately in front of the bridge were winches and lockers for RAS gear etc.  Bear in mind what was replaced when the ships were converted.  Obviously the 4.5” turret, but also the two large RAS rigs on the fo’c’sle screen of a gun Leander.  

Edited September 25, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

A bit more before the weekend.  Firstly, an illustration of one the many reasons I love Gator’s Grip; if you look above you will see that I have since moved the RAS platform aft, having looked again at the plans; there’s a gap between the platform and the railing (a ladder up to it will follow), and I’d missed it... no problem, easy to remove, clean up and re-fit the platform without damage.  Phew; bullet dodged.

 

Second, a rare outbreak of styrene in this build; supports for the chaff launcher platforms (same on other side) - (note to self; fix those wobbly railings in the aerial gantry);

 

Above I said how I’d be adding open vent hatches; here they are:

 

And finally for this week, a start on the Seacat launchers and director on the hangar roof:

 

More soon

 

Crisp

[Courageous]

Love the detail Crisp, especially those 'open vents'...classy. Can you imagine doing this in 1/700 .

 

Stuart

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

5 hours ago, Courageous said:

Love the detail Crisp, especially those 'open vents'...classy. Can you imagine doing this in 1/700 .

 

Stuart

I try to avoid 1/700 for precisely that reason, Stuart - though sometimes there’s no choice.  I have the Atlantic Models Ark IV that @Chris Hewitt is doing such a lovely job with, plus a L’Arsenal 1/700 Fearless... but in general 1/350 is easily tiny enough for my middle aged eyes, Optivisor or no Optivisor.

 

Strictly, those vents are a bit over scale, but I’m really pleased with how they look; my instinct was that it’s better to have some vents there that are a bit too big, than to just leave it empty.  Peter has done a stellar job with this kit, but it’s not 100% perfect (what kit is?); that’s where the modelling comes in!  Similarly, his doors are pretty good, but inevitably PE doors are that little bit crisper.  You could still build a thoroughly convincing Leander OOB - but anyone who has followed my other builds will know, I’m not really an OOB guy!

[Terry1954]

9 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

And finally for this week, a start on the Seacat launchers and director on the hangar roof:

Love the detail on those. Do the launchers come with the missiles as well? I imagine they are diminutive if so!

 

Terry

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Yes, there are diddy Seacats - PE ones, so once built up they are cruciform (seen from directly above).  They can look pretty effective, but I suspect that I won’t use them in this model; the reality is that the weapons were almost never loaded onto the launchers, other than a) for drills to keep the crews worked up, b) for a shoot or c) drill missiles for ceremonial (e.g. entering harbour abroad).  The rest of the time the launchers were empty; for 99% of my time on board there were bare launchers, so that’s how they’ll be.  They will, however, have the rails fitted - PE again - though not until after I have painted the launchers.

 

3 years later I was a S/Lt in Fearless for the Falklands war, and it took me ages to get used to seeing the Seacat launchers (4 of them, in Fearless’ case, though an earlier visually guided version) with 4 white missiles loaded.  It just looked odd because we weren’t used to it!

 

My later ships were Type 22s, and a Seawolf launcher looks the same whether or not it is loaded.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Chris Hewitt]

On 28/09/2018 at 13:20, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I try to avoid 1/700 for precisely that reason, Stuart - though sometimes there’s no choice.  I have the Atlantic Models Ark IV that @Chris Hewitt is doing such a lovely job with, plus a L’Arsenal 1/700 Fearless... but in general 1/350 is easily tiny enough for my middle aged eyes, Optivisor or no Optivisor.

 

Strictly, those vents are a bit over scale, but I’m really pleased with how they look; my instinct was that it’s better to have some vents there that are a bit too big, than to just leave it empty.  Peter has done a stellar job with this kit, but it’s not 100% perfect (what kit is?); that’s where the modelling comes in!  Similarly, his doors are pretty good, but inevitably PE doors are that little bit crisper.  You could still build a thoroughly convincing Leander OOB - but anyone who has followed my other builds will know, I’m not really an OOB guy!

I agree,after completely a 1/350 model and going back to 1/700, it takes time to adjust. I have built an Airfix Leander in 1/600,used the kit,well ok,the hull,funnel and superstructure,that's all l used,the rest of the model is 3D parts and P.E.

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

That is completely unrecogniseable as the Airfix Leander, Chris.  If mine ends up looking half as good as that I will be very pleased.

 

Tonight, a bit more work around the blunt end.  First, the 3 winches that controlled the Type 199 variable depth sonar; you have to build them from PE & short lengths of styrene rod, then install them.  In due course they will be rigged to the Yellow Submarine itself.  All VERY 1960s!  

 

[You can also see - on the right here - the rack for stowing petrol cans.  All mariners are extremely wary of petrol (Google HMS Dasher if you want to know why), but Gemini outboard motors need it, so these racks are designed so that they can be jettisoned remotely.  First sign of fire anywhere near, and you pull a lever to toss the whole lot into the sea]

 

For anyone who doesn’t really understand what VDS is/was, or the regular references to Yellow Submarines....  

 

Sound waves behave oddly in water, literally bending with layers of salinity and temperature; it is possible to hide an entire submarine very close to a surface ship, provided you have measured the sea conditions correctly.  VDS is designed to conteract that, by allowing you to lower the sonar transducer through the layers.  It’s very sound in theory - and it does work - but it never really caught on for surface ships, because controlling it is a serious challenge, and the ship is very constrained in manoeuvre with the body streamed.  You are almost as likely to smash a few tons of sonar body into your own screws as to get it to work properly in a heavy Atlantic swell.   The RN’s main (only?) surface ship VDS was the Type 199, as fitted to all Leanders as built, and retained by the ASW specialist Ikara conversions, at least in their early lives (and still there in 1979).  The sonar body looked like a wee submarine, and it was painted yellow long before John Lennon took psychedelic drugs and wrote an annoyingly catchy song.

 

As successful helicopter sonars became a reality, VDS disappeared from surface units.  Helo sonars can also defeat the layer using the same technique, but are much more flexible and far less dangerous to operate.

 

One of the things that Peter’s kit lacks is the towed acoustic (anti-torpedo) decoy, Sonar Type 182.  These were carried by every surface ship in the fleet in this era; you towed it behind the ship when chasing submarines, and it could emit noises etc. to confuse, distract and/or seduce wake-homing or acoustic homing torpedos - which the Soviet Navy had in considerable numbers.  Type 182 has gone now, but I assume it’s been replaced by a more modern version.  If the 199 looked like a yellow submarine, 182 looked like a short, stumpy torpedo (also predominantly yellow - Edit: you can see them on Chris’ beautiful Leander above).  The stump visible on the near side of the quarterdeck above is the base of the 182 crane (for getting it in and out of the water); in due course it will gain a PE crane top.  And the white metal winch just by the port aft corner of the mortar well is the thing what controlled the tow and passed the signal to the “torpedo” (“182 body”).

 

So everything is there... except the 182 bodies themselves (usually two).  I have in my stash some lovely Master Models turned brass Type 13 USN WW2 torpedoes, so I am adapting a couple of those - mostly by reducing their length by about 50%.  Still a bit to do at the nose end (the blunt end, on rhe right as we look), but getting there.  Then I just have to cobble together a rack to stow them one on top of the other.

 

But they are not large, as you can see, and my eyes are going round in two watches, so time to stop!

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

 

Edited October 1, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Terry1954]

On 9/29/2018 at 8:57 PM, Chris Hewitt said:

I have built an Airfix Leander in 1/600,used the kit,well ok,the hull,funnel and superstructure,that's all l used,the rest of the model is 3D parts and P.E.

Chris that Airfix Leander is one of the finest examples I have seen of that kit. I made several many years ago, and none of them turned out like that. Top job!

 

1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

But they are not large, as you can see, and my eyes are going round in two watches, so time to stop!

 

They are very small indeed Crisp! The exquisite work continues and the supporting dialogue on sonars and decoys is as ever fascinating.

 

Enjoying this thread very much.

 

Terry

[Chewbacca]

One thing to add to Crisp's excellent explanation of 182.  They cost £125,000 each.  I found that out when as quartedeck part of ship officer in HMS ALACRITY I landed our 2 182 bodies on the jetty while we were doing some maintenance.  When we came to re-embark them, they had gone walkabout on the jetty, nowhere to be seen.  In short someone had come along and taken them but to the best of my knowledge they were never found.  I found out how much they cost because I had signed for them and the CO decided that as the responsible officer, I must be invited to pay for them and I was presented with a piece of paper known in the Navy as a "126" totalling £1/4M pounds for 2 182 bodies.  Quite how he thought a Sub Lieutenant was going to pay for them I do not know but fortunately our Supply Officer had a far greater degree of common sense and wrote them off charge.

 

Great work on both of these Leanders

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Back to the bow.  There is a johnson on the fo’c’sle whose purpose is a total mystery.  It’s clearly visible on all the Ikara Leanders, but I haven’t clue what it is: but it looks like this:

 

A section of 0.4mm Albion Alloys tube with a short section of drilled styrene on top, & 2 pieces of 0.2mm Albion nickel rod.

 

Further aft, on top of the Ikara handling room, there was a stump mast for RAS work (replacing the 2 RAS rigs on the fo’c’sle screen of the gun Leanders as built).  It wasn’t rigged most of the time (what with being directly in front of the bridge windows and all!), so spent most of its life lying down on a support rig.  The support is some Ark PE, as is the ladder, and the stump mast more Albion tube.

 

The support rig is probably clearer in this final shot (which also shows the resultant angle on the stump mast) - as are the two blow-out vent hatches on the side of the Ikara magazine:

 

Gordon Bennett: there is dust and swarf everywhere!

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Ex-FAAWAFU

[Courageous]

Steady progress Crisp.

As far as I can tell you can't have much of a view from the bridge with that Ikara stuff up front?

55 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Gordon Bennett: there is dust and swarf everywhere!

...not exactly ready for Captains Rounds 

 

Stuart

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

It actually made surprisingly little difference; the flare of the bow (not to mention the 4.5” Mk.6 turret) didn’t provide a clear view either.  Besides, every Captain worth his salt would be perpetually telling his watch-keepers to keep moving to get a range of views, rather than remaining chained to the pelorus.  You could see plenty well enough from the bridge wings.

 

A bit different during a RAS, with lots of people immediately in front of you on top of the handling room - but you always drive the ship from the bridge wing during a RAS anyway, so no problem.

[perdu]

w

 

o

 

w

 

impressive gets steadier impressiver!

 

That includes Chris's impressive Wasp (and the ship too of course, but the 'Wasp on a small stage' view has become iconic to me these days)

 

Do not, I impeach you, buy me another ship model to drive me insane