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Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941


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Model in London, Crisp at home, so little to report.  However, some of my references are at home - particularly the Swordfish ones, since the build isn’t primarily a Swordfish job.  I have numerous books on the mighty Stringbag, but it was one of the earliest (a 1980s book called “Swordfish At War”, by W Harrison) that came up trumps for what I was after, namely some simple but clear GA drawings.  They need to be simple because they need to remain legible when reduced to 1/350 size.  The Harrison book reproduces some original Fairey GA drawings of both float and wheeled Swordfish, designed principally to illustrate spread and folded dimensions.  The floatplane version are clearer in this printing, so I scanned both and had a play.

 

The drawing adjacent to the Merit Swordfish is my tracing of the lower wing dimensions and some other key elements - they’re all there in the main drawings, but the lower wing (for example) is dotted and hard to see.


Anyway, if you know how my mind works - and some of you probably do by now - you might have worked out from this picture what I am planning to try.

49445167031_cae3f2b5b4_b.jpg


More later in the week

 

Crisp

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Oh, I’m happy all right; another of my old ships (Flight Commander 1989-1991) given the exquisite Peter Hall treatment.  This is (obvs) all dry fitted, and took approximately 15 seconds of sanding to remove a couple of minor casting stubs.

49451578073_6c0bceb426_b.jpg

49451578218_2c508fdb31_b.jpg

 

Peter has actually modelled her as she was in 1981, with the large funnel that Broadsword & Battleaxe had for their initial 5 or so years in commission.  But Peter is a top bloke and knows I want to depict her a few years later, so he put a funnel into the box from the Boxer model that is being released in a few weeks (also an old ship of mine, so soon to wend her way into my stash).  The flight deck had lost that port aft cutout by my time, too, but that shouldn’t be too hard to fix.

 

The quality of the casting has to be seen to be believed.  Anyway.  Not to be built for many moons yet.

 

Where were we?  Ah yes.  Experimenting with Stringbag cabane struts.

 

The bad news is that the plan I hatched over the weekend didn’t really work, and it took me 90 minutes of fighting to confirm this fact.  The good news, however, is that in losing the battle with my original idea, I stumbled on a different idea... which is showing distinct promise!

49452290032_4aeb191437_b.jpg

 

This feels like painfully little progress for almost 2 hours of work in total... but I think this is the way ahead.  Merit’s cabane plug is on increasingly shaky ground.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

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My service was nothing out of the ordinary for the time.  I joined in 1978, but after Dartmouth my first 3 years were mostly spent at university, during which I was appointed as a Midshipman to HMS Dido (hence the Ikara Leander build that i will finish when I get an uninterrupted period at home)

 

Graduated in July 1981, appointed to HMS Norfolk (County class destroyer - beautiful ship)... but 3 months later she was sold to Chile as part of the Nott defence review, so I was given a pierhead jump to HMS Fearless as she emerged from refit in November 81.  I left Fearless on our return from the Falklands War in July 82, and then spent 9 months on my seaman officer’s professional qualifying course (so-called “Officer of the Watch” course); from there I joined HMS Boxer, the first “stretched” (‘Batch 2’) Type 22 frigate, to obtain my ocean navigation qualifications and watchkeeping certificate (i.e. to become a fully trained seaman officer).  I’d been selected for flying training while in Fearless; it was what I’d always wanted to do, and recommendations from a wartime Captain tend to carry much weight.

 

Flying training 1984 & 1985: 6 months Bulldogs at RAF Topcliffe / Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire; then 6 months Gazelles at Culdrose = wings.  Then 6 months on 706 NAS learning to fly the Sea King, plus 6 more months on 810 NAS learning to fight the Sea King.  
 

Front line on 820 NAS / HMS Ark Royal in late 86. Over 2 years of awesomeness; being a junior joe on a carrier squadron is ludicrously good fun - minimum responsibility with maximum toys.  Then Lynx conversion 1989, Flight Commander of Broadsword (829 NAS) 89-91, including 2 Falkland patrols (Broadsword didn’t have the right jammer, so swapped programmes with her sister ship Brilliant; Brillo ended up fighting in Gulf War 1, we went to a then-unheard-of place called Guantanamo Bay to help work up the US ships heading to the Gulf by flying missile attack profiles against them, en route to the Falklands for the second patrol).  Promoted Lieutenant Commander during Broadsword.  Broadsword probably my most fun job, because being paid to fly the Lynx all over the world seems almost criminal (but I took the money anyway; wouldn’t want to insult the Queen, obvs).

 

1992 - 1994 I was Captain of HMS Blackwater, a River class minesweeper working for the Fishery Protection Squadron (the oldest squadron in the RN).  Then Sea King refresher and SPLOT (Senior Pilot - essentially, second-in-command) of 819 NAS at Prestwick (where I had the honour of flying with @MarkdipXV711).  Then back to the Lynx on 815 NAS (the HQ squadron at Portland), because they wanted an experienced SPLOT to cover for their actual SPLOT (a certain non-sweating frequenter of Pizza Express in Woking) when he was away doing his family job.

 

While at 815 I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, immediately grounded, and (in due course) invalided out of the Navy.

 

See.  It’s not exactly War & Peace, is it?

 

 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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See, but here's the thing, and I mean this in all earnestness: it's amazing how little we know of ordinary peacetime life even in the Royal Navy of the 1930s. A lot of knowledge of the mundane happenings of a peacetime navy gets lost, but when we only see portraits of a navy at war, we only get 10% of the story. William Wordsworth Fisher died before WWII began, but without him and the officers who knew him, there might never have been a Matapan. 

 

There's so much that happened during the cold war, and the experiences of everyone who lived through it are part of the tapestry of history, and valuable, and worth preserving. 

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I'm with Edward - you should write it down somewhere, including more stories, obviously.

 

1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Midshipman to HMS Dido (hence the ikara Leander…

I first read that as 'Ikea Leander' and had a mad few minutes imagining everyone having to go fore/aft/across/fore/aft/across etc to get from one side of the ship to the other.

I'm OK now, I took some tablets :D 

 

A new idea eh? We'll waited with bated breath…

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5 hours ago, CedB said:

 

I first read that as 'Ikea Leander' and had a mad few minutes imagining everyone having to go fore/aft/across/fore/aft/across etc to get from one side of the ship to the other.

 

A new idea eh? We'll waited with bated breath…

The Ikea Leander idea was abandoned when someone lost the giant Allen key.

 

Ah, yes, the new idea.  Look closely at the photo and you can see part 1 (of 3) already in position.

 

[Incidentally.... not a single mention of the remarkable skill of Mr Hall and his Broadsword (f’narr)?  I’ve known styrene kits go together less well than that.  Tough crowd.]

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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19 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

The Ikea Leander idea was abandoned when someone lost the giant Allen key.

:rofl2:

 

Aha! Tiny, wire, upside down V. I can just see it if I zoom in. Cunning.

Did you make a jig? Something like this one from Rato's idea for seatbelt buckles?

 

[Comment from non ship-person. Nice Broadsword (fnaar), looks lovely. Are you going to scratch some little choppers for it (fnaar fnaar!)]

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6 hours ago, Procopius said:

See, but here's the thing, and I mean this in all earnestness: it's amazing how little we know of ordinary peacetime life even in the Royal Navy of the 1930s.

For a moment there i thought you were accusing me of having been in the RN of the 1930s.  Occasionally it feels like it

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2 hours ago, CedB said:

:rofl2:

 

Aha! Tiny, wire, upside down V. I can just see it if I zoom in. Cunning.

Did you make a jig? Something like this one from Rato's idea for seatbelt buckles?

 

[Comment from non ship-person. Nice Broadsword (fnaar), looks lovely. Are you going to scratch some little choppers for it (fnaar fnaar!)]

No jig yet; that will follow if/when the prototype works.  As it happens, initial impressions suggest that the tip of a pair of Tamiya PE pliers is pretty much the perfect size for the front upside down V - and in any case the critical measurement here is the vertical height of the upper wing above the fuselage, not the position of the feet of the V.  There is a second upside down V and an upside down U (actually, more of a Pi) to come. And they are all different sizes, inevitably. 
 

In reality, however, my drilling is unlikely to be that precise over 15 fuselages; much of the strength will come from the fact that these upside down Vs (0.2mm nickel silver wire) have their feet embedded in 0.3mm holes drilled in the fuselage.  So the technique is as likely to be ‘bend to fit’ as make 45 identical upside down letters.

 

You will never hear me describe my erstwhile steed as a “chopper”.  But no need for any scratching in the chopper area.  This is not because the ointment is working, but because the kit includes a couple.

 

[I am tempted to say “that’s enough Viz humour”, but who am I kidding?]

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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17 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Oh, I’m happy all right; another of my old ships (Flight Commander 1989-1991) given the exquisite Peter Hall treatment.  This is (obvs) all dry fitted, and took approximately 15 seconds of sanding to remove a couple of minor casting stubs.

49451578073_6c0bceb426_b.jpg

To my untrained eye, this looks amazingly good! :thumbsup: 

 

Out of curiosity: where are you going to display these big ships? 

 

Ciao

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9 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

[Incidentally.... not a single mention of the remarkable skill of Mr Hall and his Broadsword (f’narr)?  I’ve known styrene kits go together less well than that.  Tough crowd.]

Well my first reaction when seeing that Type 22 was to sing it's praises - the model and the ship of course. Such a handsome looking warship and Peter has modelled it extremely well it seems.

 

The latest cabane strut idea looks like a runner. On a MUCH larger scale (1/72) I have resorted to folding brass wire for the cabane struts on my Gamecock. Fiddly enough in 1/72. Heroic in 1/350 I must say.

 

The service summary prompted by Edward is interesting though. You could join the ranks of those Fast Jet types that have gone to print in recent years (my wife bought me one for XMAS in the form of Jaguar Boys). Perhaps Lynx Boys or Sea King Boys! Such stories of aviators in service life are always very popular IMHO.

 

Terry

 

 

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12 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

For a moment there i thought you were accusing me of having been in the RN of the 1930s.  Occasionally it feels like it

Clever, but also a bit of deflection, I think! You're a gifted and articulate writer (as one might hope, given your subsequent profession), and I think much of what you might consider mundane or uninteresting detail is quite the reverse to those of us who've never lived it. 

 

It calls to mind one of my favourite bits from Boswell's Life of Johnson:

 

Quote

We talked of war. Johnson: "Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea." Boswell: "Lord Mansfield does not." Johnson: "Sir, if Lord Mansfield were in a company of General Officers and Admirals who have been in service, he would shrink; he'd wish to creep under the table." Boswell: ""No; he'd think he could try them all." Johnson: "Yes, if he could catch them: but they'd try him much sooner. No, Sir; were Socrates and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden both present in any company, and Socrates to say, 'Follow me, and hear a lecture on philosophy;' and Charles, laying his hand on his sword, to say, 'Follow me, and dethrone the Czar;' a man would be ashamed to follow Socrates. Sir, the impression is universal; yet it is strange. As to the sailor, when you look down from the quarter deck to the space below, you see the utmost extremity of human misery; such crouding, such filth, such stench!" Boswell: "Yet sailors are happy." Johnson: "They are happy as brutes are happy, with a piece of fresh meat, --with the grossest sensuality. But, Sir, the profession of soldiers and sailors has the dignity of danger. Mankind reverence those who have got over fear, which is so general a weakness." Scott: "But is not courage mechanical, and to be acquired?" Johnson: "Why yes, Sir, in a collective sense. Soldiers consider themselves only as parts of a great machine." Scott: "We find people fond of being sailors." Johnson: "I cannot account for that, any more than I can account for other strange perversions of imagination."

Emphases mine.

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Ah, Britmodeller - we love you.  The only place I know where we can move seamlessly from Viz to Boswell without passing Go.

 

Tonight’s news: this version of the plan works...

49456895501_5fc530df93_b.jpg


Crisp-o-Cabane, Inc.  Fiddly, but I think worth it.

 

I’m out tomorrow, so more on Thursday.

 

Crisp

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Once I’d worked out how to do it - and undergone 3 or 4 experimental failures en route - it wasn’t that complicated.  
 

- Measure accurately (the plans were vital);

- Drill 3 pairs of 0.3mm holes along the top of the nose, as near vertical as poss without breaking the aircraft skin;

- Bend 3 x 0.2mm rod shapes... 2 inverted Vs and one Pi;

- Glue them into place in turn, starting at the nose;

- ONCE CURED, bend the 2 Vs so that they converge to form a pyramid, and the Pi so that it goes backwards to the trailing edge of the upper wing (which coincides with the rear of the pilot’s windscreen, thus giving you a decent visual reference);

- Keep measuring & dry fitting throughout, keeping in mind that the key variable is the gap between fuselage & upper wing.

- Breathe

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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On 1/28/2020 at 4:26 PM, giemme said:

Out of curiosity: where are you going to display these big ships? 

Giorgio, has my wife been onto you?

 

[Mind you, I have to finish them before display becomes much of an issue...]

 

Ships are actually much easier to display than aircraft models; they’re shelf-shaped!

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