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Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941


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2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I use Gator Thin, followed up with a tiny amount of CA via capillary action a few days later after cleaning excess Gator

I can attest to this.  When I am gluing brass (or resin) to plastic with a flush joining surface I always start with Gator Grip or more often now Super Phatic and then flow some thin CA around the part a few days later.  Also, if you are able to lightly sand (1200 grit) the back of the brass, and the plastic surface it is being bonded to it will dramatically increase the strength of the bond.  Glue will not stick well to a smooth surface, but a little grit adds a ton of strength.  To sand tiny parts, like a scuttle I lightly sand the back of them while they are still attached to the brass sprue.  Is sprue the right word when talking about the brass sheets?  I try and sand in 2 directions if possible. 

 

Of course I didn't do the scuttles on my Ark, so what do I know :)

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Crispin, I don't know if you are a Facebook user, but if you are you might like to have a look at the "Aircraft Carriers of the Royal Navy" group.  In a series of posts someone called Geoffrey Delves Broughton has shared the contents of his father's (Lt Cdr Peter DB's) photograph album including many photos of Ark Royal in 1939. I suspect that they will tell you nothing you did not already know but 80 or so nice images mainly of the FAA at work and play. 

Edited by dickrd
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Thanks a lot, Dick - I hadn’t seen them & a couple are real gold dust (as so often, something in the background of a shot provides the vital missing evidence of a couple of things).  Quite a career, too; from Skuas in Ark early in the war to Sea Furies in Unicorn almost 10 years on...

 

Anyway... speaking of little details revealed as incidentals in photos, today I decided to listen to the football while fettling the stockless anchor (purpose unclear) visible in this photo of Ark’s port side boat deck [posted earlier in this build by @iang, I think]

Ark Royal 3 port boat deck close-up

 

Styrene rod, with the shank (here upside down) tapered by hand filing in a pin vice, then a second section of rod bent round a paint jar and glued in place:

50963184767_20dd748eff_b.jpg

 

Then trimmed and some flukes filed into shape out of spare PE & CA’d in position after some more fettling:

50962374768_0abe376d79_b.jpg

 

Pretty happy with that!

 

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Incidentally, a case in point about evidence in photos.  If I post this one again...

Ark Royal 3 port boat deck close-up


...do any of BM’s Ark experts have any idea what the thing on the left edge of the picture is, by the bow of the covered  Fast Motor Boat?  It looks like a tank on a frame ready for quick jettison.  Tetra’s designers actually provide this frame, and until I saw this photo I was almost ready to dismiss it as a figment of imagination , cos I haven't seen evidence in other photos.  It’s on the port side, which a) generally has much less coverage in clear pictures and b) isn’t available in the builders’ drawings.  I know the RN was extremely wary of petrol stowages in ships - look up HMS Dasher if you want to know why - so I guess that’s a possibility, but it seems unlikely to be honest.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

The Peter Delves Broughton photos which @dickrd mentioned yesterday include some crackers, including these two (both used with the permission of his son Geoffrey - indeed his active encouragement; “they shouldn’t be sitting in a box”).  First up a wonderfully clear picture of one of Ark’s quad 0.5” Vickers machine guns (note the Ark Royal crest on the gun tampions), which also confirms what the inside of the bulkheads looked like (important if, like me, you plan to build them dropped):

Vickers 0.5” machine gun, Ark Royal [Peter Delves Broughton]

 

...and second a great picture looking down her stern from the aft catwalk, which has confirmed my suspicion that though the bulkheads of the quarterdeck were white, the metal surrounds of the teak deck were definitely not:

Ark Royal stern from catwalk [Peter Delves Broughton]


You cannot beat contemporary photographs for references, and this stuff is gold dust!

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15 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Anyone have any ideas?

At a wild guess because you can see some conduit coming from it some kind of signal device or maybe a flare launcher for bad weather signals as it is very close to the flight deck.  :hmmm:

 

Stay safe

beefy

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51 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Thanks a lot, Dick - I hadn’t seen them & a couple are real gold dust (as so often, something in the background of a shot provides the vital missing evidence of a couple things).  Quite a career, too; from Skuas in Ark early in the war to Sea Furies in Unicorn almost 10 years on...

 

 

Delighted that you found something useful in them. You probably noticed that Geoffrey says he is going to have them properly scanned next week so maybe even more detail will be visible when he reposts them.

Edited by dickrd
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15 minutes ago, beefy66 said:

At a wild guess because you can see some conduit coming from it some kind of signal device or maybe a flare launcher for bad weather signals as it is very close to the flight deck.  :hmmm:

 

Stay safe

beefy

 

Thanks, Beefy, but I think you're looking at the wrong thing.  The square thing that looks like a waffle iron with a conduit going to it is indeed part of a system for signalling to aircraft; it appears on both sides of the ship and is described in the builders' drawings as the "Carrier recognition Light".

 

I mean this:

Ark Royal 3 port boat deck close-up contrast enhanced

 

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If, your summarising that it's a jettisonable  petrol stowage tank (presumably for the boats?) wouldn't it be logical to have one for the starboard side as well?

Maybe some sort of mooring fender?

Tom

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10 minutes ago, Modelholic said:

If, your summarising that it's a jettisonable  petrol stowage tank (presumably for the boats?) wouldn't it be logical to have one for the starboard side as well?

Maybe some sort of mooring fender?

Tom

 

I agree - that's why I said i thought the petrol stowage was unlikely.  Not a mooring fender, because she stowed two large wooden mooring cats of her own on the flight deck; the things that look like giant pallets in the foreground here...

48359826607_56166eb404_b.jpg

 

Besides, it would be such an odd place to stow it, and why the apparent need for rapid jettison?  The bottom line is... I don't know!

 

Anyway, my stockless anchor is fitted:

50962724153_58dafcca0b_b.jpg

 

It will eventually have a tiny PE loop at the top, but if i fit it now it will have zero chance of survival!

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

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1 hour ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 I know the RN was extremely wary of petrol stowages in ships - look up HMS Dasher if you want to know why - so I guess that’s a possibility, but it seems unlikely to be honest.

I'd say highly likely myself. Jettisonable ready use fuel tank for boats. As you say the RN wasn't too happy keeping fuel above the waterline, and there's a good example of a similar arrangement for fuel in HMS Hood when she had the Fairey IIIF on the quarterdeck, there was a jettisonable ready use avgas tank in a similar arrangement. near the catapult.

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I was agreeing with you about the petrol (could have worded my last post better I think). With a ship virtually sloshing with aviation grade petrol I'd think this would be a bad place/idea for stowage.

There only appears to be one of them on the ship, Any signs of similar on other ships?

Perhaps a device for giving the captain an interesting visit to Niagara Falls? Half a giant Wack'A'Mole mallet?

Mmm. I see another post while I was typing.

Tom

Edited by Modelholic
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It definitely seems like some type of hazardous liquid container.  My guess would be fuel for the motor boats.  It's not big enough for aviation fuel, and on a carrier you would want a better solution for that anyway.   Is there any other hazardous chemical on a carrier that would benefit from that location? 

 

Incidentally, what do you think the color of the tarp over the fast motor boat would be?  On USN ships in the pacific they were often a really rich Mediterranean blue color (according to some lithographs i have seen).

 

PS.  The Vickers picture is fantastic.  Thanks for linking to those pictures Dick.

 

Bruce

Edited by PolarisPrime
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I wanted to see if they had jettisoned the tank when the ship was sinking.  These are the only pictures I have that show the area clearly and are not smoke obstructed.  There might be some argument that the tank is no longer there, but it definitely is not clear.

 

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Edited by PolarisPrime
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Looks similar to the one below, on HMS Hood, caption says aviation fuel tank, 1931;

50964325233_f6f782e82e_z.jpg 

 

Only thing I could thing of other than the ships boats was a 'local' store of fuel for turning aircraft around quickly.

Would they usually be taken below for refueling? If not. would you want pumped aviation fuel in pipes from the storage tanks below decks up to the flight deck - a smaller local tank might make sense.

 

Don't know if it helps but interesting picture anyway.

 

Cheers

 

Nick 

 

 

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Thanks, Nick; that helps a lot - I am now trying to fettle a suitable piece of runner into something similar. 
 

Meanwhile, here’s the rack (dry fitted; far too vulnerable position for glue just yet!)

50966677306_7d2b788e02_b.jpg

 

As you can see, this area yet to be cleaned up!

 

More soon

 

Crisp


P.S. I have the long range tank from a 1/72 Airfix Swordfish - alas, much too big for this; but a plausible pattern.

50966429183_5f2fd4f715_b.jpg

 

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Looking really good, this thread is one of my guilty pleasures, the amount of extra gribbly bits you are adding is remarkable, just think, if it had been a simpler build like a Battleship it would have been finished months ago !!

 

Cheers

 

David

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23 minutes ago, Dancona said:

Looking really good, this thread is one of my guilty pleasures, the amount of extra gribbly bits you are adding is remarkable, just think, if it had been a simpler build like a Battleship it would have been finished months ago !!


Though sometimes it feels that progress is slow, we’re actually not that far away from the ship herself being complete in building terms (though painting is going to take a while).

 

However, as fellow carrier-builders, you and I both know that the real fun is yet to come: looming in my mind’s eye are 15 torpedo-armed Swordfish, crewed-up and running on deck, with a lot of aircraft handlers....

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