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Sink the Bismarck! HMS Ark Royal, 26 May 1941


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2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I also served in London for about a week (she was promptly sold to Pakistan so I moved to Norfolk... only for her to be sold to Chile.

Sounds like you were some sort of innocent bystander whose mere presence on board had some immediate impact on the fete of two of our beautiful DLG's being sold off to other buyers ............. very suspect!

 

My minesweeper build is quite a veteran (in ship terms), being the USS Vireo, a Lapwing Class Minesweeper, laid down just after WWI. Many of them went on to serve in WWII. I bought it many years ago when my work regularly took me across the pond to New York. I was wandering the streets of Manhattan one lunch time and came across a model shop specialising in Naval Models, and this little beauty came home with me. It's a delightful model, but being the first of this scale that I will be tackling to the finish after so many years, its going to be a challenge in many ways. I've managed to clean things up and construct a couple of brass fittings (cable reels and a ladder), but I'll start a WIP very soon. Paint and some very new 3D printed anchor chain are winging their way from Sovereign Hobbies as we speak!

 

20190830_145646

 

Terry

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19 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Sounds like you were some sort of innocent bystander...

Hmm.  21-year-old Sub Lieutenant a few weeks out of university.  By-stander, no question; I had little clue what I was up to, except maybe on the bridge.  Innocent?  Not sure my exasperated Training Officer would support that one!

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All this talk of paravane winches and stuff, but not a paravane in sight - so time to fix that.  

 

These are North Star USN Medium paravanes, apparently designed for cruisers... but they look very close to the RN ones I’ve seen in photos, and they’re definitely the right size.  They’re also tiny & multiple parts, so require a lot of concentration.  

 

Herewith a photo of the production line, with one nearly done and one just started: 

48667276581_7b686f438d_b.jpg

 

After an hour or so of that I needed a break, so moved to something a bit simpler.  In this well-known photo of Ark sinking with Legion taking off survivors, you can clearly see a cut-out on the underside of the 4.5” sponson: 

Ark Royal port side during sinking, seen from HMS Legion

 

[Legion has put her bows alongside Ark’s port quarter, if you’re trying to get your bearings]

 

I think Merit saw that and assumed that all the 4.5” sponsons had a cut-out... but in fact only one of them did (the second from the stern on the port side).  Not sure what it was for. 

 

Here, for instance, no cut-outs:

Ark Royal entering harbour

 

So I have filled the other seven, using Mr White Putty, a new substance for me.  Still need a bit of sanding to refine them, once cured.

48667548226_454d32b0e6_b.jpg

 

More tomorrow

 

Crisp

 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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On 30/08/2019 at 13:22, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 I also served in London for about a week (she was promptly sold to Pakistan so I moved to Norfolk... only for her to be sold to Chile... so I was moved to Fearless and ended up in a war)… 

Didn't you ever get the feeling that someone was trying to tell you something?

 

Martian 👽

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8 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

 

After an hour or so of that I needed a break, so moved to something a bit simpler.  In this well-known photo of Ark sinking with Legion taking off survivors, you can clearly see a cut-out on the underside of the 4.5” sponson: 

I think Merit saw that and assumed that all the 4.5” sponsons had a cut-out... but in fact only one of them did (the second from the stern on the port side).  Not sure what it was for. 

Here, for instance, no cut-outs:

Ark Royal entering harbour

 

So I have filled the other seven, using Mr White Putty, a new substance for me.  Still need a bit of sanding to refine them, once cured.

 

 

More tomorrow

 

Crisp

 

Are you sure the starboard one was not similar:

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205136762

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205136761

 

 

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Fine fiddly work on the paravane winches, I know where you are coming from when after an hour you moved onto something a little more meaty, to ba fair an hour on those was good.

 

Great thread thus far, it is like reading the owners manual and complete history of the Ark all in one volume.

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This evening mostly finishes off what I started last night... so we have corrected 4.5” sponsons (& special thanks to @dickrd for pointing out my mistake yesterday in time for me to correct it):

48672767773_32ba956a1f_b.jpg

 

...and the two starboard paravanes fitted:

48672962881_2824a22f2e_b.jpg

 

The eagle-eyed among you will also notice a change to the bollards.  L’Arsenal’s are lovely, but I can only assume that French bollards diverge... see yesterday:

48643863686_acd3342934_b.jpg

 

I cut them off, did a bit of adjustment & refitted, ending up with a more characteristic RN straight / parallel bollard look.  Now that I have realised, for future bollards I will do this before fitting.

48672962881_2824a22f2e_b.jpg

[Repeated picture]

 

More soon

 

Crisp

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Also today my fairleads order arrived from  L’Arsenal, so soon I can finish this starboard for’d group of openings.  Only a hawser reel to add now, plus fairlead.  

 

The fairleads in Ark had a distinctive fit, with a gap in the spurnwater and what looks like a strengthening plate on the ship’s side - hard to point to, but very distinctive once spotted.  Probably best seen in our old friend the starboard midships photo (look below the fairlead in the 2nd opening from the left): 

Ark Royal starboard side close-up, 1940

 

There’s also a fairlead in the paravane opening, for’d, so I’ve cut away the moulding round the edge, thus:

48673606072_a59912493f_b.jpg

 

The fairlead will sit as here (Blu-Tac’d in this instance):

48673486066_1c52108a1d_b.jpg

 

...and the strengthening plate added once it’s fitted.

 

Hard to explain, but I hope you can see where I’m going with this.

 

Crisp

 

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Thanks, everyone. 

 

Tonight’s photos probably look superficially the same, & they’re obviously of the same area of the hull... but they are supposed to illustrate two different pieces of work.

 

First up, I reckon that, fairlead & guardrails apart (neither of which will be fitted before the hull etc. is glued - and the accommodation ladder is still probably months away), the first group of hull openings are complete:

48684517968_7944f75be3_b.jpg

 

The main thing added since you last saw it is a hawser reel in centre pic. 

 

That photo also shows the dozen or so scuttles added - all between the armoured belt and the accommodation ladder galleries.

 

Essentially that completes this starboard midships section of the hull for now, but I thought I’d try an experiment that I’ve had in mind for a while... which leads me to the second photo.

 

Take a length of Albion 0.2mm nickel rod (which is stuff I use all the time in all sorts of contexts), roll it into curved sections, and cut as evenly as possible into tiny curved sections to act as the spurnwater “eyebrows” over the top of the white rectangular replacement galley openings:

48685210082_3f20ff6a1f_b.jpg

 

I managed 8 before my patience gave out... but I think I like them enough to keep them.

 

Weekend tomorrow, so more next week

 

Crisp

 

P.S.  I knew there was something else: you can probably also see a single ladder rung (also 0.2 nickel rod, as it happens) just below / left of the hawser reel.  This single rung represents at least half an hour’s work as I worked out a decent, repeatable method; you need to be very precise or they look uneven & rubbish. If you look really closely you might be able to see the holes drilled for the 6 rungs that will follow below it.  

 

I think the secret in the end is going to be to only put one end into the hole, cutting the other end much shorter and gluing it onto the surface.  That gives you more flex and enables an even ladder look, even if your holes are close but not perfect.  That’s my current working theory, anyway!

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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I reckon you have the right idea with using just the one end of the ladder rungs for the hull Crisp, looks awesome

 

And nice paravanes too

 

Can you advise one to whom the sea and her mysterious 'things wot sail on it' are a mystery please?

 

The flat brass panel things inside the recesses along the sides, are the square holes like that in 'real life' or do they  have glazing?

 

 

Questions for enquiring minds apart this really is busying up beautifully

 

The eyebrows on there, are they a special shape or have you just would a curve of maybe one inch diameter and then cut out short lengths of the wire to give the arc of circle effect? ( I ask because that was what I had to do to make the curved underframes on my Chinook's seat frames which was a proper 'mare)

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54 minutes ago, perdu said:

I reckon you have the right idea with using just the one end of the ladder rungs for the hull Crisp, looks awesome

 

And nice paravanes too

 

Can you advise one to whom the sea and her mysterious 'things wot sail on it' are a mystery please?

 

The flat brass panel things inside the recesses along the sides, are the square holes like that in 'real life' or do they  have glazing?

 

 

Questions for enquiring minds apart this really is busying up beautifully

 

The eyebrows on there, are they a special shape or have you just would a curve of maybe one inch diameter and then cut out short lengths of the wire to give the arc of circle effect? ( I ask because that was what I had to do to make the curved underframes on my Chinook's seat frames which was a proper 'mare)

Good question re the square holes.  According to the builders’ plans, these were areas where food was stored (short term?) and/or prepared - from forward to aft / right to left as we look, beef screen, vegetable store and potato store.  The upper galley (one of several) was immediately above.  This is where we have to forget our own pampered lives - “the past is another country”, and all that - and keep in mind that 1930s refrigeration was rudimentary at best.  My Granny had a pantry (a walk-in cupboard, really) which contained what she called a “meat screen”; a cupboard with a fine mesh front to keep flies out, in which meat was hung to keep and/or mature.  I guess (and it is a guess) that these would have been similar; mesh in the openings rather than glass, to allow air to circulate.  Otherwise I don’t understand the design; why would you have relatively large areas of plate glass when it would have been actively bad for stored raw food to have lots of light?  Equally, having nothing at all seems equally perverse.  As far as the model is concerned, they stay empty; glazing in this scale is troublesome and (IMHO) seldom worth the effort.

 

[Edit:  I’m very conscious of copyright, so deffo cannot post the whole thing, but here is the relevant section of the plans, acquired via iPad screenshot]

48687078571_250827792a_b.jpg

 

 

As for the eyebrows, I just took a length of rod and curved it by rolling it back & forth under a steel roller (part of a fancy-schmancy PE bending thingy that I have) on a mouse mat; it curls up nicely and in a fairly controlled manner.  When it looks about right with the Mk. 1 Mod. 0 Eyeball, I cut it into lengths on a hard surface (a piece of glass) - measuring the first one and then using the first piece as a template for all the rest.  Unlike your Chinook recliners, I have the advantage of having Mr Flyhawk’s lovely (round) scuttles with their own eyebrows as a nearby comparator, so doing it by eye works fine.  The biggest challenge is not losing them when transferring from cutting surface to the model; they’re each about 1.5mm long and, being very thin wire, weigh nothing, so even an ill-timed breath gives the CM a wee amuse-bouche.

 

I think they’re worth it in the end l though.  After doing the first batch in Albion Alloys 0.2 nickel rod I remembered that I have a massive reel of the same gauge copper wire (from an angling shop; cheap as chips), so future batches may come from that.

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

so even an ill-timed breath gives the CM a wee amuse-bouche.

🤣 nearly choked on my porridge when I read that ......

 

The detail is building nicely, and of course we have your back stories to keep us interested - food and refrigeration there of, on a warship build ..... where else would we get such stuff. You talk of your Granny having a walk in pantry, well my dear old Mum had the same, that ages me a bit I guess, although I missed being sent up chimney's for my pocket money by a few years!

 

There is only one real problem with this build as far as I can see. You see, I'm using it as one of my key reference points for when I tackle my own Ark Royal III, but as that will be in 1/700, I'm going to have my work cut out when deciding what level of detail NOT to go to! I'm already being driven half insane by my 1/700 USS Vireo build. The fineness of some of the brass is quite scary............. 😱

 

Looking forward to the next instalments.

 

Terry

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Thanks for explaining that Crisp, yes we had a larder with a stone slab and a perforated door cupboard in our old (council) house

A rich(!) Scottish uncle had one of those huge refrigerators as tall as my mom but we didn't see proper refrigeration 'til the early sixties at home

Meat safe magnified then

Nah you couldn't pierce several million tiny holes in Shipbuilders Scale could you, so you are right to ignore it and let it (and me) fade away

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14 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

I think the secret in the end is going to be to only put one end into the hole, cutting the other end much shorter and gluing it onto the surface.  That gives you more flex and enables an even ladder look, even if your holes are close but not perfect.  That’s my current working theory, anyway!

Gidday Crisp, That is my thinking also for items that don't need strength, just position. I did the same with bollards on two models now, only attaching them to the hull with one pin, not two. Like your ladder rungs it makes them easier to get aligned correctly with the edge of the hull.

     And I did notice the hawser reel, it looks good, along with your other additions, paravanes, winch etc.

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Looks good Crisp. And I am very pleased to note that in this last picture you have turned the cable reel 90 degrees (as per the builders plans), where it was facing sideways in the the picture in post 239.

 

I knew you would of course.

 

Terry

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Well spotted!  I mis-interpreted the Kagero plans; definitely my fault rather than theirs.  One of the benefits of Kagero is that they provide clarity from complex sources, but occasionally that means something is simply portrayed as a rectangle.  

 

Then I posted the builders’ plans screenshot and noticed the same thing as you... luckily not too late to change it.  If it had been post-paint, I might have shrugged my shoulders and thought no-one would notice.  

 

Note to self.  No-one notice?  Fat chance!

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Just caught up with this one, great stuff Crisp. Being a confirmed 1/700th 'spacesaver' kind of bloke,  recently building a few floaters in this scale feels somewhat strange, (for a start, not needing 5.0 x magnification seems a bit odd as does having to clear the work bench to make room). Plenty of scope for weathering abuse on this beastie...

 

 

48700049396_e308b345aa_b.jpg

 

 

 

Now, I never realized the Ark got out quite that far......pesky fog.

 

 

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Moving aft from the Carley float area, we come to the starboard seaplane crane / boat deck area.  Lots of stuff to do to get this looking decent, but we start with adding some kit parts:

[This is inside the hull, of you’re trying to work out your angles.  When finished it will have an inner bulkhead and a deckhead, but for now it just has end bulkheads and the deck itself, to give me room for fettling]

48707979241_7f790f448f_b.jpg

 

Here the outer section / seen from outboard, which you’ve seen before but only dry fitted.  The filler is to get to a seamless deck (Merit’s parts fit well).

48707668243_eb7333bb08_b.jpg

 

Beneath the circular base on this outer deck (which is where the seaplane crane will sit eventually), there’s a large chunk of brass to correct Merit’s over-simplified shape.  First from for’d, showing the nice cutout to avoid fouling the opening below:

48708144347_f9d8e7bef8_b.jpg

 

... and here seen from aft.  Note also a dozen new scuttles beneath all this.  I have deliberately missed out a couple, to give me a decent area to play with when fairing it in properly once all is dry.    I’ll add the scuttles then.  The Tetra set continues to be lovely to work with, but even their stuff fits well rather than perfectly, so a little filler is needed (especially on this face of it).

48708144872_299b8a135d_b.jpg

 

Finally, a major cheer for my wife, who has given me the WEM PE set to go with this kit as a wedding anniversary present.  Her Grandfather served in this Ark pre-War as an AB on the boat crews, so she has an interest.  The biggest (only?) flaw I can see with Tetra is the guardrails, which are almost all rather droopy and loose. The Commander and Buffer would be re-briefing any matelot who left guardrails looking like that.  (I’ll show you what I mean in a future post).  

 

WEM’s are much better, and I like their DG cable better, too.  But the the main reason to get WEM is the boats.  The Merit boats are weak - very, very generic.  Tetra provide lots of brass to enhance them, but you still end up with beautifully detailed... generic boats.  WEM have done their research into the boats Ark actually carried - I’ll illustrate this better when I get to building the boats, I guess!

 

Anyway. My first bit of WEM brass is this Johnson, which enabled the boat stowed inboard to be slid under the crane for launching.  You can see the boat chocks, and the hand-winches to wind the boat out on rails. Tetra do not have this at all.  In due course this will be fitted on the double deck above, with the winches on the inboard side.

48707974641_ab07f86a23_b.jpg

 

More later in the week.

 

Crisp

 

 

 

19 hours ago, general melchett said:

Just caught up with this one, great stuff Crisp. Being a confirmed 1/700th 'spacesaver' kind of bloke,  recently building a few floaters in this scale feels somewhat strange, (for a start, not needing 5.0 x magnification seems a bit odd as does having to clear the work bench to make room). Plenty of scope for weathering abuse on this beastie...

 

 

48700049396_e308b345aa_b.jpg

 

 

 

Now, I never realized the Ark got out quite that far......pesky fog.

 

 

Of course it’s foggy; that’s why 90% of the ship is invisible!  Spooky.

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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Ah.  Found were you've been lurking Crisp (yes I know its hardly lurking - and yes I know I've been typically slow and dim in working out where to look :blush:).  But now I'm here I'm going back to the beginning to savour it all so far......:)  If your piccies on your last post are anything to go by it'll be a treat........

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