1/600 HMS Ulysses 1943

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All. Up to now I've only posted completed builds on BM, but I've decided to do a WIP thread on my current build, although I have now been building the model for about six weeks. The model will be somewhat simple, not to the standard of many builds I see here on BM, as I don't do PE or seascapes, but here goes.

 

     Many years (decades) ago - 1970 in fact - I read Alistair Maclean's HMS Ulysses for the first time, and ever since then I've wanted a model of her. Those of you who are familiar with Royal Navy WWII cruisers will know of the Dido and Improved Dido (Bellona) classes of light cruiser. The Bellona class (Maclean referred to them as the Black Prince class) comprised of five ships, one of which he actually served on during WWII. HMS Ulysses was a single fictitious vessel (circa 1943) that was the fore runner of the Bellona class, a whiff in fact, and I've decided to bite the bullet and build her.

      I have two copies of Alistair Maclean's novel, and the hard cover copy has a diagram of the ship. Below is a photo containing that diagram, a line drawing of HMS Black Prince 1944 and the hull of the model-to-be. At 1/600 scale the model is 260mm long overall.

     The differences between the two ships are minor. Ulysses has a rake of 5 degrees to the masts and funnels whereas those of Black Prince are vertical. (The original Dido class had about 10 degrees of rake). There are also differences in the disposition of the light AA weapons and directors. I'll discuss those more in detail at the appropriate stage of the build.

     To make the model I am be using a shortened Airfix HMS Ajax hull (two half hulls in fact). I shortened the hull quite some time ago, the same time I did the hull for HMS York , posted in the 'Ready for inspection' section. They use the same two hulls in fact, both 'long' hull halves for York and both 'short' halves for Ulysses. Shafts, screws and rudder will also come from the Ajax kit. The four 5.25-inch turrets and HA (high angle) directors come from an Airfix KGV kit, torpedo tubes, anchors, Carley floats and DCT (Director Control Tower) come from a Belfast kit. Other assorted items (boats, searchlights etc) come from where-ever and I'll be scratch building just about everything else, including all decks, superstructures and light AA guns.

 

   Here is the starboard side painted. In his book Alistair MacLean describes the Arctic camouflage scheme as ". . . slanting diagonals of grey, white and washed-out blues. . ." As the ship is a whiff I've invoked modeler's licence and decided that Hu44 is 'washed-out blue', as I already had it in stock. The white is Revell matt 5, light grey is Hu64, underwater hull is Hu73 and boot topping (black waterline stripe) is Revell matt 8. The port side camo uses the same colours but with curved shapes, for a bit of variety. The stbd side camo was based on a painting of HMS Black Prince, the port side based on a painting of HMS Uganda, a Crown Colony class cruiser.

   

     Below is a start on the weather (hull) decks and superstructures, all of which are scratch built.

     The weather decks are made from Evergreen 2025 V-groove sheets. These sheets are only 0.5mm thick so I glued plain 0.5mm scraps underneath for a bit more rigidity. I had 1mm thick V-groove in stock but the 'planking' was wider and I wanted it as narrow as I could get. The round rings are gun pits for the three quad pompom AA guns.

 

     Here is another photo of the superstructures, with a bit of paint on. The weather decks are glued in and have 'A' and 'Y' turrets fitted. The turrets rotate but cannot be removed, as I don't wish to lose them. The hull deck colour is Hu94, superstructure deck Hu27 and the insides of the gun pits Hu147.

 

     Below is a photo of the midships (Doyle's) and aft pompom bays on their deck-houses, but inverted to show the bracing supports I've added. These are 0.25 x 0.75 x 1.5 mm in size then cut diagonally to get the triangular shape. To give an idea of size, the squares on the cutting mat are 10mm. The door you see is from 0.25 x 1.5 mm Evergreen strip, cut 2.5 mm high then the corners trimmed. The walls are from 1.0 mm thick strip. I could make them from thinner strip but I want plenty of surface area for gluing to the deck below.

 

     I have progressed further than this but I think I'll call it quits here for tonight and see how this pans out. Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[Modelholic]

One of my all time favourite reads.

I've never seen the diagram from the hardback book before and had always assumed the p and s pom-poms were in the Black Prince positions. And 2 LA directors! I don't remember an after LA director ever being mentioned. I feel a re-read (about number 8 or 9) coming on)

Tom

[Bugle07]

Really good choice of build there!

 

The book was a proper page turner, a great story, one of my favourites of his.

 

I'll happily watch and see what you do with this, good scratch building so far. And I like the camo scheme. 

 

 

Geoff 

[USS_ESSESS]

Nice to (finally) see some of your work while in progress!😉

Your paint job looks flawless!

 

cheers Konrad

[Rob G]

I'm another fan of the book, and another who has always had a yen to make a model of Ulysses. I'll look on with eager anticipation!

[Bandsaw Steve]

Looking good Arnold!

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Nice idea, and a great start. 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, thank you for your interest and comments. The diagram of the ship is inside the back cover, I didn't see it myself until after reading the book the first time. The after LA director is referred to in the book as the after tower or auxiliary tower. It was Commander Turner's action station. I'll be fitting the second HA director in that location, more on that when I get to that stage of the build.

 

     I'm attempting to build the structure the ship as much as possible to the plans I have of HMS Black Prince. The light AA weapons I'll try to follow MacLean's diagram and description of the ship, but to make the two compatible with each other I have to make some alterations to both. Mr MacLean, if you're following this from Writer's Heaven please indulge and forgive me.

     Below is the next stage, with the shelter decks and super-firing turrets fitted. Again, these turrets rotate but cannot be removed. The turrets came from an Airfix HMS KGV kit. I've added vents(?) on top and an access hatch to the rear of each turret. The boat deck (white midships deck) is dry fitted at present. The hole in the top of it is to mount the forward funnel. That is it lying on the mat in the foreground, but not finished at this stage. The base of the funnel, and the hole in the boat deck were filed/drilled at the required angle to give a rake of 5 degrees.

 

    Behind the ship, on the wood blocks are more of the ship's structures, some of them painted. Those wood blocks are what I use to construct the deck-houses, levels of the superstructure etc. Below is a photo showing how I drilled the holes for funnels and masts at the correct angle of rake. I made a simple wooden ramp to set the model on the base of the drill press, after working out the required slope.

 

     This next photo shows how I construct the levels of superstructure and deck houses, using the wood blocks I mentioned. These deck levels are inverted (upside down) while being constructed. I use 1.0mm thick strip to construct the bulkheads (walls), the width of the strip depends on the height of the deck level.

 

     The two photos just shown are of my previous build, HMS York, as they were already on Flickr. The technique however is exactly the same for this build also.

 

And back to Ulysses, here is where I'm now up to. I haven't glued any more structures on yet, it is all dry fitted. This was to allow me to line up the camo patterns on successive levels of superstructure. I am hesitant to glue more of the structures at present until I have decided on all the fiddly bits, such as ammo ready-use lockers, vents, hawser reels etc. Any holes required to mount the small fittings are usually easier if the part to be drilled can be removed. What is not on the model as yet are the boiler-room air intakes. They are just visible at the extreme top of the photo, on the wood blocks. 

     The breakwater was scratch built direct onto the deck, rather than built separately then attached. The two anchors come from an Airfix Belfast kit, as those from this (Ajax) kit were rather disappointing (read 'rubbish'). Their flukes were almost non-existent. Belfast's anchors are a little bigger than I would have liked but not too much so - I can live with it. The holes in the foc'sle are for the deck tackle, hawse and naval pipes, capstans etc.

 

     This is pretty much where I'm up to now. Most of the major construction is done. From here on it will be lots of small fiddly (and hence 'slow') parts to make, so please forgive me if the build appears to stagnate. I'll still be working on it, honest!  😇

 

Time for my beauty sleep (which doesn't seem to work). Regards to all, Jeff.

[Richard502]

And again, another fan of the book. Funny though how Maclean misunderstood the glide-bomb concept (the bomber swooping in at mast height, releasing the bomb just short of the target for an unpowered glide into the ship, with an exceptionally powerful warhead). Are there any more glitches that I missed?

Richard

[TallBlondJohn]

Excellent job so far - always wanted to do something like this. Are you going to add photo-etch? The WEM 1/600 anchors are a lot better than Airfix ones. You can use resin 1/700 boats as well - just use the next size up if you see what I mean.

[Pappy]

G'day Arnold,

 

I too read the book and I am looking forward to seeing Ulysses come to life, judging by your work to date, it should be a corker

 

cheers,

 

Pappy

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

This has had the desired effect; having not read the book since (I reckon) c.1975, you have made me dig it out to re-read!

 

She’s looking great already.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

20 hours ago, Richard502 said:

Are there any more glitches that I missed?

Gidday All, MacLean called the Scharnhorst a heavy cruiser in a footnote. At over 30,000 tons she was called a battlecruiser by most and a small battleship by the Germans. With her slim lines, high speed, modest firepower and heavy armour I think she was somewhere between the two. And my favorite German warship into the bargain. The Prinz Eugen comes a close second.

 

     I seem to have triggered a spate of re-reading the novel. That can't be a bad thing, I think I've read it about twenty times. Seriously. The last few times were more for research to get the model right, taking notes as I read. Despite reading the book so many times Richard502's observation about the glider bombs escaped me. Well spotted. I have some queries about the 20mm Oerlikons, radar, depth charges, searchlights and directors, all of which has made me research some more. I'll discuss those further at the appropriate stages of the build.

 

     I paint by brush, not having an airbrush. The painting above looks OK I think, but my camera is not kind to me when I take close-ups. Brush strokes galore! But thank you for your kind comments anyway.

14 hours ago, TallBlondJohn said:

Are you going to add photo-etch? The WEM 1/600 anchors are a lot better than Airfix ones.

I'm afraid I've never been game to try PE. And I don't think it would be difficult for ANY anchor to be better than the Airfix anchors. On this kit anyway, the flukes were nothing more than small spikes, and I think the entire anchor was undersize. The Belfast anchors look OK I think, even if slightly on the large size. And for boats I'll be using whalers from Ajax and motorboats from Belfast. They won't be very detailed but will be on a par with the rest of the build, I think. I've bought a few Belfast kits purely as a source of spare parts.

 

     I think that is it for now. Otherwise it will be a case of too much talking and not enough modeling. Thank you for all your kind comments and interest. Regards, Jeff.

[Chewbacca]

Looking really nice Arnold.  Add me to the list for re-reading the book.  I think the last time was sometime in the 70s.

[Ray S]

Hello Jeff, there are not many times you can pin down a date for doing/witnessing something, but I can let you know I read HMS Ulysses on August 23rd 1970, in a VC-10 when I was flying home from Singapore to Blighty. I was 13 years 20 days old, and it was a brilliant read (and flight!).

 

It is good to see your take on the ship.

 

Looking forward to seeing more as you progress,

 

Ray

[ArnoldAmbrose]

3 hours ago, Ray S said:

I read HMS Ulysses on August 23rd 1970, in a VC-10

Gidday Ray, yeah but what time did you start? What time did you finish? You're being a little vague here. 😁 I guess it would be a good read on a long flight for a young lad of 13 years and 20 days (how many hours?) Better than "Airport" or "Flight Into Danger" I would imagine.

 

And to the rest of you - Happy Reading! Thank you all for your comments and interest. Regards, Jeff.

[Seahawk]

7 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

 Better than "Airport" or "Flight Into Danger" I would imagine.

Some work colleagues knew a workmate was nervous of flying to the States so they kindly bought him a copy of "How To Fly A Jumbo Jet".  Just in case he needed it urgently, like.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, time for another update on HMS Ulysses, although progress has been slow. I'm mainly doing fiddly stuff now, bollards, vents, hawser reels etc. Some of my attempts at making these are not always successful, but even with failures there are lessons to be learnt.

     The model requires eight sets of bollards, which I have now made. Below is a photo showing the stages of their construction.

As is often the case I find wood jigs quite useful. This one I made for HMS York, but for this build I've increased the number of holes. The base plate is of Evergreen 102 strip, (0.25 x 1.0 mm or 10 thou x 40 thou) while the bollards themselves are from Evergreen 218 rod (0.5 mm or 20 thou). The stages number from top to bottom. 
     1.     Drill two holes 0.6mm diameter in the base plate strip. It is important to get them dead centre in the strip and the exact distance apart. I pin-pricked them first. The distance to the end of the strip is not important, it can be trimmed later. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that the strip I've used in stage 1 is the incorrect width. It is 1.5mm wide but I didn't notice until after I'd taken the photo. It'll do for this demo though.
     2.     Push and glue two lengths of 0.5mm rod into the holes, going about 1mm through the base plate into the holes in the wood. I use lengths of about an inch (20-25mm) to make them easier to handle.
     3.     To cut the bollards to the correct height I use a height gauge. In this case I have drill holes into a scrap piece of Evergreen strip 1mm thick, the height I require these bollards to be. Lower the height gauge over the two bollards and down onto the base plate, then cut the rods flush. One has already been cut here. Put the off-cut rods aside for the next job. You'll notice three holes in the height gauge. That is for different sizes of bollards. I'm using the smaller size here.
     4.     Trim the base plate to the required length, 3mm for this model. Then remove one of the pins underneath. I only use one pin to attach the bollards to the model because it is easier to position it than with two pins (getting the two holes drilled aligned and the correct distance apart etc).
     Also in this photo is a capstan being made from 1.6mm rod.

Below is a photo of the focsle almost done.

I've attached two of the sets of bollards, the cable winches and capstan, vents and some hawser reels. I still have to add the cables (chain) and touch up the paint job. As always, close-up photos show my rough workmanship, warts-and-all.

I've decided to attach the funnels and the boiler-room air intakes (I think that's what they are) to the boat deck.

I've had a go at making rudimentary funnel grills for this model. They're made from finely stretched sprue. Attaching the aft funnel may have been a bit premature. I forgot that I still have to make a searchlight platform to be mounted behind it, and the funnel's rake means it might get in the way a bit. Oh well, I'll manage.

That's as far as I've gone, not much to show for two weeks modelling. The small parts I've been attempting/making can be time consuming and a bit rough. They are nowhere as good as PE parts I've seen but I prefer to make my own if I can. 
     Thank you for your interest. Regards to all, Jeff.

Edited September 3, 2019 by ArnoldAmbrose

[Ripaman]

12 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

 

 

As is often the case I find wood jigs quite useful.

 

Hi Jeff totally agree with you on wood jigs have made many to get the shape I want, and great start n your wip build.

 

Regards

Richard

[Modelholic]

Looking good!

I remember a reference in the book to a 'square cruiser stern' does this mean a transom stern?

[ArnoldAmbrose]

2 hours ago, Modelholic said:

'square cruiser stern'

Gidday Modelholic, I recall the phrase but I'm afraid I don't really know. It could mean 'square' when viewed from abeam or it could mean when viewed from above, a transom as you've mentioned, such as the cruiser HMS Tiger. AFAIK until the 'Colony' class all RN cruisers had a rounded, almost pointy stern so I didn't modify the hull in that respect. I have found a few statements in the book about the ship that I query, such as radar, directors and 20mm Oerlikons so I'll be taking an educated guess when I get the them, what I call 'modeler's licence'. I'll mention them when I get to those stages in the build.

     With this model I've decided to follow plans I have of HMS Black Prince for the structure of the ship, and follow Alistair MacLean's diagram and narrative for the light weapons outfit as much as I can. HTH. Thank you for your comments and interest. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, continuing on (slowly) with HMS Ulysses. I've been making small fiddly fittings, which can be time consuming, frustrating but ultimately to the betterment of the model I think. As I have read recently, warships can be quite cluttered vessels. Long wide stretches of promenade deck for passengers to walk around after tea before turning in aren't required. Instead you've got lockers for ammo and assorted equipment, hawser reels, vents, racks, fire-fighting equipment, winches, floats and rafts etc where-ever space can be found for them. So, to make the model more authentic looking I need clutter (which is me by nature anyway)!
     I've been making hawser reels, the procedure I use I've demonstrated below.

 1. Drill down the centre of the drum, or reel itself. This is for the axle. I've used Evergreen styrene rod for the drum, in three sizes - 1.0mm for general purpose reels, 1.2mm for hawsers (berthing lines) and one of them is 1.6mm for the towing hawser mounted inboard port side just fwd of 'Y' turret. I initially drill them out to 0.5mm.
     2. Drill a hole (0.6mm) at right angles into the reel to poke in the mounting rod. Drill until you reach the axle hole. I've drawn an arrow on the peg where I drill this hole, but hold the pin-vise vertical while doing so. I actually hold the rod in the large peg shown. I've used the small peg in the demo to get the rod closer to the mat for focus reasons in this photo.
     3. Cut the drum to the required length and then insert and glue the axle. I've found that in order to get the axle into the hole I either drill out the hole to 0.6mm or run the axle through pinched sand paper. This is the preferred method I find. Drilling out to 0.6mm is easier to get the axle into the drum but then sometimes it doesn't sit straight. Then drill the hole for the mounting rod a little deeper, into the axle .
     4. Glue in a mounting rod. I attach small fittings such as this to the model by this method. I can paint the fitting before attaching to the deck or bulkhead, then drill a 0.6mm hole into the painted deck or bulkhead, shorten the mounting rod to 1-2mm then glue it in. It makes a nice sharp demarcation between two colours.
     5. Make the end frames. For this size I use 0.25mm x 1.5mm strip. Drill a 0.6mm hole in the exact centre of the strip, about a mm from the end. Shape the 'top' half round then cut it from the strip. For this size reel I measure 1mm from the centre of the hole to the cut. If you make this measurement too large the reel sits too high off the deck and the mounting rod becomes visible. Then repeat the procedure for the second frame. Before cutting the second frame I slide the first onto the 0.6mm drill bit, slide on the second and used the first frame as a guide to get the second the exact same length. I use excessive lengths of 0.5mm rod when making fittings such as this as it gives me something to hold. When complete the excess is trimmed off and used for the next piece. Fig 5 has a frame on the left axle prior to gluing. Apply a bit of glue then attach the end frames, making sure the straight edge of the end frame is perpendicular to the mounting rod. I find a bit of wood with 0.8mm hole is useful here. Drop the mounting rod into the hole then make sure the straight edges are sitting on the wood, as they would on the deck.
     6. When the glue is dry, trim off the excess axle. Then paint the piece, shorten the mounting rod and attach it to the model. 
Also on the board here are three winches I've made. Two have a single warping drum and are the winches for the paravane recovery. The other has two warping drums and is the boat handling winch. I wasn't exactly sure what they looked like so I took an educated guess. The round electrical motor and the square gearbox holding the warping drum(s) are joined by an internal length of 0.5mm rod. You might notice that the mounting rod is attached to the round motor rather than the flat gear box. This is a mistake I think. The next time I will attach the mounting rod to the gearbox instead. I've started making paravanes and depth-charge racks, but no photos as yet. I know the pieces I make are nowhere as good as PE fittings bit I like to make my own if I can.
     This is where I'm up to at present. I've attached the screws. Same problem as with HMS York, not surprising , these are the same kits, Airfix HMS Ajax kits, so I used the same solution which was filling then drilling the screw hubs. The shafts have pins at the back to fit into holes in the screws. The pins are a good size and shape but the holes in the screws are about the size and shape of a volcano crater, as you can see below. To fix that I tapered lengths of styrene rod (1.6mm in this case) and glued them into the screws. This gave me something to hold onto while I removed the flash (quite a bit on Airfix's Ajax screws) and painted them. When the paint was dry I cut the rod at the edge of the screw hub and drilled the screws out to .7mm, easier said than done to get the holes central. The photo below shows all four stages of that procedure.

Again, this is a photo of HMS York as the photo was already on Flikr but the process was the same for this build. I did a bit better this time getting my holes in the screw hubs central. I poked the point of the screw hub into a hole in wood to hold it steady while I started drilling.

With the exception of the midships (Doyle's) pompom bay and the bridge structure everything you see here is glued on now.

 I've fitted all the bollards now, plus some more of the reels I've made. Also the winches. The two paravane winches are abreast 'B'turret and the boat winch is just abaft the midships pompom bay. The searchlight platform abaft the second funnel gave me a bit of entertainment. The trailing edge of the funnel cuts into it, and because the funnel is slightly raked the amount of cut-in (is that a word?) depended on how high up the funnel the platform was. If the platform was too far to the rear it would get in the way of the tripod legs of the mainmast.
     I think that is it for now, still lots of fiddly stuff to do. I've not taken any more close-up photos because the shot of the foc'sle in my last post was embarrassingly awful. I've rattled on enough, so regards to all and thank you for your interest, Jeff.

[Courageous]

Interesting bit of 'scratching', if only you can show where they go/ went? 

Don't you just hate metallic's. I would've given it an appropriate base colour and then a heavy dry brush with the metallic.

 

Stuart

[Bugle07]

All looking very good there Jeff, lots of great tips and a good walk through of your process.

 

She's starting to really come alive.

 

Geoff 

[stevehnz]

Hi Jeff, not sure how I've been overlooking this till now but I've had a lovely catch up. As with the others, I enjoyed the book in its day, enough that I picked up a second hand copy not so long ago, I must check it for diagrams. I'm looking for to the final reveal

Steve.