1/600 HMS Jamaica

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

With profound apologies to Arnold but we have revised our suggested scheme for Jamaica. We knew that Jamaica was in a Type 20 scheme i.e. that the average RF of her scheme was 20%. We knew from observation reports etc that MS1, B5 and MS4 were used on Jamaica but these documents do not make it clear that these were the only colours used. The photos we had seemed to show a fourth and lighter tone.  Some additional photos have now become available to Richard (@dickrd) and these suggest only three tones. This prompted a re-analysis of the original photos and all available information. I have now managed to get my drawing to calculate the % areas of each paint and from the known RFs of MS1, B5 and MS4 to calculate the average RF of the port side as 19.8% and the starboard side as 21.7%. If 507C had been used in place of MS4 the overall RF of the scheme would have been too light for a Type 20.

 

 

 

If interested in following the working, I had to run a script in Adobe Illustrator to calculate the area of irregular shapes. I used this one: https://gist.github.com/bryanbuchanan/11387501

 

The way I draw ships now has me first colour in the whole thing in one colour in one Layer. Usually I choose the one I perceive is most extensive. In this case I chose MS4, so I first calculated the area of the overall ship. The camouflage "panels" (i.e. shapes of different colour) are added in a separate layer above which covers up the background colour. Next, I numbered each camouflage panel and calculated the areas of all those which were B5 or MS1. Thus I can additively calculate the area of B5 and MS1, and by subtracting the totals for both from the overall area of MS4 I get the area of MS4 remaining.

 

 

Here are the workings

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Jamie, no apologies necessary. I'll always welcome advice. Some I'll act on with gratitude, some I'll decline, still with gratitude, but the decision on what I'll do is mine and I'll never blame anyone else if I make a wrong call.

     The build has been on hold for about four months now, while I did a 16 gun HMS Belfast and now a 1941 HMS Hood. I plan to reactivate it soon as I wish to have it completed by end of April, in time for WASMEx 2021. Although my enthusiasm for WASMEx has diminished somewhat in the last few days. I've just had a look at the hull to see if I can repaint some of the light grey areas. Some might be a bit tricky to get into. I don't have to decide just yet, but soon. I can repaint 'A' turret quite easily, however if I think there's any chance of ruining the existing paintwork I'm inclined to leave it as is. It still looks OK to me so I can easily live with it.

     Again, I state that no apology necessary. I'm very grateful of the help you've given me so far. Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Hi Arnold,

 

She’s looking great mate! Don’t let recent shinannagins at WASMEx stop this from getting the public viewing it deserves!

👍

 

Steve

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, and thanks. Actually my disappointment over the shinannagins was on your behalf, and BBS. And I've long since come to the conclusion that storming out or withdrawing in protest to a situation generally does no good. And it concedes the issue or battleground (for want of a better term) to the opposition. Have you worked out what you're doing with BBS' Hogwarts model. It also deserves a public viewing. 👍

     Thank you Jamie but I've decided not to alter the paint job, partly because I'm running out of time. I still wish to submit this at the upcoming WASMEx in just over two weeks so I'm pulling out the stops, cancelled all leave for the dockyard workers and getting a move on. Most of the construction is done and painted, it's small stuff to do mainly now, such as boats, masts, bollards etc. I'll post a photo when I have a bit more to show.

    Thanks for your interest, stay safe and regards to all, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, I've resurrected my build of HMS Jamaica. Most of the structure was already done before I put the build on hold, now it's mainly small stuff to do. I've pretty much done the boats now, but before I located them on the ship I had to work out where the masts went. Although they'll be done almost last I had to make sure that nothing gets in the way of the tripod legs. That's now done, plus I've done the two cranes, the catapult and painted the remainder of the decks. The main director is done too, the radar added to it.
     Today was spent doing the things that fly - the Walrus that flies through the air and the paravanes that 'fly' under the water. These last came from an Iron Duke kit and were improved a little. Today I also made four paravane winches. Below is a photo of all the bits.

I think most items here can be recognized. In the front are the grey paravanes and the white paravane winches. Those are scratch built. The two boats at the front left are to go on davits outboard of the cranes. But I might replace them. I think they should be whaleboats but these look more like gigs - narrow cutters with a square transom. But they were the best looking rowing boats I could find among spares.
     And below is a photo of nearly everything dry fitted.

     Can anyone spot my glaringly obvious deliberate (🤪 yeah right) error? I only just noticed it myself as I fitted everything together for the photo. I'll keep you all in suspense until the next post, or until someone identifies it.
     I've still got a lot more fiddly stuff to do - bollards, vents, hawser reels, depth charge rails etc. I'm on a deadline for this. Two weeks and one day. I'd like to finish the model by Friday evening 30th April, in time for the WASMEx show here. So I'd better stop yakking and get on with it. Plus fix my mistake.
     So stay safe, and regards to all, Jeff.

[S-boat 55]

Apologies what's is WASMex?

[Modelholic]

Apologies what's is WASMex?

It's a Western Australia model show.

As for the 'deliberate mistake' (yeh)

The models facing the wrong way! The bow should be to  the left.

Like the placement of the 4" gun shelters though.

I just love your 1/600 work.

Tom

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, yes it's the West Australian Scale Model Expo and it's being held in two weeks.

Actually I've made two mistakes, both easily corrected. Tom, you're close in a way - the two large inboard motor boats should be facing the other way, facing forwards. They're dry fitted at present, not a problem. What I was referring to last night was the aft turrets - compare their colours with their barbettes. I painted the turrets the wrong colours. I've since repainted them.

     The 4-inch gun crew shelters are molded as completely enclosed whereas they're open facing inboard. It's not obvious in the photo but I've opened them up. Today I plan to do more of the fiddly bits to busy up the build.

   So thanks for your interest. Stay safe, and regards to all, Jeff.

[robgizlu]

Looking great Jeff

Rob

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, well HMS Jamaica is well and truly screwed. By that I mean she has her screws (propellers) fitted. I've pretty much done the ends of the ship now.

Firstly, the bows (sharp end) -

     I've done hawser reels, vents, bollards, and on 'B' turret deck two paravane recovery winches also (those blue things with the shiny copper warping drums). The hole at the extreme left of the photo is where I'll be fitting a paravane, and another 'round the corner' of the superstructure. As usual close up photos show my rough workmanship. When I built HMS York a couple of years ago I had plans of the actual ship to work off. When I did HMS Ulysses (a near HMS Bellona class whiff) I had plans of HMS Black Prince to work off also. For this build I have plans for a sistership, HMS Fiji in 1943, not Jamaica. The structure of the ship would be the same or very similar I'd imagine, but the stowage of equipment such as paravanes, hawser reels etc may vary between ships so I've had to wing it a bit here.
    As I've said I've made bollards for the model but you'll notice there aren't any fairleads. Those on this kit were simply solid rectangles of plastic, not very good, so I removed them. I don't know yet if I can make some, probably not. Oh well .  .  .

   And the stern (blunt end) -

     And again I've done bollards, vents, hawser reels and winches, plus a rack of depth charges and in front of those a skylight. I don't know how many depth charges Jamaica carried in the rack but six appears to be about the normal for RN light cruisers. I've also added a kit capstan (that round thing in the middle of the quarterdeck) and the screws. These are from a Belfast kit and are a bit big I think. They're for a bigger ship (HMS Belfast was over a third larger in tonnage I think) but these are the best and closest in size that I have. The HMS Tiger screws were not very good, plus you erroneously only get two, not four.
     As you can see I have to touch up the paint a bit.
Well, that's it for tonight. Thank you again for your interest. Stay safe, and regards to all, Jeff.

[Modelholic]

She's lookin good.

I've heard RN (and possibly other navies) used depth charges to signal via noise of DC and asdics when out of visual range (Probably, just guessing, something along the lines of 'When you get to co-ordinates ??XYZ drop a charge to tell the flag').

I've made fairleads from styrene strip (in 350) 2 small drill holes joined by cutting an inverted 'T'  then shaped on the outer edges. Didn't use them in the end but they looked okish.

Tom

[beefy66]

Looking good Jeff and so is the ship.  

 

Details are really starting to build up now.  👍

 

Stay Safe

beefy

[steve5]

looking good AA .

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Guys, thanks for your comments and interest, much appreciated. Tom I haven't heard that myself but I guess it's a way of sending an acknowledgement or compliance of instructions without breaking radio silence. I can't imagine the fish enjoyed it much. RN warships up to heavy cruisers carried depth charges, and I would hardly think of them as ideal sub chasers.

      I'm having a go at making fairleads by drilling out 1.6mm rod into a tube, crushing said tube a little then gluing it to a bit of styrene strip. I'll see what they look like tomorrow.

Anyway, time for my beauty sleep, so stay safe and regards to all, Jeff.

[longshanks]

Coming together nicely Jeff

 

Kev

[Chewbacca]

On 20/04/2021 at 17:25, Modelholic said:

She's lookin good.

I've heard RN (and possibly other navies) used depth charges to signal via noise of DC and asdics when out of visual range (Probably, just guessing, something along the lines of 'When you get to co-ordinates ??XYZ drop a charge to tell the flag').

I've made fairleads from styrene strip (in 350) 2 small drill holes joined by cutting an inverted 'T'  then shaped on the outer edges. Didn't use them in the end but they looked okish.

Tom

Not something I've ever heard of either I'm afraid.  Problem with that is how do you determine whether the loud UW bang is the signal or from something unrelated.  There's a lot of acoustic noise in wartime!  

 

I agree with that method of scratching fairleads in 1/600 although I tend to use 20 thou styrene sheet cut into a strip1.2 mm wide (for cruisers, slightly smaller for FF/DD).  Key thing though is todrill the holes before you cut the strip!  For 1/350 I 3D print them now.

 

15 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

I can't imagine the fish enjoyed it much.

 

Last time I did a live DC drop as we were running in for the "hot" run, we saw a small shoal of tuna fish.  Let's just say that the wooden periscope target that our shipwright had made for us to aim at survived to fight another day and the ship's company dined on tuna steak for a couple of days!  My CO was fuming with me, the Supply Officer, Chief Cook and most of the Ship's Company loved it.

 

Coming along really nicely Jeff.  Good luck with getting it complete for WASMEx.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

18 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Not something I've ever heard of either I'm afraid.  Problem with that is how do you determine whether the loud UW bang is the signal or from something unrelated.  There's a lot of acoustic noise in wartime!  

Gidday, I guess you could drop a pattern and spell out a Morse Code message. A rather expensive way of signaling I'd imagine. And an equally expensive way of fishing, but I guess the end justifies the means (sometimes), and a well fed crew is usually a happy crew. 😀

     If I get time I'll have a go at your method of fairleads too. The ones I'm doing (put on hold till the end of the build) are trials.

Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Looking forward to seeing this one in the flesh Jeff! 👍

[Modelholic]

Chewbacca,

Maybe it was a pre-war thing when things were quieter (and I can't imagine the Asdic of that time would 'hear' as much ambient noise as a modern sonar)

I can't remember where I heard that reason for DCs on cruisers from.

I do seem to remember It was a web forum discussion albeit some time ago.

Perhaps Navweapons or the Naval History Archives. 

Tom

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, just a quick post on HMS Jamaica. Today I glued the structures to the model. Everything you see is attached except the two searchlight tubs near the aft superstructure. I was going to glue them too but noticed that they'll be awfully close I think to the mainmast tripod legs. So tomorrow I plan to start working on the masts, particularly the mainmast.

What is also visible in this view is the cutout of the inside face of the 4-inch gun crew shelters.
     Well, that's it for tonight. More to come soon. So, stay safe and regards to all, Jeff.

[Martian]

This is starting to look rather majestic Jeff.

 

Martian 👽

[BICKERTON]

Hello Jeff,

 

Congratulations, very well done. You are progressing fast !

I see from the WIP picture hou have posted that you use HUMBROL colours.

Not always easy to find the right humbrol equivalents for R.N. WWII colours...

Would you plesase kindly tell me what the humbrol colours are for 1,2,3, and 4 below ?

Many thanks !

Look forward to seing your beautiful JAMAICA completed.

Best regards

 

Alai

 

 

[robgizlu]

Great looking paint finish

Rob

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Guys, thank you all for your comments and interest.

The colours are   1 - Hu73 I think. I didn't record the colours when I first started the build, and the hull was done several months ago, before the build got put on hold and tins put aside (and jumbled) while I did two other models. But I'm pretty certain.

                           2 - Hu79

                           3 - Hu147   a very light grey. It looks almost white, until compared with white.

                           4 - Hu27           And in case you forgot to ask, the mid grey I've used (fwd funnel etc) is Hu64 and the planked timber quarterdeck is Hu71(satin).

     I'm a little dubious about Humbrol shades now, particularly blues and greys. I think they get them mixed up and often the paint in the tin doesn't match the colour of the tin lid. For example, a tin of Hu27 used on a previous build turned out to be almost black. And the blue on the hull is Revell Re56. I thought Hu96 would be good but when I went to buy a tin the lids were grey, and different shades of grey at that. HTH.     Regards, Jeff.

[BICKERTON]

Hi Jeff,

 

Many thanks for your quick answer to my questions. Now, I know...and it helps.

I fully share your views about Humbrol. They have quite an impressive range of colours to choose from but, surprisingly enough, the true colour inside the tin often fails to match that of the tin lid. What is more, the colour is quite far away from the colour showed on the available colour palette you can find on the web-

Sometimes, I venture in making drawings and simulations in my computer, based on available colour palettes but it can only give a rough idea of what the true result might be...

I am now busy investigating HMS BICKERTON K466, August 1944 camo scheme and this is where I got to with Rob and Jamie's help.

 

Any comments and pieces of advice always welcome..

Take care

Regards

 

P.S. another question: what sort of material do you use for the rigging of your ( beautiful)  models ?