1/350 HMS BULOLO Scratch Build

[Chewbacca]

HMS BULOLO was originally built in 1938 by Clyde shipbuilders Barclay, Curle & Company Limited as MV BULOLO for the Philp Burns Line, a passenger/cargo/mail vessel operating between Sydney, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.  She was taken up from trade in the weeks immediately following the outbreak of WW2 and converted to an Armed Merchant cruiser equipped with 6 inch and 3 inch guns plus a depth charges and a wide range of close range AA weapons.  From January 1940 to March 1942 she operated on convoy protection duties between South Africa, South America and UK, based mainly out of Freetown in Sierra Leone.

 

In March 1942 she was converted for a second time to an amphibious headquarters ship.  Most of the long(er) range armament was stripped off and in its place went a complex communications array for land, air and maritime comms.  This was an idea supposedly originated by the then head of Combined Operations, Commodore Mountbatten and after conversion, BULOLO deployed to the Mediterranean where she was employed coordinating the landings in North Africa, Sicily and Anzio.  She returned to UK and was then modified again with an upgrade communications suite for Operation Overlord where she was the headquarters ship for Gold beach in Normandy.

 

After Normandy, BULOLO was updated yet again for operations in the Far East and in early 1945 deployed East of Suez with the Eastern Fleet, later to become part of the Sea East Asia Command flying the flag of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten as Supreme Allied Commander.  During this time BULOLO was the coordinating unit for the British operations in Malaya, Borneo and Burma.  She was alongside in Singapore on 12th September 1945 when Lord Louis accepted the Japanese surrender.  She remained in the Far East until December 1946 when she returned to the UK and was decommissioned and handed back to Philp Burns Ltd in whose hands she did sterling service in the Pacific for 22 years.

 

So why BULOLO?  At the outbreak of WW2, my father was just finishing his apprenticeship as an electrical engineer working for one of the UK's leading suppliers of switchgear to enable power stations to keep the electricity flowing to industry and as such he was barred from military service because his skills were deemed to be a reserved occupation.  He tried to join the Navy many time in the early years of the war and every time his employer successfully prevented it.  Eventually, in late 1943, with the effects of the Luftwaffe diminishing, he was finally allowed to join up and after basic and some trade training, he passed out but owing to his experience was immediately promoted to Petty Officer Electrical Artificer, despite only being 21 years old.  He joined BULOLO as she was preparing to deploy East of Suez and remained onboard until he was demobbed in December 46 when she returned to UK.  At some point during those 2 years, he was promoted to Chief Petty Officer.

 

He also spoke fondly of his time in "the mob" and loved the time he spent in BULOLO.  He would have liked to transfer to regular RN but his former bosses had already been pushing to get him back - after all there was still lots of electrical repair/replacement work across the country and they needed the people whom they had trained.  He also spoke extremely highly of Lord Mountbatten. Incidentally there is another family connection in that his father, my grandfather, helped to both build HMS KELLY (which of course was commanded by the then Captain Mountbatten) and rebuild her twice, firstly after she struck a mine near to the mouth of the Tyne and secondly after being torpedoed in Norwegian waters.

 

And so the model.  Well, there is no kit that I could find that even vaguely resembles her for conversion and precious little detail.  There are only about a dozen photos of her in military service but not really enough to build from.  But based on that I drew up some plans and set to work as part of the Pacific War Group Build; 

It was pretty obvious that I was not going to be able to finish a 1/350 scratch built ship with minimal plans in 3 months and so in January 2019 i transferred it to work in progress:

 

I've learnt a huge amount from this build, both about BULOLO herself, my own scratch-building ability and the helpfulness of fellow BMers without whose encouragement, advice and useful pointers I would probably have scrapped this long ago.

 

So as a tribute to my father, who sadly is no longer with us, I present to you HMS BULOLO as she appeared in the East  Indies Fleet in 1945 just prior to the Japanese surrender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies for the poor depth of field in some of these.  The light was fading so i may try to re-take them tomorrow with full sunlight to close up the aperture.

Edited September 25, 2020 by Chewbacca
Photos updated

[JohnWS]

Great Job!  

 

A historic & unique ship, & a fun build to follow.

 

Your father's experience joining the Navy was similar to my Dad's.  He was a 21 year old toolmaker by trade, entering the RCN as a Petty Officer Engine Room Artificer.

 

John

[Bandsaw Steve]

Congratulations on this great bit of work. 👍

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Chewy, congratulations on your completion. You've done a superb model and a very fitting tribute to your father. Regards, Jeff.

[longshanks]

A wonderful piece of nostalgia beautifully put together.

One to be proud of

 

Kev

[Viking]

Superb scratchbuilding, looks better than a lot of kits. Very interesting back story and great tribute to your dad.

 

Cheers

 

John

[robgizlu]

Beautiful tribute - absloutely love the deck clutter and detail, nice seascape.  The pictures currently don't wholly do justice to the hull.

One to be extremely proud of 

Congratulations

Rob

[thorfinn]

Superb in every way, from conception to completion. Beautiful build, and a stunning commemorative of your father's service.

(Excellent sea-scape, as well.)

 

Cheers

[Chewbacca]

Thanks everyone for your kind words.  I have retaken the photos and updated them above to give a better depth of field.

 

Thanks for watching

[phildagreek]

My word, that is impressive work! A cracking build and an interesting story to boot!

[beefy66]

WOW so much detail on show and what a fitting tribute to your farther so much respect for this build to start from nothing but mear plans and a few diagrams. 

 

beefy 

[GrahamB]

Amazing, what a fantastic model. Detail is superb and I like the rigging and rope-work - what did you use for this?

Cheers. GrahamB

[Dancona]

I have been fo;;owing this build avidly, you really have done a remarkable job, the level of fine detail  is superb, and as a scratchbuild as well, no piles of Pontos brass to fall back on, brilliant model !!

 

Cheers

 

David

[Chewbacca]

23 hours ago, GrahamB said:

Amazing, what a fantastic model. Detail is superb and I like the rigging and rope-work - what did you use for this?

Cheers. GrahamB

Thanks Graham.  Most;y Uschi Van Der Rosten superfine with the odd bits of stretched sprue and Albion Alloys 0.1mm Nickel Rod

 

1 hour ago, Dancona said:

I have been fo;;owing this build avidly, you really have done a remarkable job, the level of fine detail  is superb, and as a scratchbuild as well, no piles of Pontos brass to fall back on, brilliant model !!

 

Cheers

 

David

Thanks David.  Watching the stunning work that you have been doing with VICTORIOUS, I'll take that as a definite compliment

 

 

[Bugle07]

An incredible level of skill and attention to detail on display there. Great WIP, surpassed only by the end result! A fitting tribute.

 

Well Done!

 

Geoff

[bissyboat]

Amazing workmanship and a beautiful tribute. ⚓🙌