HMS La Malouine - K46, 1942 PQ-17 convoy

[Starspell]

Dear BM hive-mind,

I have been asked by a friend (my window cleaner actually) to consider building building HMS La Malouine for him as a memorial to his grandfather who served aboard her during WW2 and the PQ17 convoy.

 

I have found a 1:72 HMS Snowberry model as a base to start from but I am struggling to find any sort of decent picture of her to be able to see the differences between the Snowberry and La Malouine as I'd like to be as accurate as reasonably possible given my limited abilities and having never attempted a ship before.

 

Is there anyone who might have or know of such picture(s) that will help me out.

 

Thanks

Steve

[europapete]

Hiya, While I dig through my Flower Class refs, see if you can find a copy of the book "P.Q. 17" by Godfrey Winn. Hutchinson & Co. ( Publishers) Ltd. 

Printed around 1946/47.  It is a first hand account of PQ 17. The author served aboard the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Pozarica. 

[europapete]

For a history of HMS La Malouine, go to UBoat.net and put the ships name in the search box.

[Starspell]

Thanks for that Europapete, have looked on UBoat.net and can find La Malouine....but no images  and a decent couple of images is what I'm really after so I can see the major differences between it and the Snowberry.

[europapete]

yep, still getting that stuff together. Also check out Great Little Ships for all the flower class detail sets. There are 3 of the PQ 17 books available on Amazon. 

[europapete]

https://imgur.com/60yCsCV

[europapete]

[europapete]

[europapete]

I hope these help. Moderators, I found these images on a google search, so I presume they are public. 

[europapete]

I presume you have the Matchbox/Revell 1/72 kit. This is a very good base from which you can go all the way from OOB to Museum quality and beyond. OOB makes up a basically detailed but rather chunky model. Basic model skills refinement improves matters nicely, such as reducing the hull plate thickness, getting rid of the fictitious keel, thinning the stem and bulwark rails, moving the scuttles to their correct places, thinning braces and supports, reducing the oversize "wood" planking, adding detail inside the wheelhouse, and so forth. To go further, see Dave Parkins's website at Great Little Ships and look at all the detail sets he has. Excellent quality, VERY GOOD customer service, and if you have any Q's, just ask him. Basically, you keep the hull and main superstructure then replace everything else with his sets. To take the detailing further still, or to change to a short forecastle boat takes some scratch building. Luckily, your choice of boat is an easy build from the kit. She is a long foc's'le boat at the time of PQ17, the bridge and radar setup is the same as the kit, you need to leave off the 5" gun shield. A short list of references include Anatomy of the ship series, Flower Class Corvette Agassiz, John McKay and John Harland, ISBN 9-780-85177-975-1   Flower Class Corvettes, John Lambert and Les Brown ISBN 978-1-84832-001-7.  ( if you get only one book, make it this one!)   Warship Perspectives Flower Class Corvettes in WW2. John Lambert. WR Press Inc. NY. 1999. no ISBN in my copy. (?)  Give the ISBN numbers to your local library first, see if they can find them for you, save a few $$$.  If you have any Q's, just ask me. Also check out Modelwarships.com and google the flower class corvette forum. Be forewarned, this is an addictive model that will suck you in. The more you research, the more detail you will want to add, and the scale makes that possible. The design of the ship means that the extra detail WILL be seen. I reccomend that you find out as much as you can about your friends Grandfather.  Ask your friend, get him involved in the research about the ship and the convoy, he will enjoy it too, and learn about his family. ( I did this a number of years ago with a workmate albeit with a 139 SQN Blenheim, 1/48th Scale, built as his dads actual a/c, and had pics of it to get 100% accurate, and he presented the model to his father) Start by putting him onto the PQ17 book, while you start the basic research into the ship. Regards, Pete in RI

Ps, As you have probably guessed, I do have this kit and most all of the available accessories. Over the next few days I will study the photos of both Snowberry and LaMalouine and we can discuss the differences. 

Edited October 26, 2020 by europapete
added info

[Starspell]

@europapete Thanks a bunch, these should go some way to helping me out. Does any of your notes suggest the hull color scheme?

[europapete]

Will look at that, it's nice that we have shots of both sides so we can see they are the same pattern. Get the paints from Soverign Hobbies, they are the only accurate RN colours out there. 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Without a shadow of a doubt, that's a typical 2-colour Western Approaches scheme. The hull is essentially the standardised design offered on plate 23 of Confidential Admiralty Fleet Order 679/42. Camouflage details on that standardised design on the upperworks are less obvious and may have been omitted in this case.  but on closer inspection they are there. This looks to be a textbook example of Plate 23.

[europapete]

Thank you Jamie, that is excellent news and makes life easier. You had better get a paint order ready for Steve! lol. Regards, Pete in RI

[europapete]

Steve, talk to Jamie about everything colour related. 

[Starspell]

Will do, thanks.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Verticals are white with Western Approaches Light Blue. Athwartships verticals are white as is crow's nest, yards etc. Undersides of all horizontals would be white to minimise shadow. Camouflage is painted down over the boot topping composition to the waterline. Underwater hull colour on Flowers was typically black. Pendant number should be MS3 or equal parts mix of 507A and 507C. CAFO679/42 gave no instructions for deck painting on Western Approaches schemes. I'd expect wood planking to be left along and steel decking to be painted with standard non-slip paints. Possibly MS3, but it would be difficult to prove plain old grey wrong.

[europapete]

Thanks Jamie! 

[Starspell]

Quick question Jamie,

You mention above Western Approaches Light Blue, on your web site you have "Colourcoats NARN38 - 1940-1943 Western Approaches Blue"  not a light blue. Is this the one you mean?

 

Steve

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Steve, it's the same thing. Its full and formal name was Western Approaches Light Blue, sometimes called "Peter Scott Blue" and sometimes just "Western Approaches Blue".

 

Its a pale pastel blue based on Ultramarine and white pigments.

[Starspell]

Thanks Jamie 👍

Just googling some of the terminology you mention above........not a clue what most of it means as I have never modelled or been in to ships before so will be a steep learning curve.

Athwartships verticals - boot topping composition to the waterline...........the mind boggles !!

 

Steve

[europapete]

lol....wait until you have to see the doctor about rusted up gunnels without your wife finding out! 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Oops!

 

Athwartships is basically across-the-ways. The camouflage was painted on the sides, but surfaces in the vertical plane, called bulkheads on a ship or "walls" on land that ran across the ship rather than along its length are the athwartships verticals.

 

The boot topping was a strip of special anti-corrosive compound painted in a stripe down the ship deep enough to cover where the waterlines could be at light or heavy loads. Usually it was black. The RN referred to it as a "composition" though rather than simply paint as it did have special properties.

 

The waterline is wherever the water physically comes up to. The Western Approaches camouflage, based upon very light tone paints, was to be painted down over the top of the black boot topping anti-corrosive stuff until the paint brushes reached the water. How long said paint job would last once the ship got underway is something else entirely but nevertheless, whereas on e.g. Home Fleet battleships painted dark grey you'd always see the neatly painted boot topping strip above the water, on a Western Approaches camouflage scheme the top portion of the boot topping would always be painted over to some extent but seldom would the white or blue transition to black in a perfectly neat line. It may be imperfectly painted, or wave-action from the water may have straightened it but given a slightly blurred transition where the white gets worn off differently at different heights, but it would virtually never be perfectly neat and crisp.

 

The pendant number is the K46 written on the hull. It identifies the ship to the fleet.

[europapete]

Did you collect the kit ok today Steve? 

[Starspell]

Yes, I collected it around lunchtime. Thread is up in ship WIP maritime forum now.

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by Starspell
typo changes - added link to thread