HMS Renown in 1/700...options

[Courageous]

Hi Peeps,

Some of you may know that I served on submarine HMS Courageous (SSN) and have posted here on BM about my options of building submarine, cruiser and carrier.

You may not know that I also served on submarine HMS Renown (SSBN).

Renown looks a bit more promising with kits available, Combrig's battleship Renown of 1897 and Trumpeter's Renown of 1945. I believe @Chris Hewitt and @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies started/ finished this kit and was wondering about accuracy? Is Trumpeter's offering accurate enough for Renown, even if it's not 1945? If it is, can it be back dated to build interwar and as built(ish)? If so little of the kit can be used, I'm not afraid of scratching if that's the better option. Pointers to useable AM would also be useful.

 

Stuart

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi Stuart. I never finished mine but got reasonably far along. I don't recall any major issues with it except that you should build it waterline. The kit includes a lower hull but I had to cut 3mm out of the middle of mine to make it the same length of ship as the upper hull.

[Courageous]

57 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

build it waterline.

This my intention, so no major issues from your view, thanks.

On another note, do wooden deck replacements work at this scale re thickness?

 

 

Stuart

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Personally I find them a bit on the thick side. Infini Model makes some nice "ultrathin" ones but the breadth of subjects is quite narrow and doesn't include Renown which is a shame because they are actually very good.

 

[Chris Hewitt]

Hi Stuart 

                    To back date Renown 1945 to before she was rebuilt would take a lot of scratch building.Only company I found that did Renown before rebuild is a company called NNT.Here is my Renown as she was in 1945 ,the kit is correct I just painted her as she was in 1945.There is a good piece of real coloured film of Renown in 1945 on youtube .I find the wooden decks great, if you check ships there was always a difference in depth between were a wooden deck and the steel deck on warships . 

 

 

Link to the company ,this kit will be very hard to found these days ,but watch ebay ,they do pop up.

 https://www.scalemates.com/kits/nnt-modell-buch-70010-hms-renown-1916--105649

A good build of the NNT kit 

http://www.modellmarine.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4659:britischer-schlachtkreuzer-hms-renown-1700-nnt-von-norbert-thiel&catid=125:nthiel

Link to youtube 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=british+pacific+far+eastern+fleet

 

Chris

 

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Chris Hewitt

[Courageous]

4 hours ago, Chris Hewitt said:

would take a lot of scratch building.

Thanks for stopping by Chris. I have been keeping an eye out for the NNT offering, 'hens teeth' comes to mind. Looks like its one 'for' and one 'against' for the decking. Thanks for the links. Need to get stuck the research me thinks.

Have read some builds that AM barrels and PE is the way to go for the enhancements.

 

Stuart

[Courageous]

Thought I'd bump this.

Now in the possession of a 1945 Renown, a 1942 Renown and two HMS Repulse kits, PE winging its way,

I have a question on barrels. I plan on using barrels from Master but it looks like they produce 2 types for Renown/Repulse, with blastbags and without...you can see a difference in the barrel.

Can anyone tell me what barrels were used and when as I'm not sure what I'm looking at when looking at photo's...I'm a submariner, what do I know?

 

Stuart

[Chris Hewitt]

Hi Stuart 

                 I used blue tak is very easy to use and takes paint well ,I must have use master barrels 15in, no bag blast covers,it's quite a few years since a built Renown  ,here is a picture of one of the barrel in blue tak.

 

[Chris Hewitt]

2 minutes ago, Chris Hewitt said:

Hi Stuart 

                 I used blue tak is very easy to use and takes paint well ,I must have use master barrels 15in, no bag blast covers,it's quite a few years since a built Renown  ,here is a picture of one of the barrel in blue tak on A turret.

 

 

[Courageous]

Hi Chris @Chris Hewitt, thanks for the response but I'm still a little confused with the barrels.

Why does Master produce two different barrel sets for Renown/Repulse?

Now I know what I'm looking at, confirmed by your pic, as far as I can tell, Renown has always had blast bags or am I missing something?

 

Stuart

[Chris Hewitt]

Hi Stuart 

                  I know why,it came to me, one of the kits must have blast bags ,it's the Tamiya Repulse kit c ,so you cut just the barrel off and drill a hole and fit the shorter barrel ,that why they sell 2 types ;Here is a picture stole of the net.

                                

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by Chris Hewitt

[Courageous]

7 minutes ago, Chris Hewitt said:

Tamiya Repulse kit

Better look at my kits then, they're Trumpeter kits.

 

Stuart

[michaele]

Here is another option for you:

 

https://twitter.com/maido2010jp/status/1449242923954958345?s=21

 

HTH,

 

Mike E.

[Courageous]

17 hours ago, michaele said:

Here is another option for you:

Thanks Mike, I wasn't aware of this kit but it looks like this kit, together with HMS Courageous resin kits are in the world of 'hens teeth'  

 

Stuart

[hj1985]

my 2 cents here.

 

"During hostilities Renown received Radars 271, 282, 284 and 285 in 1941, and six 20mm were fitted. By the autumn of 1942 ten more 20mm had been added and the 0.5in MGs landed. During a refit from 22 February to 9 June 1943, the ship was given an additional thirteen twin and three single 20mm, and the complete aircraft installation was removed. From December 1943 to January 1944 at Rosyth, she received a four-barrelled 2pdr on 'B' turret, plus seven twin and five single 20mm. In 1945 the torpedo tubes were removed and the forward three twin 4.5in on each beam landed, probably as a weight-saving measure."

 

Revised AA as of final configuration December 1943. 

Source: Maurice P. Northcott Renown and Repulse 1978

See discussions here.

https://forum.worldofwarships.eu/topic/123509-hms-renown-1944/

 

 

I think the AA configuration in Trumpeter 1945 kit is completely wrong.

Edited May 2, 2022 by hj1985

[Tincan_Warspite]

Slightly off-topic but is it just me or is Renown is such a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing ship? In my opinion she had the cleanest lines out of all the RN capital ships in WW2 (the KGV and QE refits are 2nd and 3rd respectively). Only the hypothetical artistic renderings of a "WI: HMS Hood refit" beats Renown.