Mojo restart, with added Clogs: 1/350 Hr. Ms. Bloys van Treslong, Naval Models

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Those of you who know me have already heard about the ludicrous Crisp medical story of 2021, which meant that Ark Royal and P-38F builds ground to a shattering halt for most of the year.

 

Finally, however, I am in a position to start building again, but I find that my mojo to pick up exactly where I left off is wobbly - ironic, given the fact that the P-38 was itself a build kicked off by medical emergencies.  After a few days of desultory re-planning and gentle sanding of Ark boats, I have decided to do something completely different.  A few of you possibly spotted where I was going when I asked for reference photos just before Christmas (thanks, Evert-Jan!), but for those who didn’t…

At Telford I spent a happy half hour talking to the two lovely Dutch guys from Naval Models, and acquired one of their lovely 1/350 S-Klasse / Kortenaer Class “Standard” frigates.  My best Naval friend (I’ve been his Best Man… twice!) is a Dutch officer who did an exchange tour in HMS Broadsword when I was Flight Commander in 1989-1991; he will be 60 in a couple of months, so this his present, and will be built as Hr.Ms. Bloys v. Treslong, the ship he joined when he returned to the Koninklijke Marine (Royal Dutch Navy) after his time with us.

 

The kit is very similar in style and quality to Atlantic Models’ RN kits - resin with PE.  I’ll be building her pretty much OOB, though I’d say the kit’s main (only major) weakness is the fact that it lacks railings or flight deck nets… so I’ve added one of Pete’s generic “Modern RN railings” sets.  And a Master brass barrel for the OTO-Melara gun, cos brass barrels always look better than resin.

 

I actually started 5 or 6 days ago, but so far (as with all resin kits) it’s been wall-to-wall sanding to remove some pretty chunky casting plugs, so nothing interesting to show you.

 

Anyway…

The hull, cast in one piece (I’ve sanded away some of the bow-mounted sonar dome to give a bit of stability - she’ll be in a sea scape):

 

Details of Fo’c’s’le:

 

…and Quarterdeck:

…in both cases showing some clean-up still needed but excellent quality casting.

 

The various superstructure sections after several hours of work to remove casting blocks:

 

Plus closer view of bridge:

 

…funnel area without and with turbine downtake section (which was different in different ships of the class, so not cast in one piece);

 

…and the aforementioned OTO-Melara 76mm gun with the Master barrel (plus resin shell case ejector carefully shaved from the resin part):

 

…and finally the Goalkeeper CIWS - half-way through building this I realised that the Airfix Lusty has Goalkeepers which are unused in my Ark 5 build, and their barrels are rather nice, especially with added PE bling:

 

So that’s the story so far.

 

Nice to be back.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

 

[beefy66]

Looking forward to this will pull up a chair and follow along looks like a very nice subject choice.  

 

Stay Safe

beefy

[JohnWS]

 

John

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Small steps;

 

76mm OTO-Melara gun:

 

Goalkeeper CIWS getting closer - to be completed once the Gator’s Grip on the brass around the barrels is properly dry (needs some Airfix styrene removed first - the bit that the tweezers are gripping):

 

Elsewhere, still plenty of sanding going on…

 

More soon

 

Crisp

[Courageous]

Nice to see you back Crisp. Looking forward this build of an unknown to me, the detail of the resin looks good.

 

Stuart 

[robgizlu]

And I agree - very good to see you back.  The moulding looks first rate and she certainly looks purposeful

Rob

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

For those unfamiliar with the ships, they look like this:

None still in service with the Dutch, though the Hellenic Navy had two of their own and then bought several more from the Clogs and they’re still going strong as the “Elli” class.  76mm gun [x 2 in this pic, which is the lead ship, Kortenaer herself, early in her life], Harpoon, NATO Sea Sparrow (SAM), Goalkeeper CIWS (on the hangar roof, in place of the second 76mm), and a Lynx.  A capable all-round package.
 

The FGN had the Bremen class which were essentially the same design.  Our closest equivalent was probably the Batch 3 Type 22s.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday,post WW2 ships aren't my forte but to me these certainly look capable and purposeful. Regards, Jeff.

[Alpha Juliet]

On 28/12/2021 at 17:51, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

.... exchange tour in HMS Broadsword when I was Flight Commander in 1989-1991

Hi Crisp - glad to hear you are on the mend.  Did you did you do a Falklands tour whilst aboard HMS Broadsword?  I had a six months posting to JSSU (FI) and we did a two week exercise on her - I have very fond memories of that time!

 

Adrian

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

1 hour ago, Alpha Juliet said:

Hi Crisp - glad to hear you are on the mend.  Did you did you do a Falklands tour whilst aboard HMS Broadsword?  I had a six months posting to JSSU (FI) and we did a two week exercise on her - I have very fond memories of that time!

 

Adrian

I did two (or one-and-a-half, anyway); I joined BW in Falkland Sound having flown down via Crabair Tristar in October 89.  We were due to go to the Gulf on Armilla Patrol (as it was at the time) in 91, but the Powers That Be must have had an inkling that things were hotting up and at some point in 90 our 91 programme was swapped with our sister ship Brilliant.  Brillo went to the Gulf (and her Flight Commander a well-earned DSC) and we went back South, albeit via a period helping to work up US ships heading for the Gulf [in a place no-one had ever heard of at the time called Guantanamo Bay].  The swap was because Brillo had a more modern and capable jammer fit than Broadsword, so they must have known that the risk of war was going up; the ships were otherwise identical.
 

I think we got the better of the deal (DSC or no DSC); the flying in the Falklands was second-to-none with virtually no rules and complete autonomy when away from the ship and/or Mount Pleasant (plus I got to fly in the back seat of an F4; we had a great relationship with the Toom guys).  Besides, I am a Falkland veteran (Fearless in 1982 as a very junior 22-year-old S/Lt pre-flying training), so the islands have a major place in my life - I absolutely love the place.  I’m still trying to find a way to get my wife out there; as a keen bird-watcher she would be bowled over by the islands.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Goalkeeper CIWS finished:

 

Time to move onto the Long Range Air Search radar (some Phillips job whose name escapes me - anyway, the big black thing on that lattice tower aft).  This is the first use of the kit’s PE, and I think it passes muster OK.  The brass is thicker than many, so you need to use proper tools to bend it (but that’s a good idea anyway) - but on the other hand this means that once folded it feels quite robust.  This is 3 parts; the triangle near the base, the X shape in-filling on the right in the first picture, and the platform with legs attached.  A resin platform sits on top of this, and then the radar itself.

 

Finally, all three parts so far attempted (resin radar platform dry fitted), with Swann Morton blade for scale:

Handling all this tiny brass etc is warming the mojo up nicely; I’m starting to remember how to do this!

 

More soon

 

Crisp

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

…and further progress with the radar itself:

 

[The lattice tower playing “dead ants” in the pic above] - and below dry fitted where it will eventually sit.  Provided you follow the instructions EXACTLY, it seems to fit very nicely.

 

More soon

 

Crisp

[perdu]

If I knew what you were doing I know I'd enjoy it no less.

 

I like the back story and the inwards story too, I am enjoying the entire story so far...

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Air Search radar complete (though not yet glued to lattice mast):

 

Now moving onto the NATO Sea Sparrow launcher (3 parts, foreground), Lynx and (background, still attached to runner) Harpoon launchers:

 

Happy New Year, everyone.  Anything that doesn’t involve trips to A&E will be an improvement on 2021, so fingers crossed!

 

Crisp

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Less to show today; the Lynx has progressed the most, plus gradually cleaning up the Harpoons (the close-up is unforgiving!):

 

One of my very few criticisms of the kit is the fact that there are some large trenches in the flight deck to show deck markings (despite some nice looking decals) - so out with the Mr Surfacer 1000, though made more complicated by the fact that the engraving of the deck grid is really nice so needs protection:

 

Rest of the day taken up with a little aviation history with a New Year’s Day walk to Calshot Castle (RAF High Speed Flight, Reginald Mitchell, Tommy Sopwith, Schneider Trophy, Laurence of Arabia, Lady Houston etc.)

More soon

 

Crisp

[Micha_Pol]

I am in no way familiar with post-1914 ships, but this seems to come along nicely. The radar dish is a great piece of PE-Folding, well-done! The actual resin parts do not look too appealing, esp. the big ones. I honestly think the less small stuff comes attached to the large parts, the cleaner the casting and the easier the painting. The vertical ladders look especially rough and out of scale. I have a Combrig "Depius de Lome" (still in the box, sigh) and there almost everything is seperate, the hull and superstructure bits are just flat, bare blocks of resin. But it´s a matter of taste I presume. Anyway, best of luck with the build.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I think you’re partly right, but some of it comes from the unforgiving nature of close up pictures.  To the naked eye the parts look fine - and as a mojo builder, for once this build will not see me disappearing down rabbit holes to replace all the ladders with PE.  Been there, got the Ark T-shirt!

 

Today, one NATO Sea Sparrow launcher & associated tracking radar:

 

The rest of the modelling day was spent having a right go at my man cave - something that needs to happen every few months lest I disappear under chaos!

 

More soon

 

Crisp

[Iceman 29]

Is the photo taken before or after? 😜

 

It's much worse in my workshop. 😅

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Definitely after!  You couldn't see any flat surfaces before…

[Iceman 29]

A good resolution of the year 2022 already kept and not the least, you must be the first!  

 

In general, we do not specify the year of excusion..

[Micha_Pol]

The part abouth the ladders was just an example. And the closeup thing is all too true, stuff that looks great in your hand sometimes looks atrocious in camera.. sigh. I just prefer to paint stuff seperately, that´s all. Your build is coming along nicely. Your worplace looks great BTW.

[hendie]

It looks like your Mojo is back in abundance Crisp. (You may want to bottle some and send it over Ced's way).

 

Great to see you back at the bench

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 1/3/2022 at 2:10 PM, Micha_Pol said:

The part abouth the ladders was just an example. And the closeup thing is all too true, stuff that looks great in your hand sometimes looks atrocious in camera.. sigh. I just prefer to paint stuff seperately, that´s all.

Me too; my other ship builds are probably evidence that I am not exactly inclined to leave things alone if there is an option to improve them (replacing several hundred scuttles and all the weld seams on the Merit Ark Royal, for example).  For this build, however, because it’s designed to kickstart my mojo I am trying really hard not to disappear down any rabbit holes of super-detailing and/or improving accuracy.  
 

I want to finish it fast (by my standards!) and mostly OOB unless quick & obvious improvements are around - e.g. using a Master brass gun barrel for the OTO Melara; improving the Goalkeeper by incorporating redundant parts from my Ark 5 build (Lusty had Goalkeeper, but Ark had Phalanx); replacing the kit’s OK Lynx with a significantly better Atlantic Models offering.  I am adding brass guardrails and flight deck nets (from Atlantic’s generic RN set); I know Dutch rails & nets aren’t identical, but I haven’t found any Kon. Marine stuff - it’s a pretty niche market!

 

All those can be done easily.  You are right about the ladders (some of them, anyway), but if I set off down the road of removing them and replacing them with PE, I’ll be adding time & complexity to the build, which on this occasion I don’t want. 
 

There’s also the issue of references; I don’t have plans of a Kortenaer class ship (which I do for all other ships I build), and detail photographs are hard to find (& in any case you then get into the differences between individual ships of the class, changes over time, etc.).  I have no idea what I’m going to do about the rig; find the best pics I can and interpret plausibly, I guess.

 

So I am basically having to assume that the kit is broadly accurate - Google Translate has done a superb job with the instructions - and build it as well as I can.  There was a built version on the Naval Models’ stand at Telford which looked excellent (which is what attracted my eye in the first place), so if it looks rubbish at the end, then the fault is mine!

 

On this occasion, that will have to do.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

One of the Kortenaer class’s most distinctive features is this weird W-shaped ESM job at the head of the main mast

…provided in brass, but in a pretty challenging form, with 4 pieces of brass (2 on either side) that only touch at the tips - hard to explain.  Anyway, I thought the only way to deliver any kind of strength was to solder it, and i haven’t done any micro-soldering like this for aeons.

 

Anyway… I think it’s worked!  An awful lot of preparation and very careful positioning with Blu-Tac in order to deliver the tiny blob of solder visible at the tip.  Other side done too, but not pictured.  Clean-up tomorrow!

P.S.  this is bloody TINY

 

C

 

 

[Brandy]

Nice to see you back on form Crisp. I know bugger all about ships other than they float, but still interesting!

 

Ian