PK-901 Flower Class Corvette

[Bonhoff]

Hi all,

 

Hopefully 5 months should give me sufficient time to build this...

 

 

It's been in the stash for at least a decade, purchased from the long closed "Domino's Toys" in Leicester, every so often Mrs B brings up the matter of "Why haven't you built it yet?" 

 

Now its time to sort that, a mostly OOB build but I couldn't cope with the kit supplied Oerlikon guns.

 

 

That's better, Great Little Ships 20mm cannon and 2lb pom pom will be added to the mix as well.

 

Hopefully get it started soon.

 

IanJ 

 

[Heather Kay]

Oh, yes! I’m glad someone has entered this kit. Following from the front, as it were!

 

[bigbadbadge]

I so want one of these but the prices now mean it's pretty much out of reach unfortunately   I will be happy to watch yours progress, as not seen one built before.

Good luck with your build. 

Chris

[JOCKNEY]

Great to see this one in the GB, as our Flagship Build ... 

Best of luck with this one.

Cheers Pat 

[Bonhoff]

54 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

Great to see this one in the GB, as our Flagship Build ...

 

No pressure then 😬

 

IanJ 

[PeterB]

It will take a lot of work but this can build up to a truly impressive kit - I almost bought one when it came out but too late now - neither my hands nor eyes are up to it and I don't have the patience these days.

 

Best of luck.

 

Pete

[John]

Looking forward to watching this. 

John 

[stevej60]

6 minutes ago, John said:

Looking forward to watching this. 

John 

I'll second that John!

[Pete in Lincs]

I always wanted one of these donkeys years ago. Not really sure why though. I built Aircraft and cars at the time.

I remember Domino's on the High Street. I bought a few kits there. Then one time I went back & they were gone.

And, I recently read in WW2 memoirs that these Flower class ships were terrible in rough weather.

[Bonhoff]

15 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I recently read in WW2 memoirs that these Flower class ships were terrible in rough weather.

 

The expression used was, I understand, "Rolled on wet grass..."

 

IanJ

[PeterB]

Yes,

 

Based on a Smiths Dock trawler design as I recall and were noted for heavy rolling and being very wet both outside and in - must have been very hard for the crews in bad weather - no hot food, sickening motion and everything wet including the bunks/hammocks. The later, slightly bigger version was perhaps a little better. I guess the original design was meant to be use in the North Sea and maybe up towards Iceland, but the heavy Atlantic swells were not something they were intended for. Nonetheless, in the absence of anything better they did the job as best they could from North America to Murmansk.

 

Pete

[Robert Stuart]

Great to see this kit here.
Wanted to build one since the kits came out, having read about Flower Class corvettes in the Cruel Sea (saw the film too, but the book was more informative).

[Rabbit Leader]

A truly belated welcome to this GB from me @Bonhoff. As you know the three of us have been discussing this Flower Class Corvette entry for quite a while and am so glad you've taken the plunge to enter and make a start. This is Matchbox's most outstanding project and its amazing how truly prolific those kit designers were back in the day. We all wish you the very best bringing this huge and classic kit to the finish line and will be watching on with immense intertest. 

 

Cheers, welcome aboard and best of luck.. Dave 

 

P.S - The real reason Pat and I allowed Bonhoff an early start is that we both want this kit badly, however neither of us has the courage to sneak one past our respective Missus!! 

 

[JOCKNEY]

On 10/01/2022 at 00:15, Robert Stuart said:

Great to see this kit here.
Wanted to build one since the kits came out, having read about Flower Class corvettes in the Cruel Sea (saw the film too, but the book was more informative).

 

Ian

You could try wearing your duffle coat while building it to get you in the mood 

Cheers Pat 

[Davek72]

So looking forward to this one.   I have a 1/350 kit in the stash and have just started reading The Cruel Sea as background.   Pulling up a seat and grabbing some cocoa.

 

Dave

[Bonhoff]

And we're off!

 

Started with some of the upper works rather than the hull - I'm wondering about the rivets that were used to hold the hull plates together.

 

The rivets are dome headed and can be quite noticeable in some photos close up, but less so from a distance, I'm thinking about using my newly acquired riveting tool just to give an impression on the plates rather than going the whole hog.

 

 

 

 

 

I also understand that most of the timber decking detail needs scraping off as the majority of the decks were steel?

 

KR's

 

IanJ 
 

[Bonhoff]

Bit more done - Radar platform has had all the holes drilled out.

 

 

IanJ 
 

[Bonhoff]

Further progress.

 

 

I ran round the hull plates freehand with my riveting tool prior to assembly which only took an hour or so.

 

As you can see, a certain amount of clamping was required.

 

And now a couple of shots where the various subassemblies have been loosely brought together.

 

 

 

Hopefully get a bit more done this weekend.

 

KR's

 

IanJ 
 

[Rabbit Leader]

Great going Ian, that's looking quite massive and a feat in itself just to buckle up the hull sections. I'd bet she's taking up a bit more than the kitchen table! 

Cheers.. Dave  

[Rob S]

On 1/10/2022 at 8:52 AM, Bonhoff said:

 

The expression used was, I understand, "Rolled on wet grass..."

 

IanJ

 

I think the Book was “H M Corvette”?  

 

And one of the (rough weather) photos I think was captioned “A Corvette could roll on wet grass.”.  

 

Must see if I can find my copy next time I  in Brisvegas. 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Wow  what a whopper,  looks very impressive already, although it will be too big for my bench, so will just have to watch.

Great work

Chris 

[JOCKNEY]

Hands up who really wants one of these but will be in serious with SWMBO if you get found out ?

 

Yes you can add me to the list of those 

 

Great stuff Ian, soooo jealous 

 

Cheers Pat

 

[Bonhoff]

Minor issue discovered last night - I'd spent a couple of hours building up lockers then discovered some additional marks on one of the decks.

 

 

The filler marks were where I've done some "making good" where some of my scraping of the deck went a bit deep.

 

The new marks were courtesy of Daisy, our Collie pup who decided that she wanted a new chew toy....

 

Better break the filler out again!

 

KR's

 

IanJ 
 

[Bonhoff]

Here's the guilty party - But she's too cute to be annoyed with for too long😍

 

 

IanJ 
 

[bigbadbadge]

Ahh she's definitely too cute to tell off.  Just have to puppy proof the work area instead!!!

Chris