HMS Bramham & Talybont build log. From IBG 1/700 Hunt type II. --Bramham version 1 finished--

[Ngantek]

This thread is probably a little premature, since I'm not really starting work right away, but still having some decisions to make, I thought getting some input would be helpful sooner rather than later.

 

The main plan is to build HMS Bramham, an Hunt type II destroyer from the IBG 1/700 kit. My Grandfather served on her as a gunnery officer until she was transferred to the Royal Hellenic Navy. As I'm sure some of you know, she served during Operation Pedestal and was heavily involved defending and recovering surviors from the various damaged merchantmen that fell behind the convoy. Being the junior officer, he spent a large part of the operation pulling drowning men into the ship's gig. The Bramham was also part of the final tow that pulled Ohio into Valletta. I thought with the 80th anniversary of Pedestal approaching, now might be a good time to have a go.

 

I'm not really a ship builder (or, with the grand total of 2 completed models under my belt post dark ages, much of a modeller either!) but seeing such an 'obscure' ship in model form (or perhaps 'unsexy' is the term), I couldn't help but jump at the chance. At 1/700 it will of course be tiny, but with such a lack of space and with the range of options also available at that scale, it would have been my choice anyway. So, this is all by way of saying that I really could benefit from as much help from you kind souls as I can get.

 

So what do I have? It being a rather personal kit to make, I've frankly gone a bit overboard. The kit itself is neither expensive nor big, which makes all the additional gubbins look rather excessive. It's hard to tell from limited source material, but I felt the HMS Zetland tool was probably the closest starting point (IBG, I thought, did 2 configurations for the 6 kits, but it looks like there are minor small differences in all most likely). On top of that we have 
-The Shelf Oddity PE detail set (politics aside, getting stuff from the EU can be a mammoth pain post Brexit)
-Flyhawk mark XVI 4" on XIX twin mount
-Starling Models quad pom pom
-Starling Models mark XVI 4" on XIX twin mount
This latter is because I was putting the order through anyway, and as I'll go in below, I'll probably build two!

 

I also found a copy of "Man o'war 4: Hunt class escort destroyers" by Alan Rave and John Roberts which has good pictures of various Hunts with camouflage drawings; and the excellent Topdrawings plans of HMS Badsworth by Waldemar Goralski.

 

The kit itself looks nice. There's a small PE fret mostly containing railings, a few ladders and some tiny 20mm Oerlikons. I've put in a pot of Tamiya for scale.

 

 

So, coming to the decisions to make. With the aftermarket building up, and with the kit relatively inexpensive, I thought it would be wise to build a second one OOB to get a feel for ship modelling, PE (of which I have very limited experience) and the particular intricacies of this kit, so I bought another (HMS Badsworth, for variety, has the same bridge type), but that got me thinking. After serving on the Bramham, my Grandfather moved to the Hunt Type III Talybont. (She, incidentally, was involved in the debacle of Les Sept Iles and provided artillery support for the Rangers at Le Pointe du Hoc during D-Day). I could built it as a practice Bramham, or I could turn the trainer into a somewhat more complicated job and modify it to a type III. It's hard to know without giving it more research and thought, but certainly the forward gun mount, the upper bridge and the funnel would need some changes, along with some scratch build torpedo tubes. I could of course add to my backlog even further and buy a third one! I'm certainly making sure my next build has some PE in it anyhow.

 

So that's where I am now; if anyone has suggestions on how best to proceed; or any additional photos or sources that might help narrow down colour schemes and ship configuration (which I'll address in the next post), I'd be very grateful for the help!

 

Cheers,
Andy

 

 

EDIT:

first attempt at the Bramham has been finished. RFI here

 

[Ngantek]

So colour scheme and layout, what do I have? So the photo at the top and the following give a good idea of the camouflage scheme, which seems to be a Western Approaches blue green and white standard design and is detailed in Man'o war 4. Perhaps this is in the Clyde?

The port side is harder to find material for. Thanks to @dickrdand @ArnoldAmbrose, we've narrowed this picture of surviors being dropped off at Valletta as incorrect attributed to the Ledbury, but is infact the Bramham. I found another picture further down the wharf the other day (which can be matched to the same ship via various markings, but for the life of me can't track it down again**). Combined with this one of the bows of the Bramham, it's probably safe to say the port side is, if not a mirror, broadly similar to the starboard. The stripe along the bow appears (if it's not a visual illusion) to be at a slightly different angle on the port side.

** here I've finally found it after months of searching! It was in a youtube video, which is why I couldn't find it again!

 

 

The Bramham actually towed the Ohio into harbour, but in most photos is on the far side and only the funnel can be seen. This video I think is clear enough to show the same scheme on the port side, if not the exact detail.

 

In any case, whether because of photography, the glare of the Mediterranean sun, or actual reality, the WA scheme seems significantly faded in all of these sources.

 

 

[Ngantek]

Right! August is fast approaching and with it the 80th anniversary of Operation Pedestal. I figured now might be a fitting time to have a go at the Bramham. As to whether I go OOB build or with all the trimmings, I'm still somewhat undecided. I think I'll have a go at some of the aftermarket and if it's all terrible, will revert to the 'easy' (er) stuff.

 

A care package arrived from Starling the other day, mostly extra stuff that I'm not sure I'll even use, but also a few bits that'll be needed for HMS Talybont (which was the first to get twin oerlikon mounts). The torpedo tubes will have to be trimmed down to 2 but I figure that's a better starting point than any scratch rubbish that I can come up with.

 

I can be thankful the boxes are so oversized for this kit! Mostly it was because the generic hull numbers were in stock and I kinda went to town. I'm treating this as experience in resin aftermarket and tiny bits and pieces of this scale.

 

So I've made a bit of a start, I began with the bridge, and found myself amazed at how difficult a relatively large part of the build was to tidy up and assemble. You ship builders are nutcases! I could fill the bridge or maybe trim it back and use the nice Shelf oddity additions. Still undecided. Needs a tidy in any case.

struggling with the easiest parts, it could only get worse! I had a hack at the various 4" turret options available to me.

 

The Starling ones are nice, and pretty quick and easy to fettle and assemble. The barrels are well protected on the casting:

 

The flyhawk ones are completely nuts. I really thought the barrels were just strands of fine wire until I realised they were not only graded but hollowed as well. Nuts! Here's the assembly, already somewhat mangled:

 

Which, if you're an incompetent oaf with two left hands like myself, turns into this:

 

 

Compared with the model version (which I rather buggered up taking off the sprue; I'm not sure I'll bother to rectify since I don't think it's worth using them by comparison!

 

Clearly the skyhawk ones offer a lot of detail, but if you're a complete newbie to photo etch like myself, they'll probably end up looking worse than the simpler alternatives!

 

Like I said, I can't imagine how you ship builders do all this crazy tiny work!

 

Anyway not much of a start, but we're off the mark at least!

 

By the way, one question (which will no doubt open a can of worms)... any ideas what kind of deck coating (and therefore colour) would likely have been used? Greenish semtex? gray asphalt?

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

 

 

[Ngantek]

As an aside, I know I'm building HMS Bramham right now, but I was looking into the Talybont the other day. It appears around 1943 it looks something like this

 

You can make out the twin oerlion mount on the starboard wing and some non-descript thingy I can't make out fore of the bridge. There are supposed to be 3 twin mounts, so where the 3rd is, I'm not quite sure.

The scheme, I'm assuming, is this one (source Man'o'war 4, Raven and Roberts):

 

Talybont ended the war in an Admiralty standard pattern like this:

The oerlikons (and indeed wings) have gone and there's a 40mm bofors in front of the bridge. Man'o'War suggests there were usually 2 such mounts, the other being 'on the quarterdeck', which I guess is that thing just about visible aft of the rear 4" turret superstructure? In any case, I had intended to model her around D-Day but I'm unsure when the conversion took place. The earlier scheme looks more interesting, and having already bought those twin oerlikon turrets, perhaps I should just stick with the earlier photo. In any case, my Grandpa was not on her at the end of the war; she collided with a trawler in fog in Nov '44 and, with her having to be decomissioned for repairs, he was to end up on board HMS Cavendish bound for the BPF. Perhaps that's the point of the major changes? Anyway that's way in the future, I just thought I'd mention it!

 

Cheers,

Andy

[Our Ned]

The "non-descript thingy" ahead of the bridge on the first photo posted of Talybont is a combination of the MF/DF aerial on its projecting spur and a couple of angled brackets stretching upwards and backwards from the short platform one deck above the foc's'le.  (Edit - other photos of the ship in this camouflage scheme don't show these brackets.)

The third twin 20mm Oerlikon mounting was on the quarterdeck - the drawing of Eskdale shows a single 20mm mounting in the same position.

The photo of Talybont "at the end of the war" on Page 39 of the Man o' War book is held by the Imperial War Museum (although apparently a digital version is not available) and is captioned as being taken on 15 February 1945.  It shows her still fitted with twin 20mm mountings (the starboard one and the one on the quarterdeck can be seen), but with a Type 273 RDF (radar) aft of the torpedo tubes; the Type 273 was probably not fitted until her damage repairs after the November 1944 collision (Edit - she had Type 271 RDF in October 1943 - my assumption that 273 was fitted the following year may be wrong).  I suspect that the two single 40mm Bofors replaced the 20mm mountings in her Malta refit (mid/late 1945).

If converting a Type 2 kit, the after superstructure would need to be moved aft, to clear the torpedo tubes, the funnel altered and the bridge modified.

 

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by Our Ned

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

7 hours ago, Ngantek said:

As an aside, I know I'm building HMS Bramham right now, but I was looking into the Talybont the other day. It appears around 1943 it looks something like this

 

 

 

I think we can say with some confidence that the dark panel under the pendant number isn't MS3. I'm not convinced it isn't darker than the dark panel aft. It's obviously based on the standard design plate from CAFO679/42 "The Camouflage of Small Ships at Sea" but it's been modified as they often were.

[Ngantek]

2 hours ago, Our Ned said:

The "non-descript thingy" ahead of the bridge on the first photo posted of Talybont is a combination of the MF/DF aerial on its projecting spur and a couple of angled brackets stretching upwards and backwards from the short platform one deck above the foc's'le.  (Edit - other photos of the ship in this camouflage scheme don't show these brackets.)

The third twin 20mm Oerlikon mounting was on the quarterdeck - the drawing of Eskdale shows a single 20mm mounting in the same position.

The photo of Talybont "at the end of the war" on Page 39 of the Man o' War book is held by the Imperial War Museum (although apparently a digital version is not available) and is captioned as being taken on 15 February 1945.  It shows her still fitted with twin 20mm mountings (the starboard one and the one on the quarterdeck can be seen), but with a Type 273 RDF (radar) aft of the torpedo tubes; the Type 273 was probably not fitted until her damage repairs after the November 1944 collision.  I suspect that the two single 40mm Bofors replaced the 20mm mountings in her Malta refit (mid/late 1945).

If converting a Type 2 kit, the after superstructure would need to be moved aft, to clear the torpedo tubes, the funnel altered and the bridge modified.

 

 

Thanks for such a detailed and knowledgeable answer! I didn't notice that oerlikon mount on the quarterdeck, I'm not that great at picking out the shapes on these low resolution images it seems! As you can tell, I know very little about the subject, so I just see pointy things, without the knowledge or 'shape dictionary' of what various equipment they are. Good to know the oerlikons at least are appropriate for the configuration I'm hoping to build.

 

Not a lot to add about the 273, other than she was using 271 at Les Sept Iles in October 43. I think I'm going to build to the '43 images and if they prove to be similar to her mid 44 design, so much the better!

 

2 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

 

I think we can say with some confidence that the dark panel under the pendant number isn't MS3. I'm not convinced it isn't darker than the dark panel aft. It's obviously based on the standard design plate from CAFO679/42 "The Camouflage of Small Ships at Sea" but it's been modified as they often were.

 

Thanks Jamie. As you can see, I have exactly no knowledge of colours or schemes. If you had to guess at the various colours what would you say? Here's the other photo from Man'O'War if it's any help.

 

 

 

[Ngantek]

On 15/07/2022 at 07:48, Our Ned said:

(Edit - she had Type 271 RDF in October 1943 - my assumption that 273 was fitted the following year may be wrong). 

Quick question here, would the two be fitted at the same time, or the 273 replacing the former? He mentions using the 271 at the Sept Iles; and presumably would have been using the 273 if it existed? Again I know nothing about this stuff! I found picture of Talybont amongst my Grandpa's photos, which appears to show her in a similar configuration to the p39 ('end of the war' = feb '45) photo; that is type 273, twin oerlikons, no bofors, later admiralty standard pattern. It has a censor stamp on the back, presumably just to remove her pennant number?

 

 

Back to the Bramham, I've found myself being more drawn to my 'background' Grumman Martlet build, presumably because it's more relaxing familiar ground. Still, I had another go this evening. Part of my issue so far is that progress is very stalled by flicking through mountains of pictures and references looking for details, and then having to leaf through the various aftermarket instructions (the shelf oddity runs to 14 pages!) to decide what to install. Round and round I go and in the end, I tend to use most of my (rare and very jealously guarded) modelling time just faffing. Added to that, the replacement PE all looks really fiddly and the expectation that I'm going to make a mess of it is probably acting as a subconsious deterrent.

 

I think, in the interests of progess and just enjoying this one a bit more, I'll retreat a little and build it out of box, with maybe some low hanging straight swap-in resin aftermarket bits and pieces. I think when I'm not so new to the hobby and therefore not so preoccupied with the tonnes of other kits I want to be getting on with; plus better with the PE, I'll grab another copy of the kit and go all in.

 

So not much to show, just had a lovely time starting to get all the sub assemblies together:

 

Aside from gate clean up, the plastic is very free from seam lines and ejection marks, and the tolerances are just right for everything to fit pretty nicely. Now being entirely new to ship building, I'm thinking that it makes sense to at least paint the deck before adding the structures to it. Is this standard practice? I'm going to end up with a mountain of little bits with that approach I suppose?

 

Anyway, cheers for looking in,

Andy

[mark.au]

I shall follow, my grandfather finished the war on Talybont and may well be in that 1945 photo posted above.

[Our Ned]

First, Type 273 was fitted in the same location, and in a similar radome, as Type 271 - therefore ships carried was one or the other, not both.

You asked about painting - I always paint decks and superstructre separately before assembly.

Lastly, a copy of the photo you posted is in the Imperial War Museum collection (reference number A27322; apparently not available online), but study of a better copy shows that the pendant number is faintly visible, as is what looks like a Type 291 RDF aerial at the foremasthead. It was taken (according to a caption) on 15 February 1945 at Harwich (the same as the one on Page 39 in the Man 'o War book).  The censor stamp was merely to say that the photograph could be published in the condition shown - it gives no indication as to whether the photograph had been censored or not.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

8 hours ago, Ngantek said:

I'm thinking that it makes sense to at least paint the deck before adding the structures to it. Is this standard practice?

Gidday Andy, I don't know about it being standard practice, I think many develop techniques that suit themselves. But I paint with a brush, and if possible I try to paint parts that will be of a different colour before gluing them together. But that's just me. HTH. Regards, Jeff.

[Ngantek]

15 hours ago, mark.au said:

I shall follow, my grandfather finished the war on Talybont and may well be in that 1945 photo posted above.

 

Ahh nice! I dunno what standard practice was, but would I be right in thinking the whole crew would've been dispersed when she was decommissioned for repairs and a new one formed on completion? Was he on destroyers throughout then? 

 

Glad to have you along, your V&W build has been a fantastic read and a wonderful final model. Be forewarned, this one will be a more 'normal' first build which is to say shonky and incompetent!

 

 

14 hours ago, Our Ned said:

First, Type 273 was fitted in the same location, and in a similar radome, as Type 271 - therefore ships carried was one or the other, not both.

You asked about painting - I always paint decks and superstructre separately before assembly.

Lastly, a copy of the photo you posted is in the Imperial War Museum collection (reference number A27322; apparently not available online), but study of a better copy shows that the pendant number is faintly visible, as is what looks like a Type 291 RDF aerial at the foremasthead. It was taken (according to a caption) on 15 February 1945 at Harwich (the same as the one on Page 39 in the Man 'o War book).  The censor stamp was merely to say that the photograph could be published in the condition shown - it gives no indication as to whether the photograph had been censored or not.

Thanks again for this wealth of information! I'm amazed at your knowledge of the source material for such a relatively obscure ship.

I haven't found a lot of good clear info on the various radar equipment and in many cases what it would look like. Are there any good books you would recommend on the subject?

 

The 291 is also visible in the earlier '43 photos above as well I think? As to the 271, would the radome be indistinguishable from the 273, or situated somewhere else? Is it clearly not present on those '43 photo with the searchlight in that position?

 

I will paint the decks separately as you say, but to complete my barrage of inane questions, I don't have a great idea about deck colour for the Bramham. The best I can see is that picture offloading survivors in valetta, where is seems dark, but grey, green, brown I know not. Any suggestions? My rather limited Google fu hasn't so far yielded any answer to 'standard' deck finishes, at least for the smaller ships. 

 

Thanks for all your help though!

 

13 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Andy, I don't know about it being standard practice, I think many develop techniques that suit themselves. But I paint with a brush, and if possible I try to paint parts that will be of a different colour before gluing them together. But that's just me. HTH. Regards, Jeff.

Cheers Jeff, yeah whatever you do produces great results so I will gratefully take any advice you can give! Certainly this stuff seems fiddly enough already without adding the horror of trying to mask up 20 0.5mm cubes!

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

 

[EwenS]

On 15/07/2022 at 00:30, Ngantek said:

 

Talybont ended the war in an Admiralty standard pattern like this:

The oerlikons (and indeed wings) have gone and there's a 40mm bofors in front of the bridge. Man'o'War suggests there were usually 2 such mounts, the other being 'on the quarterdeck', which I guess is that thing just about visible aft of the rear 4" turret superstructure? In any case, I had intended to model her around D-Day but I'm unsure when the conversion took place. The earlier scheme looks more interesting, and having already bought those twin oerlikon turrets, perhaps I should just stick with the earlier photo. In any case, my Grandpa was not on her at the end of the war; she collided with a trawler in fog in Nov '44 and, with her having to be decomissioned for repairs, he was to end up on board HMS Cavendish bound for the BPF. Perhaps that's the point of the major changes? Anyway that's way in the future, I just thought I'd mention it!

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

After suffering collision damage on 9th Nov 1944 Talybont underwent 2 months of repairs at Chatham Dockyard. At that point she still had the Radar lantern for Type 271/273 amidships and 3x twin 20mm as shown in the photo on page 39 of Man O’ War 4.

 

Then after VE-Day she had ballast added at Chatham between 26th June and 2nd July before sailing for a refit at Malta. That was to prepare her for service with the British Pacific Fleet. Originally scheduled to complete by 13th Sept, the refit extended beyond VJ-Day, after which she joined the 6th Destroyer Division, part of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean as her services were no longer required East of Suez. IIRC she was one of four Hunts in that unit. She remained in the Med until returning home and reducing to Reserve at the end of 1947.

 

The above photo shows her as she was after her 1945 Malta refit. Gone were the twin 20mm, to be replaced by 2 single hand-worked Mk.III Bofors, better able to tackle the Kamikaze menace that she might have had to face had she gone to the Pacific. She also received a radar upgrade, losing the Type271/273 in the lantern amidships. Instead she gained a Type 268 set at the top of the long “pole” attached to the forward side of the mast. She retained the Type 291 aerial attached to the top of the mast itself.

 

Incidentally, Cavendish arrived at Colombo on 8th Aug 1945. After duties around the Dutch East Indies she returned home to Reserve in mid-1946

[EwenS]

11 minutes ago, Ngantek said:

 

Ahh nice! I dunno what standard practice was, but would I be right in thinking the whole crew would've been dispersed when she was decommissioned for repairs and a new one formed on completion? Was he on destroyers throughout then? 

 

Most of the crew would have been retained as the repairs in Nov 1944 to Jan 1945 where for a short period. Individual personnel might be posted on courses or promoted and sent to other ships. That sounds like what might have happened to your relative. It was a step up to move from a Hunt to a fleet destroyer like the Ca class Cavendish.

 

11 minutes ago, Ngantek said:

I haven't found a lot of good clear info on the various radar equipment and in many cases what it would look like. Are there any good books you would recommend on the subject?

 

The 291 is also visible in the earlier '43 photos above as well I think? As to the 271, would the radome be indistinguishable from the 273, or situated somewhere else? Is it clearly not present on those '43 photo with the searchlight in that position?

 

This might help with the individual radars.

https://www.rnradioandradar.co.uk/radars.htm

https://www.rnradioandradar.co.uk/radars/radarmatrix.htm

https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/11.ancient3/karte009.en.html

https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/11.ancient2/karte097.en.html

https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/11.ancient3/karte027.en.html

 

Both Type 271 and 273 were contained in a weatherproof radar “lantern”. The latter was effectively an upgraded Type 271 with a different aerial. But the aerials themselves are effectively hidden from view.

 

The Hunts generally gained Type 271 during the course of 1943 in place of the searchlight as they became due for refit.

[Ngantek]

Thanks Ewen, that's fantastic information and clears up a lot of questions about dates and equipment. Sounds like I'll be building the 271 lantern on, I still need to decide whether to paint the earlier more interesting (for the modeller at least) scheme or the later. I might just decide this one on personal preference over accuracy.

 

1 hour ago, EwenS said:

Most of the crew would have been retained as the repairs in Nov 1944 to Jan 1945 where for a short period. Individual personnel might be posted on courses or promoted and sent to other ships. That sounds like what might have happened to your relative. It was a step up to move from a Hunt to a fleet destroyer like the Ca class Cavendish.

Ahh I see. It is as you say. The Skipper, Ed Baines moved on to other things, and my Grandfather applied for a Advanced Gunnery Control Course at Whale Island, after which he was posted to the Cavendish.

 

2 hours ago, EwenS said:

Incidentally, Cavendish arrived at Colombo on 8th Aug 1945. After duties around the Dutch East Indies she returned home to Reserve in mid-1946

Thanks, I couldn't find specifics on U-boat or naval-history. According to his notes they made slow progress through Ceylon, Singapore, Java and Sumatra, before arriving in Fremantle a day after the war with Japan (perhaps he means September 3rd here?).

 

Thanks for all the info, I'm kinda amazed at the knowledge on this forum, particularly considering it is devoted to modelling rather than the fine details of relatively obscure escort destroyers!

 

Andy.

[EwenS]

8 hours ago, Ngantek said:

 

Thanks, I couldn't find specifics on U-boat or naval-history. According to his notes they made slow progress through Ceylon, Singapore, Java and Sumatra, before arriving in Fremantle a day after the war with Japan (perhaps he means September 3rd here?).

 

 

 

 

Andy

From some other notes I have Cavendish, having arrived at Colombo on 8 Aug 1945, departed again with her sister ship Caesar on 9/10 Aug 1945 and briefly stopped at the Cocos Islands en route to Fremantle. Departure from Cocos was 15 Aug. Probably en route to Fremantle their orders were changed. But they had to go on to Fremantle to refuel for the return journey AIUI. Cocos Is did not have refuelling facilities, principally being an airbase opened in mid-1945. The only other refuelling stop would have been Exmouth Gulf in north west Australia.

 

A pair of Hunts, Cowdray & Eggesford, left Colombo a day or so after Cavalier & Caesar and their orders were changed on the 19th Aug. They refuelled at Exmouth Gulf and left to return to Ceylon on 24th Aug.

 

As a result Cavalier & Caesar left Fremantle on 28th Aug to return to Ceylon. I have a reference saying Caesar arived in Trincomalee on 5 Sept. From there they took part in various activities around the Dutch East Indies including visiting Singapore. The attachment of 6th Destroyer Flotilla led by Cavendish to the East Indies Fleet allowed the early release of other destroyers that had been overseas since 1943/44 to return home sooner and in particular the 11th DF led by Rotherham. That flotilla was then able to leave for home around the end of Sept/beginning of Oct 1945.

 

The first Allied forces to arrive in Singapore did so on 4 Sept 1945 when the initial Japanese surrender was accepted onboard HMS Sussex that evening. None of the 6th DF ships took part in any of the initial operations to re-occupy Malaya.

 

This is Cavendish as she looked in 1946 en route home.

Edited July 30, 2022 by EwenS

[Ngantek]

On 30/07/2022 at 09:12, EwenS said:

This is Cavendish as she looked in 1946 en route home.

Thanks very much for this, Ewan. Sorry I never got around to saying so! It's nice to see a picture at this time, most of the ones I can find are in much later paint and configurations. There seems to be a gap in the market for the Ca class I believe, so no doubt I'll nab one if ever it gets made. It's speculation, but I suspect my grandfather was not quite so attached to that ship as the ones he saw the most action in.

 

Where do you get all this amazing information by the way? Collected over years of research?

 

Back to the build, which has be put aside because of lack of available time recently; this tends to happen when I get to a stage that requires airbrushing since it's enough of a faff for me to get all the gubbins out, I rarely have a long enough session.

 

Anyway some tiny bits of PE that I continue to totally fail at, then some black primer, and finally some off-white. I've shamelessly been copying this build of HMS Harvester by LPG models, so in similar fashion, the white has been 'browned' with some Tamiya XF78 (wooden deck tan). It's black and white of course, but the Malta images of the Bramham definitely suggest a browned tone to me. The paint was then applied in a mottle over the black. I'm still getting my bearings with this close in airbrush work, and in this case, the thinning ratio of 3parts x20a to 1 part paint was too thin; making the process take an inordinate amount of time in many layers. But basically I copied his technique of mottle; fill in with vertical streaks; and finally hit back with a light overspray. The effect is a little stronger than the photos suggest:

 

 

Next up, mask the WA splinter scheme, then some grey decking.

 

Incidentally I finally found that other picture of the Bramham offloading survivors in Valletta (copied in the 2nd post of this thread). I'd been obsessively re-searching and checking back on the various internet histories on all my devices trying to find it, and it turned out it had been in a you tube video. Aiyee. Not a particularly useful picture in the end, but it'll stop me wasting inordinate amounts of time looking for it at least! I've really got to work on that obsessive behaviour!

 

Also been going through my grandfathers papers and found lots of interesting stuff and correspondance, particularly about Les Sept Iles in the Talybont, but I'll write more on that if ever I get around to that ship!

 

Anyway hopefully I'll get a chance to make progress a little more regularly!

 

Cheers,

Andy

[Ngantek]

Okay so the WA scheme is on now; thanks to @Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies for the colourcoats:

I'm thinking the Bramham might have had a slightly over-enthusiastic blue pigment mixer, but it looks nice to me; I might have gone a little over on the 'dirtying' which doesn't help the contrast. The splinter geometry is a shade off too. Maybe for the 'deluxe' build, I'll darken the blue a little and tidy the geometry, but I'm resolving not to fuss and redo on this one.

 

 

That's all for now!

 

Andy

[EwenS]

On 11/08/2022 at 16:58, Ngantek said:

Thanks very much for this, Ewan. Sorry I never got around to saying so! It's nice to see a picture at this time, most of the ones I can find are in much later paint and configurations. There seems to be a gap in the market for the Ca class I believe, so no doubt I'll nab one if ever it gets made. It's speculation, but I suspect my grandfather was not quite so attached to that ship as the ones he saw the most action in.

 

Where do you get all this amazing information by the way? Collected over years of research?

 

 

You are are very welcome. 

As for where it comes from, well a lifetime interest in WW2 history, and over the years an appetite for British operations in the Far East in 1944/45, and too much money spent on books, coupled with rather more time on my hands in recent years than my wife (silently!) thinks is good for me! But it really is surprising how much good stuff is out there on the internet nowadays if only you have the time to search. Using different browsers often turns up different answers to the same search.

 

Happy modelling.

[mark.au]

That looks great!  I can’t get over how small it is though, 700th is a tiny scale!

[Ngantek]

On 13/08/2022 at 07:36, mark.au said:

That looks great!  I can’t get over how small it is though, 700th is a tiny scale!

Wee it is! Hunts are barely destroyers, but even so I was pretty surprised when I opened the box. I like it, it's about all that fits into my house actually.

 

So I had intended to have this finished by today, it being 80 years today that the Ohio finally entered Valletta Harbour alongside the Bramham to draw a line under Operation Pedestal.

 

Sadly life and modelling incompetence intervened, so I'm not quite there yet, despite this first attempt being a mostly OOB build.

Nonetheless I've had a lovely time clumsily poking little bits of plastic and PE into the general vicinity of where they're actually supposed to be. We're here:

 

 

Always uncanny how the camera shows up modelling shonkyness and the effect seems multiplied at this scale! Ahh well, its been great fun so far, but still a fair amount of detail painting, all the depthcharge gear; railings; a flat cote; the decals; weathering; rigging.

But we're getting there. I'm really coming around to this ship modelling milarky!

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

[mark.au]

Looks pretty damn good to me.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Andy, she looks very good to me, too. I haven't started Ledbury yet, but the photos here of your build will be very useful to me when I do, as I'll probably have to scratch build most of the model. She's well done. Regards, Jeff.

[Ngantek]

9 hours ago, mark.au said:

Looks pretty damn good to me.

Thanks Mark. It's a bit gloopy, but since deciding just to enjoy it and not fuss too much about it being a bit rubbish, I've had a great time. I've long realised that I get a lot more out of just starting something roughly and badly, than obsessively planning to do perfect first time. Not that I actually ever do that in spite of this revelation. It is as you said on the Wren though, there's a different rhythm to making ships somehow, and quite a pleasant one.

 

By the way, I only just noticed your website (despite it being clearly displayed on every post you've ever made!). It's fantastic! I have many enjoyable hours of reading ahead of me!

 

3 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Andy, she looks very good to me, too. I haven't started Ledbury yet, but the photos here of your build will be very useful to me when I do, as I'll probably have to scratch build most of the model. She's well done. Regards, Jeff.

Gidday Jeff, thanks for popping by. Yeah I'm really looking forward to your Ledbury build. I've been reading Roger Hill's book of late and also found lots of mentions of him, particularly regarding the Charybdis affair in the Grenville, amongst my Granddad's papers. The good thing about a scratch build, is it will properly match the ship; this one is really HMS Zetland with a new paint job (although she and the Bramham have generally seemed to have very similar installation specifics from what I can make out). What are you planning to use as a 'donor' kit? I would guess (without any real knowledge) that the Hunts are rather shorter (or much longer!) than most available subjects in 1/600?

[mark.au]

38 minutes ago, Ngantek said:

It is as you said on the Wren though, there's a different rhythm to making ships somehow, and quite a pleasant one.

 

By the way, I only just noticed your website (despite it being clearly displayed on every post you've ever made!). It's fantastic! I have many enjoyable hours of reading ahead of me!

 

 

It's a strange one, isn't it, but making ships is a more relaxed form of the art - I'm glad I'm not the only one who sensed that!  Thank you for the comment on the site, it's a labour of love which combines a passion for writing, an enjoyment of modelling and my interest in history, especially the personal experiences in it.