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HMS Iron Duke 1916


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       HMS Iron Duke was Admiral Jellicoe's flagship at the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916. Her gunnery during the battle was reportedly very accurate, hitting her adversary several times. This model is my only WWI vintage warship (to date) and depicts the ship at the time of the battle. The kit is Airfix 04210 in 1/600, and highly modified by me to depict the ship as at the Battle of Jutland. I did this model five years ago but have not posted it here before. I have decided to do so now as others intending to do this kit might wish to know a couple of the pitfalls and inaccuracies with it. Despite that last comment I think it is a good kit that I enjoyed doing.

       The modifications I did were very numerous, including rebuilt (scratch) tripod mast, spotting top and top mast, lowered the bridge structure, scratch building new searchlight platforms on the second funnel, replacing twelve 6-inch and two 3-inch guns with scratch built, omitting those guns and boats provided but not carried in May 1916, removal of the chin plate at the forefoot, removal of the external range finders on the turrets. This was the last model I did in 2017, only 101 years late! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and although it is not perfect I think I came close and am quite happy with the result. This was also before I'd joined modeling forums such as Britmodeller (or even heard of them) so I was totally on my own when I did this.

 

       As I said I did this kit five years ago so my comments here are from memory. A few issues with the kit:-

1.  I think the locating pins between the two hull halves are out by 0.5mm. This is not a major issue and easily rectified but I thought I'd mention it.

2.  I don't think the chinplate was fitted to the forefoot in May 1916 so I filed it off.

3.  When complete the bridge was too high. This is easily fixed before assembly if you reduce the heights of parts 49, 50, 54 and 55. Unfortunately for me I didn't know this at the beginning but I had a second kit and hence raided it for the replacement parts. (The parts I'd originally used I refurbished for a later model of HMS Benbow if memory serves).

4.  There are fourteen secondary 6-inch guns supplied but the ship only carried twelve. Originally the ships of the class had a pair of casemate 6-inch guns below the quarterdeck abreast of 'Y' turret (one either side, kit parts 1 & 4) but they proved to be too wet in a seaway so they were repositioned at the rear of the foc'sle deck (kit parts 133 & 134) but the kit has guns in BOTH locations. The new position of the gun had the same firing arcs as in it's original position (ie aft) but the kit allows it to fire directly fwd. I simply added a working chamber fwd of the casemate. And in actual fact I replaced the kit guns and casemates with some I scratch built from styrene tube and rod anyway.

5.  The heavy spotting top above the tripod starfish wasn't added until later so I made my own smaller spotting top. Neither did I use parts 62 and 64 (above the bridge/compass platform). I also scratch built my own tripod mast, and the topmast above it with four yards, not three. According to photos I think I'm correct.

6.  The searchlight platforms attached to the second funnel weren't that type in May 1916 so I scratch built my own.

7.  The main turrets didn't have those external rangefinders in 1916. I again raided the other kit for some of the turrets but the holes and slots in the kit turrets could be plugged, filled and sanded if required, if you don't have a second kit.

8.  All the extra small guns weren't fitted in 1916 AFAIK except two 3-inch AA guns on the aft superstructure. I made my own using two of the unused kit 6-inch guns.

9.  I altered or omitted some boats, davits and booms as per photos I was able to find on the net. In particular I omitted the boats on davits abreast the aft superstructure. A well known photo of Adm Jellicoe about to ascend a ladder shows that part of the ship in the background - no boats were there. I also added funnels to the steam pinnaces with styrene rod.

10.  Another source of info regarding the area around 'Q' turret is a photo I found of Lord Kitchener with Adm Jellicoe just before he boarded HMS Hampshire.

 

       Anyway, enough of me rattling on. Here's my efforts at HMS Iron Duke as at the Battle of Jutland, 31st May 1916.

HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm6 HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm19 HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm20

 

HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm21 HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm22

 

HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm14 HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm7

 

Some of the photos are a little blurred in places. I was still getting used to the camera, with lighting and depth-of-field issues.

Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and regards, Jeff.

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1 minute ago, S-boat 55 said:

I've always thought Iron Duke and her sisters were great looking ships sadly overlooked in bigger scales.

Gidday Sam, and thanks. And sadly the rest of the vintage appears to have been neglected by Airfix too. I can't see why they didn't do companion ships to this one in their range, such as at least one battlecruiser plus one of each type of German ship as adversaries. I've often thought too that the tripod foremast, spotting top and starfish gives the RN ships a look of "Don't mess with me".

 

7 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

I think I recall seeing this one at WASMEX.

Gidday yeah, in 2018. I parked moored her in front of your model of the Aussie submarine HMAS AE2. That was a work of art.       Regards, Jeff.

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Thanks mate.

 

AE2 is now on permanent loan to the Koorda military museum (yes there is such a thing) and by strange coincidence Just this weekend I drove up there to see it. First time I’ve seen it in about 3 years and, although she’s as good as new, she looks different to how I remember her. The sea-scape in particular seems to look better in photos than in the flesh. Still I’m happy with the model and the curator raved about it - so everyone’s happy.

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Nice job. As a kid I always admired the box art (Roy Cross of course) but never got one. It just wasn't 'cool' - she didn't have anything to play with. Which is probably sadly why Airfix did no more WWI - it wasn't a big seller.

 

19279cf525516fdbb400e263b29f1b0d.jpg

 

I notice he has most of the errors you list but not the notorious flared 13.5" gun barrels.

 

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Gidday All, thank you for your kind comments. 

 

15 hours ago, TallBlondJohn said:

the notorious flared 13.5" gun barrels.

       Yeah, that's a fault with a number of Airfix models. I didn't think I could make ten identical guns so I went with the supplied kit guns. In actual fact I think the gun muzzles were very very slightly flared, but not to the extent of the kit guns.

       Again, thank you all for your interest, comments and responses. Regards, Jeff.

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