Here are a few pictures of the work I did lately on the Hunt class destroyer escort. The superstructure is nearly completed now. But there are enough things to do like putting on all the detail wich is printed on the card but will be lost when casting. So all the dogs and vents have to be glued on again etc. furthermore the main armament has to be build the AA armament will be from Warlord.
More to come….
I painted up some more boats for cruel seas. First up a trawler:
And two Dog Boats ( Fairmile D):
The first one is a standard Warlord one .
The second is changed by reducing the torpedo armament and increasing the gun armament:
Haven’t used them in a game yet . So can’t say if the increased guns are worth it. The models are all from Warlord . Some of the weapons on the second Dog boat are scratch build.
So this weekend saw the Bellota finished in both versions. I added the missing live boats and davids and the masts and rigging. Only thing to add now is some crew and paint .
Here is the ballast version of the ship:
and the loaded version:
as you can see by adding different vent layouts you can create slightly different versions of the ship.
And both together in one picture. The Warlord trawler for size comparison. Next will be different funnels, the tanker and liner versions.
I started with the deckhouses and superstructure:
As you can see I always did a sandwich of extruded polystyrene and card to make it as sturdy as possible. The bridge superstructure and the gun platforms will be done as separate pieces to get rid of the rather large undercuts which would be impossible to cast.
More to follow shortly.
The Royal Navy had identified the need for two types of destroyer: larger vessels with heavy gun and torpedo armaments for fleet work and another type for escort duties. Although old fleet destroyers could be allocated to escort work, they were unsuitable for the task and new construction replaced them. Fleet destroyers were designed for speed and their machinery was inefficient at convoy speeds, reducing their range. Their shape made them poor sea boats at low speed, also exacerbated by additional equipment on the superstructure. Modifications were needed to ease these problems.
The escort vessels forsook the heavy armament and some of the speed of the fleet type to reduce unit cost and better suit mass production and the conditions. This new “fast escort vessel” was later classified as an “escort destroyer”.
Eighty-six Hunts were completed, of which 72 were commissioned into the Royal Navy and the remaining 14 were transferred to allied navies;
| General characteristics Type II | |
|---|---|
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 85.3 m (279 ft 10 in |
| Beam: | 9.6 m (31 ft 6 in) |
| Draught: | 2.51 m (8 ft 3 in) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: |
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| Range: | 3,600 nmi (6,700 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 164 |
| Armament: |
|
Eighteen were ordered on 4 September 1940 and two more (Lauderdale and Ledbury) on the following day. Three of these were completed to the Type I specification – Blankney, Blencathra and Brocklesby. A final batch of sixteen were ordered on 20 December 1939. ( from Wikipedia)
This time I wanted to try a , may be easier, different way. I got a paper craft model of the Hunt Typ II (ORP Slazak) from JSC in 1/400
The model also comprises an English G class Destroyer and a small coaster/fishing vessel
As the model is in 1/400 I had to increase the size of the parts by about 30%. After doing that with a photocopying machine I started building the model like explained in the assembly instructions. The only difference being to fill all the hollow spaces with extruded polystyrene to make it sturdy enough for casting.
The next step was filling and sanding to get a rough hull, the hull of the Warlord vosper is for size comparison, The Hunt is rather large in 1/300 ( about 28 cm)
Next the paper hull sides were glued in , before that I punched out all the bulleyes to get them 3d for casting.
That is how far I got up to today. What do you think?
Here is a little quiz! Can you tell which class of ship the next model for Cruel Seas will be?
One more clue: They were used extensively with the east coast / north sea convoys.
Here is the loaded version of the Steamer Bellota:
And a few more pictures:
and next to the empty one:
And again for size comparison with the Warlord tanker:
Next will be the tanker and passenger liner versions.
As I said in the last post I wanted to make moulds of the steamer Bellota. Here they are:
Here are the first casts of the parts:
And the build steamer. The life boats and davids are still missing as are the air vents. I have to do two part molds for these. Will be done next week. Furthermore the masts are missing these will be done with brass rod.
Here is a picture of the cast steamer:
Some more pictures from different angles:
And pictures with the Warlord tanker alongside for size comparison:
The model as shown above is supposed to show the ship in ballast so riding very high in the water. I have done a loaded version ,too, have still to put it together, will show later.
Now I will do the tanker and liner version next!
I finished the parts of the steamer Bellota in the last days and did the molds yesterday. Here are the components of the ship:
These parts are cast separately to be able to use the hull for different layouts and to make the individual molds smaller.
This is what the steamer looks like:
And here is a size comparison with a warlord vosper hull:
As you see it is quite big but not as big as the trumpeter liberty ship. More when the first parts are cast. Hopefully tonight.
Here is the Rheinland painted and ready for the gaming table. I might give her a wash to dirty her up a bit though.
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