A New Destroyer...

[Task Force 57]

Greetings to all!

Im the new boy i guess. just picked up a deans marine HMS Cossack which im planning to build as HMS Eskimo (G75) 1944/45 Eastern Fleet. As the learned wise greybeards will no doubt have noticed (by my handle and the pic of hms Howe) i am a British eastern/pacific fleet nutter! I have a dream... a scale fleet representing a classic indean ocean squ. with a escort carrier like HMS Ameer/Shah/Khedive a couple of destroyers and four sloops/frigs from the RIN. Will get some pics of progress into my Gallery soon as i am done with my search through my archive for good late wwII pic's of Tribals in the eastern fleets is done.

ps, anyone neading good pics of destroyers just ask, i have a mountain of em.

My last project was the large tamiya HMS Prince of wales.... no prizes for guessing which kgv class i converted her to look like!

pps... this is a bl£%$£dy great forum...my compliments to you all.

:regards:

 

[Bunkerbarge]

Hi Russ and a very warm welcome to the forum. I deleted the other posting for you as it was obviously not meant to be there!

Interesting that you like the Cossack. I have had a Deans Marine one for a few years now and still enjoy sailing her occassionally. She was an Ebay purchase but I converted her to dual motor speed controllers and progressed her from about 90% complete to about 95% complete. I have put a couple of pictures of her in the Gallery but I have quite a few more if you are interested and I think a few of a Deans Marine model converted to Bedouin by a guy at our club. Let me know.

Interesting that you are going for a conversion to Eskimo as she was basically very similar to Cossack most of the time. There is a very good publication in the Tribal Class destroyers by a Czechoslovakian publisher with some good drawings and a colour side elevation of eskimo on the back page.

A fleet all of the same scale would be impressive indeed and certainly look the part on the local pond.

I look forward to seeing some pictures of your own build

 

[Task Force 57]

Ty for the welcome!

The Tribals suffered a v. high loss rate during the war, my choice of eskimo was based on the simple fact that she was active in my fave theatre of ops in wwII and that she was one of the few ships that saw in the start of the war and was still active by Vj day...also she was involved in the last ship vs ship action of the war off the coast of sumatra in july 45.

 

[Task Force 57]

Ok, the build begins in earnest! four twin 4.7's built...now just got to miliput odd hole or twelve!

Now A QUESTION!

Where can one find a good range of 1:96 WWII crew?

Or do i raid the loft and "convert" some old triang train crew en conductors into allmost passable gun crew?

 

[Bunkerbarge]

Deans sell thier own Naval crew, I actually have some of them on my Cossack. They are white metal castings and make a big difference to the ship.

 

[jankers]

Task Force,

I searched for ages and the only source i could find was Dean's .

J.

 

[Task Force 57]

Ty for the seach John, looks like its got to be deans i guess... had a bad experiance with the last lot of white met figs i got from em, but that was a long while ago.... so much flash that there was hardly any fig left after trimming... but needs must when the devil pukes in your kettle!

I need some 20mm orlinkons anyway so i will give em a call.

 

[Task Force 57]

The Build continues...soon it will be "Starboard 15! Fire when the sights come on!" down on the local pond. I love RN Destroyers, may god have mercy on the ducks.

Sorry its been so long in coming but i have been busy with family stuff...the ship has reached that stage when she finally develops a charecter of her own. I had to make a choice between admiralty grey with a hint of grey...or Atlantic Dazzle, no contest! The base coats are now on..the basics are built and the ship looks like a tribal at last! Now I have about three weeks of layering on color and detail before i start playing with masts and fine detail fittings... Which im not at all looking forward to.

Ps... Anyone out there able to send me a couple of close up shots of your fore/aft masts... im very unhappy doing them with just the Deans stick diagram and old WWII photo's and a magnifing glass!

pps... how the devil do you upload photo's from desk top onto these reply's/ Threads? I have some nice shots for you all but i cant load em!!!!!

:angel:

 

[john]

pps... how the devil do you upload photo's from desk top onto these reply's/ Threads? I have some nice shots for you all but i cant load em!!!!!

When you reply or quote a post scroll down to Additional Options you will see Attach Files click on manage attachments and a popup box will appear, browse for your photos and upload, or you can use the gallery, once you've uploaded it will show a link that will look like [ img]path to your file.jpg[ /img] just paste that in to your post

 

[Task Force 57]

HMS ESKIMO...The Pictures are now on My gallery

Chears John, the pictures of the build thus far are on my Gallery pages... the shot Of the Tribal with the Atlantic Dazzle cam is the one im using as a painting guide... Id say about four more color coats then two coats of varnish on the hull, the upper works will take the same but the drybrushing and deck detail work will take a long while yet.

So far im very happy with the build and the Kit. The Hull is a work of art (the basic Deans standard...always excellent!) The vac formed plastics have always been my least fave part of any ship kit... the ship boats are causing my blood presure to skyrocket but apart from that I have no grumbles... apart from the fact that i only had railings enough for the deckhouses and 2/3rds of the deck... the Rails are lacking midships port and starboard from the Q pompom to the 2nd funnel. I wish Deans supplied an extra 20 inches of railings with this kit!

Im tempted to cheat and buy in the launch and boats... its just that from experiance i know how big a diff these make when they are perfect rather then "Good enough".. so if anyone can recomend 1.96 scale jolly boats etc please let me know!

 

[jankers]

I know what you mran about ships boats, i have the same problem.

The best IMO, boats available are from the Quaycraft range, it's actually worth giving them a call just to hear the man speak, a wonderful Cornish accent and a very helpful gent too.

The only source i can find is the distributer

www.fleetscale.co.uk/pages/hullkits/cavalier/cav.htm

but the catalogue lists a complete range in many scales.

J.

 

[Task Force 57]

The lady is taking shape! I dont care what the rest of the world may say, the Tribal class are the most lovely of all the WWII destroyers!



Of course I welcome the opinions of others who have their own faves!



.... and yes, the battle class had very nice lines but i still cant think of a more British destroyer then these.





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Id say about one more week for the basic paint job then two to three weeks for the detail work... by the end of july i can have a large scotch, sit back and gloat

... then its masts and rigging (Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!).

:music_too :knight: :music_too

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[Task Force 57]

The Lady with 90% of the painting done.

Well, the days pass by and the work keeps mounting up... one of these days I will remember the adage "a project is NEVER compleated, only abandoned" before rushing to buy a new kit.

The Waterline/Gradiated scale on bow, Fine detail and crew still are pending... arrrrrrrrrrr!

:smile11: Anyway the pic's are on my Gallery... feel free to look!

It might not be in 1/7 scale but im kinda happy with

progress thus far...The Tired and far away look comes from burning

of way tooo much midnight oil.

 

[Albion]

Russ, very beautiful model, lovely lines. I believe you're right about the Tribals being the best looking. My uncle at one time had a book on the war time Tribals, cant remember the title, it was a paperback, maybe a hundred fifty pages, but full of photos and color plates. I used to sit for hours as a kid looking at the ship's crests and profile drawings. You've inspired me to get one of these kits as soon as I finish my current project.