HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

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HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

History (courtesy of wikipedia)

HMS Barfleur (D80) was a Battle-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was named after the Battle of Barfleur, which involved an Anglo-Dutch Fleet against the French in 1692.

Barfleur was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Limited on the Tyne. She was launched on 1 November 1943 and commissioned on 14 September 1944.

Barfleur was the only ship of the class to see action during the Second World War. She joined the British Pacific Fleet upon commission, seeing action during the campaign against Japan. She was present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese signed the official surrender on the deck of the US battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945. Barfleur returned to the United Kingdom with the rest of her flotilla in 1947, and was subsequently placed in Reserve.

In 1953, Barfleur took part in the Fleet Review at Spithead in celebration of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Barfleur was positioned between fellow destroyers, HMS St. Kitts and HMS Crossbow.

Barfleur became Captain(D) of the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla, which served in the Mediterranean. The destroyer was involved in the Suez War in 1956, taking part in the Allied landings in early November. Barfleur returned home later in the year for the last time to join the Home Fleet.

In 1958, Barfleur was put in Reserve before being placed on the disposal list and broken up at Dalmuir in 1966.

The Kit

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Frog's Battle-class Destroyer kit was first released in 1960, and was their first ship model. Scaled at 1/325, it was the largest scale used for any of their naval vessels, which were later standardized at 1/500. The kit represents one of the first batch of Battles, and my later, 1970's, boxing includes decals for HMS Trafalgar, and represents that ship during the late 1950's.

My Build
Originally, I wanted to do HMS Barfleur in her 1945 guise as the only Battle-class to see action during WWII, as part of the British Pacific Fleet. On further research, I realised that the ship had undergone some refitting after the war, as presented in the kit, and back-dating it would have been problematic given a scarcity of references.

However, Barfluer still saw active service during the Suez Campaign, acting at times as plane guard for the carriers, so I settled on this as my model.

I'll include some "sprue shots" later; a bit of a misnomer as most of the parts have departed from the sprues in the 40-odd years since it was moulded! Decals are shot, but that's not really an issue as I'll need to make my own anyway.

Detail is rather skimpy, so I'll be using some White Ensign Models (WEM) PE sets; as there is no dedicated PE set for this kit, I'll be using 1/350 generic sets - the scale is uncomfortably far from the kit's 1/325, but is the closest available. I'll also be scratchbuilding quite a bit.

Paint scheme is standard 1950's Royal Navy - grey with green, grey and Corticine decks:

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I hope that Frog's colour scheme is correct, as I can't find any colour photos of the ship for love or money!

Reference includes the fine Maritime Books book on the Battle-Class Destroyers, and some helpful websites on the ships of the class.

Bear with me, as this is my first ship model since the Falklands war!
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

Paul,
Interesting choice -- thanks for bringing it to the GB !

I think you'll be fine with the 1/350 detail -- usually details are a bit over scale, so the fact you're using a slightly underscale (93%) detail will probably even out.

Unfortunately, my camouflage references stop at 1945 so I'm not sure I can help on that.
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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

Cheers, John. Phil Reeder over at Britmodeller gave me the data I was looking for re:camo.
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by Dirkpitt289 »

Nice selection.
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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

Boy, I feel like such a laggard compared to the rest of you! :shock:

I have had limited modelling time on this, but have made a steady start. Now that I've started, I think there's going to be more to this than I thought - I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew! :roll:

Sprue shots:

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As you can see, not many parts and detail is very clunky - but then it is one of the oldest "modern" ship kits!

First things first – as I want to display this on a waterbase, I needed to waterline the hull. After this, I drilled out all the portholes, then the spurious panel lines were filled and sanded.

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The hull halves will shortly be joined and strengthening rods added between them so the hull will keep its shape.

Next, all the moulded on detail was removed from the main deck piece, particularly the fo’csle. This included the various textures used to represent different deck styles, none of which should be visible at this scale.

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Following this, I turned to the various decks, deckhouses and superstructures. The detail, particularly the solid railings, needs to be removed and replaced. My first thought was to completely scratchbuild new decks, but it isn’t as simple as that. The kit’s decks, while thick, add needed height to the various superstructures – they would all be too low otherwise. So I cut new decks from 20 thou plasticard, using the kit decks as templates. I then removed all the details from the kit decks, including all side extensions, and will glue the new plasticard decks over the top of them. Hope that makes sense – these pictures might help.

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Above, the thickness of the deck can just about be made out - this is needed, and the 20 thou deck piece seen below will house all the detail while giving a better scale thickness:

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You can see what I had to remove by comparing this deck to the sprue shot of it. Given that, in this scale, 1mm = 1 foot, the thickness of the various deck edge extensions was about 2 feet - not very destroyer-like!

I'll glue the hull together tonight and strengthen it, then I'll think about the base board.
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

PaulBradley wrote:Boy, I feel like such a laggard compared to the rest of you! :shock:
Well done, lads, our plan worked :grin:

Wow, taking it right down to bare bones, huh ? This will be interesting.
I do note that so far yours seems to be the only one with hull plating, albeit clunky ...
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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

jRatz wrote:
PaulBradley wrote:Boy, I feel like such a laggard compared to the rest of you! :shock:
Well done, lads, our plan worked :grin:

Wow, taking it right down to bare bones, huh ? This will be interesting.
I do note that so far yours seems to be the only one with hull plating, albeit clunky ...
:ha:

The hull plating is going away, for the most part - those panel lines are a scale foot wide! I may add some 5 thou strips.
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by fenman »

At least you are doing real modelling, all I have to do with my Tamiya kit is to throw the bits in a bag, spray with glue, shake and it is done :oops:
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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

More progress today. Having made all the new decks, I did add a few shims to the tops of the kit deckhouses to give them a bit more height:

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Here are all the decks temporarily in place:

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I also made a new bridge superstructure, as the kit one is too small and short and has sides that slope in unprototypically. The new one was fashioned from 20 thou plastic card and slots over the top of the existing structure (you can just see the darker outline of it), but is slightly longer and taller:

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The bridge deck sits on shims inside this new housing and rests on the old structure. I'll add the various wing bridges and secondary gun decks later.
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by fenman »

Excellent work, very impressed with the modifications, I doubt I would have attempted it.
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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

Cheers, Graham - it's not all that difficult really. For me, the tough part is going to be putting all those PE parts on.... :shock:
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

Not so much progress last weekend, but did get the decks painted in WEM Deck Green. Spent the last couple of evenings thinning the lattice mast, as the generic PE set I bought doesn't have one.
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by PaulBradley »

Slow progress on this one as I've had limited bench time these past couple of weeks. However, here's where it stands after some work last night, when I didn't work on my Gnat...

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Most of the decks are glued in place, and I've started on the bridge superstructure:

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I am currently working on the radar director tower that goes at the back of the bridge deck, and I'll need to add some bridge furniture. I also need to work on the foward deck furniture - capstans, anchor chains and scuttles, etc.

I've been tarting up the main gun turrets, but have 'struck a reef' on the remaining gun turrets - the kit ones are terrible, but no-one makes any AM ones. Still trying to figure this out.

I've noticed that WEM enamels are quite thin and require more than one coat to cover nicely.

I also cannot seem to get the wretched hull panels lines to go away.....I have a plan though.
Paul

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Re: HMS Barfleur, from a Frog kit

Post by JohnRatzenberger »

PaulBradley wrote: I've noticed that WEM enamels are quite thin and require more than one coat to cover nicely.
Yes, they are pretty much air-brushable right from the tin, but hairy-stick requires effort.

My favorite trick is to find the closest Humbrol color and use that as a base coat, then brush the WEM over to cover. Also you can sand out/fix any blemishes the 1st (Humbrol) coat shows and re-do that coat. Humbrol is a lot more available and less expensive than WEM.
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