Daring to be different

Pellson · December 09, 2024, 08:54:06 AM

Quote from: Gondor on December 08, 2024, 01:31:29 PMI have been reading this book which was recommended by a friend

That is one half of the indispensable reference literature when looking at the wartime and post war Royal Navy destroyers and frigates. A marvellous source! Of course I have one!

Equally of course, I also have the other one, namely the "Rebuilding the Royal navy. Warship design since 1945" by David K Brown and George Moore.

Do procure!

Gondor · December 09, 2024, 09:47:03 AM

This is my copy of that book

Though I intend to buy this book

Gondor

Weaver · December 09, 2024, 06:14:41 PM

Got both of those books.
Also got a 2nd hand 1989 copy of The Naval Institute Guide To World Naval Weapons Systems.
Another good book I frequently refer to is Conway's Navies in the Nuclear Age (Freidman, I think).
Also recommend the Ian Allen books, both type-specific ones and the Frigates, Destroyers and Aircraft Carriers ones, and also Battle For The Fjords.

I've got D.K.Brown's Vanguard To Trident, but boy is it a dense read, being more about naval policy formation than design work, although it does have some interesting snippets in it.

Gondor · December 12, 2024, 11:13:26 AM

I was recently looking for plans to allow me to build my own Type 965 radar for this project, being a little disappointed in the etch brass ones I had come across so far. So, my web search revealed that Starling Models produces both the AKE1 and AKE2 radars in 1/700 and 1/600.

So how do they look? Well as near as you can probably get in 1/600 scale.

Below is the Airfix rendition of the Type 965 from 1969

And with a Starling Models version

Top view admittedly. And then both the AKE1 and AKE2 together

They are not perfect, but they are very close indeed. They will look great when they go on top of their respective models.

Gondor

NARSES2 · December 13, 2024, 05:17:56 AM

They do look nice. Need a steady hand, beyond me nowadays $:-\$ , to get them ready for use though.

Gondor · December 15, 2024, 11:22:02 AM

So after a short while of not doing much, I got my a$$ in gear and did some work. There is now a rear deck extension that looks the part and as importantly, is as symmetrical as I can get it.

The work on the superstructure will be a bit further down the road as I am going to concentrate on getting the VDS and Limbo areas built. This was as far as I had got with my Leander build when I ran into difficulties working out how the viewports for the VDS could be constructed. I'm probably going to have the same issues with this ship but if I manage to build them then I can forge ahead with the Leander as well.

I managed to scale the drawing from my reference.

As near as I can measure the lengths at the boot line are the same. Parallax is making the kit look bigger because it is closer to the camera than the drawing.

This means that the superstructure that B turret sits on is like this

So to me, it looks as if it's only the cured section that is too small. It's a pity that we only get side elevations in the book, a plan elevation would be very helpful indeed. I am going to have to re-read my references to try and work out if I need to do any work to the side of the superstructure, did it have a constant distance from the edge of the deck or did it have straight sides?

Gondor

Rick Lowe · December 15, 2024, 08:31:02 PM

Have you seen these?

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Daring-class_destroyer_(1949)

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Daring-class_destroyer_(1949)?file=Daring_Class_line_drawing.jpg

https://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=24&pid=1303

https://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pid=1303&fullsize=1

FWIW, just trying to help.

Gondor · December 15, 2024, 10:09:46 PM

Quote from: Rick Lowe on December 15, 2024, 08:31:02 PMHave you seen these?

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Daring-class_destroyer_(1949)

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Daring-class_destroyer_(1949)?file=Daring_Class_line_drawing.jpg

https://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=24&pid=1303

https://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pid=1303&fullsize=1

FWIW, just trying to help.

No I hadn't. Thanks for the links

Gondor

Rick Lowe · December 16, 2024, 08:02:05 PM

Glad to help.

Gondor · December 17, 2024, 12:07:32 AM

Quote from: Rick Lowe on December 16, 2024, 08:02:05 PM
Glad to help.

The links got me to look at the pictures in a book I have on the Daring class destroyer, so I almost had the information already

It did at least remind me about the book which mainly covers the history of each ship in the class. The pictures can be useful too for other details.

Gondor

Rick Lowe · December 17, 2024, 08:10:51 PM

You never know what is lurking in the corner* of a picture - even one you've looked at many times before...

*and other times, it's dead centre and you wonder how you missed it before...

It comes down to acquiring an eye for that particular detail, I guess.

Weaver · December 18, 2024, 09:10:15 AM

Quote from: Rick Lowe on December 17, 2024, 08:10:51 PMYou never know what is lurking in the corner* of a picture - even one you've looked at many times before...

*and other times, it's dead centre and you wonder how you missed it before...

It comes down to acquiring an eye for that particular detail, I guess.

Oh indeed - I spent ten years looking at my Type 42 book before it dawned on me that one of the under-construction drawings showed the levelling mountings under the aft Type 909 office that explain why it's 1.5 decks tall.

Gondor · December 18, 2024, 10:48:17 AM

The viewports for the VDS that I mentioned earlier, in the build thread on Britmodeller for my Leander ship, several people said that they had never noticed the rear viewport even though they had served on that ship type and it's quite clear in a lot of photographs as well.

Gondor

Rick Lowe · December 19, 2024, 08:30:09 PM

See, even those 'in the know' can miss things; so we have an easy excuse!

Gondor · December 31, 2024, 06:24:04 AM

Not much has been done on the model even though I have had plenty of time, I have simply been trying to relax. So earlier this week I used my Leander as a ruler to measure out how long each wall of the Limbo well needs to be. I then cut some plastic card to rough lengths.

As you can see, I have an open hatch on the lowest piece of card. The layout is Forward to the left, Aft to the Right, Port to the bottom and Starbourd to the top.

Here is a close-up of the door.

I don't mind that the frame looks a little crocked on its right-hand side, it will be hidden at the back of the VDS bay. I will be drilling out the plastic in the door opening so that it can be seen through, however, there will be no direct line-of-sight through it, but shining a light into the Limbo well will be seen if you look forward from the rear of the VDS well.

As a size reference, each yellow line on the cutting mat is one centimetre apart from each other. Maybe I will manage to get the Limbo bay constructed by the end of the day if I don't get distracted too much by other future builds.

Gondor