Revell's Campbeltown - WIP

There is a site on the internet that shows the pre- and post- configurations only the starboard side is shown.  The site contains several photos too.  I do not recall what the site is but I found it fairly quickly so it must not be hard to find.  The bow railings are removed and two sets of armour plating on the deck (photos show) were installed.  One picture from the bow gives a fairly good idea of how the bow looked after the conversion.  Looks like the fourth funnel was left about one foot or two feet high and the third was capped at about 8 foot (looks about one foot higher than the superstructure right in front of it.  The two front funnels were raked but when I read that I thought they meant that  the whole stack but they remain the same rake but the tops have been sloped bow-to-stern at about ohh, say a 30% rake.   4 20mm guns were added amidship.  Mast were just one left and short, rigging way reduced.  I assume no torpedo tubes.  When the kit arrives I thought I would give a try at making the conversion.

Additional info:  I was looking for anything on the HMS Campbeltown on Taobao (the Chinese Amazon) and came acroos a 1/700 kit (probably available elsewhere but I am in China) and the instructions appeared to match very losely to the pictures and schematics that I saw and mentionned in my post above.  May not be perfect but maybe it will go a long way to helping convert the 1:240 kit into the actual raider which I have on order too.

Getting there....

EPinniger wrote:

.....A good way of weathering a ship model to give it more "life" without making it too rusty is to very lightly drybrush vertical streaks on the hull, in slightly lighter and/or darker shades of grey than the hull colour, particularly in areas like breakwaters and forecastle ends where water would be likely to run down.

Good tip. Thankyou!

Spotty wrote:

EdGrune wrote: HMS Campbeltown from Iron Shipwright. Wow. Its soooo different than the Revel version. I kinda prefer the 4 stacks though. Looks more 'steamy' that way.

Your rust weathering is definitely effective and wouldn't be out of place on a "4-piper" in RN service as an Atlantic convoy escort, but a USN ship in 1940 would probably be quite well maintained, and rust (if any?) limited to light streaking around the anchor hawsepipe and maybe small patches at the waterline. A good way of weathering a ship model to give it more "life" without making it too rusty is to very lightly drybrush vertical streaks on the hull, in slightly lighter and/or darker shades of grey than the hull colour, particularly in areas like breakwaters and forecastle ends where water would be likely to run down. 

EdGrune wrote:

HMS Campbeltown from Iron Shipwright.

Wow. Its soooo different than the Revel version.

I kinda prefer the 4 stacks though. Looks more 'steamy' that way.

HMS Campbeltown from Iron Shipwright.

Good points.

I guess I am going for a "fantasy" look. As if the ship got lost at sea for a while and came back almost ghost like. I realize this isn't historically accurate, but its an esthetic I love.

The problem is that the ship in the picture is a derelict civilian ship.  Naval ships are usually very well maintained, rarely showing anything but minor surface rust. That surface rust is taken care of quickly after returning to port.  It is a myth that naval ships show extensive rusting after long periods at sea.  But, it is your model; go for the effect you want.

Bill Morrison

Maybe, however I may still go heavier yet. My error  i think is that (especially in the back) my transitions between rust and no rust are too strong.

 I want my ship to be as rusty as this even:

I believe that the rusting is much too heavy.

Bill Morrison

First time rusting/weathering using airbrush!

 Whaddaya think?

I want to start "rusting" up the hull.

I could use washes, airbrush, or artists chalks.

Thoughts?

Interesting!. Never thought of a camo pattern yet. I may consider! hmmmmm.

Basic hull painting done.

After some messy crappy brushing "experiments" I purchased an airbrush and voila.

Much work to do, but its a ship now! 

alross2 wrote:

Try this:    Al Ross

Interesting!. Never thought of a camo pattern yet. I may consider! hmmmmm.

I was planning to REALLY weather and "rust" up the hull. Would that look good over a camo pattern like that?

What I meant though, was how to mask it. How do I determine the "straight line". I guess that ridge just above the red in your picture helps.

hmmmmmm.

To add to John Tilley's history of this kit . . . it was also released in the 1980's as the USS Ward (yellow box top with the picture of the completed model.)

Excellent pictures, EdGrune!

 Bill Morrison

Spotty wrote:

How am I gonna determine the waterline where the hull becomes red on the bottom?  I don't see a guideline on the hull!

Try this:

 Al Ross

The seam needs lots of work.

How am I gonna determine the waterline where the hull becomes red on the bottom?  I don't see a guideline on the hull!

Anyway, proceeding slowly but enjoyably!

jtilley wrote:

.... ....bashed the exec over the head with a frying pan, and knocked him unconscious.

I've thought about that with my boss many times. :)

Whenever the subject of the old American "flushed-deck four-pipers" comes up I can't resist retelling an anecdote I once read in the Naval Institute Proceedings.  If you've already heard this one, feel free to stop reading now.

It seems that, some time in the 1920s, the executive officer of one such ship was attempting to establish her speed through the water.  (I guess he didn't have access to any sort of patent log - or maybe that just would have wrecked the story.)  He was trying to be as accurate as he could, so he figured he'd throw a wood board in the water at the extreme bow, click his stopwatch on, then run to the stern in time to click the stopwatch again just as the board passed astern.  Since he knew the length of the ship, simple arithmetic would establish her speed.

The problem was that every time the exec tried to run from the bow to the stern, some sailor would get in the way and the exec would arrive at the stern too late.  So he got one of the quartermasters to "break trail" for him.

The exec threw the board in the water, clicked the stopwatch, and headed for the stern, with the quartermaster running ahead of him yelling "Make way for the exec! Watch out for the exec!"  All went well until they got opposite the galley deckhouse.  One of the cooks was in the midst of cooking dinner and, when he heard the quartermaster yell "look out for the exec," assumed the exec must be having some sort of fit.  So the cook jumped out of the galley, bashed the exec over the head with a frying pan, and knocked him unconscious.

Leonidas wrote:

... ....Maybe I might be able to buy another of this kit someday. What scale is it?

1:240

http://www.revell.de/en/products/model_kits/model_kits/search_result/?id=203&KOKANR=01&KOSCHL=&KGSCHL=&L=1&page=1&sort=0&nc=&searchactive=&q=00005&SWO=&ARMAS4=&PHPSESSID=d88e4367bfa74f7ef5f9dd4ecc719261&KZSLPG=&offset=1&cmd=show&ARARTN=00005&sp=1

Mansteins revenge wrote:

A dio of her stuck in the dry-dock wall the morning after the raid would be cool...

See the article in Airfix Magazine Annual 6 on the subject

http://www.davecov.com/index.htm?http%3A//www.davecov.com/reference/airfixmagazinearticles/warships/annualsguides/annual6_campbeltownstnazaire.htm

Thanks for the memories. I built this kit years and years and years ago. It was one of my first ship builds (2nd I think) it was unpainted and a bit of a glue bomb. Shame I don't have it any more, it would be great to tear it apart and rebuild her the way she should have been built in the first place.

Maybe I might be able to buy another of this kit someday. What scale is it?

I am continually amazed/overwhelmed with the excellent information folks continue to offer. Rest assured I will be referring back to this thread as I build!

Thanks so much.

 (in the photos - thats a great looking ship eh!)

The USS Buchanan remained in service during the interwar period.

As built, these ships had a lower bridge,  canvas fronted and no wind defleting venturi.  The sides of the mid-ship gun deck were not plated.   Here they are shown covered with a canvas spray shield

Naval History & Heritage Command via Hyperwar

Early in the 20s, they bridge face was plated and recived the venturi.   This shows the open-sided gun deck well.

 Naval History & Heritage Command via Hyperwar

This is perhaps the ultimate peacetime apperance of the 4-pipers in US Service.   The venturi is more distinct and the gun deck sides have been plated.   This is what the kit portrays

Naval History & Heritage Command via Hyperwar

A photo of the Buchanan as handed over to the RN

Bath Iron Works

The best reference on the changes of the Buchanan/Campbeltown from WWI to her final appearance as expended is in Al Ross's book Anatomy of the Ship - HMS Campbeltown

I don't think anybody's going to give you any "heat."  With rare exceptions, people in this Forum tend to be pretty civilized.

One option you might think about.  I don't remember the whole story of the Buchanan/Campbeltown (the Revell kit, incidentally, was originally issued as the U.S.S. Buchanan), but if I remember correctly she only operated quite briefly - if spectacularly - in that bizarre, two-funneled configuration.  [Later edit:  I looked up the kit in Dr. Graham's book about the history of Revell.  It originally appeared under the Buchanan name in 1960.  It was reissued as the U.S.S. Aaron Ward in 1962, then twice as H.M.S. Campbeltown, in 1972 and 1979.  I think it was reissued at least once after that in either the "Special Subjects" or "Revell Classics" series; Dr. Graham's coverage only goes through 1979.  So far as I'm aware, the only changes ever made to the contents of the box were confined to the instructions and the decal sheets.]  The modifications for the St. Nazaire raid surely were completed in a few days or weeks just before the raid itself.  I imagine she operated under the British flag for some time before that in whatever state she was in when the U.S. Navy handed her over.

That doesn't necessarily mean she had all four stacks and her original American armament under British colors; quite a few of the old "flush-deckers" got modified between the wars.  But if memory serves (a highly dubious proposition these days), most of them spent the interwar years mothballed in their original configurations, and some, at least, went into British service like that (probably with new color schemes).

Another option, of course, would be to build her as the U.S.S. Buchanan - as the original Revell designers intended - in World War I or interwar configuration.  That would entail, essentially, painting her overall grey (with a darker shade for the decks, I guess) and putting big hull numbers on the bow.

I do wonder why on earth the Revell people took the trouble to put that "wood planking" on the deck parts.  I'd have to do some digging to be sure, but I question whether any American warship designated a "destroyer" has ever had a wood deck.

Bottom line:  it's going to be a nice model.  Good luck.