Revell 1/144 Flower Class Corvette Compass Rose

The subject will be the fictitious HMS Compass Rose, from the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat.

In the story, the corvette is laid down in 1939 and commissioned in 1940. There's a fair amount of detail in the book, we know she was one of the first of the class, with the mast in front of the bridge, an enclosed compass house, armed with the 4" gun and 2 pdr.

So the kit is oif the later modified version, based on HMS Bluebell. The mast is moved to behind the bridge, the compass house is removed, and the forecastle is greatly elongated so that the break from the upper deck to the main deck moved considerable aft from in front of the bridge to back at the stack. With the radar added, that puts the kit as Bluebell circa 1943.

To backdate to 1941, all of the above needs to be undone.

Early Flower, like the model i will build.

What the modified version and the Revell model look like.

Hi,

That's a great idea for a 1st step.  I'm always afraid I'm going to break something sliding things in and out of those side opening boxes.

I can't wait to see your build.

Pat

this going to be good ,can't wait .

I just started my 1:72. I had been debating building the 1:144 first, to check out some ideas, but decided to go right into the big one.

I often convert those Revell boxes that way.  I still prefer the two part box.  That gives me storage- bottom to house parts not being worked on yet, the inverted top to stick subassemblies in while I am working on, and painting on, them.

I've made a simple drawing of the revised decks that I need. As I mentioned, the break from main deck to upper (forecastle) deck moves way forward from where the kit has it, which is under the Carley floats that are just behind the stack, to forward of the bridge, just behind the pedestal for the 4 inch gun. I cut the upper deck across, right on the centerline of the gun pedestal. That also is where the transition from wood to steel occured. Then I've added a short section of smooth (steel) deck from that line back to where the break occurs.

For the main deck, which is steel up to the wheelhouse rear bulkhead and wood forward of that, I've added a deck forward to the break and beyond it into the forecastle. There are a pair of passageways that go in there, one on either side of the gun pedestal. I've laminated a thin sheet of scribed styrene on the forward wood areas, and added thin smooth styrene strips on the other part of the deck to extend forward the Semtex non-skid walkways.

Last for now, I've marked and cut the hull sides where the later raised forecastle was, up to the new break. I've cut and reinstalled the two curved fillets between the upper and lower areas.

Moving my bench from the home office to the back hall today.

Hi " G "

 One short question . How does the  1/144 ship compare in Quality to the larger one - Overall ? T.B.

I don't have the big one so I don't know. I understand that the design is the same.

The transom on the smaller one is a separate part. Maybe there's a Canadian one (flattish across the back) in the works.

The one thing that's a pain is that the plastic is really hard and shiny. The scriber tends to wander a little.

Oh That !

 You Know , I have had that problem with a few RoG kits . I wonder why ? The ship is looking like it is going to be a good build . By the way I have that Book . It's getting a little dog - eared . Why ,? Well , I recommend and then loan it . I have a newer copy on my bookshelf that Never leaves my house !

 Talk about getting into the story . I don't remember the author , But there's another book about an ocean going steam Tug during the war . ( I think W.W.1 ) she's a two stacker ) one behind the other

 The tug's name is the " Isabelle Quell ." Try to find and read that .Can you say a riveting companion to the  "Cruel Sea " ? Catchya Later ! T.B.

Thanks TB. Lots more to show.

I don't know that other book and google search is much hindered by the celebrity named Isabella Quella.

There is a very good book like that, called The Grey Seas Under, by Farley Mowat.

Its about a salvage tug named Foundation Franklin. Operating in Canada 1930s and 40s.

Very good read. IIRC the owners rescued her from a breaker in Hamburg after WW1.

Her bell was inscribed"Frisky", "Aberdeen".

That would be a fun model to research.

Can't find that book, Tanks. We may be talking about the same ship though.

Early in WW2 convoy escorts included armed trawlers and "ocean going" tugs. That was dropped as it slowed everything down, even though our corvette could only make 15 knots on a good day.

There's a great passage in the book, you may remember. Compass Rose is at the back of a convoy from Gibraltar to home, chasing stragglers. She gets a blocked oil line, the shaft bearing overheats, and they are forced to stop while it is repaired. Last thing they want to do. Day turns to night, 12 hours go by. Everyone is tiptoing around. Finally there's a loud series of banging from the engine room. The First goes down to see what's going on and admonish the engineers.

Chief: "Was it loud?".

First: "Only that there's submarines popping up all over the place telling us to keep the racket down".

Fixed, off they go to chase the convoy. Next morning they see the smoke over the horizon, and about two miles ahead, a U Boat on the surface following it. The Kapitan is up on the bridge looking forward at the convoy, and not paying attention to what's speeding up behind him.

Oh I love being the OP because I can hijack my own topic.

TB- further info on the Foundation Franklin, the two stacker you mentioned.

She was a real ship, a Dainty class salvage tug built for the Royal Navy before WW1.

Apparently she is a darling of the RC boat set, and there are lots of builds of her on the internet.

A couple of glass hulls at 60" and a kit or two.

No, I won't descend into that money hole, although I did take my pond sailers up to Stow Lake back when.

"HMS Frisky ...Dundee 1917" according to the book.

Looked it up one place it said she was built in Aberdeen. 

Looked up in another ...said to have been built in Dundee in 1918.

I found a picture of the bell ...it just says FRISKY perhaps date and port of build are not shown in the photo.

I have send a quick question to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. 

https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca 

I will post any reply recieved.

As an aside Canadian built ( Kingston On. ) HMCS Sudbury was converted to a salvage tug after the war. Interesting conversion for the kit for someone. 

Google HMCS Sudbury. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMCS_Sudbury

https://goo.gl/images/Y8sXwE

Great read!

That's great, thanks.

Got a reply to my post to the museum.

He says it just says FRISKY.

Cheers

TB asked:  How does the 1/72 kit compare to the new 1/144 scale kit? 

I have both-- the new 1/144 kit is much nicer, much more accurate, and better detailed. But hey-- we're comparing a Matchbox kit from the 1970s to one of the nice new Revell Germany kits from 2016!

And the hull is two halves.

I just noticed this post, GM, and your new project.

A friend loaned me The Cruel Sea recently, and I finished it and returned it to him last week.

What a great book!  It's in the "can't put it down" category.

Going to be interesting watching you put "Compass Rose" together.

Seeing your thread, GM, have decided to jump in as well, thinking that this kit will go nicely with two other 1:144 builds that I have - Lindberg's AM 299 USS Sentry and Revell's older kit of the U-99, Otto Kretschmer's type VII-B.

Nicholas Monsarrat also published a book called "Three Corvettes" (my copy is from Mayflower Books, 1972) which is a compilation of three books that Monsarrat wrote during the war while serving in Corvettes and eventually commanding one.  That's probably why the Cruel Sea is so good - Monsarrat was actually there.

I also have a book on the Flower Class Corvettes by Antony Preston and Alan Raven (with color artwork by John Roberts - so really well done), "Ensign 3 - Flower Class Corvettes," Bivouac Books, 1973 - haven't checked but you might find one at ABE Books or Amazon.  They have a plan for an early Corvette as well as a nice line drawing of HMS Begonia in 1941.  Will break out the scanner and see if I can upload some images.

Thinking that I might get some fittings from Shapeways and adapt the kit as USS Tenacity, PG-71, with a US 4" forward and a 3" mount aft.

Good luck with the build.

Mike

I am lucky enough to have a signed hard cover copy of Three Corvettes.

That is a nice thing, Sharkie. I will be reading his other books.

I have sort of invented my version of Rose, based on her first year. the year with Bennett.

In the beginning, sort of in third person through the eyes of Lockhart, she has a mast in front of the bridge, which makes her the early short forecastle design.

She has the 2 pounder Pom Pom, which is a slightly later fit than the other AA set ups. And she has "light machine guns" on the bridge, the Lewis fits.

What we never learn is her pennant number. In the movie, she is K49, HMS Crocus' number, although the ship used was K32, HMS Coreopsis.

Absent any other good reason, I'm going with K49.

So, the rebuild to a short foc's'le gets started.

And the wheelhouse, modification of the kit.

OY !

 " G " That is looking great! T.B.

The ship yard is in full swing.

can't wait for the launch ,

your cutting mat look's in as good a nick as mine . 

GM, You are a real model builder & are doing a beautiful job. You are a lot neater than me, my work desk is so messy I usually don't have room to work on it. Your pictures are great & real helpful. What are you going to do with the railings.On my Great Western I used .025 plastic rod for posts & .010 plastic rod for the railings. It is a lot easier to glue & work with than brass rod.

Just received my first edition copy of Mowat's The Grey Seas Under. (lucky me)

Just checked and according to Mowat on page 2 the Bell was inscribed

"HMS FRISKY

Dundee -1918".

Artistic license perhaps?

Research is such fun! Especially when sources disagree.

Cheers

Sharkbait.

PS got the book from https://www.betterworldbooks.com

A friend turned me on to this site a few weeks ago...excellent service and lots of interesting used books both aviation and nautical looking for a good home. Great prices too!

Another , perhaps even better, site is https://www.abebooks.com

I have a renewed focus on this build. 

I took her down and cleaned her up, Got rid of the decal silvering and puttied up some bad looking joins.

Took her off of the build stand and then put her back truly level.

Set the main deck. The short forecastle shows here with the more forward partitions and the original charthouse on the main deck.

Here's a mock up of how the shortened focsle deck will look.

I've been a little hung up on the engine room skylight, but I'm finally able to focus and get it done.

There are 65 PE parts in the Ed set. I had to make about 10 from scratch for parts that pinged off, but in the end it all landed on something about the size of a postage stamp.

Masked for painting.

And done. I went ahead and weathered it as I don't really want to have to go back in. It looks a little less rusty than this, but the idea is a ship that spent 30 days in gale conditions in the North Atlantic.

I'm inclined to get the mast done and put aside. It's a piece of Douglas Fir, 52 feet long. There's a crossarm of Doug 14 feet long.

In advance of that, the crossarm (yard) has 8 pulley sheaves. 4 for flag halyards, and 2 each for transmitting and receiving antennas.

There will also be dead eyes for lifts and stays but hat's a subject for a later post.

The Ed set gives you this which is one step better that the the nubbin on styrene of the kit yard.

Doubled up some eyes on wire.