Revell 1:72 HMS Snowberry built as HMS La Malouine

Ooo, now this looks like fun. 

The previous builder looks to have done good work so far. Helpful.

That's an interesting subject, just read up on her.

K46; you have the K and the 6, just need to make up 4's.

Bill

Actually Bill, I need everything as the decals got lost in the 16 year hiatus 

modelcrazy

Ooo, now this looks like fun. 

 

that is the fun , coming out the other side , and saying I did that ,

I'll follow this with interest, Steve - I have a hankering to build a 1/144 Flower class next year, to balance the U-boat that I really must get finished!  I'll just sit here out of the way, if that's OK, and pick up some tips.

Hutch, as long as you sit there quietly and don't touch anything....then you are most welcome 

you might have a wait....and not sure how many (if any) tips you'll get from me. This one is a real 'shot in the dark' for me.

Here's a fun build link.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/774273.page

Tubosteve

Actually Bill, I need everything as the decals got lost in the 16 year hiatus 

 

My Compass Rose, I handpainted with the stencils as I needed to change the number and color. And I wanted a hand painted look. My guess would be that the hull number was repainted after every North Atlantic convoy by a sailor overside in a chair.

My profession is type on buildings so these tasks are fun for me.

Here's a straight on of the type. The 6 would just be an inverted 9. That's not always the case in type but proved to be true here.

And the stern.

The height of the type on the bow is 0.36 inches and the height of the type on the stern is 0.29 inches. At 1/144 so double it of course.

Bill

I'll be following this too.  I have the 1:72 version too.  Just haven't had the courage to start it yet.

Glad to have you along Don.

I know how you feel WRT courage........this is a massive step into the unknown for me. Never tried a ship before.....let alone all the PE which always gives me grief!

I find that painting sub assemblies with ships really helps. Verticals and horizontals are different colors and it saves masking.

Also, I suggest getting her onto a base, either a temp or the final. otherwise I bust stuff off as I go.

Looking at photos of your ship, the kit matches her pretty well. As an early Flower, she no doubt had the short forecastle, mast forward of the bridge and narrow bridge wings when commissioned. 
My guess would be she was modified and radar added in 41 or 42.

That would match the kit.

The photo you posted sure looks like the 4 inch gun forward is an open mount. Very unusual. Other pictures show a shield.

Otherwise the Pom Pom at the after engineroom casing and the Oerlikons on the bridge match the kit.

The number of depth charge tossers (4 in the kit), hedgehog launcher etc. it's hard to tell.

Small detail noted in Wiki- she flew both the white ensign and the tricolor.

Bill

Hi;

       Of course I had to chime in here. I used a different Wheelhouse configuration. Now, mine is R.C. Yes! I saw the option and took it. The After Deckhouse is removeable to address the electronics and there is a hidden hatch over the rudder that is watertight!

      I chose to do a generic " Flower" because I just like the little ships. The thing is the model, even with ALL it's delicacy is a lot tougher than it looks. At the time I had access to a whole machine shop so all guns are turned brass for Barrels and Machined Recievers Breeches etc.

     The Prop is from Rivabo( Cast Bronze.) But to get scale performance the Rudder and Prop are slightly over scale. Hey, This Puppy weighs just over twenty pounds with Battery installed. It's a large Motorcycle Gel Cell laid on it's side.( Low down for ballast.)

      Sorry, I get carried away. Your work will show a beautiful job when done.I am watching! Any Flower is fair game for me. I have of course the "Big Un" then some in 1/350 ,oh, one in 1/87 too!

The La Malouine S 271 radar lantern is the later version, again conforms with the kit.

The original lantern was octagon in shape and the corner columns presented a block to transmit/ return.

The next design as provided in the kit minimized the interference by the framing.

The S271 changed the effectiveness of the corvettes.

The original ASDIC  sonar had a downward range which gave results below 30 degrees from sea level at short distances.

The radar could see a periscope at 800 yards, a U boat awash at I think 2000 yrds, and a ship way beyond that. In the dark.

The bow gun wasn't effective except against surfaced submarines.

The depth charges off both the stern and the throwers to the side could make a pattern of eight in a half circle with a radius of 150- 200 yards.

With the S271 radar the hunter could attack in the dark without having to use parachute flares or star shellls.

La Malouine, meaning "from Saint Malo" ran as many convoys as any other I've read about.

Real history there. Find out if you will what else the window washer knows. Extraordinary.

I'm in the process of making a paper to report on another diary of a convoy sailor, in this case a US Merchant Marine.

This person was stationed on a USN fleet oiler at Iceland.

Our girl La Malo came through there quite a few times but I haven't seen her name.

Hi Boll:

     That sounds like some of the things my Dad spoke about. He was Merchant Marine. Engineering. Five ships gone from under him. Never set foot on a ship again. The burns he got weren't totally disfiguring, So in that he was lucky. he always had his eyes light up when he spoke of those " Brave Little Ships"

Tubosteve

Glad to have you along Don.

I know how you feel WRT courage........this is a massive step into the unknown for me. Never tried a ship before.....let alone all the PE which always gives me grief!

 

 

Well, I've done lots of ships, maybe a dozen, including several Aircraft Carriers with lots of PE.  One problem is when the hull is all together, it may not fit on my bench.  I do have a rigging stand that I keep beside the bench (adjustable in height for tall ship rigging).  Bases clamp to a small top, and since I do often build a base as I work on hulls, that may work okay.  If I finish hull and base first, I can clamp it on that and work on subassemblies on my bench it may work.  I have started on the main gun which I intend to detail more, and make a scratch turret/shield.

And so it starts   Finished up my Super Hornet this morning then had a massive clear up in the shed to make room for this 'little' puppy. Never realised just how messy/dusty the shed had got, took me a couple of hours!!, but now it's clean and tidy....................ready to start making a 'new' mess.

That's Alright;

  In a few weeks you'll be like the rest of us. One square foot of actual work space. Ship on the tops of paint bottles etc. Great looking area right now.

Tanker-Builder

One square foot of actual work space.

Morrisson's Rule! 

Har!

And imagine, here is my corvette in 1/144 scale.

The La Malo.. is EIGHT times larger, by the Law of cubes!

Bill

For Sure:

     Now get her built! Right, Bill?

Well, it's been an interesting week. Spent the first couple of days just working out what had been done prior to the kit coming into my hands........took a while but finally figured out where I was!  Next was getting some white primer down over most of it..........as you will see, a can of Tamiya white primer didn't finish the job (now waiting on more to be delivered as my local model shop is closed due to Covid so have had to go online. Had to go white because the Colourcoats paints I got just didn't/doesn't cover up the original paint scheme.

Yesterday saw a coat of white go over the hull and today saw the light blue over the top of that...........the weekend will see the black go below the waterline.

Dammed if the masking tape didn't pull up some of the paint (right back to bare plastic.......so top coat enamel, primer and original enamel all came up!)  Will have to touch that up!

Also stated on some of the superstructure/topside stuff..........I guess that is what it's called, please correct me if I'm wrong! (Still very naïve with all this nautical terminology )

More to come as and when it happens.................stay safe!

As per Western Approaches scheme:

"the aim is to achieve a light general tone so "countershading is advisable"

To achieve this, the following should be painted white to eliminate shadow.....

1) Undersides of blast shields, flag decks, boats, torpedo tubes, pom-pom decks and other platforms.

2) After side of the bridge.

3) All lockers, vents,davits and other fittings in and around which shadows occur.

4) All darken ship screens, canvas covers for hawser reels, etc.

5) Lower third of gun barrels, searchlights etc.

6) Masts and crows nests.

7) Any horizontal surfaces that may throw light up into dense shadows.

8) All stanchions and other small fittings on the upper deck.

Question to the hive mind regarding what you would expect the deck colour to be?

As someone pointed out to me on another forum  "As for the main decks, I've seen little evidence to be honest of people getting too excited about Line 7. They wouldn't have been painted darker, but equally I don't recall many (any?) examples of decks painted white."

So if not white nor dark grey.........would a light grey (eg XF19 Sky Grey) or mid grey (eg XF20 Medium grey) be more appropriate/correct?

I would be interested in any info any has in relation to this...............thanks.

 From left to right:

Gun platform with shelter- "bandstand".

2 pounder gun- "Pom Pom"

Ventilators.

Stack and flue housing.

All referred to as "deck furniture".

After a few more hours 'tinkering' this is where I stand. This 'ship-building lark' sure is fiddly and time consuming!

The hull has been painted and sealed with a gloss coat to keep it safe.

Decks have been (for better or worse) sprayed in Tamiya XF80, British Navy Grey and the walkways in XF63, German Grey. Probably not factually correct as Snowberry had wooden decks (according to paint instructions).....so maybe La Malouine did as well. Cannot find any pics to confirm this, but to my eye, didn't like the very dark grey Narn23 previously suggested. I can't get my head round the fact that your trying for a light scheme  (As per Western Approaches scheme: "the aim is to achieve a light general tone so "countershading is advisable") and having a dark grey deck that surely would show with the pitch and roll of a ship...........so went with a lighter grey.

Anything 'sticking up' from the deck will remain white...........as you will see in below pics

And this is where I'm at with the 'deck furniture'. Slowely coming along with just an hour or two a day to mess with it. Hopefully get quite a few more hours tomorrow 

Tubosteve

Probably not factually correct as Snowberry had wooden decks (according to paint instructions).....so maybe La Malouine did as well

The Flowers had wood decks on the several bridge decks, and over the lower decks crew accomodations. That would be the focsle crew compartment (as your model has it), and over the Petty Officers and Engineers cabins.Those were located on the lower deck behind the engine room. The model has those molded into the main deck, at each rear corner of the big engine room casing. The model also has wood decks on the wings under the boats; those were open wood affairs. I assume that was to keep from frying the crews in the summer.

It's an interesting question about the main deck colors, the as-builts early on were Dark Grey.

Bill

Hi Tubosteve. I am also watching and learning. I have the Matchbox kit in the stash and intend to pick up some PE if any is still available. However like you, I find the task somewhat daunting and want to build my skills up some more before taking the plunge. Looks like yours is comming along very well.

Tubosteve

I can't get my head round the fact that your trying for a light scheme

Well, they identified two possible obersation vectors early on (as in WWI).  One is horizontal, as in from a surface vessel or submarine.

That places the ship against a pale, overcast, background, so, the lighter the better, and to countershade anthing casting shadows.

The other vectore is vertical, as in from a plane or dirigible.  Barring operations in ice fields (not common), the background there is the basaltic gray-blue of the North Atlantic.  Which wants a very dark gray so as to not stand out from above, and to help confuse the sight picture from 'quartering' angles above (the light superstructures tend to blur with the sea wake and the like, which only redoubles if there are any reflections from the Sun.

The larger percieved threat was U-Boote, but any protection from Stuka or Condors was not to be sneezed at, either.

USN pressed that really hard in several of their Measures.  Utlimately to the all-over sea and  navy blue schemes in the pacific.  And requiring upper sufaces of many things to have deck paint shading.

Wood decks were often more about traction than appearance, and were painted like their metal counterparts.

While the RN and RCN corvettes had hard lives and long cruises, they seldom were out of port for more than six months.  And would be in port at either end for about a month.  More than enough time to paint and repaint.  Naval vessels always have excess crew, and excess crew are often put to tasks like painting.  Which remains a very necessary thing when operating metal in rust-inducing salt water.  Even running 6 or 8 half hour Action Stations drills leaves 6-8 hours to be painting in between.

So one thinks about it. All of the photos I have seen of Flowers during WW2 are black and white. And most follow the thought of "why would you take a photo of the top of your car."

Horizontal and either dockside or deck side.

A good photo from the compass platform down onto the focsle would be helpful.

As I pointed out before; the deck over crew spaces immediately below was wood.

The depth charge tossers at the rear quarters were mounted on the deck directly above the Petty Officer and Engineers cabins. The few photos I can find of those; i.e. on Dianthus- show a dark smooth deck surface there, the tossers painted samely.

I don't pretend to guess where Matchbox got the info they used to design the model, might have been memory of those who served and/or survivors that existed in the 1970's.

On another topic; return to decks in a minute.

The original crew was maybe 50. It seems the watches were only two, and the officers were a small handful who stood up as well as they could. Then the ships acquired things that took more crew. Oerlikons, minesweep gear, then radar.

The complement was doubled in the first three years. But they were thin and didn't do anything to keep these shipshape except chip ice up by Rekj or Murmansk.

All this according to Monserrat who i consider the expert on the subject.

No cosmetics on the wood decks.

My only clew, vis the depth charge tosser area. Sources refer to their bases as painted the same color as the deck they sat on. Makes sense in every way as you could only see them from above, it made maintenance straightforward. And the ones I've seen photos of are grey.

I'll suggest the wood decks were painted the same color as the steel decks. I'm going to paint my Compass Rose that way.

Bill