Calling all HMS York and HMS Exeter (WWII) fans

[MartinI]

I'm new to this forum and am hoping for some help.

I'm looking for good HMS Exeter drawings, preferably River Plate version, (just watched the 1956 movie!). The only ones I've found so far are the Warship Profile, and David Metcalf's from the Model Boat plans service. I'm considering a large-ish R/C version.
Is the Metcalf drawing worth getting? (I got his Invincible drawing some years ago and ended up going with the A&A drawing instead.) Are there others? I understand that Alan Raven may be a member of this forum. Does he sell plans?
Thanks for any help.

Martin

[MartinI]

Thanks David - lots of good stuff there.

Thanks also to Peppe and Mike for the help they have offered. All bits of information on the Battle of the River Plate version greatly appreciated.

Martin

[FrancisMcN]

Martin,

I got that plan (1/192) with the eventual aim of using it to guide a 1/700th Matchbox kit conversion to the post River Plate configuration as that is the version the plan covers. It is fairly basic with a profile and elevation and hull sections and basic lines and some extra drawings for boats and crane but would require a fair bit of guesswork/interpretation to complete. For RC I presume you would work at 1/96th or larger so it would need enlarging quite a bit to say the least and it would be short on detail.

There used to be in a long closed model shop in Exeter itself a large (8-10 foot long) model of the ship in pre-war configuration that presumably is still around somewhere. It might be worth asking on Model Boats site and perhaps at the Child -Beale museum if any more is known about that model now - were you thinking that big? I suspect the builder used NMM plans.

From memory there also used to be a 1/200th card model that might provide a reasonable basis - Marcle models http://www.marcle.clara.net/ might be able to advise if it can still be sourced.

Good luck

Francis Macnaughton

[peppe]

effectively it is a card model of the exter 1:200, is the polish GPM 36 but is in 1941 "dressing"
i have a electronic version in pdf but is very heavy around 8 mega.
ciao peppe

[peppe]

one more cardmodel but same 1941mod you can find at
http://www.only-paper.ru/news/2008-04-05-880
is in russian and you can download from letitbit.net doing same surfing
ciao peppe

[MartinI]

I think it will be 1/128 scale to take advantage of the County class fittings from Fleetscale. Thanks for the leads on the large model Francis. I'll try over at Model Boats and Modelboatmayhem.

Martin

[KevinD]

Gents,

A newbie here.

First, as way of introduction, I have a long, well relatively speaking, and close association with HMS Exeter and some of her remaining survivors (from Java Sea action) so was very interested to read this thread. Great stuff! However I notice some of the links (to photos, etc) in various posts do not appear to work. Is this because they have �expired� as it were?

I must say I wish I had stumbled on this discussion, specifically re the catapults, some months ago, as have been liaising with an artist over past six months who is working on a painting of her depicting the action just moments before the fatal 8� hit to 'A' Boiler Room on March 1st, and this cat question had been a sticking point for a while, but eventually we got it sorted.

Second, I notice some folks would like a copy of Exeter�s plans �as built�? No problem, I have them (originals) as PDF's or jpg's, but what is the protocol here? Can I post them for all? What is the image size (bytes) that can be posted here, etc?

Alternately if that is not possible, then if someone cares to PM me I will send direct, but of course would just as soon post here rather than send multiple individual emails.

Regards,
Kevin

[Timmy C]

Many of the images earlier in this thread have probably been deleted or removed from whereever they were hosted - you might have some luck contacting the poster of the pictures, as they probably still have a copy with them.

As for image sizes, if you are trying to post plans (ie. large size and dimensions), the best way to go about it would be to host them on a dedicated picture hosting site such as www.tinypic.com and then posting the link to the image here. Our photo attachment tool only supports images of no more than 150kb in size.

[Filipe Ramires]

Welcome aboard Kevin,

The chaps here have a keen interest for both ships of the class being Exeter the favourite one due to her actions during WWII. I've built York myself a few years ago in her late version. Also I have the old Matchbox model to build yet I'm holding my breath for a while and see if the Tamiya rumour that they are releasing a brand new model of the cruiser comes true.
Best regards,

Filipe

[KevinD]

Gents,

Given the wealth of expertise here maybe someone can answer this question.

The attached painting shows Exeter just after arrival back to UK from Falklands with Winston walking up gangway, painted by a chap called Cundall (his first name eludes me now), but a well respected artist of the time I am told.

Now another artist friend of mine (as opposed to the one I mention in my previous post) was hoping to do another painting of her - circa Graf Spee battle - prior to the 70th anniversary later this year, and he was wondering if there is any truth to Cundall's depiction of the yellow/mustard coloured funnels he shows, or was it just artistic license on Cundall�s part (which if so seems odd for a person of his caliber not to depict her accurately).

Any help appreciated as so far artist has not been able to definitively confirm or deny funnel colour.

TIA.

Kevin

[Filipe Ramires]

This is actually the first time I've heard or seen Exeter with yellow funnels in wartime!!! I'm quite sure that's fiction yet perhaps some one else can explain that better. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you regarding the accuracy of this painting.

[dick]

Kevin,

At the Battle of the River Plate Exeter was in an overall light grey. Immediate after action photos of her lying damaged at the Falklands Islands clearly show this.

For the return journey to the UK some temporary patching up was done. The hull and front face of the bridge seems to have been painted a medium grey, and the forward turrets perhaps an even lighter grey.

The photos of her nearing England

and arriving at Devonport show no sign of the funnels being anything other than light grey.The pre-war buff/yellow funnel colour always shows up as a medium sort of tone in black and white photos.

Maybe it is a coincidence, maybe not, but this picture of yours turned up in the letters pages of the Daily or Sunday Telegraph sometime during the last 12 months. I seem vaguely to recall that one of the respondants had been a young dockyard lad at the time and he commented how inaccurate the funnel colours depicted were ....

Best wishes.

[dick]

Kevin,

Further to my last, Cundall did a pair of paintings of Exeter's return to Devonport. Here is a link to an artist's site showing the second which seems to me an even less credible image showing as it does an almost Edwardian colour scheme. Maybe Cundall was sent photographs to his studio and for colours worked from memory of his childhood toys.

http://www.robin-brooks.com/special-shi ... nels.shtml

Curiously Brooks seems to use a lot of your material - look at some of his other Exeter pages...! Or have we just gone round in a big circle?

Cheers.

[KevinD]

Or have we just gone round in a big circle?Cheers.

Thanks Dick, but yes, best get off the roundabout!

I was of course inclined to think she did not have the 'yellow' funnels, as was Robin, but you (or should I say 'I') cant really 100% tell in black and white photos, and as my dear old mum would say "if you don't ask, you may never know".

Thanks anyway.

However was told that much earlier in her career she did have 'yellowish' funnels when on China Station.

Any truth to that?

K

[Tim Stoneman]

Kevin - I suggest you check with whoever told you she had yellow funnels on the China Station - I'm not aware of any references which say she ever went to the China Station (she joined the East Indies Squadron in May 1941, but yellow funnels were a peacetime thing).
Tim

[dick]

Kevin,

As Tim says, Exeter was never on the China Station.

Here is a link to some black and white peacetime pictures of cruisers with buff funnels - you can see the sort of tone it produces.

http://picasaweb.google.com/dickfalmouth/BuffFunnels#

It is just possible that Exeter had buff funnels at some point in the 1930's - see the "1932" picture.

But there are many pictures to show that well before WW2 started she was in overall grey of which I post just one example from 1938.

Best wishes.

[Filipe Ramires]

Hi,

This might be of some use....her TROM:

http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono ... htm#exeter

Apparently, other then a brief staying in the Med Fleet she never left the Atlantic stations during her peacetime career.
Regards,

Fil

[Roman1]

Second, I notice some folks would like a copy of Exeter�s plans �as built�? No problem, I have them (originals) as PDF's or jpg's, but what is the protocol here? Can I post them for all? What is the image size (bytes) that can be posted here, etc?

So what happened? Are you still looking for place for the files?

[KevinD]

Second, I notice some folks would like a copy of Exeter�s plans �as built�? No problem, I have them (originals) as PDF's or jpg's, but what is the protocol here? Can I post them for all? What is the image size (bytes) that can be posted here, etc?

So what happened? Are you still looking for place for the files?

As it turns out the plan/s are much too big to post here. If you want a copy PM me your email address.

[Guest]

I can't see your e-mail as I'm not registered (currently) but I will try to find a way to post the plans. Let me know how big they are - my e-mail is navy@digitalnavy.com.