The Ship Model Forum

This is the FROG HMS Exeter in 1/500 scale. Built it back in the 60s and found it again at a model show a few years ago. For nostalgias sake I built it straight oob, no PE, rigging etc. A couple of parts were missing (Pom Poms and Walrus).

FROG ("Fly Right Off the Ground" I think) were a British company who made (in my opinion) some very interesting kits for the tine (not just the stamdards). As someone pointed out earlier they cast in 1/500 with Royal Navy ships like Exeter, Revenge, Torquay, Undine. In truth the detail was not great but at the time they were IMHO the best deal in town
Barry

Continuing my set of improvements to the Trumpeter kit:

I revised all the doors and portholes in the lower part of the superstructure under the bridge. In fact only one door appeared to be in the correct position, and only one porthole. The rest needs to be filled up (see white spots) and new holes drillled (1 mm). Note the rather different pattern on the left (port) side, as there are the seaman's heads, like on most if not all ships of the Royal Navy. On the starboard side rather less portholes are needed.

The 8 inch turrets seem to be rather good, in shape and dimensions, but lack many details, like the sighting ports, maintenance covers on the top, periscope, and doors at the rear of the turret. I tried to do these details justice. One can also buy a replacement set from Micro Master (Simon Percival) offered through Shapeways, but I didn't want to go that far.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Turning my attention a bit further aft, the rear superstucture leaves also a little bit to be desired. Again, a lot of doors and portholes, practically symmetrical made by Trumpeter, but lacking support from photographs or drawings.

As drawing references are scarce, I used here a plan from Raven & Roberts 'British Cruisers of World War 2'. The plan is from HMS York, but I don't see much reason why it wouldn't apply with Exeter well in this particular case.
As you see, the internal arrangement (officer's cabins-3, commodore's cabin-4, officer's WCs-1 and bahrooms-2) dictates very much where the doors and the portholes are located. So I arranged those similarly on the model. I also added a few doors to the funnel uptake casings, also inspired by the same drawing. Also, note the two forward corners of this deckhouse should be rounded off, as can also be seen on the excellent overhead photo in the Panama Canal.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Can somebody share pictures of the rear part of HMS Exeter 8 inch cannon turrets (Mk II typer turrrets)? Can't find any. Looking for the details, i.e. doors, ladders, etc.

Marco

I found no original pictures, but our friend Simon Percival made these renderings from his Shapeways entries of the 8" turrets. I guess he must be close, but I find the two hatches on top of the turret too thick and not quite the right shape.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Are these images any help?

In my view certainly, Brett! Thanks

And the first image confirms another issue I found in the Trumpeter kit: there are twelve reinforcement triangles around each barbette, not eight as Trumpeter made it.

Furthermore, the triangles on the Y turret (quarterdeck) are much smaller than the two forward turrets, so in this case I replaced them all

So back to the workbench, remove four from each barbette and add eight new ones. I'll make a picture when I'm done.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Yet another detail they appear to have copied from the erroneous Profile Morskie plans:



I guess that makes scribing the deck around B barbette easier as we can just cut off the reinforcements and scribe through.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

It is very difficult to do the scribing evenly, instead I used Evergreen 2025 V-Groove plate, with grooves at .025" spacing, replacing the deck altogether, except for the rim.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

And here are the corrected barbettes, with twelve reinforment plates.
As you see, the replaced deck around B turret from Evergreen is quite nice. The butt ends of the deck planks I scribed in similar fashion like the rest of the kit, not to fall out of tune of course.
On the Y barbette I replaced all the triangles to make them similar with those of the forward turrets.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Well that confirms it, two doors are correct. Nevertheless I find Shapeways detail overdone in some aspects, prefer to add the details scratch and with PE. Thank you for bringing up the issue with the bases, this kit will need some additional work, more than what I expected.

Marco

I fully agree with you, Marco. The Trumpy kit is better than expected, looking at their previous kits, but lacks in a lot of places. I also agree with Tracy White, it seems Trumpeter fully relies on Profile Morskie, but that reference is not always very accurate, making too many assumptions without checking with solid references like photos.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

An interesting image, not Exeter, but HMS York.
A Dido in background, likely to be Bonaventure.

York was one of the chosen few to receive some of the very limited supply of MK I oerlikons early 41.
Her qtr deck octagonal gun bin, note the barbette ribs on Y turret.

From the previous mentioned series, incorrectly and ridiculously identified as Perth.

Thank you for this picture, Brett!

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Brent, re the images you posted above on March 27. Is the top image of Exeter(?), and if so would you be kind enough to post the complete image please. I don't think I have seen that one before.

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“We are off to look for trouble. I expect we shall find it.” Capt. Tennant, HMS Repulse. 8 December 1941
“A review of the situation at about 1100 was not encouraging.” Capt. Gordon, HMS Exeter. 1 March 1942

The full size image can be found here,
https://www.history.navy.mil/content/hi ... 60805.html

Thanks VERY much for the link Brett, MUCH appreciated!

It's been a long time since I have been to the NHHC site and great to see some of those photos up there in such high res (and some interesting PDF's to boot). Rubbing my hands with glee.

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“We are off to look for trouble. I expect we shall find it.” Capt. Tennant, HMS Repulse. 8 December 1941
“A review of the situation at about 1100 was not encouraging.” Capt. Gordon, HMS Exeter. 1 March 1942

Just to give a head up that a Chinese Company is making a lovely set of 8 inch gun Brass Barrels for the HMS Exeter and York
( and have an attachment pin for the Gun Barrels - like Pontos uses that will save a lot of work )
sold on USA Ebay by CY Models - ref 1/350 203mm Brass Gun Barrel for Trumpeter 05350 HMS Exeter CYG029 6pcs/set

and also a WOODEN DECK .1/350 Wooden Deck for Trumpeter 05350 HMS Exeter Heavy Cruiser Model CY350055

Sadly the deck is useless in case of depicting her in the 1939 frametime
Wish that a good vendor like Flyhawk,Pontos makes a special set for an early war Exeter and solve this problem.

So far Maarten's solution for fixing the B Turret's deck is brilliant, he is doing one of a hell job, quite an artist .

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No Whine Policy
1.- Modify it
2.- Ignore it
3.- Don't build it