Hello everybody,
although I already finished my "Snowberry" about six months ago now, I'd like to give you a short overview of the building process which took me around one year.
I tried to correct the most evident inaccurcies of this kit.
Adjustment of the hull parts. I had to reorder the two forward halves as they were badly torn. Revell delivered them free of charge - good service!
The portholes are altogether in the wrong position, so I decided to fill out most of them and drill new ones in the correct places (see fotos below).
1.)
First "in water survey". Everything watertight. Although it wasn't my intention to fit RC, I prepared everything for a later refit.
You can see the porthole adjustments.
2.)
One major nuisance of the kit ist that mighty stem. Something that has to be corrected.
3.)
The hull is painted in the typical "Western approaches scheme". I did a lot of research to meet the original colours but in the end I'm not completely satisfied as the green seems to be a bit too loud.
4.)
I made a lot of changes to the arrangement of Skylights, vents and lockers on top of the E/R-casing. This was my first attempt...
5.)
then I decided to discard the complete 2pdr-platform including foundation and the E/R-Skylight and build them from scratch:
6.)
Also I mad a lot of adjustments to the quarterdeck: New foundation for DC-throwers, new DCs, spare anchor ...
Furthermore I fitted new railings made of brass stanchions and wire.
7.)
New armour plates on the forecastle and nearly completely rebuilt navigation bridge arrangement.
8.)
The radar lantern that is included in the kit looks somewhat like an airport control tower.
I made a new one of styrene:
9.)
Detail of forecastle, aft section. The galley hut had to be extended on the port side according to the original configuration:
10.)
The anchor winch which is included is complete junk. Made a new one of styrene sheet.
On this shot the slimmed down stem can well be seen.
11.)
Detail of Nav.bridge deck and galley hut. The prefabricated wooden decks didn't fit after all my changes, so I just painted the bridge deck grey.
The inclination of the main mast was wrong and I reduced it after this foto was shot.
Scratchbuild: Flag lockers and water tank on top of galley, searchlight platforms, Sliding door at asdic hut and so on...
12.)
Some impressions of the complete model:
13.)
14.)
The bilge keels are far too long but I became aware of this detail too late so I leaved them as they are.
Also the lines of the hull are not very accurate and the quarterdeck is a little too slim but those matters can't be corrected with a reasonable effort.
15.)
Hope you enjoyed my little report.
Best regards Stefan