WEM H.M.S. Barham 25.11.1941.

[zs180]

I have again made some little progress.
My next task was to construct the mainmast. For the tripod legs I used brass tube from Albion Alloys with a diameter of 1,0 mm and 0,8 mm for the struts. Precise alignment is of course very important and not easy.

The starfish was based on the one found in the Artist Hobby set. Some of the supporting triangular gussets proved to have holes in them, so I made my own from aluminium sheet. The platforms were fashioned out of fine PE mesh.

Various small fittings were added, among them another fine 3D printed HACS III from MicroMaster. The topmast is 0,5, the topgallant 0,35, the flagpole 0,2 mm thin. I used Master�s tapered yardarm with a maximum thickness of 0,2 mm.After painting railing (to the platforms) and Jacob�s ladder will be added. I will have to attach the thinnest rigging possible later in construction, for this mast turned out really delicate.

[zs180]

Order of pics messed up
Next I fabricated the main derrick and eleven booms, the latter from brass rod, tapered by hand. In the pictures the taper is not readily apparent because the added rings mask it, but it�s there.

Another highlight of this section is the aircraft handling crane which is a true gem. It was based upon WEM�s PE part and was further detailed according to a nice close-up found in the Raven-Roberts book on British Battleships.

[zs180]

Next I will deal with the the boats, then with the armament. After that painting can finally commence.

[totally_random_man]

The much expected progress is here - good to see it my friend!

[MartinJQuinn]

The level of detail is astounding. That main mast is wonderfully rendered.

[marijn van gils]

Superb!!!

Glad to see some progress too!
And now looking forward to the paint...

Cheers,

Marijn

[bismarck builder]

Sir
You rock

[zs180]

Gentlemen, thank you so much for your kind words.

[Bangor lad]

Stunning craftsmanship.

[Milan Kuliffay]

George, the crane is fantastic.
Will you make the ropes from Caenis?

[JIM BAUMANN]

Ahoy George...!

have you made any further advances on this most excellent subject?

Keep up the enthusiasm and impetus!

JIM B

[zs180]

Milan, thank you very much. I will use stretched sprue for the majority of the rigging. At some places I plan to use lycra as well.

[zs180]

Hi Jim, thank you for your continuous interest and support! I really do appreciate it.
A have now finished all the ship's boats and floats. There's quite a few of them with loads of detail.
Pictures will follow shortly.

[PetrolGator]

Good lord. I cannot even being to articulate how impressive this degree of precision and detail appears.

[zs180]

Thank you Chris! Just watch out for my next posts.

[zs180]

HMS Barham had a sizeable collection of boats. I could not obtain any information as to how many of them were actually carried on the day of her demise, so I decided to include all of them � with the exception of two cutters hung from davits as sea-boats � according to pictorial evidence they had been unshipped by 1941.
I started with the 50� steam pinnaces (capital ships like Barham usually carried two of them). These were quite old-fashioned by the forties and after their construction had been complete I found a photograph indicating that there was a newer-style motor boat in place of them but I could not figure out which type it was. Eventually I chose to depict the old-style steam picket boats. I had a great selection at hand as indicated by the picture below: on top there�s the resin version of Admiralty Model Works, below from left to right WaveLine�s white metal part clearly based on Tamiya�s old plastic boat found in their Hood or Rodney/Nelson kits, next to it the 3D printed version by Micro Master, then Trumpeter�s plastic offering and finally the resin casting by WEM.

If one tries to find the best replica of the real thing, MM�s 3D printed version wins hands down. Accordingly, it was the one I had chosen. It beautifully captures the original boat�s elegant sheerline � a point missed by all the other manufacturers. All the details are spot on, except for the positioning of the cowl vents � I reversed their diagonal position. The biggest flaw is the coarse surface of the 3D printed part. Although I have tried to improve it by scraping and careful sanding, it is very evident in close up photographs, less so in real. I replaced the funnel with Albion Alloys� aluminium tube. A flare was given to the top by careful use of the burr shown below.

mws2.JPG (31.98 KiB) Viewed 1624 times

I added some PE details to sharpen up the appearance.

I treated the 45� admiral�s barge similarly � this is another strikingly well-shaped little gem by Micro Master.

[zs180]

Next came the open boats. The 42� sailing launch and the 32� cutter were based on Trumpeter�s plastic part and constructed along similar lines. First the inside was carved out,

then ribs from stretched sprue were glued inside,

next the inside was painted off-white, weathered (there�s no way to access this part later).

I added boards and PE gratings to the bottom, painted,
and weathered,

(42' launch)

(32' cutter)
then glued in the PE thwarts. A gunwale and a rubbing strake were also added, both from stretched sprue. I used a razor saw to form the recesses for the oars. PE rudders and chocks were added finally, because these boats carried smaller ones upon them.
Here's the finished 42' sailing launch:

[zs180]

Two repeat images at the end of the post... my computer skills apparently don't match my modelling qualities....

[zs180]

Here's the completed 32' cutter:

The ship also had three 30� gigs, a 27� whaler and a 16� dinghy. I was fortunate enough to be in possession of Admiralty Model Works' beautiful resin items (now practically impossible to come across),

so these were used with their respective PE details (the only additional work done was thinning down the sides and adding stretched sprue rubbing strakes), except for the dinghy which was detailed using Artist Hobby�s PE thwarts. In the photographs WEM�s respective item is placed next to the boat shown for comparison.
30' gig:

27' whaler:

16' dinghy (this one's really tiny):

mws34.JPG (40.29 KiB) Viewed 1624 times

[zs180]

Chocks for the larger boats:

and for the smaller ones:

A large, rectangular raft (?) was taken from a FlyHawk PE set.

Another, smaller one, often reffered to as �balsa raft�, sometimes �copper punt� was scratchbuilt. Above it the original WEM part, not much more than a token representation, can just be made out.

mws22.JPG (54.21 KiB) Viewed 1624 times