Calling all HMS Nelson & HMS Rodney fans

[Tigerfish]

Thanks heaps for this! Just what I needed.

Shall make some torpedo tubes tonight.

[Andyman_23]

Hello everyone,

i just bought the 1/700 scale Rodney from Tamiya. Would the WEM photoetch set be the best if i wanted to depict her in either 42 or 43/44? Does the set come with appropriate AA armament?

Also, does anyone know any good reference books or have any good reference websites for the Rodney?

thanks guys, i can't wait to build this badboy over my Thanksgiving break!

-Andy

[Sauragnmon]

Ok... so here I am, and I have a desire to do some modifications to a Nelson.

I wound up getting a Rodney with my N3, rather than a Nelson, due to a mistake on my own part. I have to get a Nelson to get the AA I want for the late fit, and to compensate for part of it I'll be getting a KGV and making a Lion with some of the parts.

But, here comes the big thought.

I'm thinking of taking the Other Rodney class Hull, and making modifications to it. Carrier Hybrid is out, I already have one sitting indefinately waiting for flight deck, as I don't have the materials really.

So, if You could tweak a Rodnol, what would you do with it? I'm thinking of either using Quad 14's up front in A and B, and rebuilding C into an AA position, or using 16" 50's off my Mightier Mo in the mounts.

Other thoughts include widening the stern for a transom fit to try and improve the seakeeping a hair, refitting the 6" guns with 5.25" guns, or other fun amusement like that. I'm looking for ideas that would involve something I could do with relative ease, and I'm calling it "Pimp my Nelson"

[MartinJQuinn]

Hello everyone,

i just bought the 1/700 scale Rodney from Tamiya. Would the WEM photoetch set be the best if i wanted to depict her in either 42 or 43/44? Does the set come with appropriate AA armament?

Also, does anyone know any good reference books or have any good reference websites for the Rodney?

thanks guys, i can't wait to build this badboy over my Thanksgiving break!

-Andy

The WEM set is very nice, and should cover the ships for any time period you want to build.

Some Rodney related links:

Maritime Quest Page

Battleships-Cruiser.uk Page

World War 2 Cruisers website Use the navigation buttons to find Rodney pics

HMS Rodney Website (looks like it hasn't been updated in quite sometime, with many dead links)

Ship Model Plans Rodney Page

Jim Baumann's build of a 1943/44 Rodney (be nice to see new pictures of some of Jim's older builds taken with his new camera...hint, hint).

For reference material, there is are the long out of print Man O War 3 on the Nelson class and Roberts & Raven's British Battleships of World War 2. There is also this new book that I found via a web search.

[warspite63]

Hi, Sauragnmon.
Re: your question of what to do with a spare Nelson model, an idea occurred to me when playing with MSPaint and a line drawing of Nelson - how would she have looked with a conventional armament arrangement (3-3-A-3) as opposed to thet all-forward arrangement adopted (3-3-3-A)? I too have a spare 600-scale Nelson somewhere in the basement that will be getting this treatment at some point.

I found it necessary to move A and B turrets forward 9along with the entire superstructure) to create enough of a quarterdeck to fit the new X turret, but the result (while not as distinctive as Nelson and Rodney) was a powerful-looking, typically British (understated but purposeful - at least, I think so...) vessel.

Alternatively, I once saw a drawing (on the Warship Projects site, I think) of a battlecruiser version - 2 triple turrets forward, twin funnels, and so forth. Very cool......

Anyway, have fun!
Cheers,
Steve

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, somebody on the other board I'm on, the What If Board, had an idea somewhat like that, with the two turrets, double stacks, extra power deal. I'm going to wind up having a Rodney and Bits, so I'm considering redoing the stern into a transom style, for a partial improvement, and I was considering spreading out the secondary battery as well, as those are a sighted flaw as well in construction. Current thought is to move the bridge over X turret, and put the second funnel in place of the current bridge location. I'll also have the ability to carve out some of the barbettes from the cannibalized Rodney hull, so I could fiddle around with the thoughts of building a barbette into the aft deck somewhere and making something of that, but I fear that would require much extension or redesigning.

[WI_Chris]

Hey guys,
Does anyone have an overview paln of where the many, many 20mm oerlikons would go on the HMS Nelson after her 44 refit? I want to model the old Tamiya kit and it has those awful molded on guns, and only on the turrets! I have tons of left over PE oerlikons from an old Eduard set that I never used and the Tom's Nelson/Rodney set. Now i just need to know where all thos little buggers go! Thanks in advance guys!

Chris

[Phil]

White Ensign do a layout in their 1/700 pe for ONE OF the late war layouts. In their 1/600 pe they actually give you another slightly different configuration, and Raven and Roberts idicate locations not mentioned in either. If you look at as many pictures of Nelson as you can find then you can certainly see inconsistancies; I think that the location of the oerlikons must have been quite ephemeral. I read one source that said that HMAS Shropshire after Leyte Gulf landed all her oerlikons and replaced them with 40mm singles within a day. So perhaps there was a lot of chopping and changing aboard Nelson, but I would be interested to know why exactly.

[angeleyes]

I need a bit of help.What color or camo scheme was the Nelson painted around November /December 1941.I know it was at scapa flow at that time along HMS Arethusa which i will put together in a dio but don't know the color it was painted at the time.Anyone has any guesses or info would like to share?

[peppe]

in the book on british bb of Raven & Roberts they say medium gray overall in 1941 and disruptive admirality schema in 1942-43
ciao peppe

[Mike W]

Does anyone know Rodney's radar fit as of May 1941?

thanks
Mike

[Gilbert]

Does anyone know Rodney's radar fit as of May 1941?

thanks
Mike

Hello Mike,

Rodney was fitted with a Type 279 "Air-warning with barrage-predictor" by Mid 1940 and still had it as of May 1941. Aerials were on top of masts. She did'nt get new and other radars before September 1941 after refit at Boston (USA).

cheers

Gilbert

Sources :
- Man o'War #3 p.16 by A.Raven and J.Roberts
- British Battleships in WW2 p.386 by A.Raven and J.Roberts

[Mike W]

That makes life easier!

thanks
Mike

[ar]

That makes life easier!

thanks
Mike

A very small note of interest. The 20mm mountings that were inplace on 'B' turret in May 1941, were removed from the ship during the Boston refit, rather than being repositioned.

[drdoom1337]

would anybody know what camo Rodney was wearing on May 27, 1941?

[Gilbert]

would anybody know what camo Rodney was wearing on May 27, 1941?

Probably overall medium grey 507B, decks probably painted over.

Gilbert

Sources :
- Man o'War #3 centerpage by A.Raven and J.Roberts
- British Battleships in WW2 p.399 by A.Raven and J.Roberts

[Tigerfish]

I'm building Nelson as launched 1928. Can anyone tell me what colour she would have been painted at that time? AP 507A perhaps or B?

[Longshaor]

Need some help here. Does anyone know where I can find some decent drawings of the 4.7" AA guns? I keep seeming to strike out on these.

[drdoom1337]

Two questions,
1. Would it be accurate to display the Tamiya Nelson with disruptive camo?
2. What time frame does the Tamiya Rodney represent, and if it is pre-war, how difficult would it be to represent it with it's disruptive camouflage?

[Sauragnmon]

The Tamiya Rodney is set up to display the Rodney before the major AA refit, which is the Nelson's fitting. When they still had boats on top of B turret. If I am not mistaken, the most that would cover is early war, or interwar in the "P&O Fleet" days. I'm not exactly sure when the disruptive patterns entered into service, but if I recall correctly, Nelson wore it during her later tours.