Calling all Flower-class corvette fans

[Timmy C]

Thank you again George; that does help immensely with understanding the vessels.

My commissioner has decided on the Chambly during her actions in SC42 (Sept. 1941) - there is one good picture of her in Halifax earlier that year in Lynch's book. I'll be borrowing MacPherson & Milner's book as well and hopefully there are more shots of her there.

From what you said earlier, it seems that I'll have to replace the wooden foredeck; however, there is a picture of Dauphin in 1941 showing the wooden foredeck with the mainmast, which came from the same yard as Chambly (Vickers). Was Vickers perhaps an exception?

Asides from the deck, it looks like the only other thing I need confirmation of is the presence/absence of the Lewis guns in the guntub by the time of SC42.

[captain brown]

Timmy,

The 1939-40 Batch of Corvettes built by the RCN had two major designs, 10 were built for the RN using the updated single foremast design with round stern (all easy to identify as they had Flower names). The other 54 were built with two masts, a shorter engine room casing, galley added aft of the wheel house, the after bandstand moved to the end of the engine room casing so that they would not be "wooded" by the after mast, a flat stern and minesweeping gear aft. The ISW 1/350 kit of HMCS Sackville 1939 is of the group of 54 which all had the names of smaller Canadian towns/communities.

The wooden decks were added to some Corvettes during refits, so unless you have a photo that depicts an aerial view of your corvette I would not worry.

CHAMBLY still had two paired Lewis Guns or .50 Cals in her aft bandstand at least until May 1942 (likely Lewis guns as she was built on the East Coast and the canvas covers in photographs have the Lewis Gun Shield shape). The question I would ask is whether CHAMBLY still had her shorter mainmast. Since the removal of that rear mast seemed to correspond with addition of the wooden deck on the focsle and some back aft forward of the minesweeping winch. If you have a photo of CHAMBLY around Sept 1941 then the absence or presence of the mainmast should be easy to confirm and the wooden decking would be personal preference. One other item that could differentiate Corvettes at this time was whether they added a �Monkey Island� on top of the ASDIC Hut on the bridge or the addition of splinter mats around the canvas dodger on the bridge, both were somewhat conspicuous but seemed entirely CO dependent.

Here is a link to the DND Photo Archive of CHAMBLY: http://www.navy.gc.ca/project_pride/pho ... =C&title=7 That might help as well.

Hope that helps,

CB

[George W]

Timmy, Capt Brown

Timmy, you are welcome, the lack of a wooden decked forecastle applied only to the first 10 corvettes or so built (including Amherst).

Another corvette site is
http://theflowerclasscorvetteforums.yuku.com/directory
Capt Brown's response reminded me of his excellent in progress build of the 1/72 corvette at this site. Very nice job CB! I remember frequenting the site as you were building it. (CB, I hope you do not mind me pointing it out!) As well as the modelling thread there are other interesting corvette photos, etc. there as well. Well worth a visit if you are not otherwise aware of it.

I also checked a couple of my books. The large format MacPherson book had Chambly pictured in 1945 but The Canadian Naval Chronicle 1939-1945,
Fraser McKee has it pictured in 1941 (side profile). This 4 pg chapter details the sinking of U-501 Sept 1941 and the caption says this was as it was during that action.

George

[Timmy C]

CB,

Thank you very much for that link; I was not aware that we had such a photo archive!
The main objective now is to find a photo of Chambly in September '41 or at least confirmed as being between her April Halifax yard period and SC42 to determine whether that yard period gave her the Lewis guns.

George,

I now have the MacPherson book and the plan in the back for the original fit corvettes will be very useful especially for fabrication of the mainmast. There is one photo on page 25 that shows Chambly in the back of a series of three corvettes tied up next to each other.
I also have the McKee book on hold so hopefully can see that soon.


In the meantime, regarding colours - the books don't seem to mention a specific name for the colour other than "medium grey"; would this be 507B? And how were the horizontal surfaces painted? Wood deck left unpainted/stained and the steel deck a dark deck grey?

Edit: Ah, I now see on the back cover of Lynch's book that it says MS4 for the colour in April '41. I'm assuming it's safe to say that's the same as for September of that year.

[George W]

Timmy

I checked my build notes and I used MS2 (deck except the wood work which I left natural) & MS4 (vertical hull & superstucture) from WEM. Your pg 25 reference seems to indicate that the vertical hull is harder than the vertical superstructure (it could be shaddowing). I also had a note for 507b for mediun grey but I did not order it. MS 2 seemed to be a popular deck colour for corvettes but you can tell by the other model work around that there is a wide variety as to what is being used (often lighter). MS2 & MS4 seemed like a good match especially for early WWII ie especially before the western approaches colours but I do not remember where I got the reference for it.

I have attached an Amherst picture, there should not be a 2 pounder in the aft tub and the forecastle deck should be, the life boats are badly over size (they came with the kit) and the nested rafts were evident in Amherst pictures. There should be some wood near the DC throwers (std & port) and I think the rest of the wood work is accurate. The mine gear detail came from the AOTS corvette book. This was my second resin model done in 2006 while a nice effort I think it needs some QA and I am getting better!

That is a neat one to do as Chummy Prentice rightfully got a lot of credit for that effort.

George

[George W]

Timmy

PS The McKee book shows the tub to be empty as is shown on your pg 25 reference above.

[captain brown]

Just a thought, the McKee photo is an undated picture of CHAMBLY as built from 1941 - Image Negative Number H-1355 DND and since the primary secondary armament of the 2-pounder was in short supply ships made due, unfortunately all the photos of taken from CHAMBLY as she led the NEF in have the funnel masking the middle of the aft bandstand. Most RCN corvettes mounted a pair of twinned Lewis Guns or .50 Cals. Image Negative Number MC-2174 of the Ken Macpherson Collection is quite grainy, but it is also from 1941 and has something in the aft bandstand...but what that is a anyone's guess...it might even be someone hunched over.

So builder's preference I guess...although Cdr Prentice (CHAMBLY's CO and Senior Officer Corvettes RCNR) was an ex-RN professional naval officer who at Sydney NS had built his own depth charges out of garbage bins and dynamite...so I would hazard the assumption if there were to be Lewis Guns available he would have fitted them in CHAMBLY. Photos in 1942 definitely have the paired twin secondary armament, they are just covered with canvas (looks like there are Lewis Gun shields underneath).

George W's colour listing is the one I would go with (AP507B or AP507C) it was 1942 when the RCN corvettes started to get painted in Western Approaches schemes. As an anecdote on WA colours, Ted Paxton a Leading Torpedoman in SHEDIAC in 1942 told me his captain actually mixed grey in with the RN White because he did not want his corvette to 'shine' at night, so there was a lot of variation and the paint available in Canada was of mixed quality.

Hope that helps,

CB

[Laurence Batchelor]

One for you Ron!

Regards
LB

[ARH]

Thanks LB, That was taken early in 1943 when she went to the Med, still had her 22 squadron number on the funnel, that later changed to a triangel.

[Timmy C]

Jedrek posted a link to his preview of Mirage Hobby's upcoming 1/350 RN early long-forecastle Flower kit: http://pwm.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28971

It's not up to the latest standards, but cleaner and neater than the current 350th resin offerings. Should be a good base for extra detailing.

[flowerpower]

Hello Flower Class Corvette fans!

I'm now building a 1/72 Revell Flower class corvette, the HMS Campanula.
Some scratch building and some GLS PE sets involved.

a few WIP photos...






Can find my building log here:
http://theflowerclasscorvetteforums.yuk ... -Campanula

Sadly this forum seems to be abandoned...still a wealth of Flower class information there.
Anyway...I enjoy this build so much....I got myself another one.

I plan to build the Hr. Ms. Friso(2) ex HMS Carnation.
Dutch navy between March 1943 and October 1944. Escort Group 37. Mainly Freetown convoy escorts and Mediterranean.



My main question about the Friso...what's the most likely colour used for the dark camouflage?
I don't know when the ship was refitted, before March 1943 for sure, I do know the Friso was repaired between March and June 1943, so she probably got fresh paint also.

Thanks!

Rob

[newshipmodeler]

Well I have been following your build there. Thought I was going to get the ship today I guess tomorrow....
Only learned about the model and ship last week. There is a wealth of info at the other site. Been watching you tube, ordered about half of the GLS upgrades. Flipping back and forth between three versions with the K-18 near the top..

Nice work so far. Biggest question for me is.....making it waterline or not????

[FlowerPower]

Biggest question for me is.....making it waterline or not????

Uhmm...dunno...waterline can be awesome....the whole thing is always good

Looking forward to see your build. when you have any questions, just send me a pm

[Shanghaied]

HMS Loosestrife

Has anybody an idea, what camouflage the HMS Loosestrife had early in her career?
I found some photos on :
http://theflowerclasscorvetteforums.yuku.com/topic/576.

Looks for me like 507b and 507c but its difficult to guess.

I want to slightly modify the Mirage model of HMS Anchusa into HMS Loosestrife.
Any info would be highly welcome!

Cheers

Tom

[sandy]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help?

Does anyone know when and where this picture of HMS Gloxinia was taken?



I was trying to place it from the ship in the background to the right which I thought was a fleet carrier but now maybe not.

In the AoTS Agassiz book the authors say that Gloxinia had a widened casing, but I just can't see it onn the photo.

Any help appreciated.

Sandy

[FlowerPower]

February 1943, Mediterranean*

*source: Flower class corvettes, Ship Craft series book by John Lambert and Les Brown.
The book has a colour drawing of the Gloxinia (Bob Pearson).

cheers!

Rob

edit: I'll pm you the image

[Gloup-Gloup]

Hello all , I am about to start one Mirage flower corvette and when a look at the picture found on internet or in the book ...it look like to be 2 style of hull assembling rivet or soldering ...look like that , right now I am planning to make the HMCS Sorel whit the short forecastle..... is it my imagination or it look like with some big line of rivet .... I include a link to a similar as the hull of the Sorel ship
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16118167@N ... /lightbox/

Thanks and
sorry for my English

Marc

[FlowerPower]

The HMCS Sorel is a Canadian build Flower..it has indeed non standard hull plating. Not seen these lines before either.

Hope to see your build in the Work in Progress forum soon

[Gloup-Gloup]

Hello, here is some link to some others pic of the K153 HMCS Sorel

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16118167@N ... otostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16118167@N ... /lightbox/

a plus

Marc P.

[Tracy White]

Any Kiwi Corvette/Navy experts out there? I've decided that I want to do one of my two Mirage corvettes as a RNZN ship. My question relates to camouflage at this point - It appears that HMNZS Arabis and HMNZS Arbutus are my options, but I have no idea what the colors used in the camouflage would be. Arbutus looks like it's a lighter, Western Approaches scheme (which I would prefer), but I've only found shots of her port side. Arabis I've only found a single starboard shot in any sort of disruptive scheme, but colors are a mystery.