The Ship Model Forum

I bought a couple of Revell's Snowberry and, of course, was not satisfied with them so I started converting one of them to an early Canadian short-forecastle version. I'm building mine after HMCS Kamsack - short forecastle, early bridge style, and two masts.


This is how she looked in 1942 and how I plan on building her.

Some of the general short forcastle plans I'm working from:


And some cutting work - guess I'm committed now!

I cut back the bulwarks and added detail on the insides. Also opened the scuppers and added a few more. I also cut the original forecastle deck to recycle as much kit parts as possible. It also had some good detail difficult to scratch.

I was temporarily out of scribed styrene for the decking so I started work on the gun and shield:





I used some 1/350 railing bits for the railing on the side and top, and some brass wire for the canvass frame on the rear. Rounded off the front shield and the rear bottom, and sanded off the gunsight aperture covers and made new ones with plastic sheet, and added a flange around the gun aperture. Also added some interior, including training and elevating handwheels which are not visible!

Comments, criticisms, replies welcome.

A couple of days have passed and I made a new forecastle deck:




Some gaps here and there as nothing is glued together yet.

Excellent subject choice! Try to get a copy of Lynch's "Canada's Flowers" for drawings of the 2-masted short forecastle superstructure decks. I did the same conversion from ISW's 1/350 kit: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=93807&#p466458

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De quoi s'agit-il?

I have Lynch's book as well as the one by Lambert. That's where I'm getting all my info from. Would have preferred to build an early (as built) Sackville, but I can't find any relevant pics or info. No two corvettes, even from the same series and ship yard, were identical, and it's these small differences that are problematic. I saw that your Sackville is pretty well identical to what I've done so far so maybe I can still make a Sackville out of it. I notice in your pics you have no armament in the bandstand. Did Sackville not have a gun there at that point? Maybe the two twin Lewis guns?

Chambly (the one I built) did not have a weapon at that time - there was a severe shortage of weaponry in that early period, and I couldn't find evidence for anything fitted there.

You might also check out the Anatomy of the Ship Agassiz book.

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Some more work done on the superstructure - the wheelhouse and compass house:









More pics as things get done.

Great start! Can't wait to see more.
John

Excellent project! Started a similarly ambitious build of the 1/72 Matchbox/Revel kit some years ago, but alas it sits on the shelf of doom gathering dust.

Keep the posts coming.

Cheers,

Keith

Hey guys. Did a little more work. Roughed in the aft superstructure and the casing, and worked on some detail parts. I built the searchlight platform, but I'm not sure yet if I will use it on this particular ship, but if I change the ship I'm building I'll have that part. I was originally going with HMCS Kamsack because I liked her appearance, especially with the very early two masts. Then I considered that HMCS Sackville is more iconic, seeing she is the only remaining corvette, and undergoing restoration. Sackville had the raised searchlight platform, but was not built with two masts. Sometimes I become obsessed with details and get bogged down. So it's probably back to Kamsack, or Wetaskiwin ("Wet Ass Queen") just because I like the name










White plastic is the scratch built parts. I'm saving as much of the original kit parts as possible.
More pics later.

Great job so far. Amazing what you can do with a little bit of wire when it comes to detailing. Great execution of that detailing as well. Very sharp turns and fitting with that wire on the cannon, even on close-up pics!

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The merchant shipyard

After a few days work I came up with this:




This is the steam-powered winch for mine sweeping gear. Took almost three days to scratch build out of some bits from the spares box, and a lot of Evergreen, brass wire, and stretched sprue. I didn't count, but I estimate it has 80 - 100 separate parts and bits to it.
And here's what it's for:
From sprue

to paravane

Made of scrap sprue (very handy to keep), some Evergreen, and lead foil.
More photos when things get done!

Super impressive!

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Bit of an update for all those interested. It's starting to look more like Wetaskiwin and less like Snowberry. After some more research I found that Wetaskiwin didn't have planking on the forecastle deck, so away with the original part I was saving and on with a new deck:


Put boat decks on and did some detailing on the boats. Unfortunately, Revell molded the boats' hulls like they were fiberglass instead of clinker construction - no overlapping plank detail.


Did some work on the bandstand and made a new thinner splintershield, and added support struts as well as assembling the pom-pom and adding bits and spare PE:

I also replaced the cone shaped flash hider on the gun as the molded one was slightly mis-shapen and was solid. I used a trick from aircraft modellers who scratch their own pitot tubes - they take plastic tubing and stretch it, like stretching sprue. The result is long tapering tubes. I used the wide end of the stretched section and glued it in place. No need to drill out the muzzle as the hole is still there.

Scratched the mine sweeping gear davits. Mostly Evergreen styrene and bits of PE:


Most importantly, I flattened the stern hull, as corvettes fitted with the mine sweeping gear had this feature. This was the tricky part as I had already assembled the hull and I didn't want to cut it up and replace the stern. I carefully heated the stern with my hot knife and when the plastic became a little soft, I pressed the stern down on my table to get that flattened look. Then repositioned the depth charge openings and filled the original ones:


So this is how Wetaskiwin looks now with mainmast:


More pics as stuff gets done.

Been watching this thread and gotta say, this is looking like a top-notch conversion job. Keep up the excellent work!

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Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

Fantastic. Excellent attention to detail

Very nice! The scratch-built stuffs are so good! Ah when will I be able to make it as good as yours!

Aop

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On the way:
--1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Nov 1944

--1/350 scratch-build HMS Lion never built battleship (1938)

And our artworks!

That is great work,Biggles.

Scott

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K494 HMCS Arnprior
Royal Canadian Navy

Awww guys. You're making me blush!

Some close-up shots of the pom-pom and Mk.ll depth charge thrower. I thinned the shield of the gun as it looked like armor plate! Added some bits and sacrificed the gun sights of a perfectly good set of 1/350 twin Bofors kit. And there's that new muzzle flash hider made from stretched Evergreen tubing:




And the depth charge throwers: they weren't bad, but the mount and base were simplified into a single blob. I made it look more like the steel girders and angles, and wood block it's supposed to be:



Mor pics as things get done.