Calling all HMS York and HMS Exeter (WWII) fans

[bob42100]

I picked up an album that belonged to an Exeter crew member, there are some detail shots of the ship plus a lot of tourist stuff. Here is a link if anyone wants to download the lot, I'll leave it open for 7 days. Enjoy and hopefully it will help with details.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o2j92n29uw7q ... KrIaa?dl=0

-Bob

[FrancisMcN]

Bob,

Many thanks indeed for making that available to us. Not only many excellent onboard shots with useful detail, but also a fascinating overview on many places I visited during my naval career in the course of several trips to the Falklands and South Georgia - they certainly managed to pack a lot of port visits into that commission.

[SovereignHobbies]

Thank you Bob! Some beauties in there!

[bob42100]

I'm glad the touristy photos were enjoyed. I also have some early shots of HMS Ajax from an album, I've always wanted to model the early Leander & York ships as they appeared at River Plate. I have the new Exeter kit and was wondering if anyone gave it a serious review.

-Bob

[Marco]

Bob, you posted such a wonderful collection covering not only the ship but also fascinating places and history, thank you for sharing!

Marco

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Continuing my attempt to improve the Trumpeter kit, I turned my attention to the forward funnel. It seems that the slant forward trunk is much too bulky, as it has the same width as the main funnel itself.

But as the Exeter was originally intended to have THREE funnels, the forward funnel was trunked into the middle one, as to relieve the bridge from funnel gases.

Therefore, the forward funnel was essentially similar to the rear one, and so should be the trunk.
So I cut off the slant trunk, and scratched a new one from Evergreen tube 8.7mm dia.

Further to the bridge. The well moulded part from Trumpeter is completely empty, so I made a middle floor. I added walls to suggest the wheelhouse and chartroom inside, so not to look straight across from left to right: it's not a squash court after all!

Apparently, there are two arched doorways to the searchlight platform behind, and a door in the middle, giving entrance to the chart room. The two side galleries seem to have open windows, I don't think these were glazed. Does anyone have an idea about that?

[SovereignHobbies]

Very nice work Maarten

[Tracy White]

Battle of the River Plate and Colourcoats (because a Royal Navy ship model deserves paint from the United Kingdom) question.

Vertical surfaces should be painted 507C Light Grey (NARN 22). Wood decks and corticene I get. However, most of t he time the metal decks are merely referred to as "dark gray" with no designation. There is the NARN23 "WWII Dark Gray Non-slip deck paint" but earlier in this thread there is mention of AP 507A. In the current NARN range there are three colors with 507A listed - one emergency mix I can probably eliminate and then two with different reflectance values. Is one of these the correct colour for the metal decks?

[dick]

Good question Tracy! The relevant AFOs relating to the non-slip deck paint used by the RN at that time are AFO 1895 of 1938 and AFO of 2859 of 1939. As you can see, the non-slip deck paint was supplied by the International Paint and Compositions Company in a range of colours and a distinction is drawn between Home Fleet grey and dark grey.

Given the relatively narrow range of paint colours available to UK industry in that era (the British Standard 381C range) we can speculate that the �dark grey� non-slip deck paint was BS 381C #32 in colour. This was a neutral grey without the blue element that Home Fleet grey had in its mix.

Jamie can confirm this, but based on our research that is why he offers a non-slip deck dark grey in his NARN range that is different to his Home Fleet greys. He offers two tones of Home Fleet grey, one at 10% RF and one at 13% RF, because that range of RF (10% - 13%) for Home Fleet grey is what is recorded in the files. Quite why there is this variation we do not yet understand.

I suggest that 507A itself would not have been used as a non-slip deck paint although it might have been used on horizontal surfaces where people did not routinely walk. 507A was just a formulation of ingredients that arrived at a less glossy version than 507B of the colour Home Fleet grey. We have discovered that there were other formulations used by the RN and RAN to achieve even matter still finishes of the colour Home Fleet grey.

In many cases where people write 507A what they really mean is Home Fleet grey.

But in a nutshell, in 1939, if you are looking at something dark, you could have had a deck painted in non-slip dark grey or non-slip HFG (of whichever tone). On your model it�s your choice based on assessment of B&W photos or intuition! (And don�t forget the black option either.)

[Tracy White]

Thanks Dick! Barring any specific new information, I'll probably go with the Dark Gray non-slip as it would seem most logical.

Now to find an American source....

[barry fleet]

This is the FROG HMS Exeter in 1/500 scale. Built it back in the 60s and found it again at a model show a few years ago. For nostalgias sake I built it straight oob, no PE, rigging etc. A couple of parts were missing (Pom Poms and Walrus).

FROG ("Fly Right Off the Ground" I think) were a British company who made (in my opinion) some very interesting kits for the tine (not just the stamdards). As someone pointed out earlier they cast in 1/500 with Royal Navy ships like Exeter, Revenge, Torquay, Undine. In truth the detail was not great but at the time they were IMHO the best deal in town
Barry

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Continuing my set of improvements to the Trumpeter kit:

I revised all the doors and portholes in the lower part of the superstructure under the bridge. In fact only one door appeared to be in the correct position, and only one porthole. The rest needs to be filled up (see white spots) and new holes drillled (1 mm). Note the rather different pattern on the left (port) side, as there are the seaman's heads, like on most if not all ships of the Royal Navy. On the starboard side rather less portholes are needed.

The 8 inch turrets seem to be rather good, in shape and dimensions, but lack many details, like the sighting ports, maintenance covers on the top, periscope, and doors at the rear of the turret. I tried to do these details justice. One can also buy a replacement set from Micro Master (Simon Percival) offered through Shapeways, but I didn't want to go that far.

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Turning my attention a bit further aft, the rear superstucture leaves also a little bit to be desired. Again, a lot of doors and portholes, practically symmetrical made by Trumpeter, but lacking support from photographs or drawings.

As drawing references are scarce, I used here a plan from Raven & Roberts 'British Cruisers of World War 2'. The plan is from HMS York, but I don't see much reason why it wouldn't apply with Exeter well in this particular case.

As you see, the internal arrangement (officer's cabins-3, commodore's cabin-4, officer's WCs-1 and bahrooms-2) dictates very much where the doors and the portholes are located. So I arranged those similarly on the model. I also added a few doors to the funnel uptake casings, also inspired by the same drawing.

Also, note the two forward corners of this deckhouse should be rounded off, as can also be seen on the excellent overhead photo in the Panama Canal.

[Marco]

Can somebody share pictures of the rear part of HMS Exeter 8 inch cannon turrets (Mk II typer turrrets)? Can't find any. Looking for the details, i.e. doors, ladders, etc.

Marco

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

I found no original pictures, but our friend Simon Percival made these renderings from his Shapeways entries of the 8" turrets. I guess he must be close, but I find the two hatches on top of the turret too thick and not quite the right shape.

[Brett Morrow]

Are these images any help?

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Are these images any help?

In my view certainly, Brett! Thanks

And the first image confirms another issue I found in the Trumpeter kit: there are twelve reinforcement triangles around each barbette, not eight as Trumpeter made it.

Furthermore, the triangles on the Y turret (quarterdeck) are much smaller than the two forward turrets, so in this case I replaced them all

So back to the workbench, remove four from each barbette and add eight new ones. I'll make a picture when I'm done.

[Tracy White]

And the first image confirms another issue I found in the Trumpeter kit: there are twelve reinforcement triangles around each barbette, not eight as Trumpeter made it.

Yet another detail they appear to have copied from the erroneous Profile Morskie plans:

PM_Exeter_Barbette.JPG (13.76 KiB) Viewed 8702 times

I guess that makes scribing the deck around B barbette easier as we can just cut off the reinforcements and scribe through.

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

And the first image confirms another issue I found in the Trumpeter kit: there are twelve reinforcement triangles around each barbette, not eight as Trumpeter made it.

Yet another detail they appear to have copied from the erroneous Profile Morskie plans:

PM_Exeter_Barbette.JPG

I guess that makes scribing the deck around B barbette easier as we can just cut off the reinforcements and scribe through.

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Yet another detail they appear to have copied from the erroneous Profile Morskie plans:

PM_Exeter_Barbette.JPG

I guess that makes scribing the deck around B barbette easier as we can just cut off the reinforcements and scribe through.

It is very difficult to do the scribing evenly, instead I used Evergreen 2025 V-Groove plate, with grooves at .025" spacing, replacing the deck altogether, except for the rim.