Calling all Royal Navy E-class fans

[ar]

I have located two xerox copies of the Express taken in October 1941. Not of the best quality but better than nothing at this point.
They may be of interim use until I am able to get proper copies made, hopefully early next year, it depends on how long Friedman holds onto them.
If you wish, let me have your postal address and I will send them to you in the mail. If you do not wish to use the mail, then Young L Batchelor can privately give you my telephone number.
I do not use E Mail.
Let me know.

[dick]

Many thanks. I'll try getting to you via Laurence. That way I can send you some photocopies in return.

Cheers.

[Martin H UK]

Hello everyone,
This is on a slightly different tack, and applies to all the A-I classes, but this seems the most appropriate place to post it. It concerns the 3 inch gun added during the early part of the war. I haven't seen any close-up shots of this weapon or its placement, and wondered if anyone knows of any. Was the gun the same as that added to some of the V/Ws? Did it ever have the shield that the V/Ws had on theirs? Is there anything available in 1/700 that would make a good representation of this gun?
As for the placement itself, on some pictures, the rectangular base appears to be sitting above the level of the deck - is this right? - or is it just that the screens around it do not reach right down to the deck? And finally, what was on this platform apart from the gun? Ready-use ammo boxes?
Any information would be much appreciated

Many thanks

Martin Folly

[RNfanDan]

E-mail sent.

DB

[Guest]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this site, courtesy of the 'other' site and wr and Mr. Dennis. I've tried for a long time to sort out the colours and configurations of the 4 RN destroyers sent to the Far East in November 1941, and thanks to all of you I think I have it sorted out. After reading through all 23 pages of posts, this is what I think the consensus is:

Electra: WA pattern
Express: Overall grey, but could have been repainted in WA pattern after loss of POW and Repulse
Encounter: Mediterranean dazzle scheme
Jupiter: Disruptive scheme as shown in Chris Langtree's 'The Kelly's

Only Jupiter carried Oerlikons, Electra, Express, and Encounter were fitted for them but they weren't on board.

Would love to see the photos posted by Laurence earlier of the 'E's, any chance you could post them again?

Cheers
Rob

[dick]

Yes I think you almost have it there, but:

Express definitely repainted to WA by 14th February 1942 (as shown in the photograph of the convoy with Isis being towed).

Encounter probably not even prepared for 20mm (visual report by the diver Kevin Denlay).

Cheers

[stuartwilson]

Hi,

I want to build Escapade from the Tamiya Kit preferably ouy of the box. What colour would she have been in early in the war or just before? The latest dated photo I can find is 1938 when she looks to be in 507c. Also would all decks have been 507A?

Thanks for any answers.

Stuart Wilson

[mike mccabe]

If pre war then either 507a or 507c, if your photo shows 507c overall then 507a for the decks would be reasonable, you could maybe go with something a little lighter which would be a personal preference, I just find it too dark for a small scale model.

Mike

[stuartwilson]

Thanks for the reply.

I was just looking at the photos of your HMS Echo and I'm thinking of copying that (minus the P/E and the skill and the time that obviously went into it!) I assume its 507c (it could be a light 507b depending on the light). What is the brown colour on the decks? As you can tell I'm not too up on R/N colours. (Ask me about the Luftwaffe). but I'm building the Repulse and have got the bug.

Thanks again

Stuart Wilson

[mike mccabe]

Hi Stuart
Echo is painted in 507b, in this case I used Humbrol 145 which is a close match, the brown colour is corticene, a type of linoleum covering, which in this case was White Ensign Models colourcoats. 507b as such didn't come into use until the war started, it was either Home Fleet dark grey (507a) or the light grey which was used pretty much everywhere else, I think I am right in saying.

It's a nice kit and I reckon would look good out of the box if you are going for an easier build, would look good in the light grey scheme you suggest. The corticene walkways can be made with Tamiya masking type or something equally thin, cut the tape into strips and paint it then just lay it down like a thick sort of decal, get a nice straight edge that way.

Mike

[stuartwilson]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the advice, I'll make a decision as to which one to go for once I start the kit.

Of course I could always do both....

Stuart

[mike mccabe]

Stuart
If you mean Escapade and Echo, then the latter could be done out of the box, If I remember correctly the only alterations were just etch and small part replacements, haven't researched the former so couldn't say but assuming she wasn't a minelayer then would be the same

Mike

[RNfanDan]

Among the E-class destroyers, only Esk and Express were fitted with mine traps and fairings at their sterns. Both ships are fine candidates for modeling variants from the Tamiya kit.

[dick]

A very minor point, but the Geoffrey Mason TROM for Express which Laurence kindly reproduced for us on one of the earlier pages here is perhaps wrong in a small detail. According to the Pink Lists at the PRO, Express was repaired at "C&M" on the Humber 1940-1941 and not at Chatham. She was still at the Humber on 3rd October 1941 but was at Scapa on 6th October 1941.

[Laurence Batchelor]

That is why more recently I have expressed misgivings about them.
It would appear Geoff Mason has used the movement cards at Naval Historical at Portsmouth, perhaps exclusively, and not gone through ships logs, Pink Lists etc which he should have to verify things.

[dick]

I have now seen a another photograph of Express (in a private collection I'm afraid) which further confirms that Express was in overall medium (not light) grey in late 1941. This photograph is un-faded, is not over-exposed, and nor is it taken with bright sunlight reflecting off the ship.

[Filipe Ramires]

Greetings,

I've come across a feature that I haven't noticed just yet in the A-I class destroyer, most specifically the 1929 Programme ones of which I'm in the process of building one. Though it's a very small detail to scales down to 1/700 scale this is important even so if just for the purpose of taking this doubt.
Here is HMCS Ottawa (former HMS Crusader):

http://www.naval-museum.mb.ca/battle_at ... %20h60.jpg

There's a cable just below the rails that follows the entire length of the ship. Is this some sort of degaussing-cable??
Cheers,

Filipe

[Michael E.]

All:

This thread has been dormant for a while, but I just came across a nice photo of HMS Encounter in her Western Approaches scheme that I thought I would share.

It can be found at the followin Flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/verfain/3606939481/

Apparently, the gentleman's father served on Encounter, and he has posted a number of interesting pictures taken by his father that you might find of interest.

Enjoy!

Mike E.

[Michael E.]

All:

Actually, upon closer examination, the photo in the previous post is of HMS Eclipse (H08). Perhaps it was shot from HMS Encounter.

Yours,

Mike E.

[Model Student]

Hi all, I'm building my first E-class destroyer, HMS Electra. I'm depicting her as she was in June, 1940, while she escorted HMS Ark Royal during the air attack on Trondheim, Norway. This was before her refit in Troon. At this time, she was part of the 12th Destroyer Flotillia. Can anyone tell me what kind of mast she had at this peroid in time (pole, tirpod, shortened, etc...), or where the splinter matting was placed on the ship? What bands did the 12th DF have on their funnels, specifically Electra? I haven't been able to find any good pictures depicting the rigging. Does any one have a good picture they would be willing to post here, or a picture or two of their own work that they would be willing to show? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.