Flyhawk 1/700 HMS Ajax as in 1941

[zs180]

This is an account on building the Flyhawk 1/700 HMS Ajax kit, deluxe edition.
As a consequence of a serious illness I have been unable to work for the last four months. As I got better I carried on with this build and by now it has been completed - one of the very few positive consequences of my health issues. This is going to be a build description in retrospect. This model is going to feature in my planned diorama showing her, hms York and a short-forecastle Flower class corvette (possibly HMS Gloxinia) in Souda Bay, Crete, January 1941. The ship is featured in her 1939 guise, my intention, however, was to show her as in early 1941, so a number of changes were necessary. During the build I utilised the Profile Morskie booklet, Alan Raven’s and Norman Friedman’s books on British cruisers, photographs found online, and, to a lesser extent, other written material.

The Flyhawk kits are claimed to be among the very best of the injection molded category, so I set about building this one (my first Flyhawk model) with great expectations. In all, the kit did not disappoint with wonderfully rich and crisp details and good fit overall. Besides using the two PE frets provided I used various photoetch details from a number of manufacturers including WEM, Flyhawk, Five Star, Artist Hobby, Rainbow, Voyager, etc, and some scrathbuilding. 3D printed upgrade parts from Micro Master and figures from four manufacturers helped enhance the details.

[zs180]

As usually, I started with the hull. The underwater portion of the hull was glued to the upper part, then cut some distance below the waterline to increase freeboard which will let the model set into the seascape later and arrive to a correct freeboard.
An initial cut can be seen at the bow in this picture.

The sides were detailed with PE degaussing cable and portholes among other small items. The lower row of portholes was filled in.

Some hatches and other pieces of deck equipment were added to the deck in addition to the crisply rendered ones there. The bollards and fairleads were replaced by 3D printed items. Two large hatches were opened up by carefully cutting their top off and gluing them back in a half open position. Splinter shields, not yet fitted in 1939, fabricated from aluminium sheet were added, complete with reinforcing gussets.

The shelter deck and bridge structure were replaced by a 3D printed part from Micro Master which correctly shows the numerous changes made to it by 1941.

[zs180]

Almost all rectangular windows and numerous watertight doors were shown open by cutting off all the beautifully rendered molded-on ones and replacing them by (indeed slightly overscale) items from a Flyhawk PE set. PE portholes and grab rails were added to sides of the superstructure (the latter only after painting). The after superstructure is shown here, to which a scratch-built deckhouse was added as well to match the changes of appearance by 1941 .

Other superstructure elements were given similar treatment.
I did not use the other componenets of the Micro Master 1941 set.
The funnel was embellished by steam pipes from Albion Alloys.

The superstructure (dry fitted) is more or less complete in the following shots with the upper tier of the after superstructure missing.
The model was primed with Mr. Surfacer 1200 from a rattle can.

[Dan K]

Really nice work so far.

[zs180]

Thank you, Dan!

[hypno7]

Excellent work George! I always follow your builds to see what precision means... Also, I like to have a glimpse of your handwritten notes!

[zs180]

Erick, thank you very much!

[zs180]

Just an example of small upgrades that were made throughout and are hard to spot among the wealth of detail on the completed model:
the galley stove pipes were replaced by brass tube to have hollow ends (for comparison two of them were photographed in an unmodified state).

The after superstructure with upper tier added:

Both masts were scratch built as well – the pole masts had been replaced by tripods of different height after the damage sustained in the battle of River Plate, therefore the kit provided masts were not usable. The replacements were fabricated from brass tube (Albion Alloys) and brass yardarms from Master Model plus some scratch built miniscule fittings.

[zs180]

The armament is almost entirely supplied by Micro Master – one must note that fidelity to original is as astounding as incredibly finely rendered details.

I was unable to find any four-barrel pom-poms in their range, so this is a HS Model item – a product of equally high quality.

My usual pre-painting picture show all the parts of the kit,
among them additional PE fittings like davits, anchors, sounding platforms, boarding ladders (to be attached once the model is set into the seascape), Type 279 masthead radar arrays (fragile, therefore only to be fitted after the masts are glued to their place).
All boats came from Micro Master – exquisitely detailed little gems in no need for any further enhancement. Three of them will be set into the seascape. WEM PE oars were added to the rowing boats.

[zs180]

At the time modelled, HMS Ajax wore a camouflage scheme consisting of three colours: AP 507A, AP 507C and the intermediate colour of a mixture of the two (earlier erroneously referred to as AP507B).
The illustration in Profile Morskie leaflet seemed to correspond to the pictures well, so it was taken as a reference regarding the outlines of the pattern. Regrettably the wooden and steel decks seem to have been painted AP 507A – a teak deck left its original colour is prettier in my view. I planned to show a worn deck paint, an effect achieved by first painting the wooden deck teak then dark grey, next rub it down carefully at places to let the wood colour show. This can be called a failed attempt with the thankfully small rubbed down spots looking more like paint blemishes than anything else, really.
Anyway, the deck was sprayed WEM teak and the deck of the open bridge a toned-down WEM Corticene.

A very dark grey boot topping (Revell 9)and funnel top was the next step, followed by WEM 507A after applying masking to the hull.

Another session of masking preceded the application of WEM 507C.

As I final step, middle grey stripes were sprayed to most, but not all areas separating the swathes of two greys.

All the colours were subdued although they seem somewhat more saturated in photographs than in real. life. I admit having disliked the yellowish tinge of an earlier batch of WEM 507C used in my HMS York build and took the courage to tinker with it by adding blue and white making it both cooler and lighter in shade. On a sidenote I really came to appreciate the variation, fidelity and quality of Colourcoats enamels and want to use them as long as I can, despite the general trend towards to use acrylic paints. Repeated change of ownership worried me a lot and led to an accumulation of a collection of these paints far exceeding my foreseeable needs. 507C is, however, a shade used quite often so I want to use up every drop of my stock. Notably, it is exceedingly hard to buy such paints in Hungary with the shipping regulations becoming ever more stringent. I really hate masking and try to keep it the minimum. The decks were not masked at all, sharp borders were achieved just by adjusting the direction of spraying of the vertical surfaces. Demarcation on bridge and funnel were painted freehand. Small details were picked out by a fine brush.
The result of painting is characterised by stark contrast - but I guess this had been the intention of planners of the original scheme.

[MartinJQuinn]

Beautiful work! Love all the details you've packed into her. Also, the camo looks great!

[maxim]

Very cool project!

The 1941 fit looks much better than the 1939 one.

The model looks already very promising.

[JIM BAUMANN]

I am glad that you are well enough to get back into the modelmaking saddle!

Looks like good progressd

Jim Baumann

[Dan K]

Sharp work!

[RichardAigner]

Hello zs 189. re. your post of Dec. 11: "it is exceedingly hard to buy such paints in Hungary"
Having switched to acrylics on medical advice I am sitting on a stash of Colorcoat tins. There are 25 tins of Royal Navy, 9 IJN, 8 US Navy, and 6 for Kriegsmarine and Regia Marina. All WWII. If you are interested I will send a detailed list. The tins are a mixed batch, some unopened, some used; all pass the rattle test - paint is sloshing around when shaken. I am asking 1 Euro/tin plus postage from Austria.

[zs180]

Thank you for your kind words, gentlemen!
More posts will follow soon.

[marijn van gils]

More posts will follow soon.

I'm looking forward to that. She's looking great already!

[zs180]

Marijn, many thanks!
I don't want to make you wait

[zs180]

Before the weathering process the hull and the superstructure components were given a coat of gloss varnish (Alclad II Klear Kote). After applying Plimsoll mark decals (Five Star, slightly overscale but with the right roman numerals) washes of four different shades were applied using AK’s and Abteilung 502’s ship weathering sets. A pin wash followed using AK’s oil colour (AK 502 Shades for Grey Ships) and Abteilung 502’s black oil for the dark grey surfaces. Highlights were painted onto every protruding detail one shade lighter than the respective camouflage panel. Some rust of two shades (AK again) was added and as a final step, a light coat of clear matt (Revell 02) sealed the weathering process. I was concerned about too many layers of paint (primer, base colour, clear gloss, weathering, clear matt) obscuring the details, but overall, the paint job turned out quite well.

[zs180]

The most enjoyable part, final assembly could begin after painting had been completed. All the preparatory work could be seen to bear fruit at last.

Macro photography magnifies all the imperfections to an annoying level!