HMS Cornwall - T22B3 Skytrex / Scratch Build 1:1250 part 3

After relatively fast progress (for me) up to part 2 of my posts on HMS Cornwall, I was stalled for a while, expending quite a lot of effort and time without actually getting anything usable.

The four Type 22 batch 3 ships changed in detail through their time in service. During these delays, I decided to make mine to depict their earlier appearance, before the torpedo tubes were removed and the conventional ship’s boat replaced by another Pacific 22 RIB. Most importantly it meant I could use the original, rounded, 4.5” Mk.8 turret rather than the later faceted Mod.1 version.

The first difficulty was the Type 911 SeaWolf radar-optical directors. I wasn’t able to find any definitive dimensions so relied on scaling of various drawings which, I eventually realised had different and incompatible dimensions. As mentioned in part 2, my first attempt looked far too big so I set that aside and decided to sort out the Harpoon launchers first - four tubes, how hard can that be!

The picture below shows a variety of 1:1250 Harpoon launchers. Top left is the original Skytrex / Triton launcher - I wasn’t very impressed with these and wanted to do something better. Top right is the double, moulded together, set of launchers from a Mountford Type 23 kit. The plastic injection moulded ones are from a Hobbyboss Spruance - I thought these looked pretty good and tried to make something similar from 0.35mm brass rod and plasticard - after a huge amount of faffing about and failing to get the four tubes perfectly arranged, I gave up and decided to just use the ones from Hobbyboss - I’ll worry about what to do to replace those later!

After that, I had to return to the Type 911s. The first step was to decide on some rough dimensions - I have still not been able to find anything definitive. 

I printed off a variety of drawings and photos I’d found online and one I had taken myself from a Brittany Ferry passing through Portsmouth and decided on some compromise dimensions from those that I thought would look about right. Within those bounds, I made a basic, very simplified, block drawing in Microsoft Excel to define what I’d actually make.

This is version 2. Initially I had the octagonal platform as 3.4 mm across but when I tried the first one against the model it looked far too big compared with some aerial photos looking down on the ship - I’m not sure why I didn’t check those before instead of relying on side and oblique views. Recalculating from those photos gave a platform of 3.1 mm across and re-making for that looked much better. The original, larger one is on the right in the picture below. I wouldn’t have thought 0.3mm would make such a difference but it really did and looked obviously out of proportion against the model. The final version is still marginally over-size, I think, but not excessively and I’m happy with the overall look.

My original plan was to make one master and cast multiple copies but I decided it would be too hard to get a good casting with such sharp internal angles so just made two - actually making two together didn’t take much longer than making one on its own. I’m not very excited though about making the next 8 that I need for the T22B2, a T23 and a T43 that are on my to do list.

One of the better original bits of the was the funnel. Unfortunately I made a bit of a mess of that by drilling too deep from bottom to add a location peg so I had to re-make the top details with brass tube and plasticard. At the same time, I made davits from bent brass rod which allowed me to carve away some of the excess metal from the original model to give a better appearance.

The STWS were simply made from brass rod on a round plastic base to represent the turntable. The Oerlikon GAM-BO1 20mm are two small pieces of plasticard and some 0.2 mm wire cut to 2.4mm length with a blob of epoxy to secure it to the top of the upright. I initially tried to include more detail but at such a small size it was almost impossible to see.

With the addition of life rafts (stretched sprue) and some tiny bits of plastic to represent the Sea Gnat decoy launchers, everything was ready for painting.