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[ballastanksian]

Hello all. Now I have improved hosting for my images I have another build in progress to share with you chaps.

HMS Ready was an R class destroyer built by Thornycroft prior to WW1. It had (based on the image in Janes 1919 edition) a ram bow, which seems archaic given that they stopped fitting these on destroyers a while before and can only assume that, image being accurate, she was originally designed with a ram bow before being re-designed, perhaps at the request of the Navy.

Anyhow, on with the build.......
Having read the build article by Glynn Guest on HMS Mandate and having an interest in ninteenth century destroyers, I was tempted to build a version of a ww1 destroyer. By chance, I found this hull on EBAY and won it for a very reasonable price. The hull turns out to be from the Lindburgh Blue Devil destroyer kit and came with nothing but the aging internal mounts and steering parts. Upon delivery I found it had been damaged:O(


Luckily, at 1:96th scale, the hull was too long by about 45mm especially when the ram bow addition was taken into account so , I chose the damaged area to site the section to be removed. I marked the hull for cutting.




And used a scalpel and razor saw to cut the piece out

The cuts were through parts of the upper deck mounts ans hull reinforcements, so these I carved and sanded back so that I could rejoin the hull halves and reinforce it.

I used planks of 2mm thick styrene in varying widths well brushed in plastic weld to reinforce the joint.



Next was to modify the bow. I wanted to recreate the ram bow and this required a little modification to the extremity. I marked a new angle with pencil.


This is what the bow looked like originally.


Once cut, this was the result. The bit that I removed was kept (well everything is kept until I am sure I do not need it for something else on the project!)


After cutting the two halves of the bow were clamped together and a plate was inserted to help hold them together while a piece was inserted to tidy the end up to accept the ram bow.



This image shows the profile shape of the ram bow made from a piece of 1.5mm styrene. To this was added the piece I orginally cut from the stem. This was then tidied up, halved and stuck either side ot the profile. This will act as a constant edge to which the new side plates will be attached.






Next came the new frames to raise the foc'sle. These were made from 1.5mm styrene and are quite deep so that they do not flex/warp when the side plates dry.




This image shows the bulkhead from which I took all my levels to develop the raised foc'sle. The frames are lower by 3mm to allow for the deck when fitted. The bulkhead has a large hole in it to allow me to add ballast or electricals should the space be required.


For some reason I did not take a picture of the deck beam fitted to each frame! I will sort this out presently.

Onto the stern (I have not forgotten the image of the deck beams!)
The R class had an inverted stern whereby they sloped upwards towards the bow. The Blue Devil hull sloped towards the rear, so I cut the curved bit off and made a new floor from 1.5mm styrene and fitted it.








The strips were to add surface area for the glue to weld with so making the join stronger.

More soon!

[Plastic - RIP]

Awesome! looks like a good use for a spare hull. 

[raflaunches]

Hi Ian


What a clever idea! It looks brilliant with that ram bow!

[ballastanksian]

Taa muchly. I do not know wether the hull was the result of a project abandoned, an old model being broken up or the remnants of a declutter left for new home buyers to find!

I am currently making more progress but the camera batteries died on me so I will rectify this Monday.

[ballastanksian]

With my destroyer building Mojo in full spate, here are the latest piccys of progress.

Firstly a bit of house keeping:
As promised, here is an image of the foc'sle frames with their deck beams.


All this will need reinforcing as some joints popped while doing the following......


I made the foc'sle too long Luckily, the next frame forward was pretty near to the correct ratio of the foc'sle being one quarter length of the hull (approx). Therefore, I cut the top off of the bulkhead and added frame pieces to the new foc'sle frame.

Meanwhile, further back; I completed the frame for the stern, making this from an arch of 2mm styrene with a bevelled outer edge to accept vertical planking.


Ending this session is an image of the frames applied using 4mm strips of styrene 1.5mm deep.


I need to tidy their tops as they are fractionally different lengths despite using a straight edge strip of styrene. It will be a quick job that will make the next stages easier.

Onwards with reinforcement and side plating and off to Forest Hill to buy 2mm styrene to do the project.

[TailUK]

Ingenious project.  I'm  looking forward to see how she comes out.

[ballastanksian]

Hm, so the plot thickens.

I have an image in Janes fighting ships of WW1 published in 1919 and it shows an image of what they purport is HMS Ready. Built by Thornycroft, the image shows her with a ram bow as mentioned previously but other images on the web show images of her without.

Mike T helped with some references showing her with a normal destroyer bow.

I found that two B class destroyers built by Thornycroft had ram bows, so this presents a precedent for them fitting destroyers with ram bows. Thornycroft do not seem to have built that many destroyers so it is possible that one 'M' class was built by them with a ram bow originally and either it remained as such but was not HMS Ready, or HMS Ready was originally built with a Ram bow but was later rebuilt with a normal bow.

They were common on all sorts of warships and boats in the ninteenth century. Even in the twentieth century, they appeared on Cruisers, Battle Cruisers and Battleships, so the navy were comfortable enough with them that ship builders could offer designs with ram bows.

Careful study of the image does definitly show a ram bow, the image is of a three funnel destroyer, the armament, layout of weapons and boats are correct and the proportions of the foc'sle to hull is correct.

Should I stop typing drivvel and build on, or should I sort out the provenance before slicing plastic?

[ballastanksian]

Latest update.

After my concerns over the bow, I showed the image to my fellow boatists at Yeovil Model Warship Association and they were unanimous in seeing a ram bow on a WW1 destroyer. Therefore I have cracked on and added more styrene all over.

From the bows: I have plated the bows with 1.5mm styrene. This will be fettled and where needed joins filled to get her ship shape.


The frames are now being reinforced where they meet the side plating with square rod.


This shot shows the sides of the main deck plated. There is a gap between the original hull and the new plating due to the former having a gentle curve in it. These gaps will be filled with long thin wedges of styrene. The photo also shows a little of the stern now plated over with vertical strips of 2mm styrene.


The inside of the stern shows the frames and also the thickening I have added to the lower corners to retain hull thickness when I fair the lower edge into the curve of the bilges.


I added a bulkhead/stretcher to keep the hull sides straight at this point made from 2mm styrene. I found two small deformities either side of the new bulkhead. I hope  these will dissapear when I fit the subdeck (Cannot remember the name for the bit the deck sits on!).


I will update in a few weeks. Thanks for watching..

[deadbeat]

There is a photo of HMS Ready in 1920 in my book The British Destroyer by T D Manning. HMS Ready is shown at speed the bow is clearly shown down to the waterline. There is no indication of a ram bow. Considering the shallow draft of this ship a ram bow would have had to have been built up as yours shows for the whole (most) of the stem but it shows a normal raked bow.
I hope this helps you.

[TailUK]

 If you're not married to the idea of a destroyer you could change the scale slightly and build a light cruiser.  Cruisers like the Town class ships, Bristol or Chester had destroyer like lines and bow rams.

[ballastanksian]

I am going to stick with my original build but have lots of ideas for the future involving larger ships.

[ballastanksian]

How do chaps.

While the hull slowly takes shape I have turned my attention to the armament.

I ordered a 4inch gun from Mr haynes range but found it to be too late for Ready,  but not by much.

Still, I used the kit as a measuring tool to scratch build an earlier mark. No parts of your kit were used in this build Mr haynes as I respect intellectual property rights especially as if it cuts the mustard, I will put it on sale if there are interested parties. The original kit will, I am sure become part of a future model.

This would be to generate funds for future projects including the HMS Warrior plans fund:OD

Here is an image of the set. It will have a traverse gear mechanism added to the parts list soon.



Next up, hull shaping and lots of sanding......

[John R Haynes]

I am remoulding this 4"gun [ JRH 660 ] so the trunnion and shield and barrel  are in resin to reduce the weight. This will be useful to  me as well since I have to construct another V+W [ my hull available from Fleetscale ] and also a WWI S class destroyer , both at 1/96. The S hull , when ready will be  available via Fleetscale.
 Both these models will be  in next years program as I am in the process of building at 1/128 , a Fletcher and a DE for the States with all the new masters needed at this scale, a trial since I do already do these at 1/96 and some at 1/48

[ballastanksian]

Excellent. It is amazing what can be molded and cast in resin, and the advances in bubble free casting that has occurred in twenty years. All I can say is hooray for Polyurethane and Polythene resins for being largely odour and flexible.

I will look out for the 'S' class hull in due course. Do you develop a plug or build the initial hull pattern as a plank on frame piece?

[John R Haynes]

I stopped building hulls in timber when I began to get repeat orders ie: 4 x Liberty ships and years ago started to build for grp moulding. So I build using a timber" tee" shape that is a full depth keel and deck plan piece put together then foaming the two sides with either can foam for smaller hulls  of blue styrene for larger hulls , finishing with car filler and body top products and hull templates. My 1/128 DE Destroyer Escort  hull has been produced like this and will be sent/taken to Fleetscale shortly. My  DD Fletcher at 1/128 they have already.

[ballastanksian]

I used a similar process with my hull plug of HMS Rupert but made a keel former so that I could guarantee the ram bow would survive the movement and handling during construction. I relied on measuring transverse lines every few centimetres to get the shape of the hull from above.

I used a small etching found on the net to get the tumblehome amidships. This saved much delay and possible remodelling.

I plan to build at least one hull in timber for the sake of experience.