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[Mikel]

Hi everyone,My father served on HMS Rowley [a "Captain" Class Frigate] during WWII from 1943 to 1945 when it was returned to the USA. The ship saw action on D day as a picket for Battleships firing on shore positions, Anti Submarine action in the Bay of Biscay and arctic convoys to Russia.My son bought me a set of 60th scale model plans of Rowley for xmas. I have nowhere to build a model 61" long but I found Deans Marine can supply a  fibreglass hull of Rowley at 96th scale, 37" long, which I think would be manageable if I can get the plans rescaled to suit. I worked in engineering until I retired 6 years ago. I have built toy boats, Construction kits etc for the grand kids but have never attempted a scale working model before. I spoke to Ron in technical at Deans Marine and he suggested I joined this forum as a starting point.I would be grateful for any information re this build. Has anyone any experience with modelling 'Captain' Class Frigates? or can point me in the right direction to get information. Kind regards, Mike.

[Stan]

Ron Dean may be able to supply all the fittings at 1/96 scale. What information are you needing? Search the net books are available for this class. If  you can get the plan resized this can be used for the building. Most of the Deans kits use plastic card for superstructure construction.




Stan.

[gingyer]

We called them captain class frigates but they were actually 2 classes of ship
Everts and Buckley class, the difference was length hence why some times you will see
Them described as captain class long or short.
The Rowley was a Buckley class, there is a lot of info out there on them. 
John Haynes built a Buckley class here [size=78%]https://www.johnrhaynes.com/usn-foreman/[/size]


Robert Mitchum stared in the enemy below, which was a Buckley class too
The film is on tv every now and again.


There is a book... Destroyer Escorts in action it’s got good information in it too

[tonyH]

One source of loads of photos of USN vessels is navsource.org.

[furball]

There’s also one of the Anatomy of the Ship books, “The Destroyer Escort ‘England’” which was a Buckley, by Al Ross, if you can get hold of it. It’s been long out of print.

[Stan]

The going rate for this book is anything from  £50 to £68.  This is ok if you wish to produce a very accurate model if this is the case it will be a must.


Stan .

[GG]

Mikel,
      These vessels can make an excellent working model.  I built one in 1/144 scale and was very impressed with it's stability and performance. 
You have to be careful when using reference material as they were built in several versions and outfitted for different roles.  I'll confess that mine ended up as obviously based on these DE's but a bit of a "mongrel" as to the exact version.
Plans somewhere in the Model Boats vaults....
Glynn Guest

[Dean's Marine]

Hi here is one I built earlier, hope it helpsRon

[Akira]

Being based upon a Buckley class DE, you will find plans for the latter here: https://floatingdrydock.com/

[Steve40]

Mikel


I am building a Captain, HMS Conn, from the 1/72 scale Buckley Hull produced by Southern Cross Models. Congratulations on finding a plan specific to the Captain Class, as I have been working from plans intended for USN Buckleys and making amendments using photographs and descriptions in books. The best alternative plans for a Buckley-based Captain are, as mentioned, those in Al Ross’ Anatomy of the Ship USS England. Good plans for US Navy Buckleys, drawn by Alan B Chesley, are also available through the Floating Drydock. Plans by other drafters from this source are not as reliable I have found, and need constant checking against photos. There is a good, though small, reproduction of the design plans for the Buckley circa late 1943, in Bruce Hampton Franklin’s ‘ The Buckley Class Destroyer Escorts’.


There are many photos of the Captains online, and the IWM online photographic collection is quite good, though Rowley doesn’t figure in their available photos. The RN made extensive modifications to the class to improve their seakeeping, habitability, and ability to operate in conformity to RN practices and requirements, and no two were quite alike.


Best of luck with your build.


Cheers


Steve

[Jonty]

  Worth noting that the Capatains varied from the US Navy Buckleys. For instance: no torpedo tubes, hence no director; four depth charge throwers rather than eight; no four-barrelled machine gun, many delivered with nothing in this position; and so on.
  The Sarik plan represents a US Navy ship, not a Captains class.  The Revell model, if you can find one, makes a useful maquette for a larger model.  This, again. is of a US Navy ship.

[Jonty]

There are three useful books in addition to those already mentioned:
Collingwood, Donald. The Captain Class Frigates. ISBN 0850526159.
Franklin, Bruce. The Buckley-class Destroyer Escorts. ISBN 186176118X
Elliott, Peter. American Destroyer Escorts. ISBN 0855241608.

[Allnightin]

    The Sarik plan represents a US Navy ship, not a Captains class. 

Not sure that's right - the HF antenna at the masthead, the 2 Pdr at the bows and the proliferation of 20mm on the aft superstructure all suggest at least some RN modifications have been done, perhaps early in her RN time.  MB mag May 1992 article explains the author's intentions

[Allnightin]

I did some research on the Captain class a while back mainly to convert the Trumpeter 1/350 USN DE plastic kit to a Captain class.  The best guide I found was actually in the instructions  for the photo etch set by White Ensign models which covers pretty much all the possible options for an RN version but not all of them would necessarily have been incorporated in Rowley herself.  I also have a copy of the 1/60th plan you got and it offers one particular RN configuration which would probably be quite early in its time in RN service.  This is explained in the [/size]11 pages spread between May and June 1992 Model Boats magazine that accompanied the publication of the plan and includes photos of Rowley and Holmes.  I would guess that this might be the configuration through to D-Day but Rowley would probably have had further changes before joining the 3rd Escort Group for the Russian Convoys in late 1944.  If you pm me your e-mail I can send you scans of the MB articles which also describe the building and fitting out of the hull for radio control and scratch building most of the fittings.

[Jonty]

The 2pdr bow-chaser was fitted only to ships operating with coastal forces in the Channel and North Sea, not to escort vessels.

[Jonty]

Tried to post some scans, but won't work.

[tonyH]

DE95 as HMS Rowley 1943