Topic: HMS Gnat- Insect class Gunboat (Read 72712 times)

Netleyned · « **Reply #100 on:** August 14, 2013, 05:18:48 pm »

what about the 'City of Lincoln'
Had turrets last time it flew over
my house. As long ago as last weekend

Ned

raflaunches · « **Reply #101 on:** August 18, 2013, 03:13:53 pm »

Quote from: Netleyned on August 14, 2013, 05:18:48 pm

what about the 'City of Lincoln'
Had turrets last time it flew over
my house. As long ago as last weekend

Ned

Ok, I meant aircraft I have worked on... mind you apparently the Lanc does have a purpose if we went to all out war- maritime patrol armed with some bombs and escorted with the Spits and Hurricane- not a job I would want to do!

I realised that I didn't include the pictures of the completed carley floats...

The new 20mm Oerlikons have had their resin bases cut off and replaced with a plastic card circle cut using my Olfa compass cutter. The bases were too big and heavy so they were replaced with more scale items. I have started to paint the mountings too before they are permanently fixed to the deck.

I have started to detail the bridge once again and have added to the access door the bridge, there will be a ladder attached to this once the bridge structure has been fixed to the conning tower. The door handle is from Modelling Timbers. I have also sanded down the paint work as I was entirely happy with it so I have rubbed it down with some flower paper and filled some of the little holes I missed- I will be painting it in the near future...

raflaunches · « **Reply #102 on:** September 28, 2013, 07:40:28 pm »

Hi everyone

I haven't been lazy recently building the Gnat, just painting and touching up here and there where I missed or thought I could do better!
Anyway at Deans Marine open day I bought a new flag from the flagman who hand paints silk flags! The flag now hangs and flutters more realistically than the old cotton one.

Tomorrow she is going for a sail again to get some practice in, pictures will be coming of her tomorrow afternoon.

raflaunches · « **Reply #103 on:** September 29, 2013, 06:50:19 pm »

Hi everyone

Gnat had her sail today in the most glorious of sunshine with a little breeze. Practiced a few tight turns and some high speed ones too, the foggy units worked a treat too. The new flag looked brilliant fluttering in the slight breeze.
Chuffy had his 1/32 scale Lady Wooes tug in attendance both to keep me away from the side and for me to hunt down and order him to surrender!!!

A thoroughly enjoyable mornings sailing at Wicksteed.

Funny thing is she still has her 'squeak' screeching across the lake emanating from the push rod and chain steering gear. A bit of grease from the engine room might fix that- can't have her give her position away with a noise like that!

marinemole · « **Reply #104 on:** September 30, 2013, 12:36:22 am »

Looking great. Glad you had a good day out. Like the shot with the smoke.

Andy

mark w · « **Reply #105 on:** September 30, 2013, 04:06:13 am »

Very cool

Mark

Beagle1831 · « **Reply #106 on:** September 30, 2013, 07:34:15 pm »

Looks great Nick!

I saw a book called 'The pre-dreadnought revolution' at the weekend- wondered if it would be of any use for your Majestic class build? It's on Amazon.

Good to see you and the fleet at the Deans show

James

raflaunches · « **Reply #107 on:** October 07, 2013, 07:23:52 pm »

Hi James

Hope you didn't think I was ignoring you, I've had a few connection problems with the Internet at work and at home, both fixed thankfully!
Many thanks for the book suggestion I've got it coming through the post soon, it looks quite helpful.
Wish I could have taken the Gnat to Ron's open day but there wasn't enough room in my Dads van.
This weekend I have been painting the rear superstructure again, and finishing off the port Lewis guns on the upper battery deck. The bridge has been reprinted with its new battle damage repair patches, so hopefully she will look like a warship for Warwick.

Nick

raflaunches · « **Reply #108 on:** October 24, 2013, 04:01:11 pm »

Hi everyone

This week whilst I am on leave I have been trying to finish off the Gnat to a 'near-enough done' standard!
After reading some books for the Majestic battleship project I found out how the anchors would have been attached to an anchor bed like the Insect class and the associated mechanisms that make them work.

Whilst I can't be 100% sure of the accuracy of these mechanisms, in one of my many pictures of the Insect class gunboat I have one of the Gnat ploughing her way up the Yangtse River and in the fuzziness of the picture a similar looking mechanism is sitting on top of the anchor bed, so I presume its similar to the ones fitted to predreadnought battleships but on a much smaller scale!

I have also started to detail the 6inch gun mountings with small nuts bought from Modelling Timbers and are simply superglued to the aluminium mounting and painted light grey.

The worst job I have started this week, something I have been dreading because I'm not usually very good at it, is the glazing of all superstructure windows. A few years a go I bought a guillotine for cutting card and spying it out of the corner of my eye decided it was perfect for cutting my acetate glazing. A bit of Deluxe Superglue for glazing was used to glue the 20mm by 18mm squares to the battery deck superstructure. Once dry they were surrounded by strips of 0.2mm by 1mm plastic strip from Slaters plastics which I had pre-painted the night before so all I needed to do was touch them up with some fresh paint when they were try.

I have also started to re-do the mast rigging again using some tiny turnbuckles, not easy to thread the cord through but look quite realistic when they are finished-pictures will be coming soon for them!

derekwarner · « **Reply #109 on:** October 24, 2013, 10:28:57 pm »

Nick B........that studded main anchor chain looks brilliant....however you could consider blackening the surface instead of painting it grey.......
Here is an image of Black Patina [25% nitric acid + copper, selenium & silver]......works very well on brass surfaces

.....Derek

raflaunches · « **Reply #110 on:** October 25, 2013, 08:36:17 am »

Thanks Derek

I'll have to get some of that to 'blacken' the chains. I had heard of something silmiliar in the AFV modelling world but could never remember what it was called.

SteamboatPhil · « **Reply #111 on:** October 25, 2013, 01:48:37 pm »

Blimey Nick, its a monster, looking really good can't wait to see it all done at Warwick

raflaunches · « **Reply #112 on:** October 25, 2013, 07:04:30 pm »

Hi Phil

Wait until you see the other monster we are bringing!!! Its hardly been built yet and it weighs close to 27lbs!!!

In preparation I am trying to match my Dad's build of his monster sub and complete the Gnat to a decent completed finish for the Warwick show.
Inbetween glazing the battery deck superstructure and the bridge windows I have been adding turnbuckles to the masts rigging and painting them gunmetal/steel colour to hide the fact that they are thin brown cord!

The rear superstructure is also nearing final completion, the glazing complete and the 20mm Oerlikon glued in place, and finally the rigging is complete- just the camo nets to be added and thats done.

I'm taking the 1/32 and 1/35 scale figures to work next week to finish them off at night so I have a crew.

mark w · « **Reply #113 on:** October 25, 2013, 07:25:46 pm »

Mark

raflaunches · « **Reply #114 on:** October 27, 2013, 03:49:22 pm »

Quote from: mark w on October 25, 2013, 07:25:46 pm

Mark

Thanks Mark, she is certainly looking a lot more complete than before, the glazing is almost complete, the bridge is getting more finished too, the ladder to the bridge has been made with the associated structure to support it and the railings along side. I don't thin the weathering will be done in time for the Warwick show though...

Netleyned · « **Reply #115 on:** October 27, 2013, 04:15:13 pm »

Looking good there

One thing,
Before you blacken the anchor cables, do a bit of research
into the metal used at that time.
Many RN ships have/had anchor cables made of gunmetal.
Worth a check before buying the patina potion.

Ned

raflaunches · « **Reply #116 on:** October 27, 2013, 04:17:50 pm »

Thanks Ned

I'll check my sources, might involve a re-read of Armed With Stings to get the info, its a good book for anything about the Insects.

raflaunches · « **Reply #117 on:** November 01, 2013, 08:36:37 pm »

Hi everyone

Pictures of the crew and the LRDG company being transported to their next target!

marinemole · « **Reply #118 on:** November 02, 2013, 11:39:01 am »

Excellent stuff. Are the facilities on the stern occupied?

Andy

raflaunches · « **Reply #119 on:** November 03, 2013, 03:56:28 pm »

Hi Andy

I think great minds think a like! We did consider having a sailor using the heads but we couldn't find a suitable candidate for the job, we were going to leave the door slightly a jar too and have a voice shouting out that it's in use!

Finishing stuff on the superstructure... The mast rigging has gone all hairy!

The port anchor davit rigged.

The LRDG from above. Just visible is the twin Lewis machine guns at different angles.

The two other LRDG men with their arms and helmets attached, just some painting to complete them.

And finally, a view from the bows...

See you at Warwick...

raflaunches · « **Reply #120 on:** December 07, 2013, 10:51:07 am »

Hi everyone

More research and new discoveries for me, and no I'm not repainting the model again. See what you think...

Extract from The Phantom Army of Alamein by Rick Stroud.
Tobruk: The camouflage units lucky break.

Proud's camoufleurs also helped the Royal Navy. One of the most important places in Tobruk and the only means of keeping the garrison supplied was the port itself. All vessels coming in to the port were extremely vulnerable to air attack, including the 'A' lighter flat bottomed barges that ferried supplies in to the port; the gunboat HMS Gnat, which provided much needed artillery support, and the SS Pass of Balmaha, a tanker that had to be towed in to the harbour after being damaged in an attack out to sea.
The port itself was full of half sunk ships, victims of dive bombing and shelling. Proud realised that these could form the basis of his naval camouflage work. He used the humble camouflage net on a vast scale to turn the hulks into hiding places. Working at night, booms were rigged, jutting out from the sides of the wrecks, nets were stretched between them, making covers under which the A lighters could shelter as they were being unloaded. The A lighters were met at the harbour mouth and guided to their hiding places. Once moored they were boarded by Proud's camouflage squads who covered the open sides with more netting, snugly netting them in.
HMS Gnat was hidden in much the same way but on far bigger scale. Proud draped a huge net on strung steel hawsers across a cove under which the gunboat could hide. From the air the net looked like an extension of the land and earned the name 'Gnat's Cove'. When she wasn't in action the gunboat's top mast and searchlight were removed so she could slink into her camouflage refuge. The superstructure of Gnat itself was also camouflaged. The naval report reads: After the sinking of HMS Ladybird in Tobruk harbour on 12 May, Gnat arrived and needed concealment. It was sited by a camouflage officer in a cove. The ship was concealed by painting desert colour and shadows broken up by descending planes of nets fixed to the super structures. Enemy aircraft could be seen searching for this vessel, which eventually left the port safely.

Information from Camouflage Division No 44 issued by 9 Aust Division Camouflage Unit Appendix G3-
Concealment of store ships and military landing craft.

Gnat joined to shore by net hung over bridge continued over main lower deck etc., breaking at funnels and concealing 6" guns.

Bob K · « **Reply #121 on:** December 07, 2013, 11:42:52 am »

Quote from: raflaunches on December 07, 2013, 10:51:07 am

More research and new discoveries for me, and no I'm not repainting the model again. See what you think...

Interesting. However, if your hadn't told us we'd never have known.
Just in case I will keep an eye out for mysterious areas of netting on lake edges at boat shows next year.

raflaunches · « **Reply #122 on:** December 07, 2013, 11:44:20 am »

You never know!

raflaunches · « **Reply #123 on:** January 12, 2014, 06:16:36 pm »

Hi everyone

Seems an age since I posted anything about the Gnat but in between sorting out a report for my club, I managed to make this...

Apart from model boats some of you might know that I make 1/35 scale AFVs, and on some of these models I have made tarpaulin sheets to add some interest to the model.
It's essentially two part milliput pushed together uniformly and then (whilst Mum wasn't looking) using a rolling pin to roll it paper thin, you can use moulding plaster powder as a barrier to prevent the milliput from sticking to your board. Once its rolled out to your desired thickness you can cut with a knife to create rectangles of any size. Because of the long drying time of the milliput you have plenty of time to fold or drape your tarpaulin over anything you want. In these pictures I have two cable reels covered and a single sheet of tarpaulin draped over the corner of the water tank. It eventually dries rock hard and you can paint it.
Any way back to work now...

raflaunches · « **Reply #124 on:** March 02, 2014, 05:29:52 pm »

Hi everyone

I've started doing the finishing details again, but being a compulsive researcher I was checking through the infinite Internet and came across this website.

http://www.frankstaylorfamilyandroyalnavyhistory.net/HMSScarabHongKongRefit.html

Wish these photos had been available a couple of years back when started the superstructure and the detail work, they are a modellers dream, the detail in these photos are worth their weight in gold!
I know they are of Scarab but she was a close sister of Gnat, good thing my educated guesses are close to the real thing!

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Author Topic: HMS Gnat- Insect class Gunboat (Read 72712 times)