I fell in love with a Cruiser model at Wicksteed this weekend.
It is a 1:128th scale model of HMS Dorsetshire part built and sold to me by Klunk for a reasonable sum. I have fancied building acruiser for a while as they are an attractive halfway house between the speed and dash of a Destroyer, and the majesty of a Battleship. They are big enough and relatively nippy.
The model is part built in her original layout of single 4 inch AA guns and no pompoms, but the hull contained the twin 4 inch mounts and some of the parts for the 8 barrelled 'Chicago Pianos'.
Looking for images to locate the positions of these AA weapons, I could only find plans of her in her early years, or poorly executed illustrations showing the pompoms in some odd but not altogether daft locations. Luckily, an image of Norman Ough's model of her turned up showing them to be mounted towards the stern quite forward of X turret.
I am pretty certain that she carried the following aa defence at the same time and around the time she did for the Bismark:
-Twin 4inch A guns in four mounts aft of the Bridge on a platform surrounded by railings and canvass dodgers. In between and above these were pillars mounting quad half inch Vickers AA mounted on platforms.
- Two eight barrelled Pompoms in the positions mentioned above.
So, all being well the project should not be onerous as the twin 4 inch mounts are built, the Quad Vickers will be simple to make, and the Pompoms can be completed or replaced with new kits from Fleetscale.
Pictures will come as and when I have done something to her....