HMS Exeter - progress

My modelling style is 'very slow', hence the relatively poor progress on my little flotilla. However, I have got a few months before they are needed - (thank goodness, son and partner have just requested I make a cot and changing cupboard for a new arrival due in April. Here is the latest photo, showing the Exeter at present. Only masts, boats and secondary armament to go now.

I have managed to get hold of a copy of this book

which is the same age as the plans I'm using, (late 1940s) and it includes a number of ship plans from HMS Hood to destroyers.  The methods used are superior to my 'hack and glue' ways, and include methods of making the turrets rotate and guns elevate. Perhaps next time? Mind you, according to the original instructions on the plan, all you need are a sharp pocket knife, a fine bradawl, a small saw, a light hammer and a small file.

My main preoccupation now is, do I put the ships on flat bases as shown, or leave them off, as was the practice in those days. Decisions! decisions!

Another birthday come, and gone

Yesterday was my birthday. I won't say which one, and to be honest, when MrsJ checked with me I told her the wrong one! One of the benefits of having such things is the arrival of presents, and this DVD arrived in the post. I was quite surprised, as I thought it wasn't due until March.

According to the blurb this is a BFI restoration of a film made in 1927 ".. on real battleships supplied by the Admiralty.... scrupulously fair in its treatment of the enemy.... presented with a new score ....performed by the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines..",and comes with a number of extras including some short films from the era plus a fully illustrated booklet of original essays and full credits. The main feature is some 102 minutes long.

I just need the evening MrsJ goes dancing, a glass of wine, and a bar of chocolate.

The rest of the day was a bit of an anticlimax. I picked up my car after 3 weeks in the garage, and after a number of power failures on the A14 I spent four hours sitting in a service station watching the traffic go by while the AA attended and eventually towed me back to the garage for further tests. MrsJ had told me to take the day easy, but I don't think that's quite what she meant!

Progress

Further to my earlier post of "First Things", I have made a little progress and have a couple of photos to show.

The first one shows where I was at the beginning of the year, and is the hull of HMS Exeter at a scale of 1 inch equals 50 feet. Not one of the usual wargaming scales used these days, but my fingers and eyes probably wouldn't cope with anything smaller these days. 

The second shows the current situation, with a little more progress on Exeter, and basic hull outlines and bases for the other three ships needed for the scenario. One German ;Pocket Battleship' and two more British Cruisers.

These models are for use in the garden, where I will be trying to peel nine year old awat from his various computer games. In order to help in this I am going to make up very simple rules of my own, where the guns range will be the calibre in feet ( i.e. 8 inch gun = 8 foot range) and speed a similar idea in inches per knot ( 18 knots = 18 inches), hits, damage etc still to be sorted out, probably using playing cards (red = hit, black = miss). The idea being a quick game not bogged down in lots of calculations and tables, but where some thought will be needed.

If this works, I have enough plans to do a Bismark* or Scharnhorst scenario next year. I'll need time to make the models. More progress reports to follow.

*though, because they didn't do a plan of Bismark, I may have to use Scharnhorst as a stand in!

Something to read.

After a long wait on the local library reservation list (I was originally 68th in line) I've collected Bernard Cornwell's "Waterloo". His first non-fiction title. The question is, after so many other books on the battle over the years, will I learn anything new or will it be just a rehash of bits culled from all the previous ones. I've tried to avoid any comments or reviews so that I don't come to it with preconceived adeas, and I've got three weeks to read it before it's due back.

First things

The first thing I'm doing this year is the completion of something I started back in September.I have a collection of 50ft to 1 inch warship plans from the 1940s, that build up into recognition style simple models. I have the details for making up the four ships involved in a small action that took place in the South Atlantic early in the war, and had started on a British Cruiser. That's now getting finished off, to be followed by the other ships. The intention is to use them out on the lawn in the summer.

More to follow when I have photos.

Review

Well, Christmas has passed, it's now in the hands of the elf-like creature with the conical hat *. The old chap with the scythe and hour-glass is hobbling towards the exit while the chubby cherub in the nappy (US -diaper) is waiting to make his entrance. Time to review the situation.

Readers of my assorted blogs will have seen that there was very little content this year, usually just a note about something that caught my interest as I went along. This is because I've had a bit of a peculiar time lately. A problem with the ticker and various tubes leading to it led to a couple of heart operations, meaning lots of rest and recuperation (MrsJ made sure of that) and assorted pills meant I felt dog-tired most of the time and able to drop into snooze mode at the drop of a hat. Thankfully this period is nearly over and the doc should sign me back into the world soon.

So nothing much has happened in my various hobby interests lately. Admittedly I've pottered about the shed with odd bits of wood, and a few figures have been sent off to be painted for the 19th century armies of Humperstein, but my attention span was such that many of the projects on the go at the start of 2014 are still languishing on various desks at the end of the year. My resolution is to get these finished before starting anything new, so hopefully there will reports of progress appearing here soon. Another thing I've noticed is that during my lazy months I've been spending far too long on this infernal machine and will be restricting access during 2015 (with priority to the blogs and forums I inhabit, general browsing for the sake of it must be held in check!).

So enough of my rabbiting on, You'll be hearing from me, and A Happy New Year to you all,

* Christmas Carol, Dickens.

Christmas is coming

It is difficult to think that the Christmas period will be over in a matter of weeks, and we'll all be thinking of the New Year and all the resolutions it will bring with it.

Every year MrsJ and I have difficulty thinking of things to buy for each other, but this year we are both happy with our choices (we've had to liaise, so no surprises, though I have got something tucked away in the shed (she'll never look there) for the morning in question. She asked me if I'd get her engagement ring enlarged, as her finger is now too big and she wants to wear it next August during daughter's wedding. I was happy to oblige and suggested a reciprocal arrangement whereby she got me something I really wanted. Both sides happy.

My choice is

 a 1/350 scale model of the Flower Class corvette 'HMS Pennywort', known to my late father and his shipmates as 'The Fighting P'. He served in her ,during the recent spot of bother, for all his wartime service, apart from some time at Whale Island at the end, mostly plodding backwards and forwards across the Atlantic shepherding precious cargoes to our shores. Pennywort is one of the ships mentioned in Martin Middlebrook's book 'Convoy'. Unfortunately my father died just before a letter arrived from Middlebrook requesting an interview. I know he would have found the tales interesting - I did, when he was chinwagging with his mates of the RNA when they came round of an evening.
Anyway, I came across this little model advertised on Amazon and it will soon be mine - only a couple of weeks to wait. I shall really enjoy the construction of it, and will be taking extra care over the finish.

That's enough waffling from me, it just remains to wish you all the complements of the season with all the best to you and yours.