Topic: HMS Intrepid 1943

[mikearace]

Just starting to build HMS Intrepid as she was in September 1943 when she was sunk in harbour by JU88 bombers at the Greek Island of Leros.  Intrepid was an I Class Destroyer with the majority of her build and fittings similar to A-I destroyers from the pre war building prorgramme.  So the 'Donor' vessel is HMS Daring from Deans.  The majority of the build will be unchanged out of the Deans Box but there will need to be a few essential changes I have to make which are mainly:

The I class were the first with the angled front bridge not the slap squar front bridge of the D Class so there will be a significant alteration required when building the bridge.
The boiler casing is slightly shorter
The funnels were cut down after the start of the war
Masts were changed to allow for firing arcs,
Aft bank of TTs removed and replaced by a 3in HA starshell gun in a splinter sheild surround
Mid ships platform on top of boiler vents much larger and different shape to carry 2x vickers .303 quad mounts.
Forward TT now a bank of 5 not a quad mounting.

There is a fair bit of literature out there on her including a book on modelling A-I destoyers, George Mack's autobiography from serving on her and a few other bits and bobs from my own research through my membership of the HMS Intrepid Association which although primarily for those of us who served on the modern Intrepid L10 LPD but does include a member who is a survivor from the sinking of her predecessor.

I had hoped to finish off the earlier started sanding down of the hull today and complete the drilling of the tube outlets and portholes but as we are presently in a drought and there is no rain just a *******ing monsoon outside I havent been able to.  Instead I made a start on some of the minor superstructure parts such as the galley, the boiler vents and the searchlight platform.     I will post pics when I get really into her but not sure anyone wants to see a boiler vent, platform box structure and box galley in 1mm plastic with numbers stuck all over them!!  Hopefully an enjoyable 3 or four months lies ahead.

[colin]

good look with your convertion / project..

[John Davies]

"boiler vent, platform box structure and box galley in 1mm plastic with numbers stuck all over them!! "

You probably know this, but for anyone who doesn't; those numbers will show through several coats of paint. Wiping down with meths before painting will remove them.

Best wishes!

[mikearace]

Thanks John and you are right. Any visible numbers will be washed off and cleaned ready for painting.

I have made a fair bit of progress on her so far,  the hull and running gear and rc internals are almost done ready for the deck to be fitted in the next week or so.  Havent posted any photo's purely based on what I said earlier, so far its not really interesting enough to warrant pics.

Although she is going together well, there are a few issues with the plastic card printing that I have to take account of.  The base for the forward superstructure is smaller (and I mean smaller) that the deck opening!! If it is built to the lines the superstructure falls straight thru the deck!! Pays to check twice and thrice.  And the galley printing would result in a galley being 1.5 times the height on the plans.  There are a few issues with the fitting list guide too with fitting IDs not corresponding to the plan so it does require thought.  Nothing that cant be corrected or accounted for of course. 

Hope to post pics next week of the hull and internals completed.

[John Davies]

Mike,

I built a "Solebay" a few years ago which had three possible different widths for B gundeck; as per the drawing, as per the printed sheet, or best fit to the bulkheads if they were assembled around the printed internal stiffener. I decided if in doubt build as per drawing. The result came out looking okay.

I don't think this is especially Deans' fault, by the way. Some years ago I had a job which involved digitised maps printed on to a plastic draftsmans film. They had to be accurate, so the edges of one sheet would line up with the next sheet and the computer would recognise that they did. It proved quite remarkably difficult. Even if you use an extremely good graph plotter (which means an extremely expensive one), the medium you are printing on to can still move. If it's plastic, it almost certainly will. So will many papers too, for that matter. In other words, it just ain't simple!

Best of luck with the build, anyway. I'll look forward to seeing pictures; love destroyer models.

John

[mikearace]

Well finally time for a few pics of the build so far as there is some progress to show.  Thanks to our lovely rain it does have a benefit, less gardening order from SWMBO and more modelling time!  All internals now fitted and dry tested and deck is trimmed to size but not sealed in place as I want to do a wet sea trial this weekend, weather permitting.  Once I know its all okay and sails, I will seal the deck and sand down.  However having the deck in place does mean I can make good progress with the Superstructure build.  Only one funnel completed but doesnt look too bad and heigh is reduced to show the wartime mods of reduced height funnels.

[radio joe]

Yes nothing but rain down here as you say it has it's compensations, you are making good progress there ,looking real good.

[mikearace]

A little more progress of sorts made.  Both vac form funnels now done and the basic gun turret construction is done.  Decks are now fixed in place and starting the filling and rubbing down process, starting with the foredeck first which is sanded down level but now needs a fine sand.  All the plastic card work is done so it will now soon progress to super detailing and then onto fittings and painting.

[John Davies]

Looking very good!

[mikearace]

Thanks John.  Slowly getting there and work on her isnt as timely as I'd hoped.  Lots of family pressure including serious illness and wedding planning for daughter has eaten into the time I have had to put aside to make progress on her. And a reunion of HMS Intrepid ships company in Brum this weekend stopped any progress this week.  But the substantial amount of wets sunk was worth it!!  Hopefully more progress this week on doing some of the detailing. An hour here and there does make a difference over a week.  Will be doing some of the differences between D and I class such as the look out bins either side of the rear of the bridge superstructure and the girder work under B and X turret sponsons.

[mikearace]

A bit more work spasmodically done over the last 2 weeks in between work commitments but not as much as I would have liked but have had to finalise the last touches to my daughters wedding and do a number of round trips of 600 miles to the North East due to family il illness.

I had hoped to have started the painting (after a good clean up and removal of the printing marks) but that till now have to wait a couple of weeks as this will be the last bit of work I can do on her for 2 weeks.  Still she is starting to take shape and not looking too bad. The mast is no a permanent fit yet but just finished up the soldering and wanted to make sure the positioning was right.
     

[mikearace]

Finally had time this week to make a start with the painting.  The underside of the hull and the boot topping have been done and a flat grey primer coat put onto the hull and the basic superstructure before the camo scheme is painted on.  Despite doing as much research as I can its difficult to identify exactly what colour scheme she sported in 1942/43.  However, the closest I can seem to get is the admiralty scheme sported by her sister ships HMS Ivanhoe, Ilex and Impulsive which was variations on MS4, MS4a, B5 or B5, MS4a and 507c.  The latter scheme ties in I think with the BW pics I have of her.  So thats what I will go with. 

There are still a lot more fittings to go on and be painted also and the funnel cap cages will be one the last jobs but she is starting to come together now and looking a little more like a Destroyer should look.

[mikearace]

A little more painting on the hull over the last two days or so.  Happy with the end result and the scheme.  Now starting to look closer and closer to a finished model.  Not quite on the home straight but getting there.

[radio joe]

She's looking so good, Isn't it amazing how a paint job brings a model to "life"  doing a great job there Mike.

[karlgalster]

Nice job.