Captain Brown Builds a Second Flower Class Corvette..."he did say flower?"

[FabricatorGeneralMike]

Mountings for the throwers are constructed from flat styrene (0.20 thickness) and some small L brackets.

The long painting war continues...

CB

It's called angle iron....


Great job, your last project was amazing. Is this going to be on display anywhere like your last one was. (Wasn't it as HMCS discovery?)

[Captain Brown]

Thanks but this will likely end up in my father's nautical display; most maritime museums are shrinking their WWII sections.

More work on the bridge. I remembered the lesson that if you add white metal stanchions you must work your way out and not in to a hard point or you will run into trouble.


You can see the notches in the styrene decking I have cut for the bases of the stanchions in this photo at the bottom.







You might have noticed that the stairwell from the SNOWBERRY bridge is missing, most RCN corvettes that had their focsle's extended tend to have the companion ladder after either beside or behind the radar lantern hut, as the distance to the top of the Canadian galley was closer.



In this last photo you can see the support I added to the middle set of railing on the raised compass platform, just an extra piece of wire with the bottom set into the styrene wood decking.

Now I have detected an error in my bridge, CHILLIWACK had the tall railings all the way around, but the packet from GLS I had only had enough to make the SNOWBERRY bridge...but by the time you add the canvas dodger I think the difference will be negligible...and it might also be the case I am trying to be certain with a grainy 68 year old photo.

The long painting war continues...

CB

[sheep]

Brilliant as always Capt, I look forward to following this log again

Cheers

Sheep

[Tzarinchilla]

Your attention to detail always impresses me and so far on this build it has just been superb. Excellent work and I shall be following this very closely.

[Captain Brown]

Thank you both,

So new detailed bridge built, which means I need a new wheelhouse.

Now my second take on the Wheelhouse uses some of the kit parts (as they seem to be the correct size), to begin with the port and starboard sides have the wrong number of windows and the door in the wrong place. A simple cutting out of the two aft windows on parts (F16 and F17) solves that (replace with styrene card of 1 mm thickness). I will do the door later.





I then add 0.80 x 0.10 strips to simulate wood planking around the windows on parts (F16, F17 and F18). Part (F13) has the rear radar support lines cut at between 12 mm and 13 mm from the bottom to accommodate the Canadian galley.





Sorry about the photo quality as these were taken at night.

The long painting war continues...

CB

[Wintermute]

Amazing work as always. I look forward to more updates and to seeing the completed model.

Wintermute

[Captain Brown]

Thanks Wintermute,

Another rather distinct feature of the new wheelhouse was the creation of two breezeways down each side, so that access to the wheelhouse could be done without suffering from heavy seas. The kit does have something to represent this, but it was for SNOWBERRY and the RN designed Corvettes, I have an RCN galley which makes the kit breezeway rather useless.

The two side planking for the breeze ways (D7 and D11) will be replaced with more styrene wood planking.



You can see I have decided to sand off all the vertical supports, more on that later.





Just make certain you have some added plastic struts under your styrene wood planking as it is quite flexible and you want a nice solid base for the breeze ways.

The long painting war continues...

CB

[Captain Brown]

Next part was the galley, now the galley was an improvement in RCN corvettes that was actually an improvement on the original design. The RN corvettes had the galley at the very end of the Engine Room Casing..which meant that since there were no internal companionways it meant that the crew had to get their meal from the galley back after and then walk the upper deck with their plate forward to the focsle to enter the mess decks...and by that time the food was cold and likely wet from sea spray.

The RCN moved the galley to a void space above the boiler room and since it was a much shorter walk and the food was warmed by heat coming from below it meant that RCN sailors could have a warm meal more often than their RN counterparts. The real challenge for the RCN corvettes was navigating the ladder from the galley to the main deck...tricky in a heavy sea. In long focsle corvettes like this that the crew could actually get their food and be protected from the elements the whole time, so a warm meal not with added salt spray. RCN corvettes also added a fridge...something the RN would never countenance in a small escort.

So from the kit I cut out the mast base for addition to my scratch-built galley.

Adding the part to the galley deck:


Reinforcing it with some braces made of scrap styrene:


A look at the underside of the galley (remember that you will need a hole cut in the corvette's deck to accommodate the base of the mast plug):


The galley, ready to add to the aft end of the wheelhouse:


Once added (with railings placed to allow for the two ladders the service the breeze ways):


Another angle of the same:


The long painting war continues...

CB

[salty]

Looking good Kapitan! I really like the look of the bridge there mate, nice work.


Salty

[sigur]

As ever when you do a project like that - admirable work. Looking forward for more!

[Captain Brown]

Thanks you two.

So part of the challenge when building a historically accurate corvette you need to check your sources, like my old roommate Kelly said, when there is photographic evidence people can compare it to your work. So here is a photo of CHILLIWACK from 1944 (courtesy of the Ken Macpherson Collection).



If you look at the fiddly deck around the funnel you can see they have extended the canvas dodger all the way around...which differs from the standard drawings I have of AGASSIZ, which only had the railings extend to the ventilation funnels. So some extra railings for my stanchions need to be added.







Then to make the canvas dodgers I used simple tissue paper and ran it through a small bath of white glue and water, then draped it onto the railings with only a 2 mm lip to wrap over the top. I made certain I left a small gap at the bottom and then blew softly on the tissue; it creates a pattern as if the wind has been blowing on wet stretched canvas that would shrink over time.

After that was dry I primed the tissue to provide additional strength (although they are pretty solid and definitely improve the durability of the stanchions).

Some shots of the Fiddly Deck and lower funnel after a primer coat. I also have added the two life-belt racks to the front and after reviewing the drawings of AGASSIZ I have removed the previous locker and replaced it will another cabinet and built my own Beef Screen locker out of one of the tall square deck boxes.





The long painting war continues...

CB

[Captain Brown]

More primed parts, this time the bridge with it's dodger made from tissue paper.


In this photo you can see the non-water-tight door to the Radar shack.


This photo shows the railings in behind the canvas quite nicely.

So next up was some doors for the Wheelhouse, in most corvettes they were at the forward end of the wheelhouse on the port and starboard sides. To build these I used the sections I had cut from the wheelhouse earlier that had sort of "simulated" doors.



Then I just cut outside some of the raised portions around a single door/window section.

Using that as a base I tried out various looks using styrene stripes to simulate the frame planking...in the end I just sanded off the raised portions of the door and glued down some .015 mm x 0.040 stripes.



Some angle bracket styrene strips provide the wooden guides that held the door in place and allowed it to slide to open.

Now I have added the radar supports, a skylight and the doors and you can see them in these photos.



You can also see the canvas dodger I made from tissue paper and the steps off the galley to the main deck (a similar short step was added to the breezeway from the galley deck, which was a few feet higher and necessitated the addition...it was also noted in my Anatomy of a Corvette drawings –sort of an ‘Faulty Towers’ design).



Speaking of the radar supports: Parts (M53, M54 and J35) can be replaced by whatever set-up your particular corvette had, whether it was a curved arch support, simple struts, etc. If there is no photographic evidence of your corvette pick a sister built or modified at the same yard.

The long painting war continues...

CB

[FabricatorGeneralMike]

As they say " The devil is in the details". Great job the more you look the more stuff you find.Can't wait to see more.

Ps you seem to be a monster with posting. I take it you are really enjoying this build eh?

[Captain Brown]

As they say " The devil is in the details". Great job the more you look the more stuff you find.Can't wait to see more.

Ps you seem to be a monster with posting. I take it you are really enjoying this build eh?

Thanks FabricatorGeneralMike,

Some of these sections were built a little earlier before I got down what I wanted to do and some have been sitting waiting for a good photo. Did not get much done this weekend unfortunately.

I had some pre-done work on the forward splinter screen, this is the armoured shield that sat aft of the forward bandstand in corvettes who had their focsle's extended, it provided cover for ammunition lockers and POL...which it was noted in several corvette sinkings caused additional loss of life if they caught on fire during the abandoning of the ship (corvettes were built to civilian merchant standards and thus a single torpedo would be enough to sink them as their water-tight bulkheads were no designed to stand on their own with say the bow of the ship missing).

In CHILLIWACK it looks like the two forward side splinter shields were removed to same on top weight, so the armoured shield became a little more important. In this photo from 1944 you can see port side and how the shield was angled back.


Photo courtesy of the Ken Macpherson Collection. This photo was taken immediately after the sinking of U744...but not before the crew had a chance to throw on a new coat of paint for the press.

Since the kit shield only goes across the deck I need to do some work. But I have a handy extra as my short focsle kit did not use the part I was able to cut a section out to make the right angled addition.





Now for the sudden arising of "the devil is in the details".

I tracked down a photo of the forward starboard quarter from the Museum of the Battle of the Atlantic in Cowichan BC, a photo I had never seen before of CHILLIWACK sometime in late 1944 or early 1945. Here is an extract from it showing the Hedgehog and focsle armour.


Full photo is available at the Museum of the Battle of the Atlantic in Cowichan BC.

You can see that the armour has the diagonal cut, so another change to a partially completed part was necessary.



I also filled in the gaps on the reverse side, even though it is not noticeable to the casual observer, if one looks at the ammunition hatch, companion hatch and forward scuttle you would see it.



The long painting war continues...

CB

[de Selby]

Staggering attention to detail again, Captain Brown. I love all your "In this photo you can see that..." reference points, as a landlubber I frequently have no idea what I am looking at.

Your previous log was a great source when I was building cartoony little epic scale ships for Aquanautica Imperialis, so thanks for that. Maybe I should build some more.

[Captain Brown]

Thanks de Selby,

I have some more of those ‘photo driven’ one’s for you, but in a later update as first my Flower Class Corvette is starting to look like a Flower Class Corvette now!

For my birthday this year I got a new air-brush from Mrs Captain Brown. Don't I have the best wife? She likes watching ice-hockey as well.

So I took the hull and some of the superstructure and started painting (using WEM's Western Approaches paints). I actually ran out part way through, but that is OK as the painting of a ship was often an all-hands evolution and it rarely achieved a solid even/uniform coat.


Beam view.


View of the port bridge wing. You can see how the tissue looks more like a stretched canvas dodger. You might also notice the scuttle that I filled in on the port side (too many scuttles in the SNOWBERRY kit).


Another port side view, you can see how the boat deck portion of the focsle is extended even further back in RCN Corvettes, but only the deck itself. RCN corvettes had their boats stored further aft than their RN counterparts...just a little idiosyncrasy driven by experience...which finally started to get applied in the fourth and fifth year of the war when the refits to RCN corvettes started (the RN had converted most of their corvettes to long focsle in 1941). Ironically this extra space would not really get used on the port side as two Carley Floats would make their home there opposite the 27' Whaler on the starboard side.


In this last photo you can see my next project, the breakwater and the forward bandstand. I have added some brass wire and stanchions already.

The long painting war continues...

CB

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Another one? It's looking great, however.

[Captain Brown]

So you can see in photographs that CHILLIWACK had a very distinct breakwater added forward of the 4 Inch, in the photo from my last update you can see that I have started to take the kit parts and placed them with mounts through the wood decking. Now this breakwater was added to stop the sea breaking across the bow from sweeping aft along the decks and drenching anyone foolish enough to be on the uppers...or anyone at their station, doing rounds, etc. The RN added this breakwater almost as a matter of course during their Flower Corvette's first refits and latter added it to new construction. RCN authorities refused until proper engineering studies were carried out...so for about three years RCN Corvettes were unnecessarily wet due to "red tape". You wonder why bridge watchkeepers still harbour resentment against the engineering officer branch (as opposed to the engineering crew of the ship who do wonderful things like make certain there is hot water and ventilation in all the living spaces).


Here is a close up of a photo from 1944, with the breakwater visible just aft of the standing sailors. BTW, if anyone could identify the gunshield art I would appreciate it as that is one of CHILLIWACK's mysteries.

In this photo you can see that I have started by sanding down the section that joins with the front of the bandstand in the kit. I need a flush join as they were actually one piece of steel.


I added a very thin piece of styrene to make the point for the centre of the breakwater.

Now the next issue with the bandstand is the shell brackets, in reality the corvettes held the shells in a metal bracket (later in the war many ships would actually sew canvas covers to try and protect the shells from the elements). The kit parts are just solid wedges of plastic, so I cut them down to make it a shell sitting in a flat section and add some 0.10 mm by 0.20 mm styrene to make the top of the bracket and some more styrene sections to make the front brace to create the angled shell bracket.


Here you can see the starting kit versions, then cut down, then the top bracket added and then the front brace added.


Then some round styrene to make the curved top of the breakwater.

The long painting war continues...

CB

[Captain Brown]

Another update,

More work on the Forward Bandstand.


The mesh netting that went around the Bandstand to prevent tools, sailors, shell from rolling off. While the mesh was often a fine metal, many corvettes made do with some rope netting and that is what I have done here with some screen door material.

Next is the 4 Inch World War I naval gun that sat on the Forward Bandstand. It was the principle surface armament of the Flower Class Corvettes and was only replaced with updated versions on some of the Improved Endurance Corvettes.


This is a Sirmar 4 Inch gun I picked up and decided against using for my Short Focsle Corvette...but it has been sitting in my bits box looking for a home so I figured I would try and use it.


Sadly the Sirmar resin is pretty much a reasonable facsimile, much better than the kit parts, but somewhat lacking in sharp detail. The white metal bits are good, but I think I will have to dress it up with some plastic styrene strips.


Sirmar has closed his doors, he was very nice to deal with, but I think he wanted to retire and I am not certain if anyone has picked up the moulds from him.


The targeting sights were very nice though.

The long painting war continues...

CB

[Col. Frost]

Kit is coming along beautifully. What you were saying about the paint job is correct, seeing large models of ships (especially war-ships during wartime) with a 'perfect' paint job just doesn't look right.

The stretched tissue looks fantastic now its painted in a light colour, really looking like weather-worn canvas.