1/700 Rodney & Warspite1

"Two Old Ladies"

Rodney and Warspite, June 7th 1944 (Early Evening)

Please Click on to all pictures below to see full-size images

INTRODUCTION

The idea of making a diorama featuring one or another of the R.N.'s battleships has been lingering for a long while. I originally intended to make two: one featuring Rodney in 1942 and one of Warspite in 1942. A little historical reading and I became aware that it is just possible for the two ships to be together, albeit briefly during the Normandy Bombardment following D-Day. The most likely date was the June 7th 1944 when Warspite had to retire in order to replace her guns and Rodney was offshore sending salvo upon salvo up to 17 miles inland. Thus an opportunity arose to show both ships in the one diorama. I could depict Rodney firing salvos and Warspite slipping past on her way back to Portsmouth with her attendant tug laying off.

As both ships were by then in their late war refit state, considerable research would be necessary to achieve accuracy and for this I required: Man O' War: Battleships Rodney & Nelson and British Battleships of WWII (both Raven & Roberts) and as many photos from the IWM collection as I could get my hands on. Another invaluable resource was members of the SMML group without whose assistance I just could not have completed the build. Two members kindly sent me copies of Richard Farrar's Tamiya Nelson conversion from the IPMS journal and Peter Hodges earlier one converting the Airfix Nelson into a Rodney from Airfix Magazine. These two articles proved immensely helpful, although both were found to contain serious errors.

KITS

Tamiya 1/700 HMS RODNEY

Tamiya 1/700 HMS NELSON

White Ensign Models WEM K 717 1/700 HMS WARSPITE

PE 723 1/700 RODNEY/NELSON etch brass set

0.010 plastic card

0.010 plastic rod

0.020 x 0.010 plastic strip

Assorted brass rod

ADDITIONAL ITEMS

Small Carley floats (8 per pack)

Large Carley floats (6 per pack)

8-Barrelled Pom Poms (4 per pack)

PRO 7037 Mk V Twin Powered Oerlikons without armour box (10 per pack)

PRO 7038 Mk V Twin Powered Oerlikons with armour box (10 per pack)

PRO 7020 20mm Oerlikon Pedestals (25 per pack)

from the WEM PROFESSIONAL 700 series.

THE DIORAMA CASE

Making your own display cases is not as hard as you might think. I'm no carpenter or joiner, so if I can do it, you can too! The most important thing is to take care all the time especially when you are dealing with sheet polystyrene which scratches or marks if you simply frown at it! I don't propose to go into details here to the steps required in building the display case but should enough WEM website visitors request it, I would be delighted to describe how I do it in a future article. Basically, I use 15mm MDF fibreboard for the base and 2mm sheet polystyrene for the case. The latter is cut with a special tool designed for the job and available from any good model tool supplier. Having cut the base to size I then make the polystyrene sides fit this. The top is the last piece to be fitted. I use a strong polystyrene solvent 'Plastiweld' to glue the joints that makes a surprisingly strong bond when dry. This applied using an old Humbrol Polystyrene cement applicator. When constructed and dry this 'lid' is then placed over the base and holes drilled to take 4mm screws. I like my bases to have black sides but trying to get black 4mm self tappers is nigh impossible in the UK so I blacken the ordinary nickel plated ones using Carr's Metal Black. Model railway enthusiasts will recognise this as the type of chemical which to put on shiny loco connecting rods etc. With the case screwed up and complete I then promptly disassemble it in order to plan the diorama. I get each element I propose to use and arrange and rearrange them until I am happy with the layout then I plan how the water will look. The IWM photos show that the Channel was being particularly friendly on June 7th '44 the sea having slight swells and only a little chop. I gave the top of the MDF base a coating of white PVA glue and lay on a coat of Polyfilla - a plaster mix used by D.I.Y. enthusiasts. This was worked into representing the swells. Before this dried solid I covered the whole of it with baking foil making sure to fold it over the edges and carefully rubbing out any trapped air bubbles. Leaving this overnight to completely dry out, the next step was to paint the seascape. I use artist's acrylic paints some of which are called sculpture paints these have a greater viscosity and won't flatten out - useful for small wakes/waves etc. With trial and error I finally arrived at the colours/shades and toning I wanted to recreate - the Channel is typically a dark blue-green in its deepest areas. When the paint was dry I once again placed the two hulls onto the seascape to check if it would 'work'. It was immediately apparent that the scale distance was too close but artistic license must be permitted somewhere! An outline of each hull was drawn and the area of sea so enclosed, hollowed out a little in order to recess each ship 'into' the seascape.

Below: The plaster base is carved out to accept the two hulls

Above: The hulls nestling in the plaster water

Below: The seascape is covered by aluminium foil, glued using impact adhesive

RODNEY

For a late war Rodney I based the model on the Tamiya (1930s) kit but used items from Nelson (1945 fit) where appropriate. I used the excellent WEM etch brass set to add those fine scale details which transform any plastic kit.

I began with the main turrets. I needed 'plain' turrets; two of which came from the Rodney kit and one from Nelson. A Turret was the simplest with just two carley floats on top. Tamiya provide the barrels in threes. These had to be cut appropriately in order to obtain the correct angles for salvo firing as shown by the photographs. B Turret was the most complicated with a quad Pompom, zareba and shelter placed to the rear two small, double carley float stacks forward and placed asymmetrically to port, a single powered, twin oerlikon. The zareba was scratch built from plastic strip, as was the crew shelter. On top of the crew shelter were placed two single 20mm overlooks. I prefer to use WEM's etch brass quad Pompom in preference to their resin casting - it looks 'the business'. X Turret had two single 20mm mounts over the arms of the range finders. Again, these were fabricated using plastic strip. The turrets of the secondary armament were also adapted according to photographic evidence: the forward most turret had nothing on its roof; the middle turret had two stacks of carley floats whilst the aft turret had one stack of carley floats and a 20mm oerlikon as well!

Below: Additions to Rodney kit underway. This is the Nelson hull

I began working from stem to stern on the ship itself. Firstly, I added the two echelons of 5 x single oerlikons between the first pair of breakwaters. Next, I added the funnel deck noting that I had to add two Pompom platforms from the Nelson kit - one just forward of the funnel, the latter abaft the main mast and forward of the after director tower. The problems arose when I came to constructing 'Queen Anne's Mansions' - the bridge assembly. Although Tamiya's moulding is fairly good - it is also inaccurate. For an early fit Rodney there is no 'cave' in the starboard quarter section and for the later fit there are numerous inaccuracies in the bridge deck and Admiral's bridge. I am not sure that I have got these quite right either. It was a 'best guess' job using available photos and lots of little plastic strips. By 1944 Rodney had a new AA platform on the top of the 'QA's Mansions'. This can be fabricated by adapting the Nelson's platform.

Below: Much modification is required on the bridge. Other additions are obvious too.

Above: Decks painted and mainmast starfish added.

By 1944 Rodney had her 4" HA/LA guns in gun shields like Nelson. I carefully cut the backs off each turret and added some sprue to represent the gun breech. The positions of these weapons were the same but needed splinter shields to be added. Like Nelson, by this stage Rodney had splinter shields for the stern pair of guns. This, and the after pompom zareba both came from the Nelson kit. Two half-zarebas needed to be added each pair of mid-4" guns, one on the same deck and one on the weather deck below and slightly forward. I added other zarebas at this point: two beside B Turret and one each beside the bridge superstructure for the director radars. Further zarebas were added each side of the bridge superstructure for single Oerlikons. I added a crew shelter to the aft pompom zareba and placed a couple of single Oerlikons on this. Another went on top of the after director! Rodney had extra superstructure between and forward of the mainmast tripod. Plastic rodding obliged here and two zarebas were added for pompom directors.

The fore and main mast masts are quite different although the tripod and its platforms are the same. I opted for the etch brass starfish as this has the correct apertures and looks 'right'. The masts were made from brass rod. I could only make a 'best guess' at the height as there are no dimensions noted in any of my references and I had to rely on drawings and photos. Both are considerably shorter than the original masts. Similarly, Rodney's later fit is marked by its absence of cross trees. Although the WEM instructions don't state as much, Part 18 does the job for the main mast. The fore mast has no cross trees at all. I added the etch brass spreaders to the director control platform and fitted 291 radar on each one from the spare's box.

Below: Brass masts added.

The WEM etch brass crane was folded up and provided with a base and placed slightly further inboard than the Nelson's. At this point the boats were painted and added to the shelter deck. Only the 50-foot motor pinnace, 45-foot motor launch and the two smaller motor launches remained in 1944, all other boats were dispensed with and replaced by carley floats. These were hung from the edge of the shelter deck.

Below: Boats painted and added. Secondary armament added.

Above: Main turrets added to check effect. The barrels were cut and mounted immediately.

There are no short cuts to painting camouflage. You just have to persevere with the brush and use your references to the best. Two light coats are always better than one thick one. Once painted, the etched brass railings were applied as described in Warspite below.

Rigging has been a steep learning curve for me. It was Jim Baumann who inspired me to persevere and get it right. He uses stretched sprue expertly throughout. This I find is very brittle and fragile. I use brass and steel wire for most rigging and Dai Riki 0.002" filament for the wireless aerials. The brass wire (0.006") is used for funnel stays whilst for halliards etc I use 0.01mm multicore wire (eight strands). I strip and burn off the insulation to bare the wire core then unravel it and roll each piece under a metal ruler on a perspex sheet to straighten it. The overall result is a medium which is quite forgiving. If you do bend it then just straighten it with the ruler again and reapply. I use CA glue for fastening all rigging with a 'smell' of CA accelerator to ensure quick setting.

Below: Painted and rigged, the Rodney takes her place on the seascape.

Above: All etched brass details and flags have been added. The sea is undercoated at this stage.

PAINTING

Here the photos and the colour plates in the Man O' War book proved vital. Rodney's 1942 disruptive design was modified only in small parts by 1944. The colours used were:

507C

MS1

MS2

and possibly white

(SEE NOTES ON COLOUR CHIPS BELOW!)

RESEARCH RESOURCES

Modelling HMS Rodney in 1:600 scale Peter Hodges Airfix Annual

HMS Rodney Richard Farrar IPMS

Man O' War 3 : Battleships Rodney & Nelson and

British Battleships of WWII (both Raven & Roberts)

Battleships and Battle cruisers John Jordan (Salamander Pub.),

Janes: Battleships of The 20th Century B. Ireland (Harper-Collins)

IWM PHOTOS

FL9692

A23977

FL9596

FL9691

A23978

A23961

A23958

A26960

WARSPITE

The White Ensign Models Warspite is a more accurate kit all around although for my purposes it still posed a small problem in that the kit depicts the ship in her 1942 fit and by '44 she had undergone a couple of refits. The references here were very good although problems with the placement of four, twin, 20mm Oerlikons and whether she retained her two large bridge searchlights could not be resolved. Fortunately, the SMML folk helped and closer revision of the reference revealed that the 20mm replaced the boats on the aft superstructure. The two searchlights are reported to have been removed in the Ravens & Roberts' reference. The excellent diagram in the Profile Morskie publication helped to locate all the additional AA guns. Additional 20mm zarebas were added aft as well as others to the catapult deck and main turret tops. These I fabricated from plastic strip, bending each 14mm length tightly around a dentist's probe. Splinter shields from plastic strip were added around each pair of 4" HA/LA guns.

Below: Extra zareba and splinter shield added. Deck painted.

Above: Warspite had two extra zarebas aft by 1944.

Working on Warspite took a great deal of care as the deck edges are very thin. and tend to crack under pressure. There is very little clean up needed for each resin component and what is required is best tackled with files of varying sizes rather than a knife. The build is quite straightforward - it's really is a case of following Dave's instructions step by step.

Below: Build proceeds as per instructions. Here the funnel and etch details have been added.

Apart from altering her forward director with a stabilised, 'cheese' radar. There is an inaccuracy in the model with the enclosed bridge being omitted. I deemed that the amount of work needed for this correction to be more than necessary so left it. The bridge diagram in the Profile Morskie book shows it clearly. I opted to use the resin 8-barreled Pompoms as these look more solid in appearance and closer to the real thing. The Admiral's Walk needs special attention as the angle of the roof part does not match the curve of the hull moulding. Care is needed in filing the hull and etch brass in order to make a match. By June 44 the ship's boats had changed around with the addition of a large open boat. Again, the Morskie book provides the drawings. There are few, if any, further changes to the 'standard' model so it is a case of following the instructions. Additional, 20mm singles were added from other etch brass sets and eight extra carley floats were required for the deck around the aft superstructure. Again the important point is to obtain as much photographic evidence as is possible for the ship in the period you are modelling. After painting on the Warspite's modified two-tone camouflage scheme (Profile Morskie 5) it was time to add the windows/portholes with a 0.25mm Rotring pen. These pens are excellent for the job. Etch brass railings really give a model ship character and 'complete' the upper decks. The technique I used for both Rodney and Warspite is to measure the required length with a pair of dividers, then cut the etch brass accordingly. I use gripping tweezers to hold the railings still whilst running a thin application of water-based contact adhesive (Evostick Impact 2) along the edge to applied. While this is drying I add a similar line of adhesive to the relevant section of deck. When both are dry, the railing is applied to the deck. The advantage of this method is that it is very forgiving. Any sections not adhering properly get a dab of CA glue to ensure placement.

Rigging was performed in a similar fashion as with Rodney. The only difference being that I tried to 'color' the Dai Riki by running it under the point of an OHP permanent brown pen tip. This seems to work quite well and give the wireless aerials some 'substance'. Again the same techniques used on Rodney, were used for Warspite's rigging. It is important to remember to rig not just the masts and booms but also the funnels and boat booms and any other appendages that appear in the photographs and drawings e.g. the accommodation ladders, mooring lines hanging from the bow and Oropesa Float lines looped down along sections of the hull.

CAMOUFLAGE SCHEME (simplified in 1943)

AP507C

AP507B

AP507A (steel decks) Suggested mixes for these are in the instructions.

(SEE NOTES ON COLOUR CHIPS BELOW!)

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Profile Morskie 5 Warspite

Conway's Anatomy of The Ship : HMS Warspite

Battleship Warspite V. Tarrant

HMS Warspite S. Roskill

Plus the general references to Rodney, above.

IWM PHOTOS

A23914

A23915

A23916

A23975

COMPLETING THE DIORAMA

Each ship was placed in its recess on the 'water' and glued firmly into position. Toothpaste was added round each hull at the water line with more 'slop' appearing on the moving Warspite. It was important not to overdo the white water effect as Warspite would have been passing quite slowly creating little wake. Again, judicious use of toothpaste and sculptural acrylic white obtained the desire effect. Rodney, being somewhat stationery during her bombardment, would have had more white water on her port side as the tug and Warspite pass. All acrylic paint and toothpaste were given a coat of satin varnish to seal it all.

Below: Rodney's main armament in salvo firing mode.

Above: Warspite's Y turret sports extra 20mm zarebas. Notice the photoetched Admirals Walkway.

Below: Additions include: extra 20mm zarebas on the catapult deck and low splinter shields for the 4" HA/LA guns. Also, note the additional twin 20mm mounts on the after deckhouse.

Above: Portholes were added using a 0.25mm Rotring pen (drilling is quite unnecessary!)

Below: Warspite makes her way back to Portsmouth, accompanied by her attendant tug.

Above: The tug details are a combination of etched brass and scratchbuilding. The open boat is a WEM "Professional 700" item.

Below: Rodney almost motionless bombarding targets 17 miles inland.

Above: Compare this view (converted to black and white!) with IWM photo of the same viewpoint!

Below: Warspite slipping past Rodney during the evening of 7th June 1944.

Above: White Ensign Models etched brass adds so much extra detail to the Tamiya kit!

The tug was quite difficult as I could not find any photo nor mention of her type other than her role in pulling Warspite round for the guns to train more easily and to improve her steerage. Warspite had one boiler system completely unrepaired from her Salerno incident and could not manoeuvre well. The tug appears fractionally, in only one photograph. Using the 'best guess' approach I adapted one of those Skywaves' 'Tuggers' to a more 'British' outline and modelled a tug based on a possible type that may have been used. The tug was rigged and windows/portholes added with the Rotring pen. The result is quite pleasing, giving a sense of scale to the whole diorama.

Below: A Selection of photographs of Warspite before she was finally mounted in the seascape

Special thanks to SMMLlies:

Dimitrios Apostolopoulos, Chris Langtree and John Sutherland for their help in this project.

ADDITIONAL NOTES FROM ME, CAROLINE

IF YOU ARE BUILDING ANY WW2 ROYAL NAVY MODEL IN ANY SCALE, YOU MUST GET THE MOST ACCURATE COLOUR-MATCHED CHIPS FOR AN ACCURATE RENDITION OF THE ORIGINAL. THE ONLY ITEM THAT WE AT WEM CAN RECOMMEND WITHOUT RESERVATION IS SNYDER AND SHORT'S ROYAL NAVY COLOUR CHIPS SET ONE WITH USEFUL COLOUR NOTES, PROVIDED ON 2 A4 SHEETS. THESE ARE ACTUAL PAINT CHIPS, NOT PRINTS OR COPIES! THESE ARE AVAILABLE FROM US AT 14.42 POUNDS (GBP) APPROX. $20.00 SHIPPED WORLDWIDE AT COST. E.U. EUROPE, PLEASE ADD V.A.T. AT 17.5%

SHEET ONE

SHEET TWO

OTHER NAVAL TITLES, RARE, SOUGHT AFTER AND EXPENSIVE NOW, BUT WORTH KEEPING THE EYES OPEN FOR (AND YES.. WE'VE GOT THEM ALL!)

ENSIGN No. 4 QUEEN ELIZABETH CLASS BATTLESHIPS BY ALAN RAVEN AND JOHN ROBERTS

BRITISH BATTLESHIPS 1919-1939 BY RAY BURT

MANY OF THE AFORE-MENTIONED TITLES ARE OCCASIONALLY AVAILABLE FROM OURSELVES.

EXTENSIVE PLANS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC COVERAGE ON THE NELSON CLASS BATTLESHIPS IS NOW AVAILABLE IN AJ PRESS MONOGRAFIE MORSKIE #14 NELSON CLASS BATTLESHIPS. THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY IN STOCK AT 10.99 POUNDS (GBP) around $15.50. If you would like one Please E-Mail orders to me, CAROLINE CARTER.

Finally, just to thank Chris for providing such inspiration to ship modellers all over the world with his beautiful work. We've known Chris for a number of years now, and he has come a long, long way since he showed us one of his first ship models, a built-up 1/600 white metal kit of a Flower Class corvette, at a model show near Portsmouth 6 years ago.. betcha forgot that one Chris!

Thanks for stopping by,

Caroline Carter