Leander Class frigate 1:600

[Tomek22]

For my Falklands War collection I line to build a Leander Class frigate. The main deck is suggested in brick red. Is this really the right color for this? Thanks for help.

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[Kenneth ONeill]

I'm not sure about Leanders that late, but the BBC show "Warship" filmed aboard actual ships, mostly HMS Phoebe.

[jopres57]

I think deck green is more likely, but I say this only because I visited HMS Plymouth a few times when she was a museum ship at Birkenhead. Plymouths decks were green and she was in service at the same time as HMS Leander, although a slightly older class.

Funnily enough I saw a brief clip of the forward part of an unmodified Tiger class cruiser on telly a couple of weeks ago. The forward decks were clearly a dark earth looking colour, possibly brick red? The decks that could be glimpsed further aft appeared to be deck green. I wouldn't like to speculate why they would be different.

[Kenneth ONeill]

Actually, my memory says that too, and also that HMS Plymouth is/was an actual Falklands veteran, with the position of an UXB hit marked inside the hangar using red permanent marker.

[Ratch]

[Tomek22]

hi folks, thank you very much for your help. 

[Splash846]

I served on HMS Dido in the early 70's when she had the twin 4.5" turret forward her upper decks were green with a mid grey flight deck, I also served on HMS Phoebe in the late 70's when she had 4 Exocet forward all her upper decks where mid grey.

so you have lots of options.

Regards Alan

[Tomek22]

@splash846, Alan

thank you very much to let me know

Regards, Tom 

[Plumbers]

I served on HMS Dido in the early 70's when she had the twin 4.5" turret forward her upper decks were green with a mid grey flight deck, I also served on HMS Phoebe in the late 70's when she had 4 Exocet forward all her upper decks where mid grey.

so you have lots of options.

Regards Alan

I served on the Cleo and the deck was grey not green. 

[Tomek22]

For my Falkland War collection I finished the HMS Dido (after almost three years). For the first time I built a "water surface" from ploystyrene with some body filler and painted it in some blue shades.

[Hurricane Boy]

Very nice job! Thanks for sharing the photo's

[jopres57]

Nice looking finish Tomek22, the sea looks good for a first attempt. I'm surprised that Airfix haven't re-released the 'Falklands Warships' set this year, I'm sure it would have sold well. With reference the deck colours mentioned earlier, I think it may have depended on when or where the ship was built or re-fitted.

[Tomek22]

Thank you Hurricane Boy and jopres57!

[PumpEngineer]

When are you going to release the Leander Class frigate again? Never mind navy ensignia I would like options to build

HMNZS Canterbury

Almirante Condell

Almirante Lynch.... All built by Yarrows Shipyard here in Glasgow

[KiwiKev]

Finally got my hands on a couple of these kits. One already built up, but missing some pieces. This is going to be a kit bash into a Rothesay class Type 12. It will be HMNZS Otago, mainly because F111 is about the easiest pennant number in the world to mask up and paint (call me lazy).

The WEM Post WW2 PE kit provides lattice masts for Tiger that will work fine for this type of frigate. may have to get a bit creative for the fore stub mast for the Type 277, and the stub main mast.

This kit was minus the turret but the originals were pretty poor so some 3D printed ones from Micro-master are on their way.

[KiwiKev]

My deck plans for the Type 12 conversion. Note in the lowest deck plan that the shafts are parallel and do not come out on an angle from the skeg as in the Leander model hull, so this will need to be corrected. Screws should also be 5 bladed. There are some differences to the foredeck area as well which I probably won't worry about as the existing detail looks OK there.

The Type 12 hull also needs port holes added either side where the Leander was scuttle free.

[KiwiKev]

The supplied Seacat launcher is pretty basic and also in error as the pins representing the missiles are in the middle of each side and should be on the corners. I toyed with scratch building a replacement, but looking at what was supplied most of it was there, just needed some "adjusting".

I cut off the missiles and filed slots in the missile platform front and rear, re-glued the missiles in their correct corner position and added some styrene triangles to represent support struts for the missile platform.

The missile rails are from the WEM Post War set.

Shown below left is the end result which I'm pretty happy with compared to the original in the center, and the Launcher supplied with the Fearless model, so quite a good end result for not too much work.

[KiwiKev]

The 3D printed offerings from Micro-Master look to be very good quality. This is their exquisite twin 4.5 mounting. It's even better than this photo does justice. Not sure I even want to paint it and risk softening any of the detail. I purchased two of these, one for the other kit I will build as a Leander class frigate.

[KiwiKev]

Re-arranged shafts. The fairings where the shafts enter the hull need to be removed from near the skeg and replaced further forward so that the shafts travel in a straight line back. I've also replaced the solid mounting brackets with two slender ones on each shaft. The props themselves will need to be replaced with the 5-bladed distinctive club-shaped blade props.

The props on these ships were very large and with a large surface area to provide high thrust at low revolutions, thus reducing noise during anti-submarine operations. The props were also later fitted with the Agouti system of pumping air out the leading edges to further reduce cavitation.

[KiwiKev]

Dry fit of the major superstructure blocks, turret, directors, fore-mast and Seacat launcher, mostly scratch built.

This model will be something of a test bed for a few techniques, before building the second kit as a Leander.

Already know I need to do better with the 5 bladed props. Happy with the Seacat launcher, and the triple torpedo tubes, both of which will be used on the Leander.

[KiwiKev]

Deck re-coated a medium grey, and PE masts completed. Last major work involves detailing the externals of the Seacat magazine deck house which contains a number of vents, doors, ladders, and the magazine fire mains.

Paint needs touching up in a number of places, deck railing and 20 mm Okerlins to be fitted, and bridge windows painted in. I may try using the 0.1 mm fine ink pen that was used to mark in the windows in the launch. This seems to produce fairly neat results easier than a paint brush.

[Sailorman]

Looking good!

[KiwiKev]

Almost complete. Main deck railing and ladder ways to be added, and a touch up of the paint. So this is a Type 12 conversion using the Leander hull. I will add the pennant F148 to represent HMNZS Taranaki. I have another Leander kit unmade that will be built as HMNZS Canterbury, pretty much stock standard Leander, apart from Limbo and VDS wells plated over. When I have completed the 1:600 Rommel as an Australian DDG, I'll see whether I can do a photo shoot of an ANZAC 1970s task force with those 3 escorting HMAS Melbourne.

[Sailorman]

Lovely build. Very nice indeed!

[KiwiKev]

Two more views of the completed model on a plastic seascape. Some minor paint touch up required but otherwise done.