HMS Iron Duke and conversions

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, here's my discussion on the Airfix HMS Iron Duke kit and conversions. If anyone else has done this model please feel free to add to this.

I did the first build of this kit in 2017 and rather than do it OOB I modified the model to how I think she appeared at the Battle of Jutland in mid 1916, when she served as Adm Jellicoe's flagship. I had to make quite a few alterations and while it probably isn't 100% accurate I think I came close.

The overall height of the forward superstructure had to be lowered, which I did at three levels. This affected the tripod mast so except for the starfish at the top of the tripod I scratch built the entire assembly. I replaced the secondary casemate 6-inch guns with scratch built and omitted the guns abreast Y turret. These were found to be too close to the water and were useless in any sort of seaway. I altered the searchlight platforms on the second funnel, re-arranged the boats and booms, scratch built replacement 3-inch AA guns and omitted all the light guns that the RN declined to fit in early WW1. I also removed the chin plate at the fore-foot.

HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm6

HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm7

HMS Iron Duke 1916 jm14

My next build of the kit was done four years ago and is a whiff. What if a sister-ship HMS Benbow wasn't scrapped in 1931 but was retained as a training vessel, then re-activated mid/late 1930's as a convoy escort to ward off enemy surface raiders?

To make this model I omitted the midships Q turret and added a deck house in that location. I omitted all 6-inch casemate guns and fitted her with a secondary battery of six twin 4-inch guns plus octuple 2lb pompoms and quad .50cal machine guns.

HMS Benbow 1940 jm3

HMS Benbow 1940 jm4

HMS Benbow 1940 jm10

I have another conversion almost complete and I'll add her here when she's done. If anyone else wishes to add their models of the ship here please feel free to do so.

Thank you for your interest. Stay safe, and regards, Jeff.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Like the Benbow conversion. I don't know much about warships, but maybe if it had been actually done a catapult might have replaced the Q turret, with a Walrus, to give some form of aircover to the convoy?

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday PMM, a catapult - yeah that's a possibility, and probably would have fitted. Or mounted on X turret. I didn't think of that. Some of the 'R' class of battleships might have had a catapult on the turret, but then I don't think they had the space amidships.

Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, I've nearly completed my next conversion of this kit, a six-turret twelve-gun whiff I've named HMS Culloden. To get six turrets fitted I needed to lengthen the hull, which I did by 26mm. My preferred method is to use two hulls but in this case I only had one. So I cut it across the middle, pinned each hull half to a block of wood with the desired gap between them and then began to bridge the gap with heavy sprue. I knew I'd kept them for a reason.

CULL50 For hull strength I glued in as many as I could fit.

Once that was done I began to sheath the gap with thin sheets of styrene. I thought a few narrow strips would be easier than a full-width strip, for the first layer anyway.

CULL90 Because the hull thickness isn't consistent I did this in several thin layers instead of one thick layer.

CULL160 The hull finally done, with keels added.

Then it was a case of doing similar with the deck. To rejoin the two deck halves I used ship bases.

CULL180 I glued two to the front deck section, dry-fitted it into the hull, then glued the aft deck section down on top of it, dry-fitting it also. This gave me a one-piece assembly that would fit the hull. You can also see all the sprue I've used to join the hull. I had them so I might as well use them.

CULL200 Then fill in the deck gap with whatever is suitable. In this case I used decking from the Airfix Bismarck kit, which I've cannibalized for parts. Here you can also see my method of attaching turrets to models. I glue 4mm or 4.8mm tubing over the turret rotating pin and glue a key down the front of it, with a gap at the top of the key. I then drill the barbette to suit and file a keyway to one side. This way the turrets can stay off the model until completion, but can be inserted, locked in but still removable at the end of the build.

After this it was mainly a standard kit build. I'll show the completed build soon.

Thanks for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday, here's the completed model of my whiff HMS Culloden.

HMS Culloden WW1 jm8 The turrets can rotate but can only be removed if trained to a particular bearing, 90* on the starboard beam in this case. Then they just lift straight out. I find that it's convenient to be able have them off the model while it is being built.

HMS Culloden WW1 jm6

HMS Culloden WW1 jm7 After the hull lengthening it was basically a standard build with a few small modifications. I juggled the turrets due to the range-finders, trimmed the bell-mouths from the main guns, replaced the 6-inch casemate guns and the two 3-inch AA guns with scratchbuilt, replaced the barrels of the light surface guns, lowered the overall height of the bridge superstructure and replaced the tripod bracing legs because of it, rearranged some of the boats a bit, omitted the aftmost 6-inch casemate guns (in reality it was found that they were too close to the water and were useless in any sort of seaway), plus of course adding the extra turret and barbette. I found it necessary to plug and redrill most of the locating holes for the small parts as many were way too large a diameter.

All in all I enjoyed the build. And while the model is a whiff I believe that she would have been quite plausible.

Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.