HMS Ajax conversions

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, one of my early builds after taking up modeling again about 25 years ago was the Airfix kit of HMS Ajax. This is a rather simple kit, one could almost say it is bland, but it lends itself to conversion to other ships quite nicely. To date I have done this kit five times, with another two in the stash. I'll only show my first two in this initial post.

The first build of this kit was done about 20-odd years ago and done OOB. My modeling skills were very basic, I didn't even try to paint a boot topping on the hull. The kit's main gun barrels weren't round in cross-section and I didn't realize that the main turrets were a bit shallow.

HMS Ajax 1930s jm5

HMS Ajax 1930s jm7

My next build of the kit was a conversion to the similar Australian cruiser HMAS Perth. She and HMS Ajax operated together in the Mediterranean and were known as "The Trigger-happy Twins". My model depicts her as she was when she was sunk in the Java Sea on 1st March 1942. At the time she had different camo schemes on either side of the ship. I used the 6-inch gun barrels, 4-inch guns and 20mm Oerlikons from a Belfast kit. I deepened the main turrets with thin plywood and made the 4-inch gun crew shelters from balsa as I hadn't discovered Evergreen polystyrene sheets, strips etc at that time. The foremast is from the Airfix Bismarck kit.

HMAS Perth I 1942 jm15

HMAS Perth I 1942 jm17

HMAS Perth I 1942 jm24

I'll show more conversions on subsequent posts. If anyone else has models or conversions of this kit please feel free to add them here if you wish. Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

My next two conversions required an alteration of the hull length. The first was a small light cruiser of the Arethusa class, HMS Penelope. This ship spent a lot of her war service in the Mediterranean, part of Force K operating out of Malta and received the nickname HMS Pepper-pot due to the shrapnel damage she received there. When the holes were temporarily plugged she became known as HMS Porcupine. She was torpedoed and sunk in February1944 off Naples enroute to Anzio.

For this model I chopped about 20mm out of the midships section of the hull. As with HMAS Perth above, the 6-inch gun barrels, 4-inch guns and funnels came from Belfast kits, along with other items such as the HACS and Carley floats.

HMS Penelope 1944 jm9

HMS Penelope 1944 jm10

HMS Penelope 1944 jm3

The next conversion was the heavy cruiser HMS York. To do her I had to lengthen the hull so I used two hulls. One was cut to give a long forward 'half', the other to give a long aft half. I then rejoined the two long halves, giving a longer hull with only a single join. The turrets and funnels came from a Suffolk kit. The hull decks and most of the superstructures were scratch built using Evergreen polystyrene sheets and strips.

HMS York 1941 jm23

HMS York 1941 jm24

HMS York 1941 jm28

HMS York 1941 jm29

Again, thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[Ratch]

Jeff, what are the jmxx references?

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Ratch, simply my photo numbering system on my computer, jm means "Jeff's model". I've downloaded photos of other models in the past for my reference only, but these are my photos of my models. I've noticed here that posts older than a few years no longer show photos so I decided to identify which of my photos I've posted here in case I have to replace them. Which brings me to a question - is it possible to edit posts here? Replace the photos if they disappear?

I have one more conversion to post here, that of my model of the cruiser of Alistair Maclean's book "HMS Ulysses". This model is a whiff in fact, based on the Bellona class of light cruiser. Being a whiff it allowed me a bit of leeway. Again I needed a shortened hull, in fact I used the short halves of the same kits I used for HMS York above. As luck would have it the dimensions all worked out. I used the turrets and HACS from a KGV kit, various fittings from other Airfix kits and scratch built the rest, including decks and superstructures, light weapons, funnels and masts. This particular model and HMS York above could be bordering on scratch built models but as I've used Airfix Ajax hulls (the biggest part of any ship model) I'm still classifying them as conversions.

HMS Ulysses 1943 jm2

HMS Ulysses 1943 jm5

HMS Ulysses 1943 jm6

HMS Ulysses 1943 jm7

This completes my conversions of this kit to date. I have two more in the stash and have plans for one of them, but that's a way down the build queue at present. I've heard recently that this kit is to be re-released so if anyone has any aspirations of doing conversions of the kit go right ahead, and feel free to add them here.

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

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Some great work going on here Jeff. I don't build ship kits, but do find it interesting. If you were to to have some 'in progress' shots of your next conversion, I'm sure we would all be interested.

Do you use scale plans, or guesstimate the dimensions?

[Ratch]

Gidday Ratch, simply my photo numbering system on my computer, jm means "Jeff's model". I've downloaded photos of other models in the past for my reference only, but these are my photos of my models. I've noticed here that posts older than a few years no longer show photos so I decided to identify which of my photos I've posted here in case I have to replace them. Which brings me to a question - is it possible to edit posts here? Replace the photos if they disappear?

 

 

Oh I thought it might be some RN system - like AMOs.

 

 

Yes you can edit, but they go through approval again.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

This is the THIRD time I've tried to do this post. The first time was my error, I pushed the wrong arrow and lost an hour's typing. The second time I managed to complete the post, I was proof-reading it and the page became unresponsive and timed out. Again I lost the lot. Not happy. I'll try again but I'll do it in two stages.

Anyway, thanks Ratch, hopefully I won't have to edit things for a while yet. And PMM, thanks for your interest. I'll show a few photos here to demonstrate my methods. I work off plans and diagrams if I can get them. Due to the size of the models they don't have to be too large or detailed. One of the reasons I chose to do HMS York over HMS Exeter was that I had plans of the hull decks and superstructure levels for York. Other reasons were her rather striking camo scheme and the unique look of her bridge structure. Exeter was a single grey colour and her bridge was very similar to that of the first three models above. In fact I believe it was the prototype used for them and I like to have a bit of variety in the display cabinet.

Below is a photo of the hull, hull decks and first levels of the superstructures. You can probably see the two colours of the hull plastic, from two different kits. The brown blobs are epoxy glue that I used to fill holes in the hull, I hadn't discovered model filler at that time. To rejoin the hull halves I screw them to a block of wood the get them straight and firm, hence the holes. The hull decks and superstructures are inverted to show how I reinforce them and how I attach bulkheads (walls) to their decks above.

YK130

YK160 Constructing the levels of the bridge. I like to use jigs I've made from blocks of wood as they make the job easier to get things square and vertical.

YK240 To the left are some of the aft superstructure. To the right are some of the bridge superstructure levels. Each of these levels has the corresponding bulkheads attached to them underneath. I do it this way to make painting easier later.

I think I'll finish this here, proof read it BEFORE I add the photos (I slot them in after typing the text) and post this off. Wish me luck. Regards, Jeff.

[Ratch]

This is the THIRD time I've tried to do this post. The first time was my error, I pushed the wrong arrow and lost an hour's typing. The second time I managed to complete the post, I was proof-reading it and the page became unresponsive and timed out. Again I lost the lot. Not happy. I'll try again but I'll do it in two stages.

 

 

Jeff, I compose on my PC (then nothing gets lost), copy & paste wink

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Ratch, yes that's a fail-safe way to do it but unfortunately I can't do it on this laptop. I had planned to post a few WIP photos of HMS Ulysses too. But have I hammered this thread too much already?

Regards, Jeff.

[Ratch]

But have I hammered this thread too much already?

 

 

Your choice, Jeff, totally up to you sunglasses

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Thanks Ratch.

Below are some photos of HMS Ulysses being built. The first photo shows the hull (compare the colour of the plastic with that of HMS York above, they were the same two kit hulls), a line drawing and plan of HMS Black Prince which I used for the ship structure, and at the top a diagram of Maclean's Ulysses that I used along with his narrative for the weapons and camo scheme.

UL20

The next photo shows the hull painted, and the hull decks and much of the superstructures being made.

UL90

And a close-up of the structures. The rings are the gun tubs for the quad 2lb pompoms.

UL100

I also scratchbuilt my own quad pompoms and 20mm Oerlikons, rather crudely. Below is a photo of the Oerlikon outfit. She had single and twin pedestal mounts plus twin powered mounts.

UL340

And a quad 2lb pompom, of which there were three.

UL310

While a large portion of the models of York and Ulysses were scratch built I still used the Airfix kit hulls and as much of the kits that I could. So I hope they're still classified as conversions. If not then they compliment Airfix ship models.

Thank you for your interest.

[Pretty Mediocre Modeller]

Thanks Jeff,

You've got me reading 'HMS Ulysses' yet again!

Love your conversion, Maclean's book does give a pretty detailed description of the ship, including paint scheme, and I think you have it spot on.

You should make the other 13 escorts of the group now, and the 'Hipper' class cruiser from the final act.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday PMM, I'll try typing this again, this site keeps throwing a spatz.

I've read the book quite a few times, got two copies myself and read the story again a couple of times just before doing the model, taking notes as I did. Maclean served on HMS Royalist I believe, as a Leading Torpedoman (Ralston's role) so I imagine he knew what he was talking about but he does contradict himself a couple of times. Some of the events in the book did occur on other ships I believe.

The camo schemes I've done use the same colours on both sides but the patterns are different. That on the starboard side is based on a painting of HMS Black Prince, that on the port side is based on a painting of HMS Uganda, a Colony class cruiser. His comment of "slanting diagonals of grey, white and washed-out blues" suggest to me that the camo scheme on the starboard side is more likely.

I've done some escort ships but no carrier to date. I haven't done Hipper but I've done the Airfix Prinz Eugen kit twice- once as Prinz a couple of weeks after the Channel Dash and the other as a sister-ship Seydlitz but with her originally intended main armament of twelve 15-cm guns. Her camo scheme is based on that of Hipper about mid war.

Anyway, thanks for your interest and comments. Regards, Jeff.