HMS Devonshire converted to HMS Glamorgan

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, here's my conversion of the Devonshire kit into HMS Glamorgan as she was at the Falkland Islands in 1982. HMS Glamorgan was one of the second batch of County class destroyers and has the distinction of being the first ship to survive a hit by an Exocet missile fired in anger, though sadly not without casualties.

The Devonshire kit has been criticized a bit, it certainly isn't one of Airfix's best kits (plus mine was damaged into the bargain) but with a bit of work it can be considerably improved. I did this model in 2022, forty years after the Falklands War, but I'll show my conversion in a number of stages. Here goes.

The County class destroyers were quite large ships, much larger than a contemporary destroyer of WW2. Here is the hull joined and reinforced with bits of white styrene. The holes are where I'll screw the model to a block of wood during construction. Compare the size of the hull to another conversion of mine, the WW2 destroyer HMS Onslow.

GLM20

The angle of the cutaway from the flightdeck to the quarterdeck needed to be altered, resulting in a longer quarterdeck. The pencil numbers are the distance in mm from the extreme stern, and I cut along the edge of the masking tape.

GLM50

And the cuts complete. In the background is the quarterdeck itself, now a bit too short, but it won't be difficult to lengthen it. After the photo was taken I removed all molded detail from it and plugged the hole.

GLM70

I then turned my attention to the forward superstructure, and got a bit of a shock. The front, sides and back of it are simply two sides with half the front and back molded to each. Or should be. But not with this kit. The two kit parts (no 6 & 7) are damaged, with the two front sections melted and decidedly missing. I didn't think I could rescue the parts so I decided to scratch build the entire forward superstructure. This could have been a blessing in disguise. The kit superstructure is too wide, sited too far aft, and the wrong shape at the rear. This last was not necessarily an error, Devonshire was a batch 1 ship while Glamorgan was a batch 2 vessel. Before I removed the internal guides molded to the deck I used them as guides for my own work. As luck would have it the guides were the correct EXTERNAL width of the superstructure, so by fitting my own guides inside them I got the correct width for my internal levels. That small pencil mark shows where the front of the superstructure should be.

GLM80

The hull deck is dry-fitted for this photo. My levels of the superstructure now have 'height spacers' glued to them, ready to be glued together before the sides, front and back are added to them. The lowest level has been slid forward to it's correct location and also some holes drilled through it into the deck below to add locating pins later.

The flight deck is now too long but instead of cutting and reshaping the aft end of it I chose to cut out a strip further forward. That's the shaded bit and if my measurements are correct it should mostly be hidden by the platforms for the Seacat directors later. I've also plugged all the locating holes for the boat davits. They're now in the wrong position too, and waaay too large. Easier to plug and sand them now.

GLM90

The hull decks are now fitted and the main body of the forward superstructure assembled.

GLM100

The final mod to the hull before painting was the shafts. I replaced the kit parts with my own. One shaft was too short and the struts were almost unusable. Plus I needed to relocate the struts, fill the existing holes plus add further filler to the poor hull join at the stern.

GLM120

And here's the hull, painted and ready for the upperworks. I've added the rudders, added scratchbuilt anchors and removed the two turret barbettes. The anchors were quite nice in fact, but the wrong style. I've saved them as spares.

GLM130

I think this a good place to end this post. I'll continue later. Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, the last photo in the post above also shows that I removed the turret 'barbettes' and the molded guides for the superstructures.

Below is a photo of more work on the superstructures. The raise platform on the forward structure between the fwd funnel and the bridge is the GDP, gun direction platform, and between it and the funnel is the flag deck. The bridge wings are made but not attached yet. The grey structure is the aft superstructure. I can use it but it needs modifying, the aft funnel raised for starters. Those white squares on the ship's deck are there as positioning guides for when I finally fit the superstructure to the hull deck. The forward superstructure will be positioned by pins through those holes you can see.

GLM140

More work and additions to the aft structure. I can use the main mast but it needed additions behind it.

GLM190

Some paint has been applied but the superstructures and turret are dry fitted for the photo. On the wood block you can see the kit foremast, platforms for the SCOT domes, the double bedstead radar scanner I made (the kit comes with a single) and that tube is the barbette for the turret. The foremast was quite accurate for an early Devonshire but not for a 1982 Glamorgan.

GLM220

More parts fitted and more parts made. The double bedstead radar scanner has been painted black, which was incorrect so I later repainted it grey. I've made the STWS triple torpedo tubes, directors for the 4.5-inch guns and Seacat missiles, a foremast (compare it to the kit foremast) and the Exocet assembly. The Exocet canisters come with the kit as an added sprue but I had to make the blast deflectors and the platform they sit on. The boat davits in the foreground were also molded in a damaged condition so I had to build them up also.

GLM260

The Type 901 radar needed upgrading.

GLM270

I also made my own screws. The ship was fitted with outward-turning five-bladed screws while the kit came with three-bladed screws, both left-turning. The completed screw you see was an oversized trial - I didn't use it.

GLM310

And another progress state.

GLM340

I think here's a good spot to wrap up this post. Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, here's the third and probably final post on my HMS Glamorgan conversion.

Continuing on, the boats and davits are fitted. No big deal but this is also the best photo of the screws that I made, a five-bladed handed set.

GLM350

The twin Seaslug launcher is a collection of rails and such, not the box-like structure that comes with the kit. So I made my own from trimmed styrene strips, about 60 of them. It's still a bit crude though.

GLM400

When I made this kit as a kid in the 60s/70s I didn't know that two Seacat launchers were included but they are. I've seen some basic parts it the past but those Seacats supplied with this kit were about as basic as you can get - each was a small rectangle of plastic with a pimple at each corner. Again I made my own but I took an easy way out with the missiles themselves. I made them 'under covers' protecting them from the weather, hence I could simply use square section styrene for them. I've been informed that they could be launched like this so I think this is still authentic. Again they're a bit rough but a great improvement I think on the kit parts. The port launcher was blasted over the side when the Exocet hit her.

GLM410

Nearly at the end, the yards and antennae are fitted to the masts and funnels.

GLM440

And here she is, HMS Glamorgan as I think she appeared at the Falklands, just before the Exocet missile hit her. I've also made and fitted two 20mm Oerlikon cannon, two Corvis chaff launchers, fairleads and bollards plus sundry assorted fittings. Other than the boats I don't think there's much I didn't modify or replace but I think she's an improvement. Those of you that can use PE I'm sure will be able to do even better.

HMS Glamorgan 1982 jm2

HMS Glamorgan 1982 jm4

HMS Glamorgan 1982 jm5

HMS Glamorgan 1982 jm7

Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.