1/600 Whiffed Airfix Ships

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday All, I've done most of the Airfix ships available to me, some of them several times as conversions to other ships, such as HMS Ajax to HMAS Perth, HMS Hotspur to HMS Hardy etc. I also enjoy converting them into whiffs (What-ifs), ships that didn't exist. The beauty of these are that they don't need as much research into them because they're never wrong. My personal taste in them is plausibility. Although they didn't exist they could have, so I don't mount 8-inch guns on a destroyer, or German turrets on a British hull etc. But that's just me.

       As I've been unable to work out how to place photos in amongst text (they always appear at the bottom of a post) I'll only include a couple per post. If anyone else does whiffed Airfix ships please feel free to add them here.

 

      The first I did was about 20 years ago, waaay before I'd even heard of the term or heard of modeling forums. I did an Airfix HMS KGV battleship then had the idea of doing a bigger vessel with four quad 14-inch turrets. Naturally I needed two kits so I used both hulls to make a longer ship. Although I aimed for plausibility my son thought that sixteen 14-inch guns was "A bit over the top!" 😁 As a matter of fact though, this ship would still have been out-gunned by the USS Montana class had they been built.

       The first three photos are of this ship that I named HMS Monarch.       HMS Monarch 1942 jm7,   jm11,   jm12

 

The next is a much smaller affair using the Airfix HMS Hotspur kit. I intended her to be HMS Hardy but I discovered alterations that I had to make after it was too late to do them. So I cut my losses and started again with another kit. But the first used my only spare 4.7-inch gun so the extra gun amidships and X gun got replaced with scratch built quad 2lb pompoms, plus I added some 20mm Oerlikons and extra Carley floats, and named her HMS Igraine. I didn't realize at the time that the 'I' class of destroyers introduced the wedge-shaped bridge front that became iconic with mid/late war RN destroyers.

       The next two photos are of this what-if destroyer.       HMS Igraine jm9,   jm15

Thank you for your interest.

[Tour de Airfix]

These look superb. I likewise have built most of Airfix’s offering, and in particular those involved in both the sinking of the Bismark and the 1982 Falklands conflict.  
 

I often feel I should revisit my collection as the colours I’ve used look far too dark and depressing, yours by contrast really pop. I love them 👍

[AirportsEd]

Good imagination shown there. I've seen some very nice 'what ifs' before but they are usually aircraft. I wouldn't have the knowledge or skill to take on a ship!

[john redman]

Those are very nicely executed. I was wondering where all the KGV kits had disappeared to 🙂

I suspect your 4 x 4 battleship would not have worked as the extra length would have added probably 15% to the displacement - which in turn would probably have made her too slow to catch anything  :-) 

Have you ever thought of doing a hypothetical carrier conversion from something like Hood? The USN of course converted battlecruisers, but the RN had the otherwise useless Furious etc. I reckon Hood as a British Akagi might have looked quite smart...

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Thank you very much guys.

3 hours ago, Tour de Airfix said:

the colours I’ve used look far too dark and depressing, yours by contrast really pop.

I've done a few in darker colours and I tend to agree - lighter colours show detail better I think. And dazzle camo schemes can stretch out a build time but they add a bit of variety in the display cabinet.

2 hours ago, AirportsEd said:

I wouldn't have the knowledge or skill to take on a ship!

You'll never know until you give it a go. And none of us have knowledge at the beginning, it's something that we build up over time.

58 minutes ago, john redman said:

I was wondering where all the KGV kits had disappeared to 🙂

I've got one more in the stash, possibly for a future Lion class battleship. I grabbed her when I had the chance.

59 minutes ago, john redman said:

I suspect your 4 x 4 battleship would not have worked as the extra length would have added probably 15% to the displacement - which in turn would probably have made her too slow to catch anything  🙂

Yes, possibly, but the extra length/beam ratio assists in higher speed plus the midships section was lengthened slightly too. The USS Iowa class were very fast for battleships due to there length. Admittedly they had more power available too. This particular whiff was my first, and I wasn't quite into the plausibility factor back then. 🙂

1 hour ago, john redman said:

Have you ever thought of doing a hypothetical carrier conversion from something like Hood?

Actually yes. I've seen models of carriers using a Hood hull by Richard Wellings. I've got two actual carriers in mind, HMS Eagle off a lengthened Warspite hull and HMS Glorious off a Repulse hull. Repulse's dimensions are a little large but I might invoke 'modeler's licence' on that one. I'm also considering a couple of whiff carriers. Late this year I'm thinking of putting a flight deck on a Suffolk hull, USS Independence style. The hull dimensions and very little sheer would work well I think. And so as not to exclude the German Navy, I have a Bismarck hull and spare Prinz Eugen kit for potential carriers. But they're not in the build queue at present.

 

Anyway, enough of me rattling on. I've got some more whiffs but I think I need to sort photos first. Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday All, here's another couple. The first is a battlecruiser I named HMS Reliant (yes, I know, Douglas Reeman used the same name in his novel 🙂). I was going to name her HMS Retribution but to me that sounded more like a battleship's name. She's basically an Airfix HMS Repulse kit with Warspite's bridge structure, Belfasts 4-inch AA guns and other assorted additions. The colour scheme was modeled on, but not a copy of that of HMS Renown.

HMS Reliant 1943 jm31,   jm30,   jm34

 

       The next is a whiff of the Airfix Manxman kit, that I've named HMS Antiope. The story goes that her forward boiler room was destroyed when she was bombed in the Mediterranean. When under repair in the USA it was decided to convert her to a convoy AA escort. So her destroyed boiler room was converted to fuel tanks and magazines, her AA outfit was enhanced and the crew pilfered requisitioned as many Carley floats as they could lay their thieving hands on (to jettison for crews of sunken ships in convoy). Naturally with only two boilers now her speed was considerably reduced. Being repaired/converted in the US she received twin 40mm Bofors instead of 2lb pompoms.

HMS Antiope 1943 jm17,   jm7,   jm10

Thank you for your interest.

 

[john redman]

What-if German aircraft carriers are a rich seam - I researched and sketched a few in GIMP some years ago for use in a PC game called Carriers At War. IIRC there was a mish-mash of projects. There was to be a cruiser conversion to CVL off a Prinz Eugen hull, there was a plan to convert a 50,000-tonne liner called Europa which would have been a sort of outsize German Junyō, plus of course you had potentially three Graf Zeppelins. I think the other two were to be called Peter Strasser and Hermann Goering. There were some merchant conversions to CVE planned as well, Jade and Elbe I think. Interestingly the Japanese carrier Shinyō was converted from a German merchantman that found itself in Japan when war broke out, which could give pointers as to how Germany might have gone about it. 

 In 1/600 the challenge could be the German aircraft. Probably there is someone who 3D prints them. 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, john redman said:

three Graf Zeppelins. I think the other two were to be called Peter Strasser and Hermann Goering.

       Gidday John, I'd heard of the Peter Strasser but not the Hermann Goering. I don't think he was a champion of the Kriegsmarine anyway. And besides, any carrier modelled on him would have trouble squeezing through the Kiel Canal. 😁

1 hour ago, john redman said:

There was to be a cruiser conversion to CVL off a Prinz Eugen hull,

       Seydlitz, renamed Weser I believe, although AFAIK she was never completed as such. Funny you should bring her up. Originally she (and sister-ship Lutzow) were to be large light cruisers with twelve 15-cm guns but the design reverted to 8-inch before construction began. I've done a whiff of her too and was to post her next but I might as well add her here. The model is mainly OOB except that I scratch built all the guns, the searchlights and the boats that I think Airfix simply forgot. I've depicted her in a camo scheme based on the mid-war Hipper but have included single 40mm Bofor guns that the Prinz carried late war.

DKM Seydlitz jm1,   jm4,   jm7

1 hour ago, john redman said:

In 1/600 the challenge could be the German aircraft. Probably there is someone who 3D prints them. 

       Actually, I make my own, a bit rough though. I haven't done German aircraft yet but as trials for future carriers I've done a Grumman Martlet, Supermarine Seafire, Vought Corsair, Nakajima Ki43 Oscar, Grumman F7F Tigercat and a Mitsubishi Ki46 Dinah, all in 1/600 scale. Yeah, I know, not all of them operated off carriers. 🙂

1/600 aircraft 2

Regards, Jeff.

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

       Gidday All, another Airfix model ship that lends itself to whiffing is the HMS Nelson model. This particular ship and her sister-ship HMS Rodney were unusual in having all three turrets forward of the superstructure. A number of modelers have rearranged the upperworks to have the more traditional two forward one aft turret disposition (2A1) and I am one of them.

       I named my ship HMS Cochrane after a British Admiral, Thomas Cochrane. This man I believe was the inspiration for Patrick O'Brien's sea captain Jack Aubrey in the 'Master and Commander' series of books. I dated my model early/mid WW2, with enhanced light AA outfit but not too extensive radar additions. I didn't alter the hull but I did rearrange the deck, obviously. I also improved the main turrets and made my own screws. Ship's screws are one area I think Airfix kits are a little disappointing, particularly the earlier kits. I think this kit could be the basis for a number of whiffs. I've done one to date and have another couple in mind. I've included a photo of the two for comparison.

HMS Cochrane jm1,   jm2,   jm10,       Cochrane and Nelson 1

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, in 1947 the RN planned light cruisers (design Z variant D), known as the Minotaur class. These would have been large flush-decked ships of about 15,000 tons and armed with ten automatic 6-inch DP (dual purpose) guns in five twin turrets, sixteen automatic 3-inch (DP) guns in eight twin turrets and sixteen 21-inch torpedo tubes in four quad mounts. No aircraft, light guns or depth charges were to be carried. The disposition of the main guns and torpedo tubes was much like the Japanese Mogami class of a decade earlier. Ultimately though, the project was cancelled.

I've decided to build one anyway. But to build one as planned I would need three Airfix HMS Tiger kits and I only had two, one minus the hull (used to build HMS Jamaica). So I decided to build her as she might have appeared after a major refit, just before the Falklands war in 1982. During this refit B turret was raised one deck, C turret replaced with Seawolf and Exocets (later replaced with Harpoons), two 3-inch turrets replaced with Vulcan Phalanx CIWS and their directors replaced with Corvus chaff launchers. The torpedo tubes were removed and four single 40mm Bofors, four 20mm Oerlikons and two triple STWS anti-submarine torpedo tubes added, along with two RHIBs and cranes to launch/retrieve them.

This model was done for a Group Build on another Airfix forum and a requirement was to use as much Airfix kit parts as possible. I took this as a challenge, and quite enjoyed it. I used two Airfix Suffolk hulls to make the longer flush-decked hull required, filled in the quarterdeck cutaway and gave her a transom stern. The first photo (HMS Minotaur 1982 jm13) shows a picture of the original design (I hope I haven't breached copyright) and my model showing her with the alterations I had to make due to having insufficient turrets available.

The second photo (HMS Minotaur 1982 jm1) shows the forward half of the ship. The Exocet canisters were from another kit but I made the blast deflectors and the sextuple Seawolf launcher in front of it. The superstructure is from a Tiger kit but narrowed to allow forward tracking arcs for the directors.

The third photo (HMS Minotaur 1987 jm6) shows the ship depicted five years later, with the Exocets replaced with Harpoon launchers. The platforms for the Exocets and Harpoons are removable and interchangeable. You can see the Harpoons, both sets of Seawolf launchers, one of the two Phalanx gatling guns, a Corvus chaff launcher, one of the RHIBs and the Bofors and Oerlikons amidships with the STWS tubes below them, all of which I scratch built. I also scratch built the shelterdeck but nearly everything else was from Airfix kits, although some were modified.

Anyway, that's it. Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, I've got four more whiffed Airfix ships but as each of them appear in other threads here I'll only show one photo of each in this post.

Firstly, Alistair Maclean's HMS Ulysses, (jm1) which was the fore-runner to the Bellona class of light cruisers. More photos appear in the 'HMS Ajax conversions' thread. 

Secondly, a sixteen gun version of the HMS Belfast kit (jm4). This model already has it's own thread, with more photos.

Thirdly, HMS Benbow of the Iron Duke class, retained and refitted for convoy escort in early WW2. She had her Q-turret and the 6-inch casemate guns removed, extra fuel tanks fitted into the vacated Q-turret magazine and twin 4-inch guns added. (HMS Benbow 1940 jm8)

And finally, my most recent whiff to date, HMS Culloden, a lengthened Iron Duke class with an extra turret. (HMS Culloden WW1 jm3) These last two appear in the thread 'HMS Iron Duke and conversions'.

Thank you for your interest. And I repeat my comment in the first post - if anyone else has done whiffed Airfix ships and would like to post them here, please feel free to do so.

Regards to all, Jeff.