HMS Fife by Kevin - Fleetscale - 1/72 - County-class destroyer - SOLD

[Kevin]

Good evening everyone, welcome to my new build

 

This is HMS Fife, a County Class Destroyer, built in the 1960's during the cold war, I personally served on her from 1978-1980 during which time we made the news around the world after we were turned around from going home and went back to give aid to the island of Dominica after she was struck by a tornado

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will use this page for now as an index

Stage 1 – superstructure in card https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/16352-hms-fife-by-kevin-fleetscale-172/&

 

Stage 2 Making the main dec khttps://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/16352-hms-fife-by-kevin-fleetscale-172/&

 

Stage 3 After superstructure and hanger in Plasticard  https://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/16352-hms-fife-by-kevin-fleetscale-172/&page=2

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin]

Design and construction

Fife was the first and only British warship to bear the name, for county Fife. She was a Mk2 Guided Missile Destroyer (GMD, also referred to pre-1975 by its then US Navy/NATO designator DLG (Large Destroyer (USN 'Frigate') carrying long range surface to air missiles for area defence; post-1975 DDG, 'destroyer' with similar characteristics). The Mk2 designator refers to her primary armament, the Seaslug Mk2 missile. The weapon had begun development in the early fifties and entered service in the Mk1 GMDs like Hampshire. By modern standards the Seaslug is a huge missile with one sustainer rocket motor and 4 disposable boosters. The missile was a so-called 'beam rider'. It was launched from a huge rail launcher in the stern and boosted into the guidance beam from the fire direction radar which pointed at the target, a high altitude supersonic attack aircraft. Once in the beam the missile would fly at supersonic speed to the target where a proximity fuze would detect the target and detonate the continuous rod warhead.

The ship was ordered by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 26 September 1961. The keel was laid on 1 June 1962 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and the vessel was launched 9 July 1964. Fife was commissioned 21 June 1966 with the pennant number D20.

Royal Navy service

In 1969, Fife took part in a group deployment around the world. She left Portsmouth on 1 April 1970 and sailed to Safi in Morocco; the first visit by a British warship for over a 100 years. Then to Lagos in Nigeria just at the end of the Biafran War. From Lagos to Simon's Town in South Africa. The gates of the former British Naval base still bore the royal cypher, VR. From Simon's Town, she briefly took part in the Beira Patrol off the shores of Rhodesia after Prime Minister Ian Smith declared Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The Beira Patrol was a naval blockade to enforce economic sanctions on the errant regime. From there she crossed the Indian Ocean and stopped off at the NATObase on the island of Gan en route to Singapore. There she spent 6 weeks in an Assisted Maintenance Period (AMP) before heading for the South China Sea to conduct the first live firings of the Sea Slug Mk2 area protection anti-aircraft missile. The ship had been refitted in Portsmouth to accommodate a larger war-load of missiles and this work was completed in Singapore where she took on live missiles. The trials were successful against US targets from bases in the Philippines. After this she went to Hong Kong and Kobe in Japan for Expo 70, before heading to Pearl Harbor on Hawaii and then on to Long Beach in California and Acapulco in Mexico and via the Panama Canal to Puerto Rico and on to the Mediterranean. She visited Toulon and spent time in Malta and Gibraltar before returning to the UK. Whilst in Hawaii, the Royal Navy abolished the rum issue. As a result, Fife became the last ship in the Navy to issue rum by virtue of being the furthest west in the Pacific. The Hawaiian media came on board and were quite bemused when the ships Senior Ratings staged a mock burial at sea, complete with a Pipers Lament provide by the ship's pipe and drum band and pall bearers dressed in black.

Her Commanding Officer for this voyage was Captain David Scott, who had been the 1st Lieutenant of Seraph in the Second World War when the submarine penetrated Tokyo Harbour and sat on the bottom, carrying out reconnaissance of the Japanese shipping there.

She had 'B' turret removed and replaced with four Exocet launchers in the mid-1970s. In 1977, she attended the Silver Jubilee Fleet Review and formed part of the 2nd Flotilla.^[1] In 1979, Fife provided assistance to the Caribbean island of Dominica after the island was severely hit by Hurricane David. She was under refit during the Falklands War and did not take part in the conflict.

 

Refit 1986

In 1986, Fife underwent a refit to convert her into a mobile training ship. The removal of her Seaslug missile system and its large magazine was completed in June 1986, which created space for extra messdecks and classrooms for officers under training. One messdeck still used hammocks and these officers are possibly the last men in the Royal Navy to sleep in hammocks; they were told so at the time. In early September 1986 she undertook a Dartmouth Training Ship (DTS) deployment to the Caribbean Sea and Florida, returning to Portsmouth in late November. She was accompanied on this deployment by the frigates Diomede and Apollo.

A "hut" was built where the Seaslug launcher had once stood, aft of the helicopter pad. This grey box was a navigation training classroom and attracted much attention from a Russian Kashin-class destroyer, which regularly "buzzed" Fife for some close quarter photographs.^{[citation needed]}

Her second Dartmouth Training Ship deployment in January 1987 took her via Brest into the Mediterranean Sea, in company with Intrepid. Her final voyage in the Royal Navy was to lead a Dartmouth Training Ship deployment to North America, in which she and Juno sailed into the Great Lakes. On her return to Great Britain in June 1987 she landed the officers under training at Dartmouth and then proceeded to Portsmouth where she was decommissioned after 21 years of service.

Chilean Navy service

The ship was sold to Chile on 12 August 1987 and renamed Blanco Encalada. She was taken into refit at Talcahuano on her arrival and, taking advantage of the removed Sea Slug, her deck was extended aft and a new, larger hangar constructed. The rebuild was completed in May 1988. In 1996 Blanco Encalada's Sea Cat launchers were removed and she was fitted with the Barak SAM.

Blanco Encalada was decommissioned from the Chilean Navy on 12 December 2003 and was sold for scrap in November 2005. She was broken up by Turkish shipbreakers Leyal Gemi Sokum in 2013.

 

This is how she looked in the Chilean Navy

[Kevin]

lots to discuss with this build, more questions than answers, and the way I plan to build her will no doubt seam strange but here goes
the plans came from a company called Jecobin, i dont know if they are the same ones that come from where i Purchased the hull, but thats the company I chose they are 1/1 so the to shhets give the full representation of the finished vessel 2.3m and cost me £55

 

 

the hull came from a company called fleetscale in Cornwall UK, A gentleman called Justin kept me informed of progress and it was delivered in less than 3 weeks, the price was about £170 and the postage another £30

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin]

Fleetscale also provides a lot of fittings and running gear, but no deck or superstructure, which creates a dilemma for me - whilst I own this build it will not be going anywhere near water, the closet it will get will be my cup of coffee on the work bench, but i still need A frames and and props, so do i still fit a full set of running gear in case someone else has this build after me
I also need to make stabiliser fins and rudders, but i also wanted to put in water inlets, outlets and grills which invalidates the previous paragraph

a company in the states apparently makes superstructures to order, but i am going to scratch build my own
fittings i will sources as a when required, the sea slug system alone though is about £100 
the Wessex helicopter is available in 1/72

[Kevin]

Way ahead
Hull will be left alone at this stage, 
deck will be made at a later date, but for now the plans will be traced and placed onto a work board

Superstructure

Research is going to be the name of the game for this build, from the plans i have to find decent photos to back them up, there are lots of photos out there finding the right ones is harder

i will be building everything in card first, this might work for me, as I am already finding things that dont quite work first time around, I purchased a load of A4 and then A3 sheets of styrene from Ebay, in 0.5, 0.75 and 1mm sheets, but im not in a hurry to use it


So lets make a start

Hanger

the hanger on Fife was off set with the doors on the port side so i got to work

 

the first attempt had a few mistakes, 

 

 

 

 

 

this is just the basic shape, the finished one will have open doors with hanger details and internal lighting (if i knew how)

 

needs to be altered to accommodate the funnel, but im happy with what i tried to achieve

 

[cog]

This one I certainly don't want to miss!! After your initial post on Shore Leave, I was waiting for your build log to start. Looking good Kevin.

[Old Collingwood]

This is an Amazing build and closer to me than anything I have ever seen or followed,   Devonsire Class was always my favorite ships and when I was quite young I had the chance to go over Devonshire at Portsmaouth Navy Days in 1976,   what an experiance,   this fuled my love affiar of the Navy and led to me spending a week at Collingwood when I was 15, as a work experience course - I went through the week with flying colors, and a  year or so later I applied to join as a WEM first class, with the hope and dream of serving on a type 42, but alas I failed the entrance exam only slightly on my maths but never bothered to try again.

 

Following this build with so much passion

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

When I went over devonshire at portsmouth navy days.

 

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Kevin  give this site a try for photos info etc its very good     -    http://countyclassdestroyers.co.uk/

 

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Especially  this one  -      http://countyclassdestroyers.co.uk/Fife.htm

 

 

OC.

[Piet]

What a magnificent build Kevin and a great tribute to her proud career and her crew. Great intro!

I'll try to keep up with your fast pace pace - - -

 

Cheers,

[Old Collingwood]

This is going to be a Fantastic build  - folks at 1/72 scale   thats the scale of the most common aircraft kits or plastic soldiers we all collected, and imagine HMS Fifes length at that scale  -  7.2 feet   yep  7.2 feet   Magnificant.

 

 

OC.

[Kevin]

Old Collingwood

 

LOL you are getting more excited about this build than me, i originally failed my medical for joining as a radio operator, as they found I was colour blind, (blessing in disguise), so i entered as a Stores accountant, and progressed through to Chief petty officer on HMS Vanguard, having gone into subs on leaving HMS Fife in 1980, My first ship was the type 42 HMS Sheffield, but decided against doing a 1/72 scale version of her

I have the work space for her, and plans on how I would like to progress the build, 

 

[Kevin]

15 hours ago, Piet said:

What a magnificent build Kevin and a great tribute to her proud career and her crew. Great intro!

I'll try to keep up with your fast pace pace - - -

 

Cheers,

Good evening Piet, lovely to hear from you

 

there will be no fast pace on this one, I changed my job in January, and actually have to work for a living now, but will spend as much time on her as possible and keep the log updated

 

[Kevin]

17 hours ago, zoly99sask said:

Hi Kevin ,I am not sure you are planning to use PE parts for this build,but there are some companies that making custom photo etch parts.I am following this with a great interest.

Zoltan  good evening

 

yes there is plenty of bits around for this scale, and yes I will be using it as when I can

 

[Kevin]

21 hours ago, cog said:

This one I certainly don't want to miss!! After your initial post on Shore Leave, I was waiting for your build log to start. Looking good Kevin.

Carl good evening 

 

Im pleased to have you following the build

[ccoyle]

Whoa! I didn't realize at first just how large this model is going to be. 

[Kevin]

as I am building out of card to ascertain the layout, I have simply broken the superstructure into modules, so i have now done a mock up of the bridge, there is simply mno point in putting in windows at this time, I am keeping the card version as simple as possible, the final version will have  a internal bridge layout  with lighting

[Beef Wellington]

Very interesting model Kevin, always been intrigued by these Fleetscale offerings.

[Old Collingwood]

Hi Kevin great work loving it,   just an enquiry regarding the wessex (Parrot)  and thoughts on a kit for her?  there are a few good examples out there including  

Wessex HAS.3 XP142 "Humphrey"

 

 

OC.

[Kevin]

2 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Hi Kevin great work loving it,   just an enquiry regarding the wessex (Parrot)  and thoughts on a kit for her?  there are a few good examples out there including  

Wessex HAS.3 XP142 "Humphrey"

 

 

OC.

Good morning it is on my shopping list

[Kevin]

Good evening everyone

 

As i continue building the superstructure first time around in card, it already seams to be coming together, 

 

I covered the hull in card for now, but this hasnt worked, as it has sagged, I did not put any support under it (lesson learnt, but gives a very rough platform to work with

 

I have been using a combination of tracing paper or card taken directly from the plans, I adapted a card making light box, by putting in a larger wattage lamp, rurning it upside down and covering with glass to enable a bigger copying area

 

 

 

[Kevin]

most of the big modules are now completed first time around in card, bridge area and foremast still to do 

 

and as she stands tonight 

 

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

All the main deck superstructure modules have now been made once in card, I can now start the research and deciding what is right and wrong with what i have for the time period of 1978-1980,

 

can anyone point me in the right direction for RC work, i dont know where to start or what i want, I dont want her for water work, but someone else might after me, initally I just want all lights and moving bits, but want it controlled by a handset

[gjdale]

Hi Kevin,

 

For RC advice, this forum is very good:

 

https://www.rcgroups.com/scale-boats-55/

 

Be careful though, you'll see many other things to distract you! 

[Kevin]

8 hours ago, gjdale said:

Hi Kevin,

 

For RC advice, this forum is very good:

 

https://www.rcgroups.com/scale-boats-55/

 

Be careful though, you'll see many other things to distract you! 

oooooooooooooh I see what you mean  thank you Grant

[Kevin]

Good evening everyone

 

Have decided that i have the ability to understand the plans, but a slight change to the way I will replace the card, No longer will it be 1MM Plasticard, I decided that 3mm MDF will not flex so much, 

 

to proceed with the superstructure I need a main deck so i used a template of 4mm Mdf (3mm) and decking to put blocks in against the hull to support the 1/4 deck and main deck, these will remain removable for the time being, so that i can assess where any access points need to be

 

support beams 4mm from the ledge

 

 

[Kevin]

good evening everyone

 

have now completed the hull bracing and most of the temporary MDF decking, 

[Old Collingwood]

Some great work going on there kevin, its amazing how much work goes into a ship like this.

 

OC.

[Kevin]

OC good morning

 

at sometime in the near future i need to make a decision as to what will go into the hull, because as you can see in the photo the extension of the flightdeck has a structure beneath (Seaslug missile loading hatch) it which ties into the 1/4 deck

 

in my little dream world i want the launcher, capstan and stern lights working,then there is access to the rudder and shafts required, possibly might be able to have one removable  section that will give me access into that area