ORP Kujawiak 1942 by King Derelict - FINISHED - IBG - 1/700 - PLASTIC - Hunt Class Destroyer

[king derelict]

As HMS Penelope approaches completion I decided to work on something simpler before starting another Flyhawk kit heavy on PE and fine detail. So this is the IBG 1/700 Hunt class destroyer Kujawiak.

 

 

The box is a lot emptier than the Flyhawk kits but there is a small PE fret which has all the railings and inclined ladders. It also has some very intricate pieces to fold into the 20mm Oerlikons that look like they will be a challenge. Luckily there are spares in the fret. Its a waterline model; no lower hull is provided.

 

The plastic is quite soft but there is nice detail on the hull and superstructure. The four inch gun barrels are rather poor and the injection points may be difficult to clean up. I plan to replace the barrels with brass ones. The mast is very nasty and I hope to replace it using brass rod.

I found a great book about the Hunts in Polish service. Very informative with a lot of photographs and a final chapter covering the modern times location of the wreck of the Kujawiak  (sunk in 1942 off Malta) and the recovery of the ships bell.

The book is written in Polish and English with each language in a separate column on each page.

The book comes with two sets of prints for each of the four ships; one in 1/200 and then in 1/350 scale. Very nicely drawn

The back of the book comprises four sections of 3D computer images generated by the authors, one for each ship. A lot of detail is shown. They also confirm the IBG paint scheme.

So the plan is to add brass gun barrels and mast and use the book as a reference to add some of the left over deck hardware from Penelope. The IBG bridge in particular looks very bare. The quad pompom is quite good but I think the Flyhawk one is nicer. Painting the camouflage should be a challenge in masking.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

"Eye eye"  another one  -  I'm in mate.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Nice drawings, Alan. They'll be a help. I'm in, too.

[king derelict]

Hi Ken. It's a very nicely produced book, a lot of information and well written and translated

Alan

[king derelict]

In between throwing Sculptamold around the Penelope diorama I made a start on this little Hunt Class destroyer. The hull and decks went together very nicely. The plastic is not as fine as the Flyhawk stuff, softer and parts are generally thicker but so far its all matching the Kujawiak drawings I have. 

The first PE has been added, The railing around the searchlight platform was a bit fiddly but the fold lines in the PE work well and I really like the little grooved tool for curving PE (I use drill bits of various sizes with it). The PE is nice to work with so far. I have my doubts about teh Oerlikon guns though.

 

 

 

The instructions are nicely presented using 3D models to illustrate the work

Next I plan to add the brass barrels to the four inch guns and the primer.

Thanks for looking.

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

Very nice start  - you are  really getting the hang of all the PE work  especially in little land  - where we all fear  going into.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

21 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Very nice start  - you are  really getting the hang of all the PE work  especially in little land  - where we all fear  going into.

 

OC.

Thank You OC. The IBG PE is nicely made and apart from the Oerlikons is relatively straightforward. I think a breakthrough for me was to to think out the folding process and use some tools to help instead of going at it "freestyle". That little aluminium block with grooves is great for getting decent curved sections.

Alan

[king derelict]

The Penelope diorama is still drying so I made a little more progress on the Kujawiak. Fiddly stuff. I cut off the barrels of the four inch guns and replaced them with brass ones. I think it looks a lot better compared with the basic kit parts.

Then on to the mast. The reference book was used to obtain the correct height and rake of the mast and the width of the yards. I used 0.5 mm brass rod and soldered the assembly. I'm finally getting a bit neater with the soldering iron so I think the new mast is acceptable. It may be still a little overscale but it is pretty close and better than the original.

The work so far has now been sprayed with black primer. The parts on the sprue are disappearing fast. Hopefully I will get teh dark grey decks painted tomorrow.

Thanks for looking

Alan

 

 

[Andyrew]

Your new Mast looks a lot better than the plastic one. I built one of these a few years ago and it's a nice little kit, although the Oerlikons were very difficult to make.

Cheers Andy

[king derelict]

Thanks Andy

The 20 no guns look very fiddly. I'm trying with using a couple of spare Flyhawk plastic ones and adding the brass shields from the IBG PE . But that's ducking the challenge

Alan

[king derelict]

Its been a paint-and-wait day on all fronts.

I sprayed the 507A dark grey paint onto the decks and now will wait twenty-four hours for the paint to harden before starting the masking marathon

 

 

Thanks

 

Alan

[king derelict]

With the diorama no longer hogging the table I was able to get back to the Kujawiak. I masked the decks in preparation for spraying the first of the hull colours, light grey 507C

 

It then seemed like time to try the most fiddly pieces of the PE; the Oerlikon guns

 

 

As the instructions show there is quite a bit of folding in a small part

 

 

I decided that it might be easier to make the majority of the folds with the piece still in the fret and bent up the shields and folded the barrel and shoulder rests before cutting it free. The first attempt I cut the barrel off at the same time!

Its not perfect but it will work and will look better painted and viewed with the naked eye

 

Only one more to make!

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Alan

 

[king derelict]

The light grey 507C paint was sprayed onto the hull and superstructure and set aside to dry for 24 hours. 

The kit paint scheme was scanned and reduced in size to the actual size of the hull and copied several times to become the basis for the paint masks. The first set was added to the masking tape ready to cover the 507C sections

Thanks for checking in

Alan

[king derelict]

The mask'n'paint continues. I masked the hull and superstructure 

Then sprayed the MS-3 medium grey green.

When this is fully dry tomorrow I will mask for the B5 dark blue grey. That will be the final colour in the scheme so I can remove the masking and see what sort of job has resulted. Then its time to add the details

Thanks

Alan

 

[Old Collingwood]

So much preperation at such small scale.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

21 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

So much preperation at such small scale.

 

OC.

I know. I keep thinking that there must be an easier way that I'm missing. I imagine everyone shaking their heads and wondering why I am doing this.

[king derelict]

Last lap with the masking. The M5 blue grey paint. More masking added. The poor thing is buried under tape.

The M5 is sprayed on and I can start unmasking.

There is a bit of cleaning up needed on one side where some paint escaped but should only need a few touched with the brush. The photos don't really show the contrast between the three colours  of the hull and superstructure; the light grey and grey green look very similar. I'll have to play with the lighting a bit.

 

The small details can be added now which will dress her up a bit. I also want to see if there is anything that can be added to the bridge. It is a bit bare but looking at the reference book; they were a bit bare. Watch keeping in the Western Approaches on a rainy night must have been less than enchanting.

Thanks for looking

Alan

 

[Old Collingwood]

51 minutes ago, king derelict said:

I know. I keep thinking that there must be an easier way that I'm missing. I imagine everyone shaking their heads and wondering why I am doing this.

We are all glad that you are sharing this work with us.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Back again and making progress. The weekend got a big hole kicked in it by the need to replace the lights on the kitchen ceiling fan. Two of the bulbs were frozen into their holders and when I tried to remove them the glass came away leaving the screw cap irremovably stuck in the holders. I came home from Home Depot with a universal lighting kit that turned out to not be quite universal enough for my 30 year old Hunter fan and required me to get a little medieval with it before it could be installed.

So on with Kujawiak. The 4 inch guns, 20mm guns, depth chargers and lockers etc and railings were added along with everything else which completes the build up apart from the anchors which I just noticed are missing.

I also added a binnacle to the bridge from the Flyhawk spares. 

I did some simple weathering and may have overdone it a little around the hawse holes; this is something I need to work on.

I am now trying to decide whether to rig the ship. A rigging guide is provided in the kit and is wrong per the book. The book shows a very complex array of wires which do not think is possible (at least for me) in 1/700 so I'm trying to decide whether adding a few lines to indicate the rigging is a meaningful activity. 

Progress to date with no regard for history shown in Penelopes Norwegian Fjord.

Thanks for looking

Alan

[king derelict]

Today brought somewhat of a setback in completing the Kujawiak; completely self inflicted. There were three Polish Hunt class destroyers; Krakowiak, Kujawiak and Slaviak. I was studying the rigging on the Kujawiak drawing when my research assistant pointed out that I had inadvertently used the Krakowiak drawing to make the brass mast and whereas the Slaviak and Krakowiak only have a single yard the Kujawiak has two. Even at this late stage I think I can fit a second brass yard and the upper yard is at the same height as the single yards of the other ships so no need to meddle with that. Should have been more careful but it shows how wrong the plastic kit mast is. I'm still undecided about the rigging but it would be a new element to try.

Thanks for looking

Alan

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Coming along nicely Alan  - cats always seem to have an eye and point things out,   isn't  she lloking superb on your water  with those reflections.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Thank you for the nice comments OC. I'm thrilled with the water edge and keen to try another one

Alan

[king derelict]

So I spent the morning digging into Kujawiaks history and found i had maligned IBG unnecessarily. ORP Kujawiak had a new mast fitted in December 1941. Up until then she had the one depicted in the kit and as my model. Although she initially had an all grey hull by late 1941 she had the Western Approaches camouflage pattern. The refit that gave her a new mast also increased the number of depth charge throwers on the side deck. My book has two good photos showing Kujawiak in the WA scheme and with the single yard mast.  My model as it stands is correct for Kujawiak in November 1941 and I think I'm happy with it.

Ideally I would have known this before starting to stick things together.

Alan

[king derelict]

Not a very productive day in some ways. I lost (and then found one of the anchors and fitted them before they could wander further afield. I decided I had to try rigging sometime and I do have some decent reference material for the Hunts so my excuses were limited to lack of moral fibre. 

I have the Uschi 0.1mm and 0.2mm line. I can hardly see the 0.1mm and the 0.2mm scales out to about .6 inch diameter at 1/700 so may still be a little underscale but better than something that looks like metal poles. I found it somewhat frustrating to install but I managed to get the four lines from the mainmast back to the small mast forward of the X gun. That was the point at which the small mast (which is just PE) pulled out of place. I cut away the rigging between the masts and re-secured the aft mast hopefully a little more solidly and will recommence the rigging in the morning. I think it is too late to rig the mast stays; they should have been done before the railings were added. Its all about thinking through the sequence. I rather drifted through this one I'm afraid.

Thanks for looking and the likes

Alan

 

[king derelict]

I returned to the rigging and with the aft mast stabilised I was able to complete the basic rigging as far as i planned to go. I still have some learning to do there. Unless the model is seen against a white background and in good light the rigging is almost invisible.
I added the ships number and I think that completes this build. IBG has the three Polish Hunt destroyers as well as Zetland and Badsworth so I may venture into a few more. The basic kit is nice and the included PE (especially the railings) makes it a pleasing model. The main mast is the only obviously nasty item. A few more depth charge racks and throwers would be good.

Thanks for looking

Alan

 

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

That's a great looking little ship Alan.

[king derelict]

18 hours ago, Andyrew said:

That's a great looking little ship Alan.

Thank You Andy

The IBG Hunt class kits are nice little projects. I enjoyed building it and I am interested in the Polish history that is part of it.

I also have the IBG HMS Harvester and HMS Ithuriel kits to build. They look rather more finely detailed than the Hunts; the mast in particular is a much more delicate piece and nearer scale.

Alan 

[Some Lt]

A lovely build, especially given how tiny the kit was!

 

In no means meant to be a criticism, (especially as I'm certain I could in no way match your skill in making this model), but there's a slight inaccuracy right at the stem of the model.  Even many illustrators get this wrong, but all RN destroyers always had a large fairlead called the "bull ring" right at the extreme forward end of the forecastle deck, atop the stem. 

 

The ensign staff was actually mounted on top of the bull ring, and the forward end of the deck railings were also attached to it, angling down since the bull ring was not as high as the railings.  If you look up images of HMCS HAIDA preserved in Hamilton, Canada, you can see she has the exact same feature that would have been found in all the Hunts.

It's one of those things that's not at first obvious, but once you see it, you cannot help noticing its lack in the future.

[king derelict]

On 7/5/2024 at 1:19 PM, Some Lt said:

A lovely build, especially given how tiny the kit was!

 

In no means meant to be a criticism, (especially as I'm certain I could in no way match your skill in making this model), but there's a slight inaccuracy right at the stem of the model.  Even many illustrators get this wrong, but all RN destroyers always had a large fairlead called the "bull ring" right at the extreme forward end of the forecastle deck, atop the stem. 

 

The ensign staff was actually mounted on top of the bull ring, and the forward end of the deck railings were also attached to it, angling down since the bull ring was not as high as the railings.  If you look up images of HMCS HAIDA preserved in Hamilton, Canada, you can see she has the exact same feature that would have been found in all the Hunts.

It's one of those things that's not at first obvious, but once you see it, you cannot help noticing its lack in the future.

Thank you very much for the comment and the useful information about the bow fair lead. I’ve subsequently seen it and incorporated it in later builds but wasn’t aware of it back then. The reference book noted above doesn’t show it in some of the line drawings but some illustrations do, including the cover one. They don’t necessarily show the change in railing height.

ive tucked this nugget away for use with the other RN destroyers that I have stacked away so many thanks again.

alan