HMS Ark Royal and Tribal Class Eskimo by Bob Fraser - Revell - 1/720 - PLASTIC

[Bob Fraser]

OK, so, a little diversion from wood building. I haven't done much plastic in 40 years, so basically back to the beginning.

I was given this little duo kit as a Christmas present last year.

It'll be an OOB build with no extra PE, but if i can do an enhancement here and there I'll give it a go.

It'll be as accurate as Revell make it.

 

Box art.

 

And full colour instructions - at least front and back 🙂

 

Comes with 4 sprues of grey parts, and a sheet of decals.

Although the box art shows swordfish and various railings these aren't included!

 

Bob

 

[Bob Fraser]

Right - I decided to start with the smaller model, the Tribal class destroyer.

This is on 2 small sprues

 

 

Picked out the sides and after a flash cleanup the wing stanchions and rafts have obvious big excess mouldings. I thinned hese down somewhat

 

And then drilled out the stanchion holes - I know, they're round I did try with a triangle diamond file, but the're too fragile to do much more.

If you look hard enough you can see the mouldings aren't accurate either!

 

Sides glued to the bas - gaps very evident.

I tried the Revell Plasto filler - I might as well have used the glue to fill them. Maybe it was me, but they didn't come out too well. I had better finishes using the cement and plastic filings to gill gaps on some model cars I did all that time ago.

 

Ah well, hopefully sanding and painting will make them look acceptable, we'll see.

I'll be trying another first, the Tamiya masking tape to create the black waterline.

 

Bob

[ccoyle]

I built this kit way back when I was a kid, but back then the destroyer was said to be HMS Ashanti. Just to make sure, I looked up the F75 pennant number, which is indeed that of Eskimo. Interestingly, I can't confirm that either of those ships was present when Ark Royal was sunk on 13 Nov 1941. The original Revell box art appears to based on wartime images of either HMS Legion (G74) or HMS Lightning (G55) taking survivors off of Ark Royal; both of those ships were L-class destroyers.

[Bob Fraser]

Hi Chris.

I've looked at the Scalemates boxart timeline and prior to 1973 the destroyer is unnamed on the box, then an Ashanti rebox in '73 to '79 when it's again unnamed until Eskimo in a 2017 re-box.

Looking on Wiki both ships are never mentioned together, unless Eskimo, as part of the 10th destroyer flotilla served with her in the Med between Jan '41 and Jul '41 when the 10th was disbanded. Even on the Ark Royal wiki it doesn't mention any destroyer except for Laforey (G99) and a photo of Legion (G74) alongside when listing.

Looked these bits up as an interesting aside earlier this morning

It's going to be a fun build anyway!

Cheers,

Bob

 

[mikegr]

I remember this kit at 90's

There was a toy store on my way to school had it along with Matchbox Seasprite as well as few other kits. Price was approx 10$. 

 

Finally I built it in 1/600. I have to say those double hangars made the ship look too tall. Definitely not the most handsome model, at least in my eyes. Maybe in waterline version looks better.

[Bob Fraser]

Waiting for paint to dry, I did a little digging around t'internet.

Revell.de say that this model represents Eskimo at Narvik, correctly as F75 .

The Tribal model therefore shows Eskimo as F75 up to 13 April 1940 when her bows were blown off by a torpedo from a German destroyer.

After her refit she became G75, and the major differences are the number of portholes at the bows - these were reduced, and a change of guns on the X platform.

Ark Royal arrived at Narvik on 29th April 1940, 2 weeks after Eskimo had been torpedoed, having left the Med on the 16th April and Scapa on the 27th.

So the modern box art, while looking good, is a work of fiction - if Eskimo did serve with Ark it could have been with Force H or the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, but with her new bows.

I'm sure there are people out there with vastly more knowledge than myself on this subject, this is only a quick skim of details, so if you can correct this, please do so.

Cheers,

Bob

[Old Collingwood]

I have found this on the net  -

 

I quote  - 

 

Norwegian campaign

Ark Royal and Glorious arrived at Scapa Flow on 23 April 1940 and were immediately redeployed as part of Operation DX. Sailing to Norway with the cruisers Curlew and Berwick and screened by the destroyers Hyperion, Hereward, Hasty, Fearless, Fury and Juno, this was the first time the Royal Navy had deployed carriers with the primary purpose of providing fighter protection for other warships.^[9] The ships took up position on 25 April off the coast; Ark Royal positioned 120 nautical miles (220 km) offshore to reduce the chance of air attacks. The carrier's aircraft conducted anti-submarine patrols, provided fighter support for other ships, and carried out strikes against shipping and shore targets.^[9][22] Ark Royal returned to Scapa Flow on 27 April to refuel and replace lost and damaged aircraft, before heading back on the same day with the battleship Valiant as escort.^[9] During the return, Ark Royal came under air attack from German Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 bombers operating from Norway. The carrier was undamaged, and resumed position on 29 April.^[39]

 

 

OC.

[Bob Fraser]

Hi OC

thanks, that was the bit I (mis)read, but even at 120 miles off on the 25th that was still 13 days after Eskimos torpedoing.

HMS Eskimo 13th April 1940 after being torpedoed on the 12th.

 

From the Imperial War Museum and other photo collections Eskimo is in operations with Victorious at home in 1942, Pedestal in 1942, North Africa 1942, and with escort carriers Khedive, Speaker and Slinger in 1945. I just cannot find a close escort as described except to these other carriers.

 

I think Revell just threw in the destroyer as an extra, the art on mikegr's box has to be of Legion or Laforey at that particular moment in time, both L-class destroyers with only 1 funnel, so wrong again by Revell.

  Seems like Revell need to do some checks before committing to names on their boxes 😀

 

This was just a bit of fun on my part to see if they should be displayed as on the box, or as seperate items. They're being done to be shown as a memoriam set because the 15 year partner of the wifes best friend (who gave them as the present) has just died of complete organ failure due to Covid only 2 weeks after contracting it (no vaccines), she was fine (all vaccines).

 

Cheers for now,

Bob