HMS Monmouth (F235) by king derelict - Trumpeter - 1/700 - PLASTIC

[king derelict]

My return to the maritime world but a rather fraught one. I want to build the 1/700 Trumpeter Type 23 frigate HMS Monmouth.

An interesting choice of name by the Admiralty, the Duke of Monmouth led the failed rebellion against King James II and was beheaded as a result. Accordingly HMS Monmouth has the distinction of being the only RN. ship to carry her name in black on the name boards instead of red as all other ships do. She also flies a plain black flag to commemorate the erasing of Monmouths coat of arms.

HMS Monmouth is of personal significance to me, she was our escort frigate in 2018 in the North Atlantic during carrier trials. To satisfy the rough sea state requirements we sailed into the edge of Hurricane Michael and rather overdid things. The motion on HMS Queen Elizabeth was impressive but must have been spectacular on the frigate.

My plan is to try to incorporate the model into a seascape resembling these conditions, at least that’s the ambition which might fall short.

The contains a lot of parts, including a Lynx helicopter which is wrong for the period I’m working on but I doubt they had the hanger doors open in sixty mph winds anyway. Trumpeter provides a nice PE sheet and I have the White Ensign set of PE which provides some duplication but crucially the Trumpeter set does not provide railings.

And so it started with building up the hull and structures, priming and basic deck and superstructure colors added - and that’s when things rather unraveled.

My father tried to reach down a new jar of coffee from the top cupboard by standing on a wobbly kitchen chair and lost his balance and fell. At age 99 I ask you! The doctors say nothing is broken and no internal injuries but he is very fragile and recovery is very slow and painful. Lots of distraction there but he seems to be doing better and I’ll be heading over there soon to visit him and help out.

The modeling sessions have been appropriately limited but I started adding the details to the bridge structure and managed to lose three tiny pieces in less than an hour. I scratch built replacements but I’m not really happy with them so I abandoned the build and closed the door on it. 

Given my lofty ambitions I wanted to make the best build possible so I ordered a replacement kit. It’s taken a bit of time to get motivated to pick it up again and I’m now wondering if I can make a convincing job of the initial build and just keep going. Really the bridge structure is the only element that needs reworking so that may be the way forward.

Hopefully things will be a little more settled for a while and some positive progress will be made.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

Edited Thursday at 06:40 PM by ccoyle
corrected log title

[LED]

With all those itty bitty parts and all that PE and all that 1:700 stuff that could go wrong (and enhance the value of your rug!!!) I would probably keep this kit as a donor kit.

That way you can virtually guarantee a good and complete build with your replacement.

 

She is a beautiful ship.  I have always liked the modern British ships.  Then again, I have always liked the <=WWII ships as well.  I guess I like British ships😀

[AJohnson]

Hi Alan, an interesting subject, I shall be following along. I like the look of the T23’s, very hard working ships, particularly the vital TAPs role they have. 
Hope your father makes a good recovery and doesn’t cause you any more distractions!

[king derelict]

3 hours ago, LED said:

With all those itty bitty parts and all that PE and all that 1:700 stuff that could go wrong (and enhance the value of your rug!!!) I would probably keep this kit as a donor kit.

That way you can virtually guarantee a good and complete build with your replacement.

 

She is a beautiful ship.  I have always liked the modern British ships.  Then again, I have always liked the <=WWII ships as well.  I guess I like British ships😀

Thanks LED, I think you are right. I will move over to the new kit along with the WE PE and build it up as a complete kit rather than use bits of both.

Alan

[king derelict]

2 hours ago, AJohnson said:

Hi Alan, an interesting subject, I shall be following along. I like the look of the T23’s, very hard working ships, particularly the vital TAPs role they have. 
Hope your father makes a good recovery and doesn’t cause you any more distractions!

Thanks for the good wishes Andrew, he gets the Kings telegram in April so hopefully there won’t be any more balancing tricks.

The Type 23s are graceful ships, I always liked seeing The Black Duke prowling around. 

Alan

[king derelict]

I’ve decided to move the WE PE over to the new kit and build that as a completely separate project. I only used one piece of the WE PE and it’s duplicated in the Trumpeter PE so nothing lost.

In the spirit of inquiry after looking at online photos of Monmouth I had a go at making the last missing piece, the radar unit on the front of the bridge. A bit of PE fret and a bit of Flyhawk sprue and I actually think it looks better than the kit part. So I might just be building two Monmouths 

The picture quality is abysmal but you get the idea. I’ll see how it looks with a bit of paint.

Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments.

alan

[Old Collingwood]

Here you go Alan  F235  in the flesh that I took   just coming into Plymouth.

 

OC 

[Canute]

Bless your father for being so independent.  Your planned diorama is intriguing.

[mikegr]

What piece are you missing maybe I can print it

[king derelict]

On 11/20/2025 at 7:13 PM, Old Collingwood said:

Here you go Alan  F235  in the flesh that I took   just coming into Plymouth.

Thank you very much OC, these are going to be very useful. 
alan

[king derelict]

On 11/21/2025 at 8:49 AM, Canute said:

Bless your father for being so independent.  Your planned diorama is intriguing.

He’s immensely stubborn. He is finding hard to stand for very long but flatly refuses to have a walking frame. He feels it’s a show of weakness. 

[king derelict]

On 11/21/2025 at 2:56 PM, mikegr said:

What piece are you missing maybe I can print it

Thank you very much for your kind offer Mike.

The offending items are C35 and D4 in the instructions.

I have no idea what D4 is. They look like some sort of triple barrel weapon but nothing like that is listed in the ships inventory. Possibly they are chaff launchers

For reference the sprue is 3/32 inch or 2.5 mm thick so the bits are tiny. I got fairly close to the chaff dispenser ( if that’s what they are) by cutting down a spare quad fifty cal gun. The C35 radar at the front of the bridge was replaced by a bit of PE and spare styrene rod and I think it might be better than the original kit part.

Thanks again for the offer.

alan

[mikegr]

21 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Thank you very much for your kind offer Mike.

The offending items are C35 and D4 in the instructions.

I have no idea what D4 is. They look like some sort of triple barrel weapon but nothing like that is listed in the ships inventory. Possibly they are chaff launchers

For reference the sprue is 3/32 inch or 2.5 mm thick so the bits are tiny. I got fairly close to the chaff dispenser ( if that’s what they are) by cutting down a spare quad fifty cal gun. The C35 radar at the front of the bridge was replaced by a bit of PE and spare styrene rod and I think it might be better than the original kit part.

Thanks again for the offer.

alan

I will check my HMS Montrose kit and get back to you 

[realworkingsailor]

3 hours ago, king derelict said:

 

I have no idea what D4 is. They look like some sort of triple barrel weapon but nothing like that is listed in the ships inventory. Possibly they are chaff launchers

 

I did a quick google search, it’s possibly the Seagnat decoy system launchers:

 

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-sea-gnat-control-decoy-system-royal-navy-type-23-frigate-28795181.html

 

Andy

[king derelict]

On 11/23/2025 at 4:23 PM, mikegr said:

I will check my HMS Montrose kit and get back to you 

Thanks Mike, much appreciated 

alan

[king derelict]

On 11/23/2025 at 7:53 PM, realworkingsailor said:

I did a quick google search, it’s possibly the Seagnat decoy system launchers:

 

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-sea-gnat-control-decoy-system-royal-navy-type-23-frigate-28795181.html

 

Andy

Thanks Andy. I think you are correct, they are simplified Seagnat launchers. From your photo it could be possible to improve on the kit parts, but they are so small that the improvement might not even register.

alan

[Landlubber Mike]

Great subject Alan!  For the missing pieces, I wouldn't worry too much.  I'd either look online for potential PE/resin replacements, or just scratch build something close.  At 1/700 scale, we tend to be so focused on even the tiniest parts, but in the end, when the model is completed, painted, etc., nobody will be able to look that closely and see that the item isn't quite spot on.  So don't torture yourself on this.

 

Hope your father is feeling better.  

[mikegr]

My HMS Montrose kit

The 4 parts missing are the halfs of the 2 Sea Gnat  decoy launchers. 

However seems that type 23 ships have been updated

this heptagon device is called Sea Sendor, soon be replaced by trained launcher system

I already prepared a test file, not sure about the dimension of the Sea Send or but looks almost same high as a sailor, means approx 2.6mm in height

I noticed also that these ships seems are carrying the Mk1 Version of the 4.5" guns the one with the angles  not the rounded one provided in the kit.

I have a file for this and it was used  in my type 45 scratch built project. It should come along nice with the Sea Sendor update. Will also check if more pieces can be improved so I can use them on my own built.