Calling all Royal Navy River-class frigate fans

[Guest]

I have finished the Starling 1/350 scale River Class Frigate kit. I made my kit into the Burmese
Mayu, formerly the HMS Fal. I dated her appearance as she looked in Burmese Naval service around the late 1950s. In this period, there was very little change in her appearance from her Royal Navy WWII service.
One difference was her secondary AA guns were replaced with 4 single 40 mm Bofors. Also, her bridge structure was partially enclosed on the sides directly underneath the bridge wings.

[Guest]

Planning to build a Starling Models River class ship in 1/700, I am wondering which River Class frigate contributed the most to Allied victory in WWII? What was her fit (mining gear or not) and camouflage?

[Mike E.]

All:

I have a question about the construction of the hull plating on River Class frigates from WW2 that I was hoping that someone could answer.

The hulling plating does not look like the typical plating found on other contemporaneous classes of Royal Navy warships which generally consisted of alternating, overlapping, longitudinal courses (out/in/out). Rather, they look as if the hulls plates are flush and the seams between the longitudinal plates are held together by a narrow longitudinal strip. Please see the photos below of HMCS Waskesiu and HMCS Swansea. (You might need to left click on the photos to enlarge them to see what I am talking about.)

Is this an optical illusion, or is this indeed the case? I am working on the Starling Models HMCS St. Stephen in 1/700 scale and am trying to figure out how this should be appropriately represented.

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!

Mike E.

[FFG-7]

if they are welded then would be flush fitted as no overlapping needed.

[Admhawk]

Some of the River class were welded, some were riveted. The welded ones have a strap over the weld joint, giving the appearance you noticed.
The riveted ones have horizontal sections alternating above, below, with each section having plates with the front edge under, the trailing edge over.

[Mike E.]

FFG-7 and Darren:

Sincere thanks for the informative posts and the photos.

There is a general principle that I've learned over the course of my life: if you are in a supermarket or department store and are looking for an item, and you ask a salesperson where that item can be found, it is ALWAYS right behind you. So look there first.

Of course, I ignored that lesson in this case. After my initial post, I went to my go-to reference for topics like these: John H. Ladage, Merchant Ships: A Pictorial Study (Cornell Maritime Press, 1955), and on page 82-83, it describes four types of hull plating systems: "in-and-out plating," "joggled clinker plating," "composite joggled plating," and "all welded plating." In-and-out plating involves the lapping of seams and buts of the plates, resulting in outer and inner plate strakes--the pattern we are all familiar with on larger ships like the RN's County class cruisers. With joggled clinker plating, the hull plates are all flush which each other, but the upper or lower edge of each plate is slightly bent to overlap with the adjacent plate above or below it. Composite joggled plating combines elements of both in-and-out and joggled plating. And with all-welded plating, the hull plates are fitted end to end with no overlap, and welded together.

Below, please find an illustration I found online which illustrates the difference.

This illustration was from an article that describes the hull form of the RMS Titanic, which I found to be very interesting and useful, and which describes these various types of hull construction in greater detail:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/c ... ont.38365/

Applying this to the case of the River class frigates, it looks like there are ships that used in-and-out construction, joggled plating, composite joggled plating, and all-welded plating. So there you have it, a single class of ships employing all the major hull plating techniques in use at the time.

Anyhow, I've learned a lot and thank you again for your posting.

Wishing all a healthy and peaceful new year.

Best,

Mike E.