HMS Halcyon 1894 (Dryad class) 1/350 Torpedo Gun-Boat

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hello all

New Year.... New Model !
With the scratch 1855 Bretagne marathon build |( 1 year! )completed

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=382477

I thought it would be fun to have a " Quick build using a kit !...."
quick build? no such thing any more!

the Dryad class of 1894 consisted if 5 sister-ships

These were peculiar looking ships

( just how I like it !)
with a deep well torpedo and boat deck midships with long catwalk connecting the connecting the bow and stern

despite being somewhat gawky in appearance
--they were nimble and quick for their time, at just over 18 knots

History and background overview;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryad-cla ... do_gunboat
========================================



I acquired a 1/350 scale resin kit made by JB models eu @ Telford back in 2011
The resin has been curing in my stash ever since...

I chose to build HMS Halcyon in Victorian colours( because I had a few good high res images )
to look something like this

I have never seen a built model of this kit....

review images are sparse and mainly to be found in Polish language

Much of the kit is excellent--other parts are ' old school'
with fine detail parts being cast suboptimally......

--where these days one would expect doors to be PE

Before I did anything--I decided I wanted to ship to be at Sea--travelling at ' a clip !
something like this .... ( sistership HMS Hazard )

as such, after some white paint I needed to 'add ' some lower hull...

( as the displacement wave form would reveal much of her "underskirt"

and then smoothed and faired with fine automotive stopper

Prior to that.... I had established I did not like the ( though nicely rendered) resin catwalk--

as it was to thick and clunky for my liking

I made a stainless steel replacement ( which will have some ' substructure' added )

The resin funnels were the right height and diameter--but lacked surface detail, and also the ' cowl skirts at the bottom )


cowl skirts visible here

I then turned my attention to the very prominent cowl vents--the ship is simply festooned with them!

The real thing has very slight flare and a visible ring.

I chose to use this to my advantage by making the rings 'slightly ' larger than the cowl mouth
and removing the resin to the zero limit) ---after I had drilled the shafts!

this results in a very sharp and un-clunky looking cowl vent mouth

the foredeck breakwater was a fine ( read fragile!) resin wafer-like structure-

-but lacking the top lip and flare

the lower well deck superstructure blocks were well made, sharp edges and dead square.
but the portholes--whilst the correct size -- were soft on the edges and somewhat featureless

I made port hole frames

the superstructure blocks had a bitumen (?) black stripe along the lower edges
This was surprisingly high
I measured and scaled my ' stripe off the sailors legs

the aft companionway was devoid of any detail--I added a roof and doors

the PE supplied radio shack was a fine bit of work.

more soon with more preparation of components and some progress on the hull itself !



cheers
JB

[Frank Spahr]

Goodness me, Jim, you�re busy and productive and inventive as ever!

There were quite some useful hints (to me) in this first post alone - thanks for it all!

Looking forward to more creaticve enhancements

Frank

[1:6000]

What a gorgeous subject!

[MartinJQuinn]

That is a very interesting looking craft. Will be watching with interest.

[bgire]

Hello Jim,
Funny: I bought the same kit at the same place (Telford) during the same show (2011)... the very day when we met for the first time!
Unfortunately I gave-up with the various fittings which are bad designed and nearly impossible to fit on the hull.
I never saw a finished build on the web.
I'll follow your build with great attention, in the case you can find a solution.
Here is my build, put on hold in 2013:



I added a custom cut wooden deck and rows of relief rivets from Archer:





_Bruno

[Devin]

Interesting subject. I love the old torpedo and gun boats.

[JIM BAUMANN]

small update only today,...

the plating was arranged as I understand it so that the port holes are in the middle of each plating run

Hull was plated ( still missing the bow upsweep at waterline ) with vinyl tape-- and the ends secured with CA glue
and the tapes locked in place with paint and varnish

The quite poor shape doors were cut away( to be replaced )

Most of the ( vast amount! ) of vents have had a first coat of paint inside and out

as have the funnels

The wooden ' radio' ? navigation? shack ) has in some images the hint of wooden panelling

to make this I used and butchered this PE along with some old ladderstock

When moored when under-way at sea but not actually engaged in battle per se,
the conning-tower had flaps to cover the viewing slits
and these were deployed ( and not ) at various times

These were made of old PE

and installed with water-thinned white glue

More soon

Jim B

[JIM BAUMANN]

Hi Bruno

You identified the weaknesses of the kit, the soft casting , the lack if surface detail
and the questionable shapes and items. We bought the kit a short 14 years ago--

and in the meantime my resilience and willingness
to overcoming shortcomings has grown about x 5

( I managed to complete the Vulkan !)

--I started that in 2012--had a 10 year gap and carried on!
So I am determined to overcome the issues--inaccuracies and guess-work to produce
a fine model of the ship-not least because they are unusual and odd looking!

--it is not helped that all 5 of the ship class differ in detail ,
and were much modified over time.
the ship class is not all that well documented or photographed in Victorian days;

the nearest thing to a builders model is a half block;

I cite as an example... Steam pipes on Halcyon..!

The as fitted plan shows pipes fore and aft of the funnel;

some photos--even when the ship is in ' Victorian ' colours and labelled Hms Halcyon
show differences;

fwd funnel no steam pipe

and when in grey appear to sometimes more and sometimes less steam pipes

no pipe aft of funnel( but in the Victorian image above--pipe aft of aft funnel! )

and with aft pipes!

But all this just adds to the challenge !

cheers JIM B

[maxim]

Ah, interesting. I am looking forward to your model!

Torpedo gunboats are not very common as kits, especially the British ones.

[pascalemod]

Love the new Subject Jim, hopefully a bit smoother sailing after Bretagne!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you gents for your encouragement

Progress is steady-... ( but 1/350 is soooo big ! )....

after plating the hull--I needed to think how to replicate the sharpness of the colour demarcation lines
I used the same method as I did as on my 1/700 Normandie

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... /index.htm



Both ships have a black hull / white upper ) and the sharpness of demarcation is important

I have found that ( for me- !!) masking tape is not always successful when there are curves and uneven surfaces

as on Normandie I applied a black decal strip as the edge of the demarcation ( which is also the upper plating run edge )

I painted up to and including the black decal stripe in black,
then applied further lines x 2

The white decal strip at the bottom serves as the ' First Layer '
after varnishing the white

( so as to go soft when more water is applied )

red decal stripe was 'cut and shut' and applied on top

This was arduous...! as decal by nature is slippery--and sighting up, moving and adjusting the 'line' takes time


all whilst keeping it wet and mobile...

decal by nature is fragile and brittle-- the loss of decal stripe was considerable

Its an easy way of getting sharp, very thin and even lines ( Works even better in 1/700 !! )

after all the effort....
should have I painted it after all--squiggles and all ??

The Torpdeo tubes on these ship were splayed

and the ' carriage 'as in above drawing had pierced sides with an triangular apertures

as seen in below photo

Recreating these is tricky....

but after some racking of brains , searching through the PE eventually
furnished HMS Hood PE from back in 1997 as image below

more soon when I have assembled the Torpedo tube sets...

JB

[Frank Spahr]

Awesome.

[Rui Matos]

That was fast, Jim!

As usual, excellent craftsmanship, skills, out-of-the ordinary way of solving issues (all that we love or hate in ship scale modelling)!
Following with interest

Cheers,
Rui

[flyco54]

Very skillful and inspiring work.

I usually model AFV's and aircraft, but I am trying me hand at a tiny 1/700 Minesweeper. Your work is excellent to watch and learn from!

Terry

[JIM BAUMANN]

to modelwarships.com Fluco54 !

Lots to see and learn-- every day is a school-day !

continuing on with this model....

I wanted to mount the model on her waterbase--as the decal striping is fragile when handled,
ergo--don't handle!

Usual method of water colour paper over formers- as described step-by-step at this link right here at MW.com

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37223




but in summation-- this is the base of the display case with the wavelets glued on cocktail sticks

( did not want to make the water tooo rough ! )

with the paper glued over it and the entire surface covered with CA to stabilise
upon offering my ship into the aperture-- I felt she was riding to high...


I had to remove material from the base to allow the ship to sink in

But before then.... I wanted to make the torpdeo tube set carriages,
The real thing was designed to look like this;

and it sort of does- but many small detail changes

on the real thing; the side members of the carriage had a triangular slot in them

I found the MK 1 version here

( WEM Hood 1/350 1998 ( starfish platform )

and cut like this

I was making the Torpedo base and race / carriage -like this

and the found that my nice side-members ex Hood starfish were too long

after pondering-- I found this

WEM 1/350 KGV ... and I had two of them !

cut again like this

It allowed me to make the carriage to hold the tubes

I used a spacer at the base to have something to glue the sides onto;

fore and aft cross members pieces were separate pieces of brass fret waste

with the resin tubes on and some refinement (!) they look quite agreeable

with some paint -more so

The wooden radio shack structure-- which had its roof flooded to the edge of the roof beading
was now painted--and the effect is more pleasing ( photo next time )

I knew that the kit hulls cast portholes were not in a straight line...( )

but reckoned I could cure them ..---with a small bit of subterfuge

by off-setting the new porthole rings and eyebrows over the cast uneven holes
to obtain a acceptable straight line

on the white parts as well as the black parts


The real thing, when looking along the hull , had visible eye-brows ( rigoles)

Now I knew that my new wire porthole surrounds would be over-scale per se;
so I countersunk-bored them very slightly with a ball head burr tool mounted in a hand-twisted pinchuck!

then I made porthole rings (as before )

and these were installed with a touch of matt varnish on the hull

The rigoles were made using again a spiral of wire formed on a larger drill shank ,
cut into rings , then the rings just slightly less than half diameter

and these were installed again onto a touch of matt varnish on the hull
--with the ( pretty small!) eyebrows transported on the end of a wetted cocktail stick
and placed on the matt varnish and moved with a small brush that had been dipped into thinners
to give a longer adjustment time-span

the not-yet-final painted result looks preferable to the wonky drill holes as before

The 4.7 inch Q/F guns x 2 were assembled from the brass barrels and small resin parts and detailed--as far as I could now

using these handy drawings

and this useful image

Once the shields are fastened to the guns pedestal mounting --
and with the barrel buried in blue tack

further detailing can be done (..... attempted! )

The ship is now mounted on her base and I awaiting the ( Evostick green )white glue to set ....( 2 days till hard!)

more soon

JB

[JIM BAUMANN]

a short 10 days later--progress has been afoot --testament to the indifferent cold January weather...
( though last Sunday 02 February was a beautiful-if cold day--and I popped out to get some fresh air!)

not on foot....

But I digress - back to the model ship

with the model firmly glued to its base I set to filling the gaps allround using the my trusty modelling paste from Windsor and Newton

I made little 'bridges ' from water to hull

once these had partially set--I used wetted paintbrushes to apply more paste to infill between the paste ' bridges '
same principle as a soap bubble ( and white glue when making awnings and canvas dodgers on models )

the ship is now surrounded by gap free water

I installed the previously prepared superstructure blocks with white glue,
along with the conning tower and the breakwater fwd

on the real ship--even when under way some hatches were left open

My ship is under-way at 17 knots or so --

I decided it would be prudent to keep the hatches / skylights closed fwd -
-but reckoned at the aft deck-- away from breaking water and spray-- it would be OK to depict two of the open

The skylights are cast solid--( and I should have drilled them out earlier--but I thought I could give a fair impression
by blacking the 'interior ' and adding some 'bracing'

The effect was quite pleasing

The raised Bow and Stern sections were connected by a long 'catwalk'... presumably for speed of transfer fore andaft
but also to give safe access aft in rough weather when the lower centre deck may well have been awash

In photos of the real thing-- the substructure of the catwalk shows a definite shadow inner, could the lower part have been an overhead rail for moving
munitions /or reload torpedoes?

whatever--I wanted to depict the cat walsk to look as in the above image

I had bought some small brass channel section 1mm x 1mm ( ! )

I glued this channel slightly inset from the edge of the deck of the catwalk

and test fitted it numerous times to ensure a perfect fit

and painted it white--then found the near impossibility of rendering the inside of the channel section dark-

( no brush, fineliner pen or pencil would fit in )

-so as to appear as in the image above of the real ship

I resorted to 0.3 mm very fine tape--slipped in and secured all along by CA glue

Bingo--perfect sharp demarcation!

I then added the white ends of the inner structure ( its all a pastiche really!)

spaced out with tape to give regular intervals

during my test-fits I was perplexed as to why the catwalk ' hovered by approx 3/4 of a mm above the deck structures.

Checking photos on the PC and adding straight lines... it became apparent that on the real ship

the catwalk followed the sheerline of the ship and lower deck

it is subtle.... but nonetheless visible

so I duly followed!

as a bit of light relief after all the structural works (!)

I turned attention to the fwd bridge( kit casting, painted the deck and applied the close spaced railing
from my ever helpful stash of old PE ( WEM superfine )

In some images the ship had plain rails-in other she carried canvas dodgers

In my view ( discuss! ) the ship looks more balanced with dodgers.

The railing was first painted on the inside only ( to keep it thin )

These were added by spanning the railing with thinned white glue applied by paintbrush
White glue dries clear--so one has only to paint the outside--leaving nicely defined rails on the inside


The edge of the bridge deck was redefined with 0.5 mm tape ( as the dodgers did not go below the deck !)

and the razor sharp square ends made

The time to add the vast array of cowl vents
that I had prepared earlier, that make this ship look so distinctive !!

but I was much astonished that there was set of vents missing ....

I checked the instructions which indicated their existence...but....

( when I made all the vents previously -- did not occur to me to count them....! )

there was no sign of them--pah!

Fortunately..... I had a spare ( grey !) Airfix Mauretania kit from way back when I built Mauretania-in-Dazzle

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... eview.html

that I have been breaking for spares for years...
This had a huge array of cowl vents !

with a bit of sanding and modification they matched the ones on the ship well

albeit needing extension--I made the join at the point where the
operating gear for rotation ring was located which ( when I fit them )
will neatly cover the joint and disguise any minor imperfection .

Thereafter I added the bridge to the now more interesting looking vessel!
which was unbalanced , recalcitrant in staying where I intended...!

so I used a 'prop' to hold it until adhesive is dry

More soon

Jim Baumann

[Pieter]

My very similar looking Barham has a balanced look without dodgers. Barham was designed by White at the same time as Halcyon and had the same rather problematic locomotive boilers fitted.

In some images the ship had plain rails-in other she carried canvas dodgers

In my view ( discuss! ) the ship looks more balanced with dodgers.

T

Jim Baumann

[SG1]

Excellent progress! the bridge is a beautiful little model per se. Great scratchbuilding work on the armament too. Following with (much) interest

[JIM BAUMANN]

WELL this is interesting;

I often sight up ( eyeball !) up my ship models against a side elevation photo ( or plan )
on the PC screen
to check funnel and mast angles, positions of davits and boats etc

My ship model matches perfectly -/+ 5% or less this image below

which I am using as my primary re-source for the above purpose

I noticed that when I sight my model against the plan........ it really does not !

so I flipped the image and overlaid the photo and plan to correct loa

the results are are somewhat disconcerting


see below

comparison

and an overlay (!??)

waddayathink?
JB

[maxim]

Hmm, my first impression was that the photo is not exactly a profile view, but the bow is closer to the photographer. But I am not sure.

But also the funnels appear to be different - if the model matches the photo, I would continue...