Back to these three!!
What started out to be a bit of light relief from Prince of Wales has turned a nightmare of epic
proportions.
Without going into all the gory details, the etched brass is supposed to cover two named ships,
HMS Zinnia and HMS Anchusa, I've got both. However, a lot of the stuff isn't needed on either but,
if you study the book on Corvettes, pick different ships and utilize some of the brass you get more
"bang for your buck".
The outcome is I'm building HMS Borage, equipped for magnetic and acoustic
mine-sweeping. HMS Zinnia equipped for "Oropesa" sweeping (moored mines) and HMCS Arrowhead, handed over to the Canadian navy with "hedge-hog" fitted. This was a device that fired a group of mortar bombs ahead of the ship which exploded on contact, either with a submarine, a mine, or the seabed.
There are three different bridges fitted.
Some of the parts are quite nicely moulded but the plastic its-self is horrible, very soft and easy to break, some of the parts were not fully moulded. Some of the gates are enormous, making removing the parts from the sprue difficult without causing damage.
Probably the worst characteristic is that it seems to repel paint. After the usual precautions of a good wash in soapy water, rinse and dry, prime, paint, mask then more paint, the paint peeled off at the slightest provocation. I stripped all three and started again ( after some tests) with two good coats of Tamiya grey primer out of the rattle-can, it seems to have worked this time.
Here's progress to date, the one in colour is Borage. The "A" frame at the bow is a scratch-built effort,
The etched brass offering looked highly unlikely.
Haddock.
