Marine Art and Maritime Modelmaking

Welcome to my blog, it's primary intention is to keep my existing clients up to date with the progress of their commissions, but hopefully it will prove of interest to anyone with an interest in Marine art and modelmaking

Friday 27 January 2012

Diorama of HMS Iron Duke Type 23 Frigate in 1/700 Scale


Recently  I was commissioned to make a diorama of HMS Iron Duke as she appeared in 2009 off the coast South America.One of her roles on this deployment was the seizure of narcotics.
The kit chosen for this diorama was the excellent White Ensign Models 1/700 scale, resin and brass etched kit of  HMS Norfolk. The detail is good, but it needs some alterations to represent  Iron Duke as she appeared in 2009.

Firstly I needed to replace the Vickers 4.5 inch gun on the HMS Norfolk kit,  it is of the older rounded style gun housing and can be seen here in the background.  I replaced this with part of the Dragon 1/700 kit of HMS York, this has the newer angular Gun housing, shown above in the foreground.
The gun barrel is ok for an injection moulding of this scale, but is not suitable for a model of this quality, so I shall be replacing it with 0.3mm or 0.4mm diameter brass micro tube. This will greatly improve the scale feel of this component of the ship.

This Project is on pause at the moment whilst I await the release of the new 1:350 type 23 kit from Trumpeter and decide whether to make the larger model instead.

2 comments:

  1. I was on her for the bust, i intend on making the same model shortly, so i will need the newer gun too. How do i get hold of it please?

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  2. Hi Taff, if you are doing the 1/700 version you need a dragon kit of Hms York for the kriton gun housing , probably about £15.00 ? It's not perfect but will save you hours of work, replace the barrel with micro tubing ( check out white ensign models) This Project is on a back burner at the moment, but I would still like to do a painting of this with burning hulk and smoke in background, don't suppose you have any photos ? I have the ones off the internet and navy news

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