K63 HMS Picotee 1941 1/48 scale early short forecastle Flower Class Corvette

[Jack Jäger]

K63 HMS Picotee 1941

1/48 scale early short forecastle

Flower Class Corvette



​

Despite all their many faults Flower class corvettes where the back-bone of the allied convoy system during the Second World War. In various guises two hundred and ninety four where built and saw action between 1940 and 1945. They contributed to the sinking of over fifty U-Boats, thirty three where lost, twenty two of them to submarines. One of those lost to torpedo attack was HMS Picotee.

​

Which flower to pick? I live less than ten miles from Harland and Wolff’s Belfast ship yard and my family have long had connections with the ‘yard’ some dating back to and before the Titanic. In WW2 my great uncle Jackie drove the crane used to help build HMS Black Prince, a Dido class light cruiser, my uncle Jim was an electrical artificers on board her. H&W built thirty five Flowers including HMS Bryony who was ‘sunk’ by German bombers before launched! She was later re-floated and finished the war, before being sold and ending up as a Norwegian weather ship.

Scanning through the histories of the H&W boats my eye fell on the name of the commanding officer of HMS Picotee, Lt R.A. Harrison, RNR and the name Harrison sparked a memory of a bit of family lore. My recollection is a bit sketchy but as I remember it great grandmother was married twice, the first to a civil engineer from a Dublin family called Harrison. They decided to make a new life for themselves in South Africa, Harrison left first to take an arranged job and set up home near Port Elizabeth, his pregnant wife to follow two months later. By the time my great grandmother arrived her husband was dead, (don’t remember the cause), and she was alone and wanted to go back to Ireland. The good people of a PE church gathered up the cost of her fare and the company her husband was to work for gave her a not inconsiderable one hundred pounds and she set of home, my grandmother was born during the voyage back.

Back to Picotee; Harrison had two younger brothers, both career seamen and RNR’s, both were killed during the second world war, one in submarines in the far east the other, as I remembered it, was lost with his destroyer that was supporting an Artic convoy. HMS Picotee was not part of an Artic convoy, but was in convoy with ships bound for Iceland. I do not know for sure if this is the same man and all of my relations that might have known have passed on but I suspect it is and that is enough for me to choose HMS Picotee as my subject. Picotee was sunk by U-568 and all hands were lost. U-568 was later sunk in the Mediterranean.

Now for my model, to build her I am using a mixture of various plans and photographs that I have gathered together over the last couple of months. The hull is made from GRP and was produced by Fleetscale and it is a real beauty. The majority of the build will be from scratch using mostly ply-wood and styrene sheet, parts like boats guns and rails may end up being bought in and modified.

To date I have made a working stand and started to prepare the hull. I will add more along with some photographs very soon.

Regards JJ..

​

 

[Jimsky]

Great project, Jack! I am pulling up the chair, looks like the first row has some available seats. Great introduction, I am waiting for your progress. Good luck!

 

[dockattner]

Exciting! It is a real joy to follow your builds!

 

[Marquinius]

Oooh. I’m in! Built the 1:72 Revell corvette and love the lines of that ship. May actually pick that one up after … oh well. Months to go. I’ll follow your endeavours happily.

 

[Marquinius]

Afterthought … 1:48 scale … it’ll be a mammoth! Good oh!

 

[Jack Jäger]

Yea Marco it is going to be big alright, but I am looking forward to building her. It will be novel to have to use a real spray gun to paint the hull.

Cheers JJ..

 

[Rob444]

The Flower class corvette was always near to my heart after reading one of the best novels about WWII made called "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monserrat. It is well worth finding and reading. There was also a good English film made in the 1950's by the same name which closely followed the novel. I of course will be watching you log!

 

[Jack Jäger]

The Flower class corvette was always near to my heart after reading one of the best novels about WWII made called "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monserrat. It is well worth finding and reading. There was also a good English film made in the 1950's by the same name which closely followed the novel. I of course will be watching you log!

Hi Rob thanks for the interest. 'The Cruel Sea', both book and movie are very good and much recommended. Your model of 'Compass Rose' looks great and has much to admire.

​

There is also a war time film, by Howard Hawks, called Corvette K-225 ; HMCS Vancouver,( HMCS Donnacona in the movie) bit of a dated story but lots of actual action scenes and very informative. The movie was also a stepping stone for one of the greats in Robert Mitchum. To give the film a realist feel Hawks sent the film crew out on three convoys from Canada to UK ; I bet they loved that, corvettes not being the most weatherly of ships.
I am still at the early stages of HMS Picotee but looking forward to the challange.

Cheers JJ..

 

[Jack Jäger]

There is a lot of information out there regarding Flower Class Corvettes but very little that deal with the early UK short forecastle varient and barely any at all relating directly to HMS Picotee. I have talked to the people at the Ulster Transport Museum, who are the custodians of H&W's archives, and while they where very helpful they had not yet got as far as to discover if they hold any material regarding Picotee,( lack of funds). So it's down to two photographs,( one dubious) and a cut-away drawing that I was lucky to find in an old copy of Navy .




So now I have made a start to tidy up the hull, I have leveled of both sides and began to thin the fibre glass along what will be the inside of the bulwark, on the actual ship the bulwark was made up from just 5/8 inch steel plate, ( Little wonder Churchill discribed them as 'cheap and nasty!' More on that later) and at 1/48 that equates to only 0.33 of a milimetre but there is no way I can go that thin so it's model builders licence already! The next step will be to open the prop shaft, scuttles and hawse holes, fingers crossed.
I have also started to make some of the 'to be fitted later' component parts, begining with the funnel, as a bases for this I used a material called 'Finn board', something between cardboard and MDF. It has the advantage that when soaked it can be easly bent and then retains that shape when dry. I used 1.2mm thick board and bent it round a 52mm plastic drain pipe. I had to use a second piece to stop the first marking, when dried I covered it with 0.25mm styrene 'plating' that I had added fake rivets to. Styrene was also used to make the cap, the eight legged guard was made from 1mm copper rod.

Here are some photographs;

QF 4" Gun next.
​

Well this is the start of a build that I expect will take me through the winter.

Here's hoping JJ..

​

 

[Marquinius]

Good progress! And I do like the way you made that stack. Beautiful.

 

[Rob444]

The Funnel with its pipes and ladder looks great! I was not aware of finn board, it looks like a very interesting building material with a lot of possible uses! I'll have to investigate it more!

Rob

 

[GrantTyler]

Good afternoon Jack. I am pulling up a chair here. Lovely introduction to this log- I see you have a brief family connection to SA. Looking forward to your progress. Cheers Grant.
PS Ireland played some brilliant rugby in that second test and physically put one over the Boks- beat us at our own game. One of the best test games I have seen for a while.

 

[Peter Voogt]

There is a lot of information out there regarding Flower Class Corvettes but very little that deal with the early UK short forecastle varient and barely any at all relating directly to HMS Picotee. I have talked to the people at the Ulster Transport Museum, who are the custodians of H&W's archives, and while they where very helpful they had not yet got as far as to discover if they hold any material regarding Picotee,( lack of funds). So it's down to two photographs,( one dubious) and a cut-away drawing that I was lucky to find in an old copy of Navy .


View attachment 460505

So now I have made a start to tidy up the hull, I have leveled of both sides and began to thin the fibre glass along what will be the inside of the bulwark, on the actual ship the bulwark was made up from just 5/8 inch steel plate, ( Little wonder Churchill discribed them as 'cheap and nasty!' More on that later) and at 1/48 that equates to only 0.33 of a milimetre but there is no way I can go that thin so it's model builders licence already! The next step will be to open the prop shaft, scuttles and hawse holes, fingers crossed.
I have also started to make some of the 'to be fitted later' component parts, begining with the funnel, as a bases for this I used a material called 'Finn board', something between cardboard and MDF. It has the advantage that when soaked it can be easly bent and then retains that shape when dry. I used 1.2mm thick board and bent it round a 52mm plastic drain pipe. I had to use a second piece to stop the first marking, when dried I covered it with 0.25mm styrene 'plating' that I had added fake rivets to. Styrene was also used to make the cap, the eight legged guard was made from 1mm copper rod.

Here are some photographs;

View attachment 460507View attachment 460509View attachment 460510View attachment 460511View attachment 460512View attachment 460513View attachment 460515View attachment 460516View attachment 460517View attachment 460518View attachment 460519View attachment 460520View attachment 460521View attachment 460522View attachment 460523View attachment 460524

QF 4" Gun next.
​

Well this is the start of a build that I expect will take me through the winter.

Here's hoping JJ..

​

View attachment 460508

A promising start for a interesting model, Jack. Perhaps a chair for me besides Jim? But another row is also right.
Regards, Peter

 

[Jack Jäger]

Good afternoon Jack. I am pulling up a chair here. Lovely introduction to this log- I see you have a brief family connection to SA. Looking forward to your progress. Cheers Grant.
PS Ireland played some brilliant rugby in that second test and physically put one over the Boks- beat us at our own game. One of the best test games I have seen for a while.

Thanks for looking in Grant, a lot of prep work to go before I can build much, I guess it's the boring stuff first. As for the rugby, I watched both matches and thought them great. one all was a fair result,(but I did think the ref in the first test was a bit biased)

Cheers JJ..

 

[Jack Jäger]

A promising start for a interesting model, Jack. Perhaps a chair for me besides Jim? But another row is also right.
Regards, Peter

Again Peter nice to have your views and insight. Cheers JJ..

 

[Uwek]

GReat to see, that you are working on a new project - I will follow - definitely

 

[Jack Jäger]

Hi Folks
I have been mostly working on the hull the last few days and have eventually manage to finish thinning the sides down as far as I dare, to around just under 2mm. I have left the stern as is since most likly I will be removing it to make the depth charge exit doors. Its still a mystry if Picotee had a round or squared of stern as I belive H&W built corvettes with either, hope to have some info from UF&T Museum before I have to finaly decide. Next up I have started opening up the port holes, a long careful job, to ease the tedium of this I have experimented making some brass port holes out of 7mm thick walled brass rod and 'glazing' them with glue and glaze. If they are acceptable I will insert them; a lot cheaper than buying made up ones.

I have also been altering a 4" QF Gun that I bought. It is a resin cast and has little detail so I have added a bit and replaced its out of scale armoured shield. As I bought it the thickness of the shield scaled up worked out at 264mm (10.4"), the gun crew would have felt safe anyway.

some pics.



Cheers JJ..​

 

[Jack Jäger]

Hi Folks.
What with the Olympics and the end of the Tour it's been a while since I done much work on Picotee, but I'm back in harness now and have been working on the rudder and screw. Keeping to the design policy of cheap and easy to build the rudder on the 'Flowers' was supported by only one, all be it huge, cast steel bearing. the rudder stock was 18 inch dia. and the rudder area 85 sq. feet. Even in 1/48 scale it looks huge.
The rudder although looking quite simple, was more difficult to make than I expected due to the many different dia. curves and multi directional tapers. In the end I carved it out of 10 mm ply wood before shaping it to satisfaction and covering it in 0.25mm styrene. Looking at photos of HMCS Sackville's rudder it appears quite smooth so I left mine that way.
As for the screw, there are plenty of aftermarket props. out there but I had trouble finding one that looked of the era and the right size (65mm dia). In the end I came up with one from Amati that was close and I will use it until I find something better. I machined a small conical cowl from a bit of alu. rod and finished it with six dummy bolt holes and bolts. The shaft ( 18 inch dia. ) is supported by a long brass lined bracket held in place externally by a r/h threaded nut. Again I turned one out of brass to simulate the real thing. Then with heart in mouth I drilled out the hull to fit them. Thankfully they turned out ok.

Mini Me
​

Just to show I wasn't sitting on my hands during the Olympics, and by way of a 3D plan of sorts I built the Revell 1/144 kit of Snowberry that I had been given a few years ago and had sat untouched. Not exactly the same as Picotee being long forecastle but good enough to give me ideas. I built the kit as HMS Hemlock (wouldn't you love to be commander of a war ship called Hemlock?) which was ordered from H&W IN 1941 but cancelled in favour of a Castle class boat. Thus my build of the ship is perfect in every detail, (at least in my imagination! ). Here are some photographs.

Cheers JJ..
​

 

[Jack Jäger]

Bilge keel
​

Almost without fail somewhere in every article or bit of film about Flower Class Corvettes you will come across a description of just how intolerably wet these little ships where and there are some great photographs showing them punching through the waves.

This is HMCS Wetaskiwin, known to all who sailed on her as Wet Assed Queen! ​

Quotes like, 'They could pitch for the Dodgers' and 'They would roll on wet grass' are everywhere. 'Flowers' were designed after whale catchers and as such the ability to change direction quickly was far more important that stability, as such they have no deep central keel and the first built ones had only a narrow bilge keel of just eleven inches made up from 3/8 " steel plate. It didn't take long before this was extended to twenty one inches, but I don't think the problem was ever solved.
The AoS HMCS Agassiz has a drawing showing the extended keel as a sort of bolt on, braced by a bit of 2" angle. I recon this must have been a Canadian temporary fix as I cannot find any pics or film showing a keel like that. In AoS the keel was then riveted to a 6" by 4" 'T' bar welded to the hull plating. I would bet quite a few of them never made it across the Atlantic without being bent stupid!
So for Picotee I have gone with the 21" width but constructed in thicker 'steel' as what seems to be seen in several pics of Flower launchings. This is just one of the relatively mundane jobs that has to completed before painting the hull and getting on with the real fun. I have made a start on the wash ports and wish I hadn't, or at least engaged my brain first, as I blindly cut them out using the moulded marking on the hull and of course no two are exactly the same size. Send me your love and a bang on the ear!

To stop getting bored I made a little Kelvin sounder which will come in handy in a year or so. The brass bezel is a bit bright but I am sure it will have a nice patina by then.
Next up will be the ships boats, 16 foot clinker built; perfect for the Mid-Atlantic winter!

Some pics.

​

In the background you can see my beautiful little Plymouth beam trawler Erycina up for repairs after it was knocked of its shelf by of all things a wild crow that had fallen down our chimney covering the sitting room in soot and bird sh........ If it wasn't for bad luck I would have no luck at all!

Cheers JJ..

 

[Jack Jäger]

Hi Folks.
Well not much to report, I am still working on the hull getting it ready to fix the main sub deck. Every time I think I'm there I find another little something that has to be done before the deck covers all. The main task has been to correct the width of the beam as per the plans. I done this by fixing with two pack epoxy some cross members below my beam supports,(bit rough looking but will never be seen,).
The stern has been a worry as I cannot define for definite whether Picotee had a round or squared off stern, the only pictorial evidence I have being inconclusive, but hinting towards being squared as where flowers fitted out for mine sweeping. Yet clearly Picotee carries no MS gear. The cutaway drawing in the Navy shows a squared stern (above somewhere), but that drawing is full of other errors and hard to rely on. The model in the Merseyside Maritime Museum of Liverpool has a round stern but this model also has other inaccuracies. Without doubt H&W built flowers with both types of stern so it is a bit of a head scratcher. The hull I am using was intended for the Canadian HMCS Agassiz and has a square stern so I think I will take the route of least resistance. Pity the Ulster T&F Museum haven't finished their cataloguing of H&W archives yet, there might have been something there.

As before I have been spending the waiting time making bits and pieces to add later. I have just about finished the ships boats and also made a nice little Downton bilge pump. Amazing to think that something designed during the Napoleonic wars was still in use in the 1940's. The brass bits are unpainted at the moment but will most likely end up grey.

Here are some pics..

Cheers JJ..​