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

Jack Jäger said:
Been a bit quiet since Christmas but I have got going again and done some work on the wheel house. Fifteen windows and all square but one, thanks to my little milling machine I was able to cut them out reasonably accurate. I have left the two sliding doors open with a view to adding some interior detail, however when I tried on the deck of the compass platform I am not to sure you will see too much. In addition to the wheelhouse I soldered up a stove pipe and added water and steam pipes along the bulwarks. Mind you it looks like I got the Mario Brothers to install them; Super.


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That’s looking good, Jack. Nice sleek bars railing around the wheelhouse and stairs.
Regards, Peter
 
You're well underway making it look like a real ship! About bridge detail: I had a similar hesitation with T227, still installed a wheel and some other stuff and now find people bending low to go "oh, look at that, it has ...". Mind, I painted the wheel and compass with some extra glare to make them visible in that dark space.
 
Marquinius said:
You're well underway making it look like a real ship! About bridge detail: I had a similar hesitation with T227, still installed a wheel and some other stuff and now find people bending low to go "oh, look at that, it has ...". Mind, I painted the wheel and compass with some extra glare to make them visible in that dark space.
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Hi Marco. Yea I tried to do something similar on Sir Kay but you need an endoscope to see inside (£9.99 eBay), so I am not sure I will bother this time, but you never no. Thanks for your nice comments.


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Cheers JJ..​
 
I have left the wheel house to harden off for a while, while I think about adding some internal detail. So I have went back the bulwark fittings and finished them in preparation to adding the capping. Still not too happy about the width that the capping has to be (5.5mm instead of 3.0mm), but there is no way round it the extra width being the thickness of the fibreglass bulwarks. The fuel tank inspection hatches are styrene with threaded nuts added, in reality there are double the number of nuts than I used but just like three fingered cartoon characters they looked too crowded with the full complement. The mushroom vents I made a while back from some aluminium rod and the swan neck vents are either bought in or bent copper wire that I soldered caps onto, they look ok if not a bit large to my eye but are the correct size as shown in the plans.
The capping I intend to make from 0.5mm styrene strips and they along with the forecastle ladders are next.

Some pics. that tell me I have a lot of paint touching up to do!



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Cheers JJ..

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Jack Jäger said:
I have left the wheel house to harden off for a while, while I think about adding some internal detail. So I have went back the bulwark fittings and finished them in preparation to adding the capping. Still not too happy about the width that the capping has to be (5.5mm instead of 3.0mm), but there is no way round it the extra width being the thickness of the fibreglass bulwarks. The fuel tank inspection hatches are styrene with threaded nuts added, in reality there are double the number of nuts than I used but just like three fingered cartoon characters they looked too crowded with the full complement. The mushroom vents I made a while back from some aluminium rod and the swan neck vents are either bought in or bent copper wire that I soldered caps onto, they look ok if not a bit large to my eye but are the correct size as shown in the plans.
The capping I intend to make from 0.5mm styrene strips and they along with the forecastle ladders are next.

Some pics. that tell me I have a lot of paint touching up to do!



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Cheers JJ..

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Great detailed parts added, Jack.
Regards, Peter
 
I was expecting a lot of hassle when it came to adding the capping to the bulwark but it turned out easier than I thought this mainly because the Evergreen strip I intended to use turned out to be 5.0mm wide rather than the 4.8mm it claimed to be. And that extra little 0.2mm was just enough to cover the tops of most of the supporting struts. The capping, apart from a bit of cleaning, filling and touching up, just about finishes the work on the bulwarks and it will be nice to move to the next stage.
I have made a start on the two forecastle ladders, the rails will have to wait until I work on the forecastle deck but it is a good beginning. I decided after all to put some detail inside the wheelhouse and that is next on the agenda.
This model is quite difficult to photograph due to its size (over four feet long), at least with a phone camera that you cannot adjust the depth of field, but here are some photos. anyway.

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Cheers JJ..
 
Back to the wheel house and an exercise in futility but great fun non the less. No denying the W/H looked kind of bare so I have added a few bits and pieces, the highlight being the bridge telemotor unit. It is more a generic telemotor than anything specific, information gathered from online pics. I can find no information on the type used on HMS Picotee. I made it from scrap styrene and a few odd bits that were lying about. I didn't think it was worth any more than a monochromatic paint job as, if seen at all, everything will be in silhouette when the lid is put on.
Well it passed a bit of time.

Some pics.
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Cheers JJ..
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Since I have no actual plans and only one viable photograph of HMS Picotee I have been building her using mainly the plans of HMS Alisma ( also built by H&W ) in 1/96 scale and drawn by Mr John Lambert along with 1/48 scale plans and AotS book of HMCS Agassiz by John McKay, I have complemented this by viewing the numerous photographs of other 'Flowers' available in books and on line. However there is a feature shown on my photograph of Picotee that I have not seen on any other flower and it has left me scratching my head.

picotee mm.jpg
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To my eye these look like two companion ways with stern facing w/t doors opening to port. very similar to the one in the centre of the pic between the two large cowl vents that has some crew members sitting beside it. on both sets of plans there are hatches situated around this area but nowhere else have I seen companion ways, strange. I knocked up a pair to what I hope is the correct size but am not sure weather to add them or not, I can only find two completed models of Picotee on line and neither shows them.

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Apart from this quandary I have been working on the compass house above the wheel house, another reminder of the penny-pinching way that the designers went about building these early Flowers. Since they gave these ships only a magnetic compass the had to house it in a wooden cabin/ shack! Then deciding that wood doesn't offer much protection against gun and cannon they added a steel 'X' box (my name) or as called 'armoured crucifix', of course being metal and prone to disturb the compass it had to be placed as far from it as possible (not very in this case) and just to make sure that communications where tip top old boy they added a voice tube, (actually a bit of rubber hose with a mouth piece that dangled over the top between the four hiding places!).
Here are some pics..

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Cheers JJ..​

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IMG_20250202_112957.jpg

picotee mm.jpg
 
Jack Jäger said:
Since I have no actual plans and only one viable photograph of HMS Picotee I have been building her using mainly the plans of HMS Alisma ( also built by H&W ) in 1/96 scale and drawn by Mr John Lambert along with 1/48 scale plans and AotS book of HMCS Agassiz by John McKay, I have complemented this by viewing the numerous photographs of other 'Flowers' available in books and on line. However there is a feature shown on my photograph of Picotee that I have not seen on any other flower and it has left me scratching my head.

To my eye these look like two companion ways with stern facing w/t doors opening to port. very similar to the one in the centre of the pic between the two large cowl vents that has some crew members sitting beside it. on both sets of plans there are hatches situated around this area but nowhere else have I seen companion ways, strange. I knocked up a pair to what I hope is the correct size but am not sure weather to add them or not, I can only find two completed models of Picotee on line and neither shows them.

Apart from this quandary I have been working on the compass house above the wheel house, another reminder of the penny-pinching way that the designers went about building these early Flowers. Since they gave these ships only a magnetic compass the had to house it in a wooden cabin/ shack! Then deciding that wood doesn't offer much protection against gun and cannon they added a steel 'X' box (my name) or as called 'armoured crucifix', of course being metal and prone to disturb the compass it had to be placed as far from it as possible (not very in this case) and just to make sure that communications where tip top old boy they added a voice tube, (actually a bit of rubber hose with a mouth piece that dangled over the top between the four hiding places!).
Here are some pics..


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Love your work, my friend!
 
AllanKP69 said:
Had to do more than checking the "like" box. I never considered building a steel ship, but after seeing your model, maybe I should reconsider. VERY NICE!!!!
Allan
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Thank you Allan, I still preferer wooden sailing ships but I have only one properly working arm these days and can't manage rigging anymore so this is the next best thing.

All the best JJ..
 
Jack Jäger said:
Since I have no actual plans and only one viable photograph of HMS Picotee I have been building her using mainly the plans of HMS Alisma ( also built by H&W ) in 1/96 scale and drawn by Mr John Lambert along with 1/48 scale plans and AotS book of HMCS Agassiz by John McKay, I have complemented this by viewing the numerous photographs of other 'Flowers' available in books and on line. However there is a feature shown on my photograph of Picotee that I have not seen on any other flower and it has left me scratching my head.

To my eye these look like two companion ways with stern facing w/t doors opening to port. very similar to the one in the centre of the pic between the two large cowl vents that has some crew members sitting beside it. on both sets of plans there are hatches situated around this area but nowhere else have I seen companion ways, strange. I knocked up a pair to what I hope is the correct size but am not sure weather to add them or not, I can only find two completed models of Picotee on line and neither shows them.

Apart from this quandary I have been working on the compass house above the wheel house, another reminder of the penny-pinching way that the designers went about building these early Flowers. Since they gave these ships only a magnetic compass the had to house it in a wooden cabin/ shack! Then deciding that wood doesn't offer much protection against gun and cannon they added a steel 'X' box (my name) or as called 'armoured crucifix', of course being metal and prone to disturb the compass it had to be placed as far from it as possible (not very in this case) and just to make sure that communications where tip top old boy they added a voice tube, (actually a bit of rubber hose with a mouth piece that dangled over the top between the four hiding places!).
Here are some pics..


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View attachment 499166

View attachment 499174
Click to expand...
Always nice that during your continuous research a new pictures came up, Jack. You made a nice interpretation with the two companion ways.
The deck house is really coming alive.
Regards, Peter
 
Very nice metal work Jack. If I decide to build metal-based ship models in the future, your logs will be very useful for me.
 
Just a quick update, after a lot of fiddling about I have the canvas dodger attached to the railings enclosing the air lookout post on the roof of the compass house looking ok. Originally I had the rails running around the perimeter, but this looked wrong compared to the photo of Picotee, so I made a smaller area, though still leavening room for the search light. The problem I had with the dodger was that when I attached it to the rails with some cordage looped over the rail it looked unrealistic and a bit frumpy no matter how thin the cordage was. Without the cordage it isn't great but definitely better.
When I look at photographs and plans of other 'Flowers' the immortal words of Johnny Nash come to mind; 'There are more questions than answers', and most certainly the more I find out the less I know! The fore mast back stays are an example of this. If I put the stays where shown in the plans they would run through the floor of the wheel house bridge. Oh well it keeps me interested.

Some pics..

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Cheers JJ..​
 
Jack Jäger said:
Just a quick update, after a lot of fiddling about I have the canvas dodger attached to the railings enclosing the air lookout post on the roof of the compass house looking ok. Originally I had the rails running around the perimeter, but this looked wrong compared to the photo of Picotee, so I made a smaller area, though still leavening room for the search light. The problem I had with the dodger was that when I attached it to the rails with some cordage looped over the rail it looked unrealistic and a bit frumpy no matter how thin the cordage was. Without the cordage it isn't great but definitely better.
When I look at photographs and plans of other 'Flowers' the immortal words of Johnny Nash come to mind; 'There are more questions than answers', and most certainly the more I find out the less I know! The fore mast back stays are an example of this. If I put the stays where shown in the plans they would run through the floor of the wheel house bridge. Oh well it keeps me interested.

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That canvas has a very natural look, Jack. It folds nicely around the railing.
Regards, Peter
 
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