1:600 Rommel as Australian DDG

[KiwiKev]

I promised myself the next project would be as much as possible an OOB one, after some of the challenging conversions done recently.

The Rommel kit looks a fairly good candidate, although some modification is required to make it an Australian DDG version. An Ikara magazine and two launchers need to be added. I thought I would "up-gun" it by depicting the ship just after the mounting of two CIWS and before Ikara was removed. This would also mean a few changes to the boats as the sea boats were replaced by RHIBs and associated handling cranes at this time.

Overall this looks like a reasonable kit but as always I'll create a scale plan from other drawings and photos to see if any other major adjustments in proportions and positions are needed, and to add as much extra detail as possible. The anchor arrangements will need to be looked at, as there should be no anchor on the port side of the bow and that needs to be moved onto a center line position.

This will either be DDG 38 (HMAS Perth), primarily because the spare "8"s in the decal set should be easily converted into a "3". If that doesn't work I'll try masking up and painting the tricky black/white US numbering, and "41" (HMAS Brisbane) will be the easiest to do due to the straight lines.

[KiwiKev]

And the good news after scaling a credible looking drawing and taking some key measurements to check is that the Rommel model looks spot on so far, so no major changes in structure should be necessary. I had seen a photo of one of these models made-up and thought the deck in front of the bridge was too long, but that was probably just a lens effect, it all appears accurate, the model agrees with the drawing below. Numbers in red represent mm back from tip of bow.

[KiwiKev]

This is not a bad kit with some reasonable detail on the superstructure walls already. There are some fitment issues however that will have to be addressed as we go.

The first photo below shows the overall hull and some superstructure, indicating where the Ikara magazine and launchers will go.

On the second photo some things I'm not that impressed with. The front surface of the bridge and wings (white arrow) will need to be filled and faired carefully. It's also critical to get a really neat line of bridge windows painted to make this model look good. It's an iconic part of these destroyers, and any roughness there really detracts, so the more time and care taken on that detail the better.

As mentioned, the anchor arrangements are wrong. I'll have to create the centreline hawse for the main anchor, which just isn't there. The incorrect port side one has already been filled in. The starboard side one (black arrow) should be a deck edge recess reminiscent of the larger WW2 German warships, so I'll have a go at filing out something representative.

[KiwiKev]

The Australian ships have a number of differences from their German sisters, shown here by the styrene additions. Funnel tops have a type of "top-hat". Cylindrical protrusions on the sides of the Rommel funnels are not present on the Australian ships and have been removed. The Ikara magazine is fitted between the funnels, Phalanx extension is either side of the aft funnel. There are extended over-hanging walkways forward and aft of those deck-houses. The Australian ships also have an unusual structure at the front of the deck forward of the bridge. Not sure what it is, but it's quite distinctive and is visible here.

[KiwiKev]

It's been a year or so since I dusted this project off, having been thoroughly distracted by building a New Jersey and Exeter but I finally got round to it again.

The bridge front face features a a tricky few joints that need careful smoothing out and filling. An iconic part of these ships is the wide row of bridge windows, so its important to get a smooth front face. This does take some filing, sanding and filling, but its worth taking the time. The bridge level also contains the front and rear bulkheads for the next level down and they are both a bit wide. Dry fit shows they over-lap. You could glue this level on and then fair them in place, but this risks removing some of the nice detail on the superstructure walls which this model features. So its going to be a matter of careful filing down, dry fitting, and repeating until the fit is perfect.

One strange feature of this model is the anchor arrangements. I think the designer mistook a coat of arms on the port side as an anchor recess, and placed the bow anchor there rather than on the stem, where there should be a noticeable fairing to house it. So the hole on the port side of the bow needs to be filled, and the stem fairing created. I also created better detail for the starboard side anchor which is reminiscent of German capital ship deck edge anchor housings.

So after haunting me on the shelf of doom for some time, I am back to making progress on this. Apart from a few less than perfect fit issues it looks to be a very good kit, albeit needing modification to represent an Australian ship accurately.

[KiwiKev]

Okay, have to say I really like this kit, apart from the foremast which was a pig to assemble and not for the faint hearted. You certainly wouldn't want to give this to a 12 year old as their first kit. Have basically completed the hull, corrected the anchor arrangements, and assembled most of the foremast. There appear to be a few struts missing, so I'll look at some photos of the real thing and map what needs to be added.

[KiwiKev]

I'm working on finishing the detailing of the bridge deck and foremast. Reasonably happy with the bridge windows that are an iconic part of this ship. Always hard to decide whether to touch them up some more and risk ruining them or leave them as is. What slows this type of project down is the need to look at lots of photos of the Australian ships, map the detail changes, and scratch build them. But the base kit is an excellent basis, and this class has a very sleek appearance.

[KiwiKev]

Basically finished. Nice little kit that builds up to a good looking model. Certainly worth using as a basis for a serious model if you have access to the extra details. I have been pretty loose with the historical accuracy, there are details from across the life of the ship so its a bit of a mosaic but I'm not a complete rivet counter yet, so it works for me.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday KiwiKev, you've done a beautiful model of HMAS Brisbane. You may have been "pretty loose with historical accuracy" but she looks very good to me.

I'm Australian and in the mid/late 1970s I wanted to do some RAN ships. I bought the Airfix HMS Daring (long since lost) and did her OOB as a representative of our Darings, and than an Airfix HMS Leander again OOB as HMAS Swan/Torrens. I still have that model, minus the entire superstructure. I plan to rebuild her one day.

Then I bought the Airfix Rommel model as a representative of one of our own DDGs. I got as far as adding the fore funnel then gave it up due to the funnel's differences. Conversions and modifications were decades in the future for me, so back into the box it went. For nigh on three decades.

A bit over twenty-five years ago I got back into ship modeling and after I'd got some done I wondered if I could do anything with this kit. So out it came with the intention of doing HMAS Perth II. I'd spent two weeks on her as a reservist in mid 1981. I was aware of some of the alterations I had to make, mainly the Ikara system and the funnel tops. This was waaay before I'd discovered styrene sheets, strips etc so I made the Ikara deck from balsa and very thin plywood. The funnel tops were altered too, again using balsa. I added that dome thingy (from rounded sprue) on the flag deck but other alterations/additions there I didn't know about.

But I didn't know how to make the Ikara launchers so she stayed 'almost done' in the display cabinet for another ten years. Then in March/April 2018 I managed to make some Ikaras and so finally, after forty years in the making, I was able to declare her "Done". To my level of mediocre standards and accuracy anyway. The number on the bow was hand painted, as I think you guessed.

HMAS Perth II 1981 jm6

HMAS Perth II 1981 jm8

My workmanship was rather rough and the model nowhere near meets the standard of KiwiKev's model above. But I was happy to have her finally complete and was quite pleased with my scratch built Ikaras. Each one consisted of eleven parts.

Thank you for your interest. Regards, Jeff.