by Rob Kernaghan
1/700 HMS Matchless (HP Models)
Matchless was one of the M class RN fleet destroyers of WW2.
In the late 1940's / 1950's consideration was given to converting a number of destroyers into frigates to counter the threat of the Cold War Soviet Navy. Well-known are the Types 15 and 16 conversions of war emergency destroyers.
Besides this there was a proposed ASW conversion of the J, K, N class survivors (Type 18) and a proposed radar picket conversion of the surviving M class plus some of the S-Z class (Type 62).
Some years ago, Mike Potter and I discussed at length permuations on the Type 62 and we also paid a visit to the Brass Foundry at Greenwich. The results of this were we found mentions and minutes of meetings detailing possible specifications for the Type 62, but no surviving drawings.
This model is therefore somewhat speculative and is what the Type 62 may have looked like, factoring extra deckhouses required, a possible radar fit and a possible armament. This attempts to factor in the effects of adding topweight to a relatively small hull.
In the event, due to the age of their hulls the 5 surviving M class were not converted, but were sold to Turkey, the S-Z class considered were allocated to the Types 15/16 programme. The penant number I used on the model is one that I could not find allocated to a frigate that was built.
The ship was built using HP's L class kit as a donor, scratchbuilding to replace part of the superstructure and PE from WEM and GMM.
