in the South Atalantic, 1941
by Anthony Knific
1/700 HMS Burdock (Jim Shirley Productions)
HMS Burdock (K-126), Flower Class Corvette in the South Atalantic, 1941. This is the old JSP kit I got from a friends collection, it was missing the smoke stack but that was easily replaced by one from a length of sprue, and the pipes from stretched sprue. PE is by White Ensign. The 4" gun is actually a spare 5" gun from Skywave with the barrel cut down a bit; the open turret comes from a spare in a Midship USN Destroyer kit sprue sanded down to be more symmetrical (the JSP kit gives you a tiny, solid resin box with a gun barrel sticking out, I think this looks a little better). The mast is a length of brass wire with a piece of plastic tubing attached for the lookout position, and the lantern(?) on top of the open bridge is clear sprue cut/sanded to size with a grid painted over. I tried using "streaky" filter weathering from the Griffith book "Building Ships From Kits", and also attempted to paint the wooden deck areas freehand, again using the Griffith book for inspiration. The base is a piece of hardwood carving block that comes in a bag of 3 from Michaels for a few $; I used Acrylic Gel medium for the water. I kind of ran out of time trying to finish this for a show so did not add the yardarm, rigging, boats or hull number on the sides; otherwise I am pleased with the result. The scheme is from a plate in the Shipcraft "Flower Class Corvettes" book by Lambert and Brown. I have one more of these kits and am deciding if I want to do it in Mountbatten Pink or as a USN version in Light Gray and Thayer Blue scheme...decisions, decisions!
