HMS Exeter, Matchbox and scratchbuilt, 1:700 scale
 
It is one of those odd anomalies in the world of waterline model ships that surely one of the most famous ships of the second world war, certainly in the UK, should only be available in the form of an odd 1:500 scale kit and a 1:700 scale Matchbox kit of over thirty years vintage.  However I am also one of those who thinks that every so often it is a good thing to build a difficult kit in order to stretch your skills a little and develop, too often the hobby becomes a matter of collecting etched parts and sticking them together onto a good kit.  Nice to be able to do that but sometimes a challenge is needed.  The Matchbox HMS Exeter is certainly a challenge.
 
My basic premise was to use as much of the kit as I could, but when I started to look at what was usable it quickly started to dwindle.  Even before consulting references the lack of deck planking, thick splinter shields, sloping superstructures, never mind the small parts, meant it would be difficult to keep very much.  Once I started looking for references another problem became apparent, there is very little accurate information available for Exeter in the late 30’s /  River Plate time frame.  All the available plans I could find where of the ship post River Plate action when the damage she suffered lead to a significant refit and change of appearance, so much of that could not be relied on.   I should add that this project started about three and a half years ago, the issue was not the build, but the fact that I was constantly hitting brick walls in terms of the correct information to build a model.  To cut a long story short and to concentrate on the building of the model rather than the collecting of reference material, I must thank all those who helped over time through www.modelwarships.com in offering photos and drawings as reference material. 
 
To get back to the build, the first issue was to replace the deck, which I did with N gauge planking plastic sheet, I kept the hull after first toning down some of the heavy detail.  The long period of checking references and looking over parts meant the only kit parts I eventually used where the turrets (although with replacement brass barrels), the bridge and the hull, everything else was scratchbuilt.  Superstructure was built up with thicker plastic card and the appropriate decking, steel or planking, again added with plastic card.  The bridge although a good shape was too low, I built this up with card, a lot of detail was needed in this area including the difficult open shield on top of the bridge windows, I used a shaped piece of brass sheet for this carefully supporting it with brass rod.  Funnels were made from brass sheet rolled and slightly flattened until the correct shape was achieved, piping was added with brass rod and solder for the larger steam pipes. 
 
The most difficult areas where the aft superstructure and the catapult and aircraft handling areas.  The former was mainly a reference issue to determine the exact shape, the latter as the catapult on Exeter was a one off only used on this ship and so could not be scrounged from any other existing etch.  In the end I cobbled this together by cutting down two Japanese catapults and adding detail to them to get the right look. 
 
Once most of the main superstructure had been added the somewhat easier business of adding detail took place with liberal use of White Ensign parts for boats, crane, torpedo tubes, Niko 4” guns and more scratchbuilding in the form of vents, davits and all those busy little details.  Masts were brass rod and the Fairey FIII the Trumpeter kit although I replaced the wings with brass sheet to get a more scale appearance and used the GMM aircraft parts for struts.  Other details include GMM ultrafine railings, Lion Roar stanchions, Voyager brass barrels, Eduard figures repainted in tropical uniform and rigging with stretched sprue.
 
Overall quite a bit of work over a long period but I think the results are worth it, Exeter was a fine looking ship to my mind and had an interesting history.  I don’t expect a kit of her to appear at any time in the near future so it is also a pretty unique model of a ship which isn’t likely to be seen very much elsewhere in the modelling world.  Which to me is a pretty good case for every so often getting away from those nice resin kits and rolling your sleeves up and diving in to an old kit or going the whole hog and having a go at some scratchbuilding.