DONE +++ 1:700 H.M.S. Onager; Royal Navy O-Class destroyer, Northern Atlantic, 1942

[Dizzyfugu]

1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

More coming soon, as a kind or prelude to my Sixties GB entry of the same ship, just 22 years later... 

[PR19_Kit]

The camo looks VERY good.   

[Dizzyfugu]

The camo looks VERY good.   

Thank you. As will be explained later, it is an adaptation of two real ships' liveries with some personal twists. Took some iterations to develop. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Somewhere in the Northern Atlantic in early 1942, photographed by a German reconnaissance aircraft from Norway...


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[Dizzyfugu]

1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Some background:
The O and P class was a class of destroyers of the British Royal Navy. Ordered in 1939, they were the first ships in the War Emergency Programme, also known as the 1st and 2nd Emergency Flotilla, respectively. The O and P class were based on the hull and machinery of the preceding J class, but with more sheer forward to counter the poor riding qualities of the Js. These ships used the Fuze Keeping Clock HA Fire Control Computer.

The O-class ships were built in three groups of four. The first group had 4.7-inch guns. They were in low-angle mounts which could elevate to only 40 degrees and were additionally fitted with a 4-inch anti-aircraft gun in place of one set of torpedo tubes. The second group had 4-inch (102 mm) guns in high-angle mounts and were fitted to act as minelayers; they could be recognized by the flat "beaver tail" stern over which the mines were dropped. However, when carrying mines, they had to land Y gun, their torpedo tubes and depth charges.

The third group received a mixed, upgraded gun armament, with a pair of new twin 45-calibre 4.7-inch gun turrets and a total of three 4-inch anti-aircraft guns, with a tall new shield design which did not require the ships to lose a set of torpedo tubes to take on further AA guns. Another exclusive feature was the addition of a rangefinder in a new superstructure behind the bridge so that these destroyers could take over fire control duties for other ships.
The designed anti-aircraft armament for all ships was one quadruple QF 2-pounder "pom pom" and a pair of quadruple 0.5-inch Vickers A/A machine guns. The latter proved to be outdated and lacked range and firepower, so that they were soon replaced by 20 mm Oerlikon guns as they became available, with a total of six single mounts eventually being carried.
The following P class destroyers were repeats of the O class, but these ships were armed entirely with 4-inch guns, in high-angle mounts fitted with the new shields from the late O ships.


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


HMS Onager was the 2nd ship of the O ships' 3rd group. Built by White, she was laid down 14 October 1940 and launched 31 January 1942. Onager received the pennant number 'L80' and initially served in the North Atlantic as convoy escort, operating out of Scapa Flow and wearing a modified Western Approaches paint scheme.
She served only briefly in this role, though, and was assigned to support the Allied landings in North Africa in October 1942, being repainted in a Light Admiralty scheme before leaving Scapa Flow. On 28 November, Onager attacked and sank the Italian submarine Dessiè off the Tunisian coast. After this, the destroyer was assigned to "Force Q", which was based at Bône and consisted of three cruisers and two other Q-class destroyers. Around midnight on 1 December, Force Q located and attacked an Italian convoy of four merchant ships and escorting destroyers about 40 miles (64 km) to the north of Cape Bon. All four supply ships, carrying mostly troops and munitions, were sunk, and at 01:35 on 2 December Onager fired the final shot into the Italian torpedo boat Lupo which was part of the escort of another convoy. While returning to port, sister ship HMS Quentin was torpedoed by a German aircraft and sank; Onager evacuated most of the other destroyer's personnel. On 21 December, Onager rescued survivors from the passenger vessel Strathallen.

In January 1943, the destroyer escorted a convoy from England to Cape Town, then made for Victoria, Australia for refit. After work was completed, Onager was assigned to the British Eastern Fleet, primarily as a convoy escort across the Indian Ocean. In July 1943, the ship rescued survivors from Jasper Park, that was sunk by U-boat U-177. In April 1944, the destroyer was part of the carrier escort screen during Operation Cockpit, then again in May for Operation Transom: air raids against Japanese forces occupying the Dutch East Indies. After a brief refit in Melbourne, Onager resumed operations with the Eastern Fleet in August. In October, she took part in a series of fleet bombardments of the Japanese-held Nicobar Islands. In mid-December, Onager was reassigned to Australian waters as a convoy escort and anti-submarine patrol vessel. During early 1945, the destroyer was attached to the British Pacific Fleet and received its final livery, a simplified greenish-grey standard pattern. Operating from Manus Island, Onager took part in operations in support of the American seizure of Okinawa and attacks on the Japanese home islands.


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Most other O ships were primarily deployed to the Northern Atlantic (and all survived), the P ships served mainly in the Mediterranean, where four ships were lost. They served as convoy escorts in World War II, and some were subsequently converted to fast second-rate anti-submarine frigates in the 1950s.

At the end of World War II, Onager was present at the Allied reoccupation of Singapore, and spent the period until February 1946 operating in the East Indies to help reestablish Dutch control, move troops, and repatriate prisoners-of-war. Between 1946 and 1948, Onager was deployed with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force on three occasions. After that she was paid off in May 1948 and was placed in reserve at Portsmouth but was reactivated again in 1955 and modernized at Thornycroft's Woolston, Southampton shipyard, until 1957. Onager was finally decommissioned in 1972 at Chatham Dockyard, and eventually scrapped at Portsmouth, being one of the last surviving British destroyers of World War 2.


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


General characteristics:
    Displacement: 1,690 tons (1,717 tonnes) standard
                              2,250 tons (2,286 tonnes) full load
    Length: 345 ft (105 m) overall
    Beam: 35 ft (10.7 m)
    Draught: 9 ft (2.7 m)
    Draft: 15.5 ft (4.7 m)
    Complement: 176

Propulsion:
    2× Admiralty 3-drum water-tube boilers, Parsons geared steam turbines,
        delivering 40,000 shp on 2 shafts

Performance:
    Top speed: 36.75 kt
    Range: 3,850 nmi at 20 kt

Armament:
    2× twin QF 4.7 in (120 mm) guns
    3× single QF 4 in (102 mm) AA guns
    1× quad 2 pdr (40 mm /1.6 in) AA gun
    4× single 20 mm (0.8 in) AA guns
    1× quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
    4× throwers and 2 × racks for 70 depth charges


The kit and its assembly:
I had wanted to create a British WWII warship in a classic North Atlantic scheme for a while, and when I recently stumbled upon a cheap Tamiya O-Class destroyer set (reboxed Green Max kit, which comes with two models, allowing to build a ship from the 1st and the 2nd series, which differed in armament), I took the opportunity to whif one of the models into a fictional 3rd production series ship.

The kits are a simple affair and I only made minor changes. Turrets 'A' and 'Y' were upgrade to twin guns (procured from the donor bank), and I added a rangefinder superstructure (also a leftover donor piece) as well as a different main mast with a radar behind the bridge to change the silhouette. Nevertheless, the model was supposed to remain an O Class destroyer.


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Painting and markings:
The plan was clear but its execution not so much. Even though I wanted a Western Approaches (WA) scheme in white with WA blue and WA green contrast areas, finding a suitable but also interesting pattern was not easy. I eventually found inspiration in a Royal Navy escort trawler which featured, beyond the usual three WA tones, an additional wavy greenish grey (supposedly MS3) area close to the waterline along the hull's rear section (see below).

The Admiralty Western Approaches scheme evolved from a camouflage scheme applied to HMS Broke in June 1940 at the suggestion of the naturalist Peter Scott, who was serving aboard that ship. Broke was painted white with large polygonal patches of light gray, light sea blue and light sea green. Broke achieved some notoriety in a collision where the captain of the other ship claimed to have been unable to see Broke. Escort captains observing Broke experimented with similar schemes including polygons of dark gray or dark blue for increased disruptive contrast, while others tried painting their ships entirely white to emphasize concealment. The Admiralty omitted light gray from Peter Scott's scheme. White with large polygonal patches of light sea blue and light sea green was adopted in mid-1941 for use exclusively on destroyers and smaller ships engaged in anti-submarine operations. This was an effective scheme under typical North Atlantic weather conditions of fog and overcast. It was also very effective at night when the generally very pale overall paint scheme reflected the ambient light, what markedly reduced the ships' visibility.

From the trawler's modified WA concept I developed an individual scheme and added a tail section in MS3, too. This contrast marking was applied to many ships operating in the Northern Atlantic, intended to make the ship easier to spot and follow in a convoy in hazy conditions, avoiding collisions. For the same reason the funnel's rear side a was also painted with MS3, improving its visibility from behind the ship.
Another non-standard addition to the WA scheme is the wavy low MS3 section along the rear hull; I assume that this was, like a false white bow wave applied to many ships with a dark background, applied as an alternative measure to suggest speed, esp. at calm sea?
Since the ship would be depicted quite early in WWII the wooden deck would still be unpainted (yet weathered), but the metal deck areas were painted in dark grey (507b). Open deck areas around the bridge received a reddish-brown Corticene floor.


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Finding proper paints was challenging, too, because the RN tones appear to "suffer" from a wide range of interpretations, and reliable color references are hard to find. So, instead of pure white I rather used a very light grey (RAL 7035, Revell 371). Humbrol 47 (Sea Blue; could have been an even "colder" tone, though) was used for WA Blue; WA Green was mixed from Humbrol 23 (RAF Duck Egg Blue – which ironically comes very close to the Royal Navy's Duck Egg Green used on some ships?) and a little Revell 360 (Farngrün, RAL 6025), for a quite intense light green. In hindsight it also could have been more pale, the contrast between the WA Blue and Green on the model is very small, but overall the impression is IMHO good.
MS3 as the fourth tone was mixed from Humbrol 224 (FAA Dark Slate grey) with a little Revell 371 to brighten the tone and lower the contrast to the rest of the camouflage. No black waterline was added, because this feature had by early 1942 been deleted from ship camouflage.
Wooden deck areas were painted with Humbrol 168 (RAF Hemp) and later treated with sepia ink, the grey deck sections with Humbrol 106 (RAF Ocean Grey); the Corticene areas became Humbrol 70 (Brick Red). The tips of the masts were painted white (Revell 301).

Due to the model's small size only a very thin black ink washing was applied to emphasize edges and surface details. Portholes and windows on hull and superstructures were made with gloss back paint and a toothpick. Rust and dirt were simulated with simple watercolors. The (fictional, AFAIK 'L80' was never used?) pennant number was created from single black and white 2 mm letters/digits. Weathering (rust stains etc.) was done with various watercolor tones, incl. burnt sienna, umbra, and grey. Before final assembly the model was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. Rigging was done with heated grey plastic sprue material.


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:700 H.M.S. 'Onager' (pennant number 'L80'), Royal Navy O-class destroyer; Northern Atlantic Fleet; Scapa Flow, summer 1942 (What-if/modified Tamiya kit) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

WELL outside my area of expertise, but it looks great. 

And that overhead shot with the wake streaming astern, sixth pic down, is MASTERFUL!

[Dizzyfugu]

WELL outside my area of expertise, but it looks great. 

And that overhead shot with the wake streaming astern, sixth pic down, is MASTERFUL!

Thank you. And that pic is the simple waterlin model over a DIN A3 print of a motorboat, the model hides the ship very well. So simple, so effective. 

[NARSES2]

That's come out really well Dizzy 

The photo of the hull resting on the paint tinlets also reminds me why these models are now way beyond my abilities and eyesight nowadays 

[Dizzyfugu]

The photo of the hull resting on the paint tinlets also reminds me why these models are now way beyond my abilities and eyesight nowadays 

Thank you - yes, it's tiny, and I am not good at ships. But as long as you do not take a really close look it looks quite fine.