Revell HMCS Snowberry Flower Class Corvette
This is the third part of the Revell HMCS Snowberry Flower Class Corvette 1/144 Scale RVG 05132
Since the last post, I’ve been trying to find more info on the Flower Class Corvette. There are a few pictures of HMCS Snowberry which are excellent to have, but I was watching some videos on Canada’s only surviving ship, HMCS Sackville. As invaluable as the videos of Sackville have been the ship was refitted in 1943 and some of these changes are very different to what Revell has included with the kit.
This is always tricky with reference materials online as a lot of the subjects you see in a museum are later versions of a subject. And that makes sense as many subjects are donated or purchased towards the end of their use. For this project, I’ll be making my best guesses, and building a more distressed Snowberry than the clean version as you see in this picture. I want this model to look weary and a bit beat up as if it’s been on a few convoy missions already.
Starting off, I’m going to be painting the forward section of the deck, as well as two small sections near the galley. I want to do something interesting for this section as it’s the only wooden section on this ship, so I’m going to paint sections of the decking in multiple colors to create tones in the wood. But first, I’ll prime the area with Mr Surfacer 1200.
Here are the paints that I’ve chosen, all are Tamiya acrylics paints. Starting on the left, XF-78 Wooden Deck Tan, XF-93 Light Brown (DAK 1942), and XF-60 Dark Yellow.
I’ve started with a base layer of XF-60 Dark Yellow. This paint was thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner, and it sprayed very smoothly. I’m going to be starting with the darkest of the colors and working up to the brighter XF-78.
The next step was to cut up thin strips of tape to mask off the various deck sections. This was a bit of a tedious process to cut them very thin, and to add to the challenge all of those recessed panels on the deck aren’t the same width. But I think these extra efforts will pay off in the end.
Using my Excel Hobby pointed tweezers I was able to slowly add on the strips of tape. I took care not to add the tape next to each other which would create one giant slab, and to not have connecting at the tips making a sort of lightning bolt.
It was also important not to add on too many as this is the darkest of the colors it could become overwhelming for the Wooden Deck Tan, which is going to be the majority color.
Here I’ve painted XF-93 and masked off more of the panels. It was a bit more difficult to mask these sections as the recessed lines on the deck weren’t very deep, and the primer and 2 layers of paint began to fill them in slightly.
And lastly one of my favourite colors in the Tamiya paint range XF-78 Wooden Deck Tan. (I realize I must say that a lot about the Tamiya colors, but it’s true they make a lot of great paints.)
Now if you are building this or any other ship that has a wooden deck you could just start here with XF-78, and simply add on a wash to create some weathering. This is especially true with ships on a smaller scale like 1:700 as the colored decking might not be as noticeable as with the larger scales.
Here is the deck with all of the masking tape removed, and I’ve got to say I’m very pleased with the end result. At the moment it might look a bit too busy, but there’s going to be a lot of parts added later on, and the main gun platform which will sadly cover more of the deck.
Based on video reference of HMCS Sackville, most of the wooden decks were all gone when it was refitted in 1943. There is some still at the top of the open bridge, and this is all covered with lacquer giving it an orange appearance.
I had thought about replicating this effect, but with how this turned out I’m going to keep the decking.
But if you want to replicate this you can easily do it with a method I’ve used on larger scale WWI biplanes. Simply paint the sections with a base color of XF-78, and then lightly spray on X-26 Clear Orange, or XF-24 Clear Yellow, depending on the subject.
On the rest of the deck, there are sections that were coated in rubber. These will be darker than the rest of the deck color. I started with a base layer of XF-85 Black Rubber, again thinned with Mr Leveling Thinner. A lot of these deck details are very faint so I want to keep the paint as thin as possible so that the paint doesn’t fill them in.
To weather the rubber a bit I sprayed on XF-53 Neutral Grey, and XF-83 Medium Sea Grey 2 (RAF). I painted it very splotchy, it was literally a drop of paint and 2-3 drops of the Leveling Thinner. I sprayed the paint on about 4-5 inches away from the model and this created a nice dusting of the grey colors.
If there were any sections that I found were too grey I repeated this same process but with the XF-85 Black Rubber.
Before the main color of the deck was to be applied I had to mask off the painted sections. I started with the wooden deck, and this took a while to accomplish as I had to leave several sections uncovered.
The rubber sections of the deck took the longest to mask over as they were very faint and I’d sometimes lose sight of what was supposed to be masked over. What made things a lot easier for me was using Tamiya Tape, in particular, the 3mm and 5mm widths. These tapes certainly helped speed up the process as I was able to cut and lay down small sections.
Here I’ve completed masking the lower deck. It took a bit of extra time to mask around the holders for the depth charges, but it will be a lot easier than painting these little details by hand.
Now that the masking is done, I’ve sadly run out of time, and I’ll have to finish painting the deck next week. Which might be for the best as there are a few more sections of the deck that will also need to be painted.
Though the different colors of decking might not be the most accurate, why would wood from the same tree be such different color, it does make the model look more interesting and the different planks can help create a sense of scale for the subject.
All of this masking is slowing things down a bit there are a few masking sets out there for the deck. I didn’t realize before I started this project how long this would take or I might have considered a set.
There are also quite a few photo-etch sets available if you want to super detail your model, as well I found a company selling a real wooden deck. But for this project I’ll try to build it straight from the box, as great as the aftermarkets are for adding extra detail, I think we can still have a lot of fun and add some modifications to this kit.
To be continued…
Jared Demes is a modeler from southern Alberta. He has been building models since he was 4 years old when his Dad first introduced him to the hobby. He has written for several magazines including, Fine Scale Modeler, Scale Aircraft Modeling, Phoenix Scale Models, and others. He has an interest in all modeling subjects, with a focus on WWII Japanese aircraft and Science Fiction.
Jared has won several IPMS awards for his modeling, and currently operates his YouTube channel rebelsatcloudnine, where he showcases model builds and product demonstrations.
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