by Jaap Pluimgraaff
1/350 HMS Repulse (Trumpeter)
Originally build as a fast battle cruiser in 1916 she was commissioned just after the battle of Jutland. In 1917 in the second battle of Helgoland bight her big guns scored a hit at he German cruiser SMS Königsberg. That single hit was destined to be the only one scored by Repulse’s big guns in her whole career.
On December 10 1941 Force Z existed of the capital ships Repulse, Prince of Wales (POW) and the destroyers Electra, Express, Tenedos and HMAS Vampire.
They were attacked by three consecutive airstrikes.
The first airstrike was performed at 11:18 by 9 Mitsubishi High level bombing aircraft.
Repulse received a 250Kg Bomb that hit her upper deck near the aircraft hangar on the starboard side killing one sailor en wounding several others. The remaining Walrus plane (the other was flying anti sub patrol) was leaking petrol and was quickly dumped into the sea. But there was no speed loss or serious damage. POW was not attacked because the Japanese reckoned her armoured deck would easily withstand the bombs. 5 Japanese bombers were damaged but none were shot down.
At 11:38 16 torpedo aircraft Mitsubishi type 96 G3M2(Nell) armed with torpedoes attacked. POW was attacked by 9 planes which crippled POW leaving her with no electric power from amidships down to the stern, and a maximum speed of only 15 knots. POW managed to shoot down one plane. 7 others were damaged. At 11:49 Repulse was simultaneously attacked by 6 H/L bombers and 7 Torpedo planes but received no hits thanks to skilful evasive actions by her captain.
At 12:20 another 26 Mitsubishi type 96 G4M1(Betty) armed with torpedoes came in.
17 aircraft attacked POW though some of them were intending to turn away at the last minute to attack Repulse. Only 6 aircraft pressed on to POW who could barely defend herself due to the electrical failures and was hit by 4 torpedoes and was taking in 18,000 tons of water. Two minutes later Repulse was attacked by 22 planes from many different angles but most headed for the battle cruisers starboard side. 2 Betty’s where shot down, eight where damaged. Repulse received 5 torpedo hits and started 12 degrees on the port side. 11 minutes after the first torpedo hit Repulse rolled over and went down, followed by POW 50 minutes later.
Some facts about the attackers:
The Japanese had used all torpedoes against Force Z that they had in that region. The torpedoes had a top speed of 25 knots, the Japanese torpedo bombers where 1,5 time faster and dropped their torpedoes from a much greater height (105 ft) than the obsolete British Swordfishes. Torpedoes were launched at 3000 -600 yards from target.
As I reckoned that the sea base would be a stiff challenge I decided to build it first and after some grandiose failures I ended up with a base made from solid polystyrene plate. Waves and wakes were shaped with a coarse grater which give it a nice truthful appearance and painted with acrylics from Lifecolor and varnished with something from the shelf in the shed.
I did some little modifications like brass masts, and some styrene strips in some places. I knew that the aft superstructure had been altered before WWII but I just didn't know how to do it so I chickened out. This build was stretching my building capacities to the limit. Especially the life boats and the seaplane were real hefty challenges.
Everything is hand painted apart from some experiments with airspraybottles from Tamiya on the main mast (which didn’t work out in my case).
While building I managed to “bomb” Repulse with a PE set, killing three sailors from L’arsenal and leaving the spotting top on the water base, the spotting top was snapped at the base so I drilled holes in the conning tower main mast pole and the underside of the spotting top, glueing a brass pin in the holes and hoping for the best. At first it looked ok but after putting strain on the joint by rigging it did warp considerably. A few days after the “bombing” I did find one of the missing sailors swimming in the water next to Repulse. To maintain 20+ knot swimming speed this guy must have been Johnny Weissmuller himself…
Portholes, bridge windows and spotting top windows are made with crystal clear.
Rigging is stretched sprue, which proved to be the hardest part of the build as several times one or more wires snapped. Also made the base and display case myself with an led light strip to illuminate it, but won’t do that again.
Pictures
I mounted my camera on a tripod for virtually all pictures giving me the opportunity to use full freedom of camera settings with high apertûre (F16 and upwards) and very slow shutter speed. For better Dept of Field ratings I used CombineZM, a truly great application for that, and it’s freeware too!
I must admit that some pictures look better than reality, but I trust no one would bother to drop by to check that out.
This is my second ship since I started modelling including a number of "firsts" and next “attempts”. Also first serious use of PE. Thanks to the members of the model warships board for providing me with lot’s of good ideas and pictures and those who contribute to the "tips" and "scratch build" forums.
Aftermarket:
Sources:
Modelwarships.com
Wikipedia
The sinking of the Prince of Wales & Repulse by Martin Middlebrook & Patrick Mahoney
The internet
