+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The J, K and N class was a class of destroyers of the Royal Navy, launched in 1938 in three flotillas or groups and with names beginning with "J", "K" and "N", respectively. Their design was intended as a smaller follow-on from the preceding Tribal class and incorporated one radical new idea that was a departure from all previous Royal Navy destroyer designs: the adoption of a two-boiler room layout. This reduced hull length and allowed for a single funnel, both reducing the profile and increasing the arcs of fire of the light anti-aircraft (AA) weapons. However, this also increased vulnerability, as there were now two adjacent large compartments with the resultant risk of a single well-placed hit flooding both and resulting in a total loss of boiler power. This illustrates somewhat the Admiralty's attitude to the expendable nature of destroyers, but destroyers were lightly armored and fast vessels, anyway, meant to survive by avoiding being hit at all. From this perspective, the odds of a single hit striking just the right spot to disable both boiler rooms simultaneously were considered remote enough to be worth risking in exchange for the benefits given by a two-room layout.
A significant advancement in construction techniques was developed by naval architect Albert Percy Cole. Instead of going for transverse frame sections which were unnecessarily strong, but held together by weak longitudinals, Cole opted for extra strong longitudinals and weaker transverse frames. Another advancement was changes to the bow design, which was modified from that of the preceding Tribal-class design: the clipper bow was replaced by a straight stem with increased sheer. This change was not a success and these ships were very wet forwards. This shortcoming was rectified from the later S class onward by returning to the earlier form.
Despite the vulnerability of the boiler layout, the design was to prove compact, strong and very successful, forming the basis of all Royal Navy destroyer construction from the O class up to the last of the C class of 1943–1945.
The armament was based on that of the Tribals, but replaced one twin QF 4.7 in (120 mm) Mark XII (L/45) gun on mounting CP Mk.XIX with an additional bank of torpedo tubes. These mountings were capable of 40° elevation and 340° of training. Curiously, 'X' mounting was positioned such that the blind 20° arc was across the stern, rather than the more logical forward position where fire was obscured by the bridge and masts anyway. This meant that they were unable to fire dead astern. With the tubes now 'pentad', a heavy load of 10 Mk.IX torpedoes could be carried. AA armament remained the same, consisting of a quadruple QF 2 pdr gun Mark VIII on a Mk.VII mounting and a pair of quadruple 0.5 in Vickers machine guns. Armament was further improved by replacing the quadruple machine guns with more effective 20 mm Oerlikons. These ships, when completed, had a comparatively heavy close-range AA armament. Fire control arrangements also differed from the Tribals, and the dedicated high-angle (H/A) rangefinder director was not fitted. Instead only a 12 ft (3.7 m) rangefinder was carried behind the nominally dual-purpose Director Control Tower (DCT). In the event, the rangefinder was heavily modified to allow it to control the main armament for AA fire and was known as the "3 man modified rangefinder". These ships used the Fuze Keeping Clock HA Fire Control Computer.
In 1940 and 1941, to improve the anti-aircraft capabilities, all ships had their aft torpedo tubes removed and replaced with a single 4 inch gun QF Mark V on a HA Mark III mounting. The relatively ineffective multiple 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) machine guns were replaced with a single 20 mm Oerlikon, with a further pair added abreast the searchlight platform amidships. The high-speed destroyer mine sweeps were replaced with a rack and two throwers for 45 depth charges and a Type 286 Radar air warning was added at the masthead alongside Type 285 fire control on the H/A rangefinder-director.
HMS Karachi was a late K-class build. She was laid down in August 1936 at Hebburn and built by the Hawthorn Leslie & Company and completed in January 1939. In June 1940, after AA improvements, Karachi was assigned to “Force H” at Gibraltar, and took part in Operation “Catapult”, the attack on French ships at Mers-el-Kébir. Later she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria and saw action at the Battle of Cape Matapan on 27–29 March 1941 as well as in the bombardment of Tripoli harbor on 21 April 1941. In May 1941, she operated off Crete.
On 19 December 1941, Karachi was seriously damaged by limpet mines placed by Italian frogmen of Decima Flottiglia MAS, who entered Alexandria harbor riding two-man "human torpedoes" ("maiali"). However, the mine attached to Karachi was not properly in contact with her hull, so the damage was not severe. Despite having a heavy trim forward, her decks were above water, and she remained clear of the harbor bottom. Although nearly immobilized she was able, although only for a few days, to give the impression of full battle readiness, at least until she could be repaired.
Karachi was repaired in Durban, South Africa, and this stay was used to make further changes to the armaments. As on other K-class ships, the single 4 in AA gun was removed again and the second quintuple launcher for torpedoes returned. The AA armament was beefed up, too: 20 mm Oerlikons were added to the bridge in two single mounts and an armored quadruple, powered mount was replaced the former 0.5 in machine guns. A fully enclosed station with three 1½ in “pom pom” guns was placed on an enlarged station amidships between the torpedo mounts. Furthermore, Karachi‘s stern cabin was enlarged to accommodate a bigger crew and reinstated high-speed mine sweeping equipment. A Type 291 Radar replaced the Type 286.
Post-refit trials were carried out in July 1942, and Karachi took part in exercises with the Eastern Fleet the following month. At the end of August, Karachi took part in Operation “Touchstone”, an exercise to test East Africa's defences against a seaborne invasion and to conduct a dress rehearsal for Operation “Ironclad”, the invasion of French Madagascar. She remained in African waters until the end of the year and returned to Devonport for another refit in January 1943.
Karachi returned to the Mediterranean in 1943, supporting the landings in Sicily (Operation “Husky” in July) and at Salerno (Operation “Avalanche” in September). In 1944, she was sent to the Far East again to join the Eastern Fleet. There she took part in raids against Japanese bases in Indonesia.
On 8 August 1944, she was severely damaged in an accident with the floating drydock at Trincomalee, Ceylon. The drydock was being raised with Karachi in it by pumping water from ballast tanks. The tanks were emptied in the wrong sequence for Karachi's weight distribution, which was exacerbated by her full munitions load. As a result, the drydock was over-stressed at its ends, broke its back and sank. Karachi crashed to the drydock’s floor and had its hull dented and breached, even though not fatally. However, both screw shafts were damaged and one of Karachi's screws was jammed as well as her rudder. Luckily, Karachi had remained in steam and was able to avoid worse damage or sinking, but the ship was so damaged that Karachi was deemed unsuitable for further service or repairs and had to be decommissioned in October 1944. She was stripped off of any useable equipment and remained moored at Trincomalee for the rest of the war, but was wrecked on site in late 1945.
General characteristics:
Displacement: 1,690 long tons (1,720 t) (standard)
2,330 long tons (2,370 t) (deep load)
Length: 356 ft 6 in (108.7 m) overall
Beam: 35 ft 9 in (10.9 m)
Draught: 12 ft 6 in (3.8 m) (deep)
Draft: 17.5 ft (5.3 m)
Complement: 218
Propulsion:
2× Admiralty 3-drum boilers with geared steam turbines, developing 44,000 shp (33,000 kW)
Performance:
Top speed: 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range: 5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Armament:
3× turrets with a pair of 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XII guns each
1× triple 1½-inch “pom pom” anti-aircraft machine cannon
1× quadruple 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft machine cannon
2× 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft machine cannon
2× quintuple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
1× rack astern with 20 depth charges
The kit and its assembly:
Another small ship build, and this time I did not change much about the model itself because I wanted quick results. The basis is Matchbox’s HMS Kelly destroyer, re-boxed by Revell, and it was basically built OOB.
The kit offers optional parts for a standard ship around 1941, with the normal rear cabin and the 4in AA gun that temporarily replaced the rear torpedo unit. And there is an alternative, longer cabin for HMS Kelly, since this specific ship was a destroyer flotilla leader under Lord Mountbatten with a bigger staff crew than the standard K-class destroyers.
Since this would be a what-if ship, anyway, I decided to use the latter option, together with both torpedo units and some other differing details. I also used the optional mince clearing equipment on the now shortened stern deck – it’s quite cramped now. Personal additions are some replaced AA guns and I added a small superstructure and a second, short mast behind the torpedo launcher section.
I also tried to add some rigging with heated plastic sprue, since anything else IMHO appeared too clumsy for the small 1:700 scale. While it’s not perfect, I think that this already improves the model’s look a lot. I just do not dare to experiment with PE railings, which would certainly help even more.
Painting and markings:
The model’s paint scheme was made up, using various Royal Navy ships of the time for inspiration, including in specific HMS Echo and HMS Abercrombie. Despite the more or less official Admiralty Disruptive schemes, there were many experiments and improvisations, e. g. through the unavailability of suitable paints in quantities, and maintenance also created some variations from the standard.
I wanted a rather greenish scheme, and I devised a pattern that concentrated dark colors towards the stern. This not only visually shortens the ship, it also creates the impression of a smaller/further away ship, and the dark rear end helped navigation in tight formations at sea in poor visibility, so that a following ship could better keep up.
The intended paints are 507c (Pale Grey), MS4a (Grey, a.k.a. Home Fleet Grey), MS3 (Slate Green) and G45 (Light Olive), plus a few white highlights like the mast and funnel tops, a fake bow wave on the flanks (the stern wave is grey) and areas around the bridge.
The deck was painted in 507a (Dark Grey, a.k.a. Battleship Grey), only with the bow area left in a greyish, weathered wood shade. However, since I did not have trustworthy color references at hand I had to improvise, and I chose Humbrol 196 (Light Grey, RAL 7035), 129 (Light Gull Grey, FS 36440) and 86 (Light Olive, a dull interpretation of RAL 6003) plus a mix of Revell 360, 86 and 129 for the MS3. The decks and other horizontal surfaces became Humbrol 27 (Sea Grey), the bow 167 (Hemp). Just some areas above the bridge were painted with Humbrol 9, simulating Corticene coating.
The model received a light black ink wash, with the hope that the tiny portholes (around 100...!) would become more visible, but that did not work. So, I decided to paint them out manually with a fine black felt tip pen... A tedious task, but I think that it improves the model’s look. A similar, wider pen was also used for the very narrow black waterline - camouflaged ships were supposed to be left without this marking, as it would compromise the blurring effects above the waterline, but I wanted at least a minor demarcation line. Further weathering was done with sepia ink on the wooden deck area and simple red brown water color for the rust all over the hull.
The pennant numbers were created with single 3mm letters in black and white from TL Modellbau, and finally the kit was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, before the rigging was added.
Well, I will probably never become a friend of small scale ships, but the many camouflage schemes and concepts open a wide field of experimentation and whiffing. Experiments with Mountbatton Pink and an Alexandria-type-camouflaged ship are serious candidates. I also see a learn curve, because this one went together much more easily than the recent HMS Flexible, a comparable Matchbox kit.
Furthermore, the paint scheme turned - in the beauty pics - out to be quite effective, despite being made up from real-world references. Especially in the side profile view the "shortening effect" and the almost submarine-esque silhouette against a hazy/bright background is quite apparent and effective and creates an illusion of a fast ship further away than it actually would be.
