Nautical Research Journal


Scratch building a 1:48-scale Flower-class corvette on a Fleetscale hull, Part 2: T e fo’c’s’le and midship house By Bruce LeCren


T is article continues a series begun in Ships in Scale. T e fi rst part is posted on the Nautical Research Guild website at www.thenrg.org/sis-articles


In Part 1 of this build we leſt HMCS Chicoutimi with the main deck complete on the Fleetscale (www. fl eetscale.com) fi berglass hull. Now we must replace the original fi berglass bulwarks that were cut away in Part 1 with something true to scale; as well as complete the fo’c’s’le and midship house.


The bulwarks and rail


I replaced the bulwarks with 0.020-inch styrene sheet cut into strips several ‘plates’ long. T e deck’s sheer was taken off the model using my woodworker’s profi le gauge, and dimensions came from the plans in my primary reference: T e Flower Class Corvette Agassiz. T e joggled joints between the plates were simulated by 0.020-inch by 0.100-inch styrene strips faired with putty on the joggled side only. (Figure 14)


Each bulwark was completed with scuppers, fairleads, and washplates, whose details were taken from the Agassiz plans, and locations checked against photographs of the ship. Shipyards were allowed to deviate from Admiralty specifi cations to use fi ttings they had ready to hand; so do not trust the book plans to be one-hundred-percent accurate for all corvettes! T e washplates were made from styrene, and the fairleads are by Aeronaut. T e bulwarks were glued to the main deck, reinforced with 0.080-inch angles.


T e bulwark stay locations were previously marked


14. First bulwark section. T e putty fairs the forward side of the strip styrene to simulate a joggle in the plate. All photographs are by the author.


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15. Second bulwark section.


on the main deck. T e three parts making up each of the fi ſt y-two stays were cut from styrene angle using my NorthWest Short Line Chopper tool. T is tool is indispensable to achieve repeated accuracy when making multiple parts. T e stays were glued in position as each bulwark was installed. (Figure 15)


T ere is one fl at plate at the stern that was held in the correct position with a steel ruler to facilitate making the two curved quarter plates. Before gluing these in place the holes for the depth charge chutes and minesweeper fairleads were cut out. Chicoutimi and Agassiz had diff erent layouts in the stern, so again, check references when modelling a particular


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