From KenR: 1/700 HMS Punjabi (Ship of the week) (40 points)

Well this Challenge has turned into a ship fest against all my planning but with work commitments getting through a ship a week is a challenge in itself at the moment. It's definitely helping me progress the ship part of the Narvik Project.

This week I present HMS Punjabi, the final one of 4 Tribal Class Destroyers for the project and this one is a 1/700 scale Trumpeter kit, just like last week's entry. I've opted for a dark grey lower hull with light grey upper on this one and it does make quite a nice contrast.

The ship spent its career in home waters and on the Northern Convoy routes, she was involved in the 2nd Battle of Narvik where she was badly damaged, losing all power for over an hour. She was lost escorting Convoy PQ15 in May 1942, the deck watch believed they had see a mine and ordered a 15 degree turn to avoid it, unfortunately it was foggy and without knowing the ship turned in front of the British Battleship KGV. The larger ship sliced Punjabi in two however the impact and explosions of depth charges on the Destroyer caused serious damage to the KGV.

So that's another 40 points to the total, I'm a country mile of my target but at least I'm getting a bit done each week. With this ship complete, I have 5 more Destroyers and Warspite to do. With 3 weeks to go, I'll need more than a ship a week and the Warspite is a huge job on its own. Never mind a half done unit of Prussian Landwher !

Anyway, I'm going to aim for two ships next week, until then here are the 4 Tribals for the project.

TeemuL: Let's start with a safe and familiar first entry of the day, 1/700 ship. Thank you Ken, I know there are lots of followers on this project. And two ships a week next? I just hope that those people who are waiting for the Prussian Landwehr and other 28mm models are not neglected too much.

It is interesting to see, that even when those four ships are more or less similar, your skightly different colour choices make them all individuals, but they still look like a group and they all look very real. Splendid job!

From KenR: 1/700 HMS Cossack (40 points)

 

Second ship of the week and that's me back on track. I've a couple of Tribal Class Destroyers to do and this is the first one.

This model is the usual 1/700 scale made by Trumpeter and after the Photo etch fest of the previous IBG Models, this has zero PE which is definitely my favourite amount of the devil's work. It's still the same 40 points PE or not !

HMS Cossack had a short but exciting career, first known for her part in the Altmark Incident where she "bumped" into the German Ship and rescued around 300 British prisoners of War who had been captured by Graf Spee. This took place in Norwegian waters (who were Neutral at the time) and Germany claimed that it was a breach of International Law. Pot, kettle, black.

Cossack was involved in the 2nd Battle of Narvik and was badly damaged during an engagement with the German Destroyer Z17 and just made it back to safety. She was then involved in the hunt for the Bismarck, finding the German Battleship during the night and kept it busy until larger ships and aircraft could attack the next day. Cossack was rather lucky in that one of her antenna was shot off by a shell from Bismarck, a few feet lower and it would have been a different story. She was finally sunk after a storm when she was being towed back to Gibraltar after a U Boat Torpedo hit.

Above are the 3 Tribal Class Destroyers to date (2 done pre challenge) and HMS Punjabi is the next ship to build. I reckon I can get another couple of Destroyers done plus Warspite before the end of the Challenge, which will leave me with just 3 more to complete the warship side of the Project.

TeemuL: And Ken delivers, the second ship this week and project is again back on track. Quite an interesting career for this HMS Cossack, nice to read it. Great job again and it is nice to hear there are options even on this project, with different manufacturers and amount of photo etches. :)