Firstly I feel I must explain the reason way it’s taken so long to complete this project. I had been suffering from a severe sinus problem which thanks to surgery has been rectified enabling me to work again without any ill effects.
Back to the build, I decided to build the ship not how she appeared out of her re-build but after July 1943 when she had received a small refit that included the addition of 4 x single barreled 20mm Oerlikon cannons and their Zareba emplacements. These were placed either side of the aircraft catapult where there were already four of these weapons. This fit is how the ship looked when she engaged the Scharnhorst at the Battle of North Cape in December 1943.
The model was built with the ship steaming at sea on patrol duty preparing to launch one of her Walrus aircraft with the catapult extended and aircraft ready to launch. Whilst I was in the early stages of assembly of the model Artwox released a wooden deck veneer for the kit and so naturally I purchased it to use in the build. This meant that I had to paint the hull parts where the deck was to fit before fitting it and not fitting any inclined ladders, deck equipment etc as this will get in the way of fitting the veneer into place. So I built up as much of the model into hundreds (literally) of subassemblies and made each ready for painting. Luckily the superstructure in this kit fits really well and I was able to build some sections completely before being attached to the hull.
Reference material used
Several references, mainly books were used whilst building this model; the main ones are:
ANATOMY OF THE SHIP; THE CRUISER HMS BELFAST by Conway Publications and has plans and drawings of the ship overall and detail sections from her rebuild to present condition as a Museum PICs 24-25
WARSHIP PROFILE SPECIAL 29 HMS BELFAST, EDINBURGH CLASS CRUISER 1939-1971 by John Wingate DSC. This is an old paperback publication that can be found on the second hand book market for a reasonable sum and is a mixture of informative text archive pictures and drawings and centre piece colour artwork of ship as she appeared at Battle of North Cape in December 1943. It also lists all modifications done to ship including weapons and electronic sensors etc.
THE TOWN CLASS CRUISERS BY Neil McCart and published by Maritime Books. This is a brand new publication with excellent archive pictures and very detailed text on the personal ship histories of this 10 ship class of light cruisers. Very useful for working out details of ship for a specific period in its service.
STILL MOTIONS PHOTOGRAPHICS VOLUME 100 THE SOUTHHAMPTONS AND BELFAST/EDINBURGH CLASS ROYAL NAVY CRUISERS. This is a photographic CD containing over 100 images of the vessels in question. It’s produced by Ray Bean from Canada are available in UK from White Ensign Models. The pics can be enlarged on your PC and offer an excellent source of information of a vessel.