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HMS Howe 1944

This is my attempt at depicting HMS Howe in her 1944 refit. I wanted to do her in camouflage, but with the ship's boats amidships.

The water on this one is again, carved and sanded Styrofoam that has been coated with small bits of regular paper to even it out. I can't remember, but I think I applied a couple of layers of epoxy and sanded the hell out of it to get it nice and water-like before painting. The bow-wave is cotton batting that has been shaped with acrylic high gloss medium.

I used the Pontos Prince of Wales set with Tamiya's King George V kit as well as some White ensign, Gold Medal, Academy, and NorthStar details. The gun directors and most of the Foremast are scratch built as are the circular platforms that flank the second level of the main superstructure. Unique to Howe is its covered axillary steering bridge located on the aft funnel. This, I scratch-built out of styrene and paper. In addition, Howe required many more Oerlikon guns placed aft and in strange rows behind the second breakwater. The camouflage scheme is as accurate as I could possibly guess it to be from the scant photos of her at this time. I'm confident that for every decision I made with the coloring, I can provide some evidence from the historical record to back it up. Certain panels are anyone's guess. The darker decks are an attempt to suggest that they are wet.