During the early part of the Second World War, Great Britain surveyed many industries in their commonwealth territories seeking additional ways to make significant contributions to the war effort. Small commonwealth shipyards were given the job of producing corvettes as these vessels were basically small warships constructed to merchant hull standards. The corvettes didn't have many of the construction attributes and complications of larger naval-desigricd warships. The small Canadian shipbuilding industry was used to construct Flower clam corvettes, and later, the Canadian version of the famous River class ocean escort vessels. Often, vessels constructed outside of Great Britain differed somewhat from their sister ships build in British shipyards. Such is the case with the Canadian version of the River class corvettes. With the exception of the first dozen or so vessels, most of the Canadian Rivers were produced with a twin 4.5 inch High Angle shielded and partly-enclosed mount in the B position and a single open 12 pdr aft. The standard British-built units had asingle openshielded 4 inch mount forward. There are other differences in these vessels, but nothing which really shows up in 1/2400 scale. The Canadian River with its twin 4.5 inch mount has a significantly enhanced fighting ability compared to the original design. This is enough to make a surprising difference in a wargame. Many of thew vessels operated in European waters and engaged German subs, patrol aircraft, and occasionally Sclinellboats or other surface vessels. Those of us who value such details in our games are thus justified in another kithashing effort. CinC makes both vessels required for this kithash. The Rivers are in a box of three. CinC's British Hunt class vessels supply the twin 4.5 inch mounts. Since there are three 4.5 inch mounts on each Hunt, you will destroy one Hunt to create three Canadian Rivers. The first step is to use an X-Acto fine saw blade to remove the twin 4.5 inch mounts from a Hunt class model. First make a series of six vertical cuts across the hull of the Hunt immediately forward and aft of each 4.5 inch mount. Throw the extra portions of the Hunt into your parts box for future kitbashes. You should now have three 4.5 inch mounts, each with a piece of deck port and starboard. Lay one mount on its back and carefully make a vertical cut on each side right next to the mount. You should now have the mount at the top of a short column of lead. Holding the mount carefully down to your cutting surface with a pair of needle nosed forceps, carefully cut the lead column from the base of the mount. Place the mount in a secure location and repeat the procedure with the other two mounts. At the forward 0-1 level of the River, use a sharp X-acto blade to remove the forward half of the guardrails. Also use your knife to remove the forward 4 inch single mount from the 0-1 level. Make a vertical cut across the forward end of the 0-1 level at the point where the sides come out of the turn of the deckhouse and are parallel to each other. Your intent is to square off the forward rounded portion of the deckhouse. Clean the 0-1 deck flat and cement a twin 4.5 inch mount into place. We now will increase the length of the deckhouse by adding more superstructure on the main deck forward of the twin gun mount. You will have to extend the deckhouse forward 1.5m in. Use a piece of plastic the same height as the 0-1 level. After it is cemented in place, gently file both sides of the extension so that the side of the deckhouse parallels the side of the ship but is no wider that the deckhouse at the after end of the extension. Finally, cut a horizontal step into the forward top of the deckhouse. This step should be no larger than 1/4 of the forward end of the dcckhouse. Paint your Canadian River vessels and add them to your fleet. BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #4 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history and related articles are available at http://www.magweb.com