HMS Gay Archer is completely historically incorrect

Machinery of War Discussion Navy
1

Hi guys, today Gaijin anounced HMS Gay Archer for the upcoming battle pass, and as the one who suggested a few members of the class, i was somewhat disappointed to see that the ship model was completely ahistorical to how HMS Gay Archer was configured and appeared during actual service. Below serves as a brief summery of what is wrong with the ship as present and what needs to be rectified to make the model historically accurate plus additional historical photos to cement my information.

image

Above is a screenshot of the ship as it currently appears in the devblog and circled are parts that are historically inaccurate and based of the civilian rebuild of the vessel by a private collector. Whom ever modelled the ship used photographs of this rebuild to model the ship but unfortunately, this referb was done on a budget and is very much different to how the ship actually appeared and was armed in service.

below are the main points I immediately became aware of with the ship:

  1. the radar and ship antenna are not present and instead are modern or mock up that do not resemble how the ship was in service
  2. the entire back of the ship is modelled off the civilian referb of the vessel, including the deck that would normally house plastic chairs for pleasure cruising. In addition, there is a ladder present on the back of the vessel that was not there during service, and a 20mm oerlikon that has been haphazardly slapped on the rear deck, which is completely different then the twin 20mm that could have seen service on the vessel during actual service (See photos below)
  3. there is an additional port hole was not present on the vessel in service that was added at a later date to provide more light in the interior of the ship
  4. the torpedo tubes lack their aiming and firing control panels, as they are modelled off the dummy ones carried on the present ship.
  5. the ship is riddled with a copious amount of modern life preservers to comply with current UK boating regulations for carrying passengers. historically only two were carried at the rear of the superstructure
  6. the 40mm present on the front of the boat is a hand-cranked early variety of the Bofors, unlike the fully mechanical mark 7 that would have been carried in active service.
  7. the ship’s bridge did not have a glass windshield whilst in active service, these only became standard with the navy after the brave class as they possessed an NBC bridge.

In order to substantiate these claims I will now affix several photos and their incumbent context:

image
May 15, 1954: HMS Gay Charioteer P-1048 (left) and HMS Gay Archer P-1041 seen on the River Thames escorting the Royal Barge. (MaritimeQuest - HMS Gay Archer P-1041 Page 1)

image

June 1954: Four Gay class boats, including HMS Gay Archer P-1041 (foreground) seen at Hon Fleur, France.
(Photo from the Colin W. Hewitt Collection)
Courtesy of Colin W. Hewitt
Scan by Philip J. Heydon, I.S.M.

image
image
Two images of HMS Gay Archer, whilst undergoing trials in a gun boat configuration, though date and location are not known

image
image1150×729 63.7 KB


image
Two images showing HMS Gay Archer after almost sinking after striking a boon


image
image
Three images showing hms Gay Archer in Aarhus Harbour, Denmark on 18 May 1953 she was alongside MTB P1023, which caught fire and exploded. ( Postwar Gay-Class Boats – The End for Petroleum | Coastal Forces Veterans )

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1139211158058963115/1164274119383191693/gaybombadier1955.png?ex=65429dc5&is=653028c5&hm=55ba2688f876a2095ea0aff1e4bb597a400a0564bb839e2ab425e5ddadcb9905&

Photo of HMS Gay Bombardier, showing the twin 20mm mount that would have been fitted to HMS Gay Archer during her early torpedo boat configuration, as you can see it varies wildly from what is presented in the dev blog. During her service the main gun based on most photos was a bofors 40mm mk 7, as seen previously

image
image
Two additional photos showing a Gay class configured with the forward 40mm

The issue has been bug reported and can be found here:
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/dxJ7lqJMXjOS

Sources:

25 Likes
2

Let’s get her fixed!

1 Like
3

It’s just like that other British coastal fleet boat, ML 1383 was it? I believe this one was modeled after the civilian refit too.

I much prefer ships be modeled after their wartime refit. Also I love the 4.5 inch gun, I think Gay Archer would be really fun with the 40mm and 4.5 inch gun combo.

9 Likes
4

Let’s hope we can get at least this one right eh cacti?

5

For a such a bland BP vehicle, the least they could do is make it correct and not this lazy overlooked trash

+1. atleast make it PROPER if you’re going to fucking add it. my god gaijin.

6

Never mess with a Brit when it comes to the Royal navy, great work on this

6 Likes
8

I’ll get to this after work tomorrow.

8 Likes
9

Awesome!

10

The restored version LOOKS military… but it has 3 bedrooms and a bar in the hull!! :)

image

image

11

But all the photos of it and others of the class with TT’s show the 40mm or twin 20mm oerlikon arrangement - British Military Powerboat Trust, Coastal Forces, Gunboats, Target Boats, High Speed Launches, Motor Gun Boats, Torpedo Boats, Patrol Boats, Seaplane Tenders

eg
image
image
image

12

Pretty sure none of those photos show a rear 20mm

13

I’ve really come to expect these sort of errors from the devs when it comes to ships & rarely is it ever fixed unless bought up by outrage.

List of vessels I know of with errors including those fixed (probably missing a few tbh):

• ML1383, post civilian purchase components.

• IJA Type 5 Escort Boat, a hodgepodge of two designs of wood & steel

• Shimakaze class destroyer Shimakaze, was to be missing the aft superfiring turret but was fixed due to outrage.

• Type T-51b, Apon the addition of the T-51a the T-51b was remodelled to it’s correct appearance.

• Hiburi/Mikura class Kaibōkan Syonan (Shōnan/ Shounan), Name & missing aft armament.

• Now this Gay class with all the points you’ve mentioned coming from post civilian purchase.

I believe there’s two other ships that fit into this as well (I think one was a frigate) & there was also that skin for the Centurion Mk.2 that was a copy of a plastic model as well yet the devs changed it iirc.

14

No they are fixed, it just model fixes are at the bottom of the priority list for Gaijin.

15

How do they mess up a tiny boat up so much?

16

Some are somewhat understandable due to lack of pictures, but most could have been avoided with a simple bit of research. So far we are two for two this update, as the vickers mk 11 is missing its roof-mounted 50 cal.

3 Likes
17

Have some more pics

20231019_154433
20231019_1544331920×1440 143 KB

20231019_154733
20231019_1547331920×1440 175 KB

20231019_154756
20231019_1547561920×2560 436 KB

2 Likes
18

image
image1574×725 70.9 KB

An update on the model provided by smin, they seem to have so far corrected the 40mm on the front along with the arming devices for the torp tubes, though they are orientated in the wrong direction. They have removed the glass around the bridge too, but have yet to touch the radar and comms mast. The rear of the ship has also lost the 20mm, but so far that area has not been changed otherwise. A few other small changes seem to be the moveing of the porthole on the deck, so its coming along nicely, as i am glad we were able to catch this before we end up having a rerun of the ML that is equally as egregious :)

8 Likes
19

Some further remodelling has taken place.
Changes to the radar mast, ventilation cowls/dorade boxes have been redone, leisure deck with the life-rings is gone, rafts placed

Archer
Archer1648×930 159 KB

2 Likes
20

its getting there, honestly the work is worth it for them, as once they have it modelled it would be no real issue to add the other members of the class, as they like the dark class are modular ships, so there are a few fun options

21

The changes have been mostly good, but looking over pictures there is still room for refinement, which will also make the addition of other members of the class easier

image

image
image1024×658 67.7 KB

image

like looking over the pictures the ship is much closer to life, but not yet accurate for how she was in service. For example she still has a modern navigation light on the back stern of the ship, and the stowage at the rear is missing things like the hatch, mounting point for a secondary gun, and the emergency steering devices. The torpedo tube control systems are modelled facing backwards, when the face inboard see youtube video here: https://youtu.be/uXbRJX8l_K8

the front of the vessel also still has its civilian hatch layout and is missing the ready racks for the 40mm. the layout from the blueprints gives a pretty good indication, i have also been unable to find any images of the ship carrying depth charges in this configuration, as it seems exclusivly waylayed to the gun boat variant:

image
image1920×2560 434 KB

image

3 Likes