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I have been building model
boats for about 15 years. I am ex Royal Navy and I only build warships. I
like unusual models and I am currently building a 1/96 model of te USS
Long Beach a nuclear powered cruiser. I will post pics when I get the
time.
My model of HMS Scarab a 1/48th scale Insect class river gun boat. I got
the inspiration from an article in Marine Modelling a few years ago. A
fellow member of the Potteries Model Boat Club gave me me several photos
of a few ships of the class in the 30's on the China station. They were
radically different from the plan. This led to More research and the
building of a unique model. The superstructure and fittings were mainly
scaled from photographs of the ship in 1937
The hull is Balsa and skinned in fibre glass. The super structure is
plastic card. The model is entirely scratch built with only the Prop shop
propellers and two brass hand wheels on the search light, being the only
commercial items.
She sails beautifully , very manoeuvrable. The low free board can be a bit
of a problem. The anchors on the prototype were placed in cradles to
prevent dead bodies in the Yangtze getting caught on them. The water can
flow over the fore deck via the for'd fairlead if she's at full speed into
the wind. A photo of the prototype also shows this.
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