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[Colin Bishop]

That is the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth, London and the guns are still there. They are 15 inch weapons which I believe were taken from two of the Revenge class battleships.


Incidentally there is a 14 inch gun at Fort Nelson near Portsmouth which was a spare for the KGV class battleships.


Colin

[Baldrick]

Imperial War Museum.   Lambeth

[FsASTSyd1]

IWM London Lambeth Road London SE1 6HZ

[BFSMP]

thank you gents.


an impressive sight which I always remember


Jim.

[roycv]

Hi that is the Imperial War Museum, still an OK one.
Roy

[BrianB6]

Imperial War Museum

[Geoff]

In my view the Imperial War museum is still pretty good with some very good exhibits and some very good models (not many though) but overall a very nice place to visit (last went there about 3 years go to put time perspective on it)


The Maritime Museum in Greenwich is, in my view, generally a waste of time. In my youth there was a whole room full of battleships, carriers etc all to 1/48 scale - really superb models.


The rot set in a good number of years ago when funding was given with strictures - basically the museum had to be "environmental, touchy feely" and PC so all the "imperial" models were removed and put into storage. There is now huge amounts of wasted space and the whole maritime history of this country is displayed in about 40 feet! Albeit there is one 1/48 scale fine model of a WW2 KGV class battleship.


There used to be a whole floor of sailing ship models - all gone!


I believe a good number of the models are now being gradually moved to Chatham - time and money permitted.


Chatham is worth a visit but the "builders models" are really badly displayed in a dark room with spotlights for atmosphere and a no photograph policy. To be fair some of the models are superb but others are hung from wires so all you can see is the bottom of the hulls - why?


I believe Chatham are looking to expand the displays as time and money permit so has some very good potential.


Fundamentally whilst I agree a lot of people are just not interested because they don't know they even exist if the museums had advertised a little more it would have helped but I also think the PC brigade are dead against advertising anything to do with this countries great history - not PC - anything to do with war - not PC.


Having said this the Jultand exhibition at Portsmouth is really quite good and well attended with a superb 1/48 scale model of HMS Canada - well worth the trip and cost on its own!!.


okay rant over!


Cheers


Geoff

[Colin Bishop]

I was invited to the opening of the Chatham facility you are referring to Geoff. It is essentially an archiving storage setup and the display section is intended to be just a sample of what is in the collections. There was a sort of window through which you could see into the archive section where models can only be seen by appointment.

The Chatham Historic Dockyard itself does have a gallery which, when I visited, displayed a very good selection of warship models including all the ships of the Battle of the River Plate. You can see my Model Boats article here: http://www.modelboats.co.uk/news/article/chatham-historic-dockyard/4651
I don't know if the museum building has been altered since my visit some years ago though.

Colin

[Fred Ellis]

Which is, or was  the museum with the two huge battleship gun barrels outside the main entrance, that I visited way back in the 1970's [I think]


And what were the barrels from. Can't remember much about the museum, but those guns certainly grabbed my attention at the time.


thanks.


Jim.

That would be the IWM. as for the gun's I just can not remember the story behind them, but I think that they was going to go on to tkhe Submarine M1 but in the end was used on another ship.

[ballastanksian]

The Fleet Air arm museum at Yeovilton is still packed with models of Aircraft carriers and in a style that allows you to see most in all angles.

HMS Furious is my favourite (probaly due to the stern 18 inch turret     ) though all are impressive and built to the best standards. Dave Wooley's model of Kiev (I think  ) is there. You can see the build project in the magazine of 2010/11 I recall.

Do not buy the coffee in the inner cafe, as unless they had a bad day with their coffee machines, it was beyond foul, but other wise it is a good museum with well laid out exhibits and an excellent mix of interactive and classic.

Add this visit to having your chakras balanced in Glastonbury, and a fine carvery at the Halfway House Inn and Country lodge one Sunday, and you will have a great day!

[Colin Bishop]

Yes, I keep meaning to visit the  FAA museum. Must get around to it this year.

Colin

[ballastanksian]

Yeah, come on down for a visit.

[raflaunches]

I love the FAA museum, we always try to visit when we're in the area. Love the models and the aircraft but especially the Ark Royal simulator.

[boathound]

Go and see the Jutland Exhibition at the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, some superb models and artifacts that will make your spine tingle. The item that made the biggest impression on me was HMS Hoods' bell.

[Colin Bishop]

Yes, Hood's bell is certainly something to look at and reflect upon. I believe it is displayed in the Jutland Exhibition due to Hood being launched by Lady Hood whose husband Admiral Horace Hood was lost with the Invincible at Jutland.

Colin

[Bowwave]

Two weeks ago I paid one of my yearly visits to the   the FAA Museum,  a museum I always enjoy   as they have  new Exhibitions, displays on a regular basis and I was also  there for Model Boats  viewing the new  Lynx Wildcat helicopter and  covering    the new  Falklands exhibition. This is an excellent exhibition with   memorabilia , personal  experiences  and  information hitherto  unknown and of course  the  ship  models.  By the way the Kiev aircraft carrier is still in place in the entrance to the flight deck experience and   will  eventually  form part of the future Cold War gallery .   Unlike so many other national museums,  maritime or otherwise  the FAA is a great supporter of the model  as a real 3D visual aid in the absence of the real  thing.
 

[Seacommander]

Can anyone tell me,

Is the remains of the paddler Reliant still in the  Greenwich Maritime Museum ?

Thanks

Mark

[Colin Bishop]

No, the Reliant went when they got rid of the models. The Museum scrapped her!

Colin

[Seacommander]

Thanks Colin,
Some ****** Museum they are.......
My father made a model of that, which he still has and uses, it's about thirty five years old.
Very nice boat, very rustic and functional
Cheers
Mark 

[Seacommander]

Does anyone remember the Glasgow Transport Museum, in the old tram sheds at Polack Shields,
They had a large number of makers shipyard models from the ship builders, they had models stacked in glass cases three on top of each other row after row, it was breathtaking....
Sorry, I'm going back to 1981.
Thanks, must get back in my box........
Cheers
Mark 

[Buccaneer]

It must be 15 years since I went to the FAA Museum and did the full tour with my teenage son. The Ark Royal Tour was brilliant, especially seeing people I knew and worked with on the Flight Deck and in Flyco. It sounds like the coffee they are serving now came from the same pot we had in the Wardroom in 1978!
John

[Bowwave]

The  old   transport Museum in Glasgow  has been re-located to the new Riverside Museum . There where several articles  in the Model Boats magazine featuring the model collections in both  the original Clyde room  and the  Riverside Museum. I have to be ] honest and perhaps being a bit of a traditionalist I much preferred  the    Clyde room   although the 1:48scale model of the Hood on the ground floor of the Riverside is a truly magnificent model to view.
Dave Wooley 
HMS Howe as it was displayed in the Clyde Room

[BFSMP]

The  old   transport Museum in Glasgow  has been re-located to the new Riverside Museum . There where several articles  in the Model Boats magazine featuring the model collections in both  the original Clyde room  and the  Riverside Museum. I have to be ] honest and perhaps being a bit of a traditionalist I much preferred  the    Clyde room   although the 1:48scale model of the Hood on the ground floor of the Riverside is a truly magnificent model to view.
Dave Wooley 
HMS Howe as it was displayed in the Clyde Room

 IT has always astonished me from being a young lad how such a magnificent ship the size that she was could just "blow up" with a singularly placed lucky aps with just 3 survivors. Not that this shell was the only one that hit her by any means, before anyone jumps on my statement.


I know and have read her story and fate numerous times over the years but it still amazes me. And she WAS  a beautiful ship when all said and done.
Remember building an airfix model of her many years ago and of all the models I made as a kid, she was always my pride and joy. I even painted her, unlike most of my others.


Jim.

[Colin Bishop]

Yes, I wondered that too but recent research suggests that when a magazine goes up, usually the cordite first, the blast is initially constrained within the hull by the armoured sides and deck and vents itself in the form of a supersonic and superheated blast wave internally along the inside of the ship destroying everything and killing everyone in its path. And of course only a small number of the crew would have been above decks when in action.

This explains a lot of observations of ships blowing up at Jutland where an initial explosion in one turret appear to rapidly set off all the rest such as with the Warrior for example. The same thing was observed in Hood where the initial explosion appeared to vent itself through the engine room area and it is believed that A & B turret magazines also exploded, the 600 ton conning tower having apparently been hurled right out of the ship.

If you look at this video of the USS Arizona blowing up you can see a massive plume of black smoke from the funnel immediately before the area forward of the bridge appears to erupt in a forward direction. The bomb actually hit the ship besides B turret. This is very likely an indication that the blast from the forward magazines initially vented inside the ship before the pressure built up to such an extent that the sides were blown out next to the fore turrets and B turret, the bridge and the foremast collapsed into the resulting hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujquq7IU0uY

It has also been suggested that the almost instant disappearance of Warrior when she exploded was due to the blast blowing the bottom out of the ship. The bow and stern are missing but otherwise the wreck is relatively intact when contemporary observers were convinced she had been blown to atoms.

Colin

[Bowwave]

It never ceases to amaze me as to the level of punishment that the IJN Mushashi   and Yamato with stood before being sunk . Mushashi  took  7  large bombs and nine torpedo's  whilst the Yamato  received  nine torpedo's  to port and three to starboard  plus 7  large bombs  and an unspecified number of smaller bombs . I suspect that any  allied battleship engaging in a one to one gun duel with either of these IJN warships might not have been able to sustain the level of damage that these two ships could endure.  Just a thought .
Dave Wooley