Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Navy - Military - Battleships: => Topic started by: Captain Povey on June 01, 2010, 05:05:32 pm
-
Hi All, I recently got hold of a second Scout Class Cruiser at a reasonable price. :-))I do not know how old the model is but it was bit dilapidated and somebody had already had a go at restoration which seemed to involve removing most of the wiring for the lights and smoke generator. I spent a bit of time and money on it, gluing bits back on, fixing the rudder servo properly and sorting out the wiring and was very pleased to see it perform well on its first sailing for me. :-) I think it might be a Deans Marine kit but it came on a stand that said 'HMS Pathfinder', 'Senital (yes not Sentinal) Class', 'Scout Cruiser'. {:-{ A quick look on the internet showed that most of that is inaccurate as Pathfinder was a class, as was Sentinal and as far as can see all Scout Class Cruisers except one had one mast not two and the two masted one had four funnels not three. So the dilemma is should I chop off the second mast to be more accurate or leave, what is quite a nice model, as it is and just call it a Scout Class Cruiser. Any thoughts anybody? Cheers, Graham
-
I like it just the way it is. I'm not familiar with the Scout Class Cruiser but i do think your boat is a wonderful looking model and from my simple non techo opinion the second mast balances out the model nicely. So, I think leave it as is a sail the beauty.
Jonny.
-
You definitely have one mast too many. Although Deans do an HMS Skirmisher with two masts this is also wrong.
Still it looks nice and if you aren't bothered leave it as it is. :-))
-
There's a photo of Sentinel, as built, in Conway 1860-1905 showing 2 masts.
Perhaps they dropped the main mast later?
Tony
-
Thanks for the input guys. But what about the colour scheme White, Green and Red hull? Should I be repainted it grey? Cheers Graham.
-
She looks more like the Highflyer/Challenger class 2nd class cruiser than a Scout 3rd class cruiser though.Possibly HMS Hermes,even though the crows nests aren't quite right,but the aft deckhouse does look correct for her. :-)) If the ship was stationed near China,then don't paint her grey,please keep the Victorian colour scheme. She is definately not Sentinal,as the foredeck is far higher,and the funnels are too tall,plus Sentinal didn't have a rear deckhouse.I hope this helps to narrow her down a bit.
-
If you are doing an early version dont paint it grey.
-
Hello Graham,
Apart from the green separation of the white/light grey upper hull from the red lower hull, the colours seem pretty accurate from my limited research.
See this link for a few descriptions: http://www.gwpda.org/naval/s0700000.htm
-Rob
-
I'd have thought that the gun layout is wrong for the Hermes type, plus the break in the deck is different
Tony
-
How many guns does this model have?
-
Hi Robert, Thanks for the article on paint colours. Having read that and considered the comment s from DickyD and Dreadstar I have definitely decided to keep the original colours except for the green on the water line. In fact that was removed last night in preparation for replacing it with a black one. :-)) Looking at Roberts article I can then claim it was on either China, South America, East Africa, The red sea or South African station. What it was to have an empire. As regards the guns (from memory, as it is not in front of me) it has two on the fore deck and two on the stern deck. There are heavy machine guns port, starboard and on the bridge and what look like torpedoes port and starboard if that helps. Cheers Graham.
-
Looking at the Dean's Marine website,that is certainly their HMS Skirmisher kit. In which case,her armament is 10x12pdr(3");8x3pdr;2x18" TT aw. The 3pdr guns were replaced with 6pdr ones,and in 1911/12 were rearmed with 9x 4" guns.She was one of 4 sub-classes of 3rd rate to follow on from the Gem class cruisers,which did have two masts,and as these 8 ships were farmed out to 4 different manufacturers,it is quite possible for her to have had two masts.She could not however be of the Adventure class built by Armstrong,as they had 4 funnels and a clipper bow.
-
Could be Pathfinder class as built, because they had tall funnels and all the others had short funnels. The colours probaly china station, as for the boot topping well who knows.
Nice looking model, I do not think I would want to interefer with it. I am looking in my book on Ships of the Victorian Navy and in the painting of HMS Crocodile, you can just make out a green boot topping with white hull and buff funnel, she was an Indian trooper broken up in 1893?
-
Have looked in my 1898 Jane's, and the only small 3 funnel cruiser is the Speedy of 1893 with 2 x 4" and 4 x small quick fire guns. As to the boot topping I would say all Edwardian/Victorian all white painted hulls would have green boot topping, as most authoritative paintings I have seen invariably had green, also the Merchant navy often used to have green with white hulls the old GNSC of Rochester always had that colour on their passey boats. The Home fleet black hulls white superstructure had a thin white boot topping line. Black boot topping came in with the latter overall grey painted ships.
-
Thanks Old Dodes for some great information. I might have to repaint the green stripe back on by the sound of it. She performed very well today at the Wolverhampton Steam fair and drew quite a few comments. Cheers, Graham.
-
In the RN Museum at Portsmouth there is a model of the town class cruiser HMS Manchester in China station colours in the late 1930s which has black boot topping. However, in late Victorian times I suspect that the colour scheme may have been less centrally prescriptive and more subject to the directions of the local admiral in its detail. For example the pre dreadnought battleship Albion actually had a green hull at one point!
Colin
-
Thanks Colin, I think I will lpromote myself temporarily to Admiral and decide that it is now the correct colour based on what was in the stores. Thats also a very interesting photo of Albion as it has round barbettes. I am glad to say that my Ceasar looks very similar. Cheers Graham.
-
It's also in the RN Museum Graham, they brought it out of storage last year for the RN Past and Present event, looking slightly the worse for wear as you can see by the ship's boat dangling!
Colin
-
Hi Colin,
Yes interesting models and colours etc, my impression is the Victorians where only interested in making there vessels look pretty, actually fighting them would spoil their looks and upset their officers. But when I said China station I mean't not home or Med, I suspect the Indian and South American station had their peculiar colour system. As to the right colour that is a nightmare as most of the time since the Edwardian period, the actual colours kept changing from I can see of it, at the moment I am trying to get some North Sea Green to paint an WW1 old destroyer for the Harwhich Station.
-
There are plenty of references in Victorian times (and earlier) to the Captain and Commander footing the cost of paint from their own pockets so they weren't too keen on firing the guns to burn it off!
Colin
-
Colin
Sorry to sound a skeptical note, but it's possible that the Albion model was painted green to show what it would have looked like if the ship had been finished in that colour! There is a picture on battleships - cruisers (http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/canopus_class.htm#HMS%20Albion) showing her in what appear to be ordinary Victorian colours when new in 1901 (but who can tell from the B&W print?) and presumably she would have been painted grey fairly soon anyway (1903?).
Thanks for posting that lovely photo - that's another contemporary model that I for one have never seen or even knew about. If you have other photos of the model I'd be very interested to see them.
David
-
The RN Museum imply that the ship's hull was painted in green http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/visit_see_20th_dreadnought.htm but I can't remember exactly what it said on the information card with the model.
Does look nice though...
Colin
-
i would love to paint my HMS Infelible (1895 there abouts) with a green Hull, that looks so much more Victorian than the Black Hull.
but like most photo`s that can be found on the internet are in black and white.
when i think back to the Victorian livery of Trains (Locomotives) there was also some green in there some were..!!
-
HI all,
Yes I know what you mean with all these black and white photos, it is frustrating to find out colour detail. Though some time ago I was reading a mag (which one I forget) which had an article about producing realistic colour photo's from B/W prints. The photo they used was a cossack from the Crimea period, the finished print was very good with really good face tones etc. It work by shining the print through 3 separate colour filters then combing the prints from each filter onto a final print.
It would be interesting to see some prints of warships and trains etc go through this method, it would save some head scratching and heated discussions.
-
You do have to be very careful when using old prints for reference as the chemicals used do not always reflect the relative colour levels in grayscale, e.g. something might look light coloured when it is actually darker and vice versa.
Colin
-
Your model does resemble HMS Pathfinder, though with the extra mast as noted.
There does exist a postcard of HMS Pathfinder in what appears to be East Indies Station livery of white with buff funnels. Oddly she does not seem to have been stationed anywhere beyond the Atlantic and Channel, though.