Hi Eddie
Nice model of a play on of HMS Instant. However I believe judging by the design from the original plans I think it more a late 1920s to early 1930s style guessing by the bridge and superstructure. Early early river gunboats of the Yangtse tended to have very large superstructures to house the crew due to the lack of head space and draught of the hull. They looked very much like floating houses with small 3 or 6 pdr guns at either end! It wasn't until the insect class came out that superstructures were lowered to make them less conspicuous however this doesn't mean that they didn't try to extend upwards! HMS Bee being one fine example of over the top extensions!
Regarding the builders of the original vessels they would have been Yarrow and Thornycroft, Alfred Yarrow had the bigger orders because of his patented Yarrow Flap to keep the exit of the propeller tunnel below water level as the fuel was expended. The Insect drawings I have just show a blank at the stern and simply states Yarrow Patent! Thornycroft built the early British gunboats- I think Waterhen and Moorhen were the ones built by Thornycroft.
Anyway I digress! If you want to see some examples of different river gunboats from 1900-1945 there is a book by Osprey Publishing called 'Yangtse River Gunboats' which shows every nation that had a river gunboat on the Yangtse.
Good work hope it works soon
Cheers Nick, interesting, the wheelhouse and gun are different from the original plans, so as you say 20's/30's does fit with the design rather than the earlier versions, was having a look and they look monstrous regarding superstructure, although some do look rather nice.
Funnily enough, I have seen two other versions of this boat, one with a open wheelhouse and covered foredeck, the other with a cloth covered wheelhouse and a gun on the stern...don't know how accurate they are?
Thanks for taking the time to comment and posting the info, appreciate that.
Si:)