After trying to contact Steve Hill for a long time I got a call from him last night. Steve confirmed that he's sold all of his Fiji/Uganda/Swiftsure Class hulls, having made only a few. I told him there's a demand for them but before we could discuss whether he'd sell the mould or make more hulls to sell he had to hang up due to a business client arriving. He's to call back and we'll resume our discussion. If he doesn't want to sell the Fiji mould or make hulls I'll see if he'll let me make a few to sell. I'll also ask about his mould for the unbulged County Class heavy cruisers of the London and Dorsetshire subclasses too. I hope to buy it and sell it on to Strike Models.
well I know i'd be interested in one for a Uganda, even if i don't get to make it into a combat boat , my grandfather served on it. I want to do a running model of it
As per our last brief conversation weeks ago Steve was no longer sure he even had the molds and still had not checked to confirm either way. Chase and I have given up on buying his molds. Chase may make a Fiji/Swiftsure mold. If not, Ralph Coles is interested but only if he had at least 6 confirmed sales to make it worthwhile. .
This is Steve Hill's model, built with one of his hulls. He built it with the curved bridge front of the Fiji Class versus the flat bridge front of later classes that used the same hull, including HMCS Uganda and HMCS Ontario. I added Ontario's top bridge platform in an attempt to make the bridge front look flatter from some angles. (As originally built the model was lacking the upper level of the bridge.) This photo is from 2009 after I'd after gutted and completely rebuilt the model for Steve, making cosmetic improvements and repainting it in a Pacific late war scheme. New turrets were made, 4" DPA guns added, plus funnel caps made from a mold off a styrene master. Unfortunately Steve never used it in competition - it's probably still in his basement. In the first photo you can see how the hull's quarterdeck slopes downward from the break in the forecastle. At the stern the q-deck is about 3/8" too low. There should be a step down from the forecastle deck to a short length of splinter screen, then another to the quarterdeck. If the hulls were still available I'd level the quarterdeck from stern forward to the end of the splinter screen location. The splinter screen could be cut from the extra 3/8" of height at the break from the forecastle deck to quarterdeck. Missing the aft pair of 4" DPA guns in the photos but you can see the hole for one in the deck aft of the pump outlet. All were installed when the model went back to Steve.
