Captains, I'm resuming limited production of 1/144 scale R/C combat hulls this week and will continue through September. HMS Hood, SNS Canarias (Spanish heavy cruiser) and Kent Class British heavy cruiser hulls and turrets are no longer available from me. The molds are being sold to an American who will start producing them later this summer. He may take over production of my 2 armoured cruiser hulls at a later date. Still available are the following: 1)HMS Duke of Edinburgh/Black Prince WWI armoured cruisers (IRCWCC 3.0 units) with 6 single gun turrets: 1 on the raised forecastle, 4 wing turrets (2 fore, 2 aft) and a stern turret. Short but deep, with good displacement. Think of them as short, fat 26 second heavy cruisers with much better maneuverability. The only equivalent hull available is the smaller Battlers Connection WWI Scharnhorst Class. Provided as hull, 6 main turrets and side and top view drawings. Secondary armament is in port and starboard casemates giving extra impenetrable area. 2) Warrior Class Half sisters to the DoE Class armoured cruisers. Hull identical, except no casemates. Hull comes with 6 main (9.2") and 4 secondary (7.5") turrets but no drawings. I'll include the DoE drawing - the main difference is absence of casemates, 2 x 7.5" turrets between the wing 9.2" turretrs and smaller spotting tops - photos are easily found on-line. 3) HMS Vanguard Class 7 WWII battleship hull with main and secondary armour belts and transom stern. No drawings but plans are available elsewhere. Steve Hill of NABS can supply the 4 main and 4 secondary turrets. 4) Krasni Krim (ex-Profintern) Russian CL with 15 x 5.1" guns. Hull has been deepened to allow the extra 1 lb./25% displacement allowed under IRCWCC rules for Class 1 & 2 ships, and still maintain the correct waterline. There are 4 low bow casemates that can be used for standard or spurt guns, 2 aft casemate guns at the same height and 9 other gun postion options (deck guns in shields). Brand new mold commissioned from Ralph Coles. I plan to make 4 of these in the next month (starting this weekend) and more if necessary. No drawings available from me but the class is covered in the Profile Morskie Polish series including an excellent smaller scale drawing that can be enlarged. (That's the plan I used.) 5) HMAS/HMS Albatross 1930s Australian territorial patrol seaplane carrier used as a fleet support ship by the RN in WWII. High launch and recovery flight deck forward, shaped like an upside down iron, with catapult in the bow and 3 recovery cranes. Tug-like superstructure aft on a low quarterdeck. 4" guns on sponsons flanking the flight deck and more superimposed at the stern. Prominent antitorpedo bulges. Carried ~9 Swordfish equipped with floats. Classified as a CVE under IRCWCC rules but can be used as a convoy ship in its later RN fleet support ship guise. No drawing available yet but I'm working on one based on the RAN official plans. More hulls are in the works: 1) HMS Furious I've built and battled with the similar Class 4.0 HMS Courageous, now serving in the MWC. (Rich Wands of the OAF bought the Courageous hull mold.) Other than having 2 single 18" gun turrets this ship is very similar - long narrow hull, large turning circle and limited gun installation options. Obviously not the ideal R/C combatant but weird, and I do prefer odd ships. The Furious plug is nearing completion and I hope to finish the mold in September. This is the WWI version, suitable for use as the battlecruiser, hybrid carrier or full WWI carrier. All the WWI planes carried are available in 1/144 scale. If there's enough interest I'll increase the hull plug's antitorpedo bulge height 3/4" to make the WWII carrier hull mold. 2) HMS Ikoma Class 3 Japanese WWI armoured cruiser with a unique
Here's an update. Negotiations with Tugboat were concluded last night for my HMS Hood, HMS Kent, SNS Canarias, HMS Warrior and Duke of Edinburgh Class armoured cruiser molds, plus HMS Gorgon and Abercrombie Roberts WWI&II monitor molds. In consequence I'm only making Krasni Krim (aka Profintern), Albatross, and Vanguard hulls this summer. In September the KK and Albatross molds will go to tugboat. By the end of the summer nearly all of my hulls will be available from Tugboat (Clark Ward). Bob Pottle
Me too I've got the machining workbench built, and the fiberglass workbench is going together early next week. I'm even getting some new toys for that, like a proper spraygun made for doing gelcoats! No point in doing this if it ain't done right, you know? At some point I need to sit down and write the webpage...
ok bob pottle you told me that tugboat could make me some guns for the ship u were going to sell me but i said never mind
