Hello, I have recently become a fan of armored cruisers, and I was wondering if anyone has scratch built either the HMS Minotaur or the mighty Blucher in 1:144. I have read and reread Tugboats Edgar Quinet thread, and I think I would like to scratch build a boat. Has anyone had experience with either of these ships? Thank you for your help. Cheers, Garrett
I think Bob Pottle has done a Minotaur. I am working on a Warrior using Strikes Duke of Edinburgh hull.
Do the Taubman plans for RC Combat come with rib layouts? If not , how do you get plans for the ribs and keel? Thanks
The ones I refer to are from the ANB series and have more ribs than you will need. They also contain all the hull profiles (not just the centerline). One caveat is that they are in 1:100 and you will have to take them to Kinkos or the like to get them rescaled.
Oh ok. That shouldn't be too bad then. Is there a difference between the ANB series and the R/C Combat plans for the Blucher?
I don't know. I have never seen the R/C combat set. But it should have every thing you need. The ANB set is for scale modelers and have more detail than is needed for a combat model.
I believe the combat plans are George Goff plans, which won't be of great quality. You'd be better off with the ANB plans. They are well worth it
More important than all of the reasons Garrett posted... Blucher is an armoured cruiser and therefore COOL.
Hi Garrett, If you're still considering an HMS Minotaur the conversion from the Strike 'Duke of Edinburgh' hull is not difficult. Before I sold my moulds to Strike I did a conversion of one DoE hull to Minotaur, which is one of my 2 remaining battle ready R/C combat models . (The other is HMS Gorgon.) When laying up the hull I did not make the secondary gun embrasures on either side of the stern. With the hull out of the mould I glued balsa on the outside of the hull over the gaps and used gelcoat, then fibreglass, to complete the flush sided stern of the Minotaur Class. Sanded off the balsa. If you buy a Strike hull you can do the same thing after cutting off the stern embrasures. To lengthen the hull (it's 1-2" longer than the DoE Class) I lightly glassed 8 x 4" lengths of brass tubing on the inside of the hull amidships: two at the upper edges, two halfway down to the bilges, two in the curved bilges and two on the hull bottom. I then marked a line around the middle of the hull and cut it and the brass tubes in half. Next I inserted 6" lengths of the next smallest size of brass tubing into the tubing glassed to one of the hull halves, and glued them in place with CA glue. I made spacers from balsa that were the exact length of the required hull lengthening and tacked them to that hull half with CA. Then the protruding brass tubes were inserted into the corresponding tubing in the second hull half and the two halves were pushed together against the spacers. Then the telescoping brass tubees were CA'd at the other end, and the balsa spacers were removed. The hull was now the correct length for the Minotaur with a gap in the middle but alligned and solidly connected by the brass tubes. Next I glued thin balsa sheet around the gap in the middle of the hull and gelcoated and glassed the hull extension. Forgot to mention that I'd feathered the edges of the hull halfs so the joins on either side of the extension wouldn't be much thicker than the rest of the hull. The sheet balsa was sanded off and the brass tubing was removed from the inside of the hull. After sanding of the joins on the inside another layer of fibreglass was laid inside the hull. The Minotaur hull was finished. It sounds like quite a process but was easily done and only took 4-5 hours over a few days. I have the turret moulds and can supply the 2 main and 10 secondary turrets if you decide to make an HMS Minotaur. After finishing the Minotaur hull I thought about making a mould from it but had sold only one DoE hull and there was no interest in the Minotaur. Too bad because they are fun models to operate. Minotaur and a DoE (Black Prince, now in the OAF) battled as a squadron for the last couple of years NABS was active, and Minotaur also battled as a Treaty rules model, being easily convertable from one rule set to the other by changing props and pump outlets. I might sell Minotaur because it hasn't been used since 2008.
Thanks Bob! I am converting Strikes DoE to the Warrior and that is exactly how I did the coversion to a flush sided hull. I'm glad to know I was on the right track!
Thank you. Bob, I will definitely keep you in mind if I decide to go with the Minotaur. I don't have the room for a project right now, but I will keep it in mind. Thank you for the help
