HOSPITAL SHIPS

ANYONE MAKE A KIT OF A HOSPITAL SHIP, LIKE THE “COMFORT” MAYBE IN 1/350 SCALE? THANKS

Revell made a kit of the USS Haven many years ago. It was in one of the smaller scales. Its long out of production, but every once-in-a-while you can find one on e-bay. Don’t know of any others.

Tom

Hasegawa makes a 1/700 World War II Japanese hospital ship. Don’t remember the name, but I have it in on my shelf. Looks to be a converted freighter.

The USNS Mercy and the Comfort are actually converted San Clemente class supertankers. Cascade Modelwerks makes the San Clemente class in 1/700 scale. Just as NASSCO did, you can convert the San Clemente class ship to a Mercy class hospital ship. Send me some pics if you do. I have some shipmates on the Mercy who’d love to see their ship in miniature.

Nothing in 1/350 UNLESS you want to convert the Gunze aka Entex Lustiania into Mauretania as a hospital ship, or convert the Academy Titanic into Olympic or Britannic.

Jeff Herne
Modelwarships.com

I’m planning on doing the Britanic in its hospital dress very soon.

Revell is re-issueing Haven in the early Hope boxing (Hope was actually a Comfort class ship, slightly different.) so it should be easy to get soon.

AJB93 - I’m curious as to where Revell has announced the reissue of this kit. I can’t find any mention of it on either the Revell USA or Revell Europe website.

If it is indeed coming back, I guess that’s good news. It has some sentimental value to me personally: it was (in its original Haven box) the first ship model I ever built. I built it several more times when it was being sold as the Repose, and later as the Hope. Somewhere in the attic I’ve got an unbuilt Haven that was reissued as part of the Revell-Monogram “Special Subjects” program some years ago. By modern standards it isn’t much of a kit; it’s littered with overscale ladders, solid plastic guardrails, etc. But I’m pretty sure it’s the only styrene hospital ship kit ever released by a mainstream American manufacturer.

The Hasegawa Japanese hospital ship kit, by the way, is the Hikawa Maru. The company has issued it in two forms: as a hospital ship and an ocean liner. It’s a nice kit; with the addition of some aftermarket details it could be turned into a real showstopper.