I have been reading about the British warship evolution in the 1860 to 1890 era. This was the evolution from wood to steel and from sail to steam. Some weird and wonderful ships from that era, from wooden three-deckers with a propeller and big stack, to mixes of broadside guns and turrets, to something that certainly seems to foreshadow the Dreadnaught. I cannot remember seeing any kits from this era (other than US Monitor and Merrimac). were there any kits of these ships?
Don,
Combrig has quite an extensive range of resin ships from the later part of this era. Flagship models offers a range of American Civil War ships. Also, there are paper card models of some of these ships. I do not know of any polystyrene kits.
Bill
Don;
I seem to remember one or two larger ships that were steam/sail .The two were both paddle-wheel equipped .I think one was the KEARSARGE ! T.B.
Gentlemen,
Revell had the USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama (sort of), Imai had the USS Susquehannah, and Heller had Le Napoleon. Airfix had a kit of the Discovery. I can think of no others.
Bill
http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/149077.aspx
The Heller Pourquoi Pas? fits in well. Like Scott’s Discovery, it’s a little later than your stated eras.
Bill;
Thank you for that reminder . I had forgotten about the Susquehannah . I did that one back in the Seventies for a client . It was , however, with it’s faults a very nice kit . Plus the deck material , plastic ? took a teak stain very nicely .
If my memory serves it was a pretty straightforward build with few problems . The yards and masts I replaced with Basswood dowels turned with my home-made dremel lathe …Bluejacket Shipcrafters then supplied me with very good blocks and deadeyes .
The deck-eyes had to be made out of fine wire according to the instructions . Worked well too ! T.B.
You also have the chinese battleship
Chen Yuen
cruiser Chih Yuen
http://freetimehobbies.com/1-350-bronco-imperial-chinese-peiyang-fleet-protected-cruiser-chih-yuen/
which also comes in 1/144 scale
Aurora Hartford
http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=2648&page=1
And Revell U.S.S Olympia and S.M.S Emden/Dresden and Glencoe U.S.S. Oregon
1/350 Zvezda Borodino class, Trumpeter Tsesarevich and Hasegawa I.J.N Mikasa
wooden kits Billings HMS Warrior and steam frigate Jylland
Well, here are some kits of ships from that range that I’ve developed for BlueJacket over the last ten years or so:
OLYMPIA
ALABAMA
KEARSARGE
MAINE
Al Ross
That’s an interesting suggestion. I built it and really liked the kit as it was a subject (Chinese Steam Navy and some good books about that) .
It comes two ways. One is the as-delivered from Stettin in Germany. Rigged as a brig I think the overseas delivery was more efficient that way. Victorian three color scheme.
And pretty much overall black as she was when sunk in battle in 1895.
I have built the Olympia and Maine. I have a Kearsarge kit in my stash. I really want one of the British ones, though. I think the rest of the world learned a lot by looking at what the Royal Navy attempted and avoided many of the British problems. Want something like an Admiral class battleship- a mix of broadside and turret guns, and although a steamer they still had lot of spars sticking up all over. Or, one with barbette guns (nice to see a whole gun without breech lost in a turret).
Al;
Your Alabama and Olympia make me drool . Dad gum it man ! , How about this ,Talk with you Bosses and see about this line of vessels -In the workboat class - Oil Spill response vessels like Clean Bay one and two .
I’ll even help you with the conversion of L.C.M.6 units for the Sponge and Squeegee, the two boats that were mine . Clean Bay one and two were converted from offshore oil rig , anchor handling vessels .
I had forgotten about the Chen Yuen! We can’t forget about the Glencoe USS Oregon, either.
Bill
Unfortunately, three decades passed between the Monitor and the Oregon. The US did little to innovate ship design during those decades, though it did work on gun development like other countries did. The reason I want British ships from those in-between years is those guys at least tried to bring the naval future into being.
Most of the British ships of that era were not very beautiful (maybe that is why no one wants to build them), but they sure were innovative (innovation by itself though does not bring success).
Don,
Have you checked Combrig’s offerings of pre-Dreadnought ships?
Bill
No, never heard of them. Combrigs.com?
They make resin kits, and can be found here:-
They do mostly 1/700 waterline, here are their RN offerings
http://combrig-models.com/index.php/products/1700/royal-navy-1860-1918
but do have some 1/350 RN predreadnoughts, waterline and full hull,
http://combrig-models.com/index.php/products/1350/royal-navy-350
As a guess, that trasnistional period was just a bit too short in history–as in not quite long enough to have a major war with the ironclad broadsiders.
Add to that, they are less glamorous than a “pure” sailing vessel, or than the all steall steam warships (an important consideration back in the “box scale” days).
But, unlike 30 years ago, things are improving. We can’t quite replicate Dewey’s fleet at Manilla, but we can build the original Iowa, Texas, and even the Maine.
Oh, and as a barometer of whether or not we are in a “golden age” would be when we could decide to replicate both the Japanese & Russian fleets in 1905 or both sides at Manilla Bay.
I’d argue that the situation is the best it’s ever been - by far. There actually are quite a few Russian pre-Dreadnought kits, courtesy of Trumpeter and Svezda. Hasegawa makes a fine 1/350 Mikasa - and has announced one on 1/700. And Hobby Boss just released a 1/350 French pre-Dreadnought, the Danton. Ten years ago could anybody have imagined that such kits would be available?
Another one nobody’s mentioned yet: the good old Pyro/Lindberg/Round 2 Harriet Lane.
I do hope the mainstream companies get around to the British pre-Dreadnoughts. My first choice would be HMS Victoria. Two stacks side-by-side and a single enormous turret forward. She came to a remarkable end when, in broad daylight A a calm sea, HMS Camperdown accidentally rammed her and sent her to the bottom with heavy loss of life. But any British warship from that period will be fine with me.
This is a great time to be a warship modeler.
Don,
Combrig is available from most online hobby stores and are quite affordable, at least their 1/700 kits are so. I love those kits, except for the fact that they are waterline only.
Bill
Yes! those are the ships I was talking about. I could not find a page with a price list on it. How do I figure prices?