I stopped in yesterday at the Hobby Town in Green Bay and couldn’t pass up their Revell 1/144 scale Flower-Class Corvette kit. Eventually, I’d like to get Revell’s 1/144 U-Boat kit and then make a diorama with them. Any advice on this Corvette kit?(PE,resin,3-D printed)
I have their earlier 1:72 version. Almost wish I had the 1:144 version. The 1:72 kit is a daunting challenge. But it is a fantastic kit. Don’t Know if the 144 is same quality or not, but based on the :72, I’d sure recommending having a look at it.
The Corvette kit is very nice OOB. I am sure that a bit of etc could take it up a notch but there is nothing I felt really NEEDED it.
Just… when you weather it… please PLEASE do not make it all rusty! As busy as these things were they still got scrapped and painted on a regular basis between convoys. Had to keep the sailors busy and the poor little ships would litterly fall apart if rusted up as bad as so many people build them.
When getting a Uboat the Revell VII-C series are very nice indeed. And again. Limited rust.
Tcoat, that Corvette and U-boat look fantastic. I like your point about over weathering these vessels. Now I’ve got to find Revell’s 1/144 German U-Boat kit. What colors did you use on the Corvette’s camo scheme?
The white was… well… white. Large bottle Testors enamel if I recall. The blue and green were custom mixed with several different Tamiya acrylics and will never be matched again. The green could have been a bit darker but then it would have lost the salt water fading I was after.
That will be a pretty big dio.
There is a way to sort of stack them up. I have had this picture under consideration for a long time.
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Yeah, it would be an immense diorama scene but ever since I saw the movie “Greyhound” I’ve wanted to do it. I envision the U-Boat coming down the middle of the Corvette and the destroyer and the destroyer is waiting for the Corvette to clear before opening fire on the U-Boat. This past Fall I made a “Coming to America” scene with Revell’s 3 ships of Columbus in 1/90 scale and that was my largest ship scene.
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Excellent movie. I’d love to see that as a dio! I’ve been wanting to do a British PBY right down to the torpedos!
For many years I have wanted to recreate this poster from WW2
This is because I actually knew one of the two men that boarded the sub. In 1971 I joined the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets. One of our officers was Art Powell. He was the guy depicted in the propaganda poster holding onto the U-boat rail and a true Canadian war hero. He was a really old guy of an thinkable 52 years of age at that time I met him! One of the best officers I ever served under in my 20 years of military service and was a huge influence on who I am today. Someplace around here I have a U-Boat badge (from a POW not the U-94 boarding) he gave me as I had so much interest in his stories.
The whole story is here and worth the read.
https://legionmagazine.com/over-the-side-the-courageous-boarding-of-u-94/
As a side note the officer with him is the author Hal Lawrence and if you have ever read or have an interest in reading any books on the RN/RCN vs U-boats during WW2 they are all very good.
His memoirs give a detailed account of the boarding of U-94
Tcoat, thanks for sharing this incredible story! That was so fortunate that you got to meet Mr.Powell. Also thank you for recommending books by Hal Lawrence. I’m always on the lookout for another good read.
I was very fortunate to be in the cadet program when I was (age 12 to 17) as all five of the officers were WW2 RN/RCN navy vets that were willing to share their experiences.
I also grew up next door to a WW2 RAF vet that did much of the crashed aircraft recovery in England during the Battle of Briton. I would talk with him for hours as a young child and he gave me a bunch of German aircraft parts that he collected as souvenirs. I still have many of them.
These are some control knobs from a BF-109 that crashed Near London during the Blitz.
Of my father’s group of friends two were RAF pilots (one Lancaster and one Spitfires) and one was an US AAF pilot that flew Thunderbolts.
All in all I was destined to become a model guy!
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Tcoat, you’ve got a lot of history right there. I’m so happy for you that you’ve been able to connect with these veterans and be able to listen to their stories. It’s so sad that we are losing these members of the “Greatest Generation”
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They were my only connection with a subject that interested me even as a child since both my grandfathers were not permitted to serve. One was a lumberjack in Quebec and the other was a master mold maker in the brass casting industry so both were essential services that could not enlist.