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Friday 10 February 2012

A mercantile interlude

My wife and I spent part of the day in Herne Bay sorting out the final details before my father-in-law's bungalow is put on the market. We visited the bungalow (which has now been completely cleared), the solicitor, and the estate agent ... and we understand that the bungalow will be on the market this weekend.

The only notable event of the day occurred whilst we were driving from London to Herne Bay. I noticed an unusual-looking object being towed on a trailer, and as we got closer it became apparent that the object was in fact a partially dismantled aircraft ... and not any old aircraft but a replica of a Messerschmitt Bf109! Unfortunately neither my wife or I had our cameras with us, but it appeared that the replica was a non-flying display aircraft of the type used by film and TV companies.

When we got back I decided to build some 1:1200th-scale ships for a forthcoming naval wargame. The game will involve an attack on a convoy, and although we have plenty of warships, we are lacking enough merchant ships to form the convoy. Taking as my inspiration the various 'standard' merchant ships built during World War 2, I managed to build six freighters from basswood in just under an hour.


The models are very basic ... but then so were the originals.

6 comments:

  1. Very passable they are too Bob!

    A few pins and some wire for rigging and loading cranes, a paint job and they'll be fine.

    Would you consider some deck cargo too?

    Jim

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  2. Jim Duncan,

    I was quite please with how they turned out.

    I will probably add some masts, but other than that and a paint job I will probably leave them 'as is'.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  3. Tim Gow,

    I have just begun the process of painting them, and with luck they should be finished by the evening ... assuming that I don't have any further interruptions (we have a leak in the conservatory roof due to the ice and snow on top beginning to melt).

    All the best,

    Bob

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  4. Very nicely done! The husband of a school teacher of mine was merchant marine. He said you didn't sleep at all on tankers, slept wit one eye open on regular cargo ships and slept like a baby on munitions ships.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pat G,

    Thanks for the compliment.

    I have heard something similar to what the husband of your school teacher said from other seamen who served on merchant ships during the Second World War.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete

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