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Building a USN Port Around a HogIslander

The final layout was a little different; but better balanced in my view. Additional ‘action’ was provided by having small boats and rafts, from which hull maintenance was carried out. Chipping rust, and painting under the overhanging counter stern, a similar operation being carried out forward from a whaler…




I added an ex-crane barge from LCP, to be used as a store and mooring pontoon,to which a small tug in civilian colours has made fast. Gangplank is a strip of brass.
The USS Capella had new masts and booms made of steel rod, the block platform being made of paper, infused with CA. The forward cast resin breakwater on the foredeck was replaced with a paper version, chains and mooring bits completing this area.
Once all the boats had been positioned, I ran a ‘covering’ sea of thin runny ZAP CA over the previously prepared water-base of Artists water-colour paper. The CA was so runny that-unlike Future, gloss varnish, etc., it did not ‘pile up’ at the hull sides. A few squirts of CA accelerator (Zap kicker) gave some additional texture.
I tried out the(garish!) pre-painted 1/700 PE figures from Eduard for the first time. These were given first a washing with light grey, to tone down the colours, had caps and shoes painted in, and then given another washing of very dark grey, to give them some shadows and depth. I de-linaeted some of the figures with a sharp pencil to give a credible belt line. I mixed and matched with some GMM figures also, to give a variety in poses.
The models were rigged with stretched sprue...the ships all being tied to the quayside using head ropes, some breast ropes, and extensive spring lines, of stretched revel sprue, pre-curved to simulate the sagging of heavy lines.

All in all a most amusing project..with no guns of any kind anywhere!! The model fits neatly into a small case and occupies a footprint of less than15 in x 5in, thereby not being an intrusion on the domestic display format…


It was interesting to diversify a little into architectural, as well as railway modelling in this tiny scale. I have satisfied my desire for a Hog Islander in my collection...much kudos to Battlefleet models, for producing affordable and cleanly cast kits; a good starting point in replicating some of the less famous ships, that make up a navy as a whole being.