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HMS Warspite

Kostas Katseas shares another spectacular miniature diorama with his latest creation; HMS Warspite.

At the end of October 1912 the keel was laid down on second Queen Elizabeth Class of battleships, HMS Warspite. Just over 639 feet long , Warspite’s displacement was 33,410 tons and capable of a designed speed of 24 knots.

Nicknamed the “Grand Old Lady”, HMS Warspite would go one to serve the Royal Navy in both WWI and WWII gaining the largest number of honors bestowed upon a ship in the Royal Navy.

Truly battle hardened the Warspite was hit 15 times by heavy shell during the Battle of Jutland in 1916. After repairs were done, she collided with her sister ship, HMS Valliant. Once again repaired, in mid-1917 she collided again, this time with HMS Destroyer. The very next month she was moored next to HMS Vanguard at Scapa Flow when one of the ammunition magazines exploded on the Vanguard killing hundreds of sailors. In 1918 she received the German High Sea Fleet into internment.

Her service would carry on into WWII serving predominantly in the Mediterranean. She would prove a formidable opponent sinking and damaging several ship of the Nazi War Machine. In February of 1945 the Warspite was decommissioned, struck from the registry in 1947 and finally scrapped in 1950.

Kostas used Trumpeter Models' 1/700 Scale HMS Warspite 1915 to complete this diorama along with a set of North Star figures.

Model Shipwrights would like to thank Kostas Katseas for providing photos of his HMS Warspite