Excellent stuff with the figures Al did you sculpt the hats or did you use a head set to replace the original
Cheers Keith

Hi Keith,

The Heads are Hornet x 2 and Wee Friends x 1. The boots were a contribution form Pete Morton when he wound up Jakrei Minitures and sold the moulds in to Ian at Friendship models.

Cheers

Al

Magic Alan ! That will look great on deck of the Vosper.
Julian

Hi Julian,

Cards and Tea





Al

Hello Alan, nice job of converting those figures, I really like your card players, particularly the fellow scratching the back of his head. He looks like he really doesn't know which card to play. Al

Hi Al,

Thanks. I hope Italeri produce a half decent of sailors to go with the boat in Jumpers and Duffle Coats but we'll have to wait and see.

Cheers

Alan

You would think that with all of these 1/35 scale boats being released, there would be more figures available to man them. Al

Hi Al,

The Wee Friends range are about the only game in town at the moment for RN chaps. U Models do some RN chaps too but the body proportions can be a bit odd, still useable though and they have a good range of other types and some interesting accesssories, but plastic wise only Italeri have done any crews I know of.

Alan

Couldn't remember if I've seen these before MTB 313, 260 and 77 in Malta. Came across it when I was looking for Valentine Tanks in Malta.



This one is MTB 315 I believe.



Al

Hi All,
Are the boats in IWM photo 14545 a mix of Elco (313), British Power Boat (260) and Vosper (77) MTB's (from left to right)

Also, an informative website:

w.unithistories.com/units_british/RN_MTBs2.html

which answered the above question for me

Tom

Thanks Tom,

I'll check out the link.

Al

Working link.

http://www.unithistories.com/units_british/RN_MTBs.html#MTB_67

Al

Hi Tom,

313 was an Elco Boat

260 was built by White's at Cowes in 1942 so I assume a Vosper under Licence

77 Was a Vosper of 1940's origin

At least that what the listing says.

Al

Nope, list is wrong. 313 is a 77' ELCO and 260 is a 70' ELCO (ex-PT 11)

Al Ross

Hi Alan,

Looking at the unit histories list, MTB 260 is correctly identified as an ELCO. You may have looked at the material for MTB 250, which was a White. If you go to page 32 of ALLIED TORPEDO BOATS, you'll find my drawing for MTB 253, a sister.

Al Ross

Thanks Al, I could have misread the listing. I really need to enlarge the pic so I can see it better!!

I asked about rigging thread in the MAS build and came across the link for what I was thinking about. It's an old thread:

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/69462&page=1

The stuff is EZ Line and I ordered up a couple of samples to try out when the build comes along. The samples are 6ft in lengths and you can buy reels of this stuff fairly cheaply.

Got it from Bob's Hobby House and it arrived today (the link is in the old thread).





It looks handy so we will see how it works when the Vosper gets launched. Anyone else used this?

Cheers

Alan

Hi Alan

Is that thread a kind of lycra thread?
If so, I, imho, would skip it, because it will add to much stress to masts and other areas where it is fixed so that is properly stretched... would suggest stretched sprue for rigging in such a big scale (1/35) or other scale nautical rope/cables available via wooden ship model shops/supply stores - they are proper rope (inter twinned as the real ropes/cables) not the sewing type of lines

Just a thought
Cheers,
Rui

Hi Skipper,

Thanks for the thoughts. I'll see how it works. I had used lead wire on the MAS boat which is OK but I had to join up two lengths for one of the runs so was looking for something different. The thread is stretchy I believe but a small experiment should see how it works.

I remembered the post from some years ago and finally tracked it down. Worth a few bucks to see how it shapes up.

Cheers

Al

Hello Alan, I just received my monthly flyer from the Squadron Shop, and they list a 1/35 20mm Oerlikon on the heavy, 'Destroyer' mount with shield. It is produced by CMK. It is resin with photo-etch parts, and comes with a color guide. They have it in the 'armor' section of the flyer for some reason, the scale I guess. The price is about $27 US. I don't know if this is news to you, but I thought I'd pass it along. Al

Hi Al,

Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware they had released one. Choice is always a good thing.

Cheers

Alan

Hi Guys,

A couple more Salty Dogs I picked up at Duxford. The Accurate Armour Truck Driver with a new head and the Wee Friends Sailor with new wellies and a new head.





Whilst I was thinking RN I also re did the two crew I made for the LCVP, hopefully a little better than the first attempt.





Al

Hi folks,

Well I can tell you like those

Spotted some excellent news over on the Italeri site just now

Quote

Dear Friends,

after the American PT-596, the huge, in terms of size, German Kriegsmarine Schnellboot S-100 and the Italian MAS, we will present, in a short time, the British Royal Navy Vosper to complete our 1:35 series of the most famous torpedo boat of WW II.

In the .pdf file a first preview with 3D lay-out done during the development stage.

See you

Unquote

Links here;

http://www.italeri.com/DettaglioNews.aspx?NEWS=00086

Oh happy days.

Al

Link to pdf file.

http://www.italeri.com/NewsImgs/DOC_NEWS_000086.pdf

Al

Oh Happy day indeed Alan have loaned a couple of books to a freind at my local club he will be doing some more figures for the Wee freinds range more in the line up of the Royal Navy range meant for the Vosper. Should be good he has done stuff for Verlindan in the past, said he wanted to stay clear of the duffle coat type and go for the work uniform type and the Med tropical types
Cheers Keith

Hi Keith,

Great, I ran into Ian form Friendship Models at Duxford this year and RN figuers featured in the discussion . He did say he hoped to add to the Wee Friends range for the Vosper so something else to look forward to.

A few in work type uniform, overalls would be good. As I'll be building it for the English Channel, not sure how the Med type uniforms might fit in.

Good to see it get announced officially, one step closer. I assume Italeri will also do a crew of some sort so that would increase the range of available figure options too.

Al

PS: We could do with a set of Officer/Petty Officer Heads (hint, hint)