My 1/350th scale model of the WW II corvette HMS Spiraea arrived from Poland yesterday, (along with some excellent MagPol paintbrushes), hardware supplied by Jadar Hobbyshop in excellent dispatch time and funded by my bank account. A really fascinating little model, the other end of the spectrum in size compared to my current USS Hornet build. Mirage would appear to have made a quantum leap with their current models, featuring some really gorgeous fine moulding and with no flash visible. They have added a sheet of photo etch containg the railings for the Spiraea. The instruction sheet is clone of the sheets we have become familiar with from Italeri:








There are a couple of very good builds of Mirage corvettes By Joe and Simon, (Grauwolf and Red Duster), on this forum, those builds persuaded me to buy this little North Atlantic tough-guy. Looks good, price is good, go for it

That pretty project!!!! Ideal to rest a bit of mega Hornet!!

Congrat Daniel

It's a bit of a shrimp Daniel
Smallest warship around I would think
Joe and Simon's builds made me very curious as to what the charm of these midget corvettes was. Now I understand, it's a bit like Chihuahua, looks cute but has a vicious bite

Will be watching this with interest (I can fit this in somewhere)

Cheers Kev

Hi Kev, not starting up the build yet but it is a recommendable little shrimp

Oh! Extended bridge and PE....very nice....I should have waited
....too late.... the Snowberry is already started

Not much progress on mine this last week...I have been a POW,
(PRISONER OF WORK!)

Work resumes this weekend....I must finish the Snowberry by
mid May, so off to the shipyards I go.

Later,
Joe

Hi Julian,

welcome to the OFCD club, will be following this build with interest.

Si

Hi Joe, Simon,
I am really impressed with the detail Mirage managed to incorporate in this small ship. Looking forward to building her eventually,

Couldn't resist fitting the hull and decks together to see how this little tadpole looks:




Really nice work by the Polish gentlemen at Mirage.
Here's a taster of the appalling North Atlantic weather these boats faced, (been there, done that):

Nice start Julian,

You will see, as you move along with the build, it gets
really interesting.

Really charming ship. Great size for using it in a diorama.

The possibilities are endless.

PS Just saw a movie called Corvette:K225....fun movie...great
stock footage.

WOW...these ships really "Rocked & Rolled" in high seas.

Looking forward to your build.

Cheers,
Joe

Hi Joe, thank you I managed to get hold of a copy of the movie of Monsarrat's "the Cruel Sea". For a black and white oldie it gave a good idead of how uncomfortable these little ships were.
I sailed on Dutch salvage tugs and supply vessels before I settled down ashore. I remember being on board a tow from Norfolk navy base , (towing two destroyers to Crete for the Greek navy. the Charles P. Cecil and the Cecil J. Fox if I remember correctly ). We got caught up in the tail end of a Hurricane on the Atlantic, very impressive weather and very uncomfortable sea conditions. Still better than on a corvette though because the tow acted as a sea anchor, without it we would have been really rocking and rolling

They made "The Cruel Sea" into movie
I didn't know
Later

It's a 1953 film, it has aged well

Julian, thanks, I'll look for it. It was a great book

Later

Great start Julian, hope you will have as much fun with your build as I am with the Zinnia.

Si

I think I will enjoy this build when I get around to it. These little ships were amazingly cluttered on deck and that always looks good if the model includes that much detail. Fit of the hull was excellent too