Well, after the lovely reception of my HMCS Snowberry - which has been in the wars after a collision, now repaired and upgraded - now with a smoker and lighting - I chanced upon another 1/72 Revell Corvette, so taking everything I had learned in making Snowberry, I thought I would apply myself and see what I could do for a sister ship - the part-built kit - an eBay find - came with a few options for the decals, one of which was HMS Campanula, so the task was set!

Campanula has some differences to Snowberry, a diferent radar tower, different bridge supports - 2 x beams instead of 3 - different layout to the carley floats, an extra flagstaff on the funnel and a diferent bandstand edging for the rear pompom, so some scratchbuilding to fashion the diferences, as well as replacing a few missing parts.

The pics show it as it arrived, then the scratchbuilt carley float supports, the whaleboat runout on the davits, the bandstand alteration, the upgraded front gun, flota nets, navi and interior lights and an overview of the progress...

I am hoping to have her finished this week, and the crew painted and affixed, ready for her maiden voyage at Bury Lido next Sunday, fingers crossed!

Anyhows, hope you like her!

Asheville Class gun boat model is 51” long weighs 22 lbs. hull covered with 2 layers of 2 oz. fiberglass cloth and resin. All plywood and balsa construction finished with fiberglass resin and Model Master paints. Working radar mast, turrets, desiel sound, whopper sound, general quarters sound, sierene. Power is MACK
Drives 12 volt system 2 x 2 6volt 3000 nimh each drive. Very fast in the water.

Bought these two for £50! The smallest is HMS Manxman, a scratch build, 6v electric motor drive. it,s just shy of 3ft long. The second ship came to me as apparently HMS Tanganyika, however, on looking at photos of the ship bore no resemblance. it is almost definitely a colony class cruiser of ww2. Possibly HMS FIJI, Nigeria,Jamaica,or Trinidad. The two pillars amidships with the orbs are not what these ships had(?). So much work has yet to be done. The second ship is 5ft 6inches long, made entirely of wood, with a Marx Decaperm 6v Motor powered by a large 6v 10ah gel battery which doubles as ballast, along with 5 large lead weights. Transmitter is a Futaba t6exa, the receiver and servos are Futaba also. I would be interested in knowing some tips about building techniques, best materials and paints for waterproofing etc. And maybe some opinions on it,s identity as swear it looks like HMS Fiji. I have browsed some lovely builds on this site so far, and they really are a credit to you all. Thanks. Gordon