An Early Christmas: Expansion of the Italian Navy

Well I just received a beautiful new ship model in the mail from master sculptor Chas Emerson. It is a model of the gunship Porto Corsini. It is a beautiful model that came prepainted! YEA!

The Porto Corsini was one of several small vessels that were part of the Italian fleet in East Africa during WWII. It began its life as a Japanese fishing vessel, the Fumi Maru. Having some 280 tons displacement, it was launched in 1912. The Italians purchased her in 1917. The Porto Corsini had a top speed of 9 knots, carried a complement of 24 and was armed with two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns (76/40) and a pair of machine guns. Initially taken on as a minelayer, by 1921 she was converted to a gunboat.

Following the Italian collapse in East Africa, the Porto Corsini was captured intact in 1941 and taken into British service as the HMS General Platt. In the post war it became a lighthouse tender.

Looking around the internet, there are plenty of ships in 1:1250 scale. The WWII Italian navy is well represented in terms of coastal vessels. Lots of MAS boats and other torpedo boats were available and some destroyers and larger ships. What I was looking for are some of the other ships that were commonly used. After working on an IABSM supplement for East Africa, I had a complete naval order of battle for the Regia Marina in East Africa. Looking through it several ships stood out as interesting vessels. The first was the Eritrea, a colonial ship. Models exist of this ship but are rather expensive. Next were the Torpedo boats Giovanni Acerbi and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini. I found these ships as well. Again they are available but expensive as well. The Porto Corsini stood out as something that I would like to have.

Searching the internet did not show anything even close. What I did find was Chas. After an email exchange, he agreed to make a model of the ship for me. Through the process he sent me pictures of the ship as he was creating it.

The picture above is what Chas sent as he was creating it. Well the final product arrived today and it looks fantastic.

Chas has a company KS models. product designer for Airfx and then moved into architectural and engineering modelmaking. I am now semi-retired in my 60s and I have started producing these 1250 scale models partly as hobby and partly income. At the time he began to create the Porto Corsini he had five ships: Skandi Falcon UT 705 (red), North Vanguard UT 705 (blue), Bourbon Liberty 200 (green).

To contact Chas, send him an e-mail at kimberleystudio@btinternet.com.

Coastal Patrol - Figurehead Merchantmen

The last post featured the Italian MAS boats. Now I have completed some merchantmen.

The tanker is a small coastal tanker of some 750 tons. The ship is was modeled after is the Ben Read. This must have been a hard luck ship as it ran aground twice in its career. The second time proved fatal to the tanker.

Then there are two trawlers. These to my eye looked similar to the Canadian Battle Class trawlers. So I painted them using their gray scheme.

The last of the merchantmen is a tramp steamer modeled after the Belford. This is the same length as the tanker as the original was 135' in length.

I am experimenting with adding additional waves on the base other than the bow wave and the wake. I am not sure how well this is turning out.

These should prove to be useful for coastal games. Next on to the British.

Coastal Patrol - Figurehead Miniatures

I have finished basing the MAS boats. The first 4 were the early 501 - 526 models. The pictures were taken with my cell phone and did not come out badly considering. The ships themselves are under and inch long.

I am not sure if the Italians used the candy striping on the MAS boats or not. I thought I would add it anyway.

As you can see from the pictures I have finished assembling the merchant ships as well. There are two trawlers (the two on the right), an oil tanker and a tramp steamer (far left).

Again, apologies for the picture quality. These are not much longer than the MAS boats. The masts come separately and with both the tramp and the tanker, the bridges were separate structures that had to be glued in place. The tramp came with painting instructions. For the oil tanker, I will take a few liberties with it.

My father served aboard two oil tankers as a summer job during college and again after graduation. I still have his Merchant Marine card. He served aboard the Esso Pittsburgh and Esso Providence. I also happen to have a book on the Esso tankers that served during the Second World War. I will base the painting scheme for the oil tanker from the Esso Pittsburgh.

Note that the Esso Pittsburgh and Esso Providence are both 4 to 5 times the length of the coastal tanker that I have a model for. I wonder if there is a 1/1250th model for larger tankers? At 100' to the inch, that would put the Pittsburgh at over 5" in length as a model.

In 1949, my father stood on the deck of the Esso Pittsburgh and watched columns of Egyptian troops move across the Suez Canal to invade Israel. It is fun to have a hobby where you can learn history and family at the same time.

Coastal Patrol

Well the Summer Special from the TFL has come and struck me with another diversion. Jumping into a new set of miniatures I have purchased some 1/1250th scale ships from Figurehead miniatures.

My order with Last Square arrived very quickly from the time I ordered. The ships were rather detailed for their size and painted up very quickly. I am basing these on computer motherboard material that I had laying around the garage. Because my ship recognition skills are virtually non-existent, I will be labeling the rear area of the base with the definition of what the ship is. I have painted the first 4 MAS boats and am in the middle of basing them now.

Once these are finished, I will move on to the merchantmen. The larger ships have details that need to be glued on to them. These have the potential to be a bit fiddly and look to be the more daunting of the ships. I picked up a pair of trawlers, a tanker and a tramp cargo ship. These should make for some interesting games for the Mediterranean. Convoy interception and the like.

The British ships I picked up are all small vessels like the MAS boats so they should go quickly - Harbour Defense motor launches, Vosper MKIIs and some MBG-50s.

The one disappointment is that I cannot find 1/1250th scale models of the older MAS boat types such as the MAS 200 series. These were very prevalent in the backwater regions such as East Africa.

They do have larger ships from the Figurehead line that include destroyers. Those and some Italian sailboats could prove interesting to have on the table.