The Ship Model Forum

Sweden bought four Italian destroyers in 1940. Two were of the Italian Sella class lauched in 1926; HMS Puke (ex Bettino Ricasoli) and HMS Psilander (ex Giovanni Nicotera), and two of the Spica class (in the Italian Navy these ships were classed as torpedo boats) launched in 1934; HMS Romulus (ex Spica) and HMS Remus (ex Astore).

During the journey from Italy to Sweden this force was intercepted by a RN destroyer unit and the Swedish force commander chose not to put up a fight (partly because there were a number of civilians - even some women and children - aboard the ships, but also because his ships were much inferior to the RN destroyers). The destroyers were interned in the UK for a short time, but after some diplomatic activities later released to Sweden.

Unfortunately the force commander, because of his descicion not to follow the old navy tradition to fight rather than surrender his ships, afterwards fell in disgrace within the Swedish Navy and it put an end to his career. History has later proved he made the correct descicion but it took many years before the Navy finally admitted this.

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Sten Ekedahl
Maj. (Retd) RSwAF

Thank you Sten, that was most interesting information. I thought it was two Spica class Destroyers that Sweden had bought along with the older two. I had never heard of the Royal Navy interception and interning of the ships for a period of time. I will look in the Official History of The Royal Navy in WWII. Roskill's book and see if I can find mention of this incident.
Do you know if the Allies, the Soviets or even the Germans airforces ever made accidental attacks on Swedish Warships during the war? I would think it would be easy for Airmen to not recognize a Swedish ship and attack it. They must have carried Markings that made it clear they were Swedish maybe??

Tack för upplysningarna!
Bob B.

I'm looking for any information on the Danish coast defence ships Peder Skram, Herluf Trolle and Olfert Fischer, built in the early 1900s. Photographs and reference material for these ships appears to be very scarce, searching the web has turned up a few low-res photos but not much else.
I've heard that there is a builder's model of Peder Skram in the Copenhagen National Maritime Museum, but have not managed to find any more information about this. Does anyone know more?

(Hope this isn't hijacking the thread too much - they're not Swedish ships, but are at least Scandinavian (and the Swedish navy had very similar coast defence ships)

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Swedish ships were carrying neutrality markings (blue and yellow); they looked different between the different ships.

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** lurking after abandoning all projects **

It to not see difficultly.

Paper Shipwright (papershipwright.co.uk) have just released a model of Peder Skram. They also do models of the Swedish coastal monitors Fenris (1871), Folke (1875) and Solve (1875). I have made their models of the Rendell gunboats, and was very impressed with the quality.

Hope this helps

I know, I bought their kit as soon as it was released - I'm quite familiar with Paper Shipwrights as I used their Cerberus kit as plans for my scratchbuild, I also have their M.33, Melik, Solve and Tijger kits for future projects.
(The availability of the Paper Shipwrights kit is the reason I decided to build this particular ship)

The problem is that as I will be building the ship in 1/96 scale, and their kit is 1/250, I really need some more reference for the fine detail of the ship. It's also useful to see pictures of the real ship (or a builder's model) to get an idea of how everything goes together, there are some areas (notably the forecastle) which are quite complex shapes.

Thanks anyway!

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Hello

For anyone interesed in torpedo boats I would like to bring to broader knowledge the homepages for the remaining torpedo boats that are
preserved in Sweden. They are active ships with their machinery intact or slightly modified.

T-56 is the most recent of these ships to be brought back to its former
right. Since 2003 she has been under renovation by enthusiasts.

Visit T-56 at her homepage: http://www.t56.se

There is a possibility to choose english language. The link list you find under the word "Länkar" (Sw. links) that is of some reason not translated.
Further boats have their homepages there.

Pictures and other material that might be of interest are at hand at these pages.

Regards

Fredrik

Here are the pictures of the Choroszy Modelbud kit of the Swedish torpedo boat T11 (MAS 500 Series) in 1/72 scale. The kit is in resin and etched metal:

Box art:


Box contents:




Etched parts:


The resin castings are very fine and show a HIGH degree of detail. They are of an excellent quality:




Decals (need replacements, wrong blue colour):


Instructions (quite simple):












The kit was quite expensive, 90 USD is a lot of money. But I am seduced by the quality of the castings and the attention to detail. The engines even have the cooling fans in place! Of course the true test will be the actual build of the kit. Once I get around to do that.

Until then: ha det bra!

//Magnus

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** lurking after abandoning all projects **

Expert modeler John Youngerman sent copies of photographs of what appears to be the builder's model of the cruiser Gotland. The main deck was wood-planked. In the model, the superstructure deck are red or black. Particular British and Russian warships had brown decks but red is unusual.

In the photograph of the actual ship, the relatively light color of the upper decks does not match the centers of the aftermost life rafts. This photograph seems to establish that those colors were different. The amidships liferafts appear to be of one uniform color, similar in brightness to the decks.

From this I conclude that when photographed here, the brighter areas of the upper decks were not red. Has anyone information about Swedish naval policy about deck colors?

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If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, [atmospheric] CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.
Dr James Hansen, NASA, 2008.

The Japanese naval modeling publication "Navy Yard," Volume #26, Summer 2014 features a scratchbuild of the HMS Gotland, circa 1934, in aircraft cruiser mode.

I was in Stockholm in 2011 and visited the maritime museum. There are some excellent models in there.

Now, if only someone knew how to get plans. Apparently the Swedes are very reluctant to let stuff go...

Halland

Gotland











Oland

If anyone knows how to get Swedish plans, I would love to hear from you.

All the best
Sandy

Some designs of the Dutch navy of the fifties had much in common with the Swedish: Bofors armament and turrets, and Hollandse Signaal radar equipment.

There is a kit of the Dutch destroyer Friesland in 1:350 (Naval Models), components of this kit could be used for a Halland class destroyer of the Swedish navy.

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"There are more planes in the ocean, than submarines in the sky" - old carrier sailor

Sandy:

I suppose you already know about different articles about Swedish warships in the Warship yearly issues. But I suppose you mean more elaborate plans, try with Sjöfartsmuseet in Gothenburg (Göteborg)

http://goteborg.se/wps/portal/sjofartsm/english
or Marinmuseum Karlskrona

http://www.marinmuseum.se/
Best regards
Anders

RSwN MTB from the late 50'ies:



These were later rebuilt into vedett boats:

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RSwN torpedo boat HMS Spica, from the mid 60´s:

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The HMS Spårö is a minesweeper of the Arkö-class from the late 50's, early 60's.
Ships of this class saw service into the 80's, some as late as the early 90's.

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For those who wish to build the recently-released 1/35 CB-90 assault craft from Tiger Models in Swedish markings, it may be worth contacting the Ängelholm air museum in Sweden - their gift shop, clearly managed by experienced modelers, includes Swedish markings for kits that served in the Swedish military but which do not come with Swedish markings in the box.

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