The Ship Model Forum

Greetings all

I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on Monitors or Coastal Defence Ships. Myself have been digging for some information in the past few years for some interesting monitors like Finland's Vainamoinen and Thailand's Dhonburi which I own from Combrig or am in process of preparing a full scratchbuild. Usually these are forgotten ships for most of the modelers and probably due to their "less important" History in major navies, still, their odd looking shapes make them curious ships.
Regards,

Filipe

_________________
"Build few and build fast,
Each one better than the last"
John Fisher

Count me in, too...

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Nice post Filipe!

Here some Italian stuff

http://www.webalice.it/cherini/elenco%20tavole%20navi%2029.htm

Hey Dino, some nice pictures you pointed...Thanks.

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Hmmm, that Pontone 1943 looks quite good. Any models around of her?

_________________
"Build few and build fast,
Each one better than the last"
John Fisher

Don't know Filipe, but I have some more info about the pontone Alfredo Cappellini but I can't post them here

Let me know if you are interested!

Dino

I'll send you a PM then, Dino.

_________________
"Build few and build fast,
Each one better than the last"
John Fisher

After a fast research I can confirm what I said to Filipe, the GM 194 is the Faà Di Bruno in his WWII fitting.

Count me in too, most of the Dutch predreadnought navy falls in this category. Can't wait to (scratchbuild) build them.

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If all else fails, a complete pig-headed refusal to see facts in the face will see us through. - General Melchett

Michel, regarding the Dutch pre-dreads I have a keen interest on Soerabaya (spelling?) since she was part of the Allied Force that landed in Portuguese Timor on the 15th of December 1941. Only have a couple of photos of her sadly and little information of what was her fit by that time.

_________________
"Build few and build fast,
Each one better than the last"
John Fisher

Felipe,
Soerabaja was the former De Zeven Provincien renamed after the mutiny of 1933. As the vessel seems to have fallen from official favour after the mutiny not much information on her exists. There's conflicting information for example on where she was scuttled when Java fell to the japanese and whether she was raised and scrapped or left in place. The only picture I kown of is the one which is regularly found on the internet, for example on http://www.dutchfleet.net/viewtopic.php?t=7595&start=16
If you want to scratchbuilt her, small scale line plans can be found in "Pantserschepen, pantserdakschepen en monitors" by Mulder and Ruygrok
ISBN: 90-807822-2-x. I do not think her lines changed during the rebuild, the main problem will be the changes in the superstcrurure and weapons.

Can't wait to see you do so - I think you've got some good subjects to choose from.

Is there much in the way of references?

Cheers,

Rob

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IPMS Fine Waterline Special Interest Group

Get the aforementioned book "Pantserschepen, pantserdekschepen en monitors" by Mulder and Ruygrok, ISBN: 90-807822-2-x. Bit pricey but worth the money. This covers the entire dutch predreadnought era. Large-scale drawings can probably only be found in the various Dutch naval archives. There's also a recent book named "Van Pantserboot tot Kanonneerboot", by Huub Ummels, about the Dutch coastal gunboats of the Brinio-class, built in 1911 and serving in the Second World war, fighting against the german invasion.
And, I can also direct you to http://www.dutchfleet.net, a Dutch (they speak english) site with a lot of knowledgeable people. The "Schepen van Weleer" (ships of yesteryear) forum deals specifically with ships types no longer in service e.i. cruisers, coastal defence, torpedoboats etc. See here for instance:
http://www.dutchfleet.net/viewtopic.php?t=8543

_________________
If all else fails, a complete pig-headed refusal to see facts in the face will see us through. - General Melchett

Felipe:

Searching my library, I find that Warship International No. 4 1988 has plan drawings and an internal arrangement profile drawing of the ship. There are also 2 photos (prt bow & bow, slightly to the strbrd). The article is by Anthonie van Dijk and is entitled "The Drawing board Battleships for the Royal Netherlands Navy." There is also a profile drawing of the Maren Harpertsz. Tromp & a photo of her (stern, slightly to strbrd). If you would like the article, send me an E-mail with your address & I will mail a copy of the article to you.

I may be wrong, but I think I recall seeing another drawing of one of the Dutch coast defense battleships somewhere. This is not my area of interest, so I did not keep track of it. It might have been one of the small drawings in Galuppi's book.

Hi Gregory,

You got me lost here now. Are you speaking of Dhonburi or Surabaya? I have a keen interest on both namely the former one which I am preparing to do a scratch. Regarding the second I have very little information on her but I would like to build one also given the reasons I posted here before. Any information on either ships is welcome. I would love to have a copy of that article indeed. I will send you a PM/email tomorrow supplying you my address.
So many thanks. Dhonburi is a specially dark subject. I did try to contact both the gentlemen that did draw the plans I have from her and also the Royal Thai Navy Museum but with no results at all so far.
Cheers,

Filipe

_________________
"Build few and build fast,
Each one better than the last"
John Fisher

Good news on Dhonburi. Apparently there is a company/shop in Thailand that produces a 1/700 resin model of this monitor. I've contacted them and I was told that they are currently out of stock but they might have a new "breed" in the next few months!!! Aaaahhhh, I'm going to get it I hope....at least it saves me the work of a full scratch-build!!!!

_________________
"Build few and build fast,
Each one better than the last"
John Fisher

You´re quite right..although welding techniques had already been used in large scale, and in such ships as Ark Royal, whose construction ended in 1938.

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I wasn't aware Ark's hull was welded? Only some of her superstructure?

I thought he was asking about the monitors hulls? and that was what I was reffering to from 1944 onwards.

Perhaps some confusion here...
I wanted to know about monitors... I just added that Ark Royal info for curiosity, which I read in D K Brown´s "Designing and Construction of British Warships" vol.1, were he states that "65% of her structure was welded"...
Hope this clears the confusion...

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Cheers