Midland Shipyard

I have always admired the simplicity of this little proto-Pre-Dreadnought. As you may have realised, whilst some waterline ship collectors keep their collection to strict boundaries, I am a bit of a magpie. In this case thought it does fit in, as a bookend, for one of the deliberate threads of my collection: the development of British Battleships. The model is from Red Eagle Miniatures http://www.redeagleminiatures.co.uk who acquired the Triton range of ironclads. The models are clearly intended for wargames use and tend to the robust and cartooned end of the spectrum. They have deep moulded in deck planking, with planks that are the scale equivalent of five feet wide so the first item on the agenda was to fill in the trenches between them with watered down Milliput. Although I have several books on ships of this period, including D K Bown's Warrior to Dreadnought and Oscar Parkes Brittish Battleships, I was struggling to get really good reference photos - a task not helpe...

I have always had a soft spot for HMS Exeter, both for its vital role in the Battle of the River Plate and for its general appearance so I'd been keeping an eye out for a while for an acceptably priced model. I guess it must be popular a popular ship with other people too as all the ones that came up on Ebay went for top prices until I saw a rather sad and battered example. Unfortunately I failed to get any pictures in its original state but the masts were mangled as were the davits on the starboard side with lesser damage to the boats. One of the 4" guns had lost its barrel and there was various other damage. Nothing too serious though. I stripped off the paint completely so I could see the damage then cut away the damaged parts before fabricating replacements from brass rod and filling the various gouges and broken edges with Milliput. " I primed it with Halfords white from a rattle can. The colour scheme is from Malcolm Wright’s invaluable “British and Co...