by Maarten Schönfeld / Hans Bosma
1/350 Hr.Ms. De Ruyter (Scratchbuilt)
Hr.Ms. De Ruyter was planned before WW 2, but still on the stocks when the Germans invaded Holland in May 1940. The Germans wanted her to be completed, but the work was much delayed, partly by covert resistance by the shipyard personnel. Although she was launched in 1944, she was not completed in time to take part in the war.
After the war she and her sister ship De Zeven Provinciën were completed after a new design, taking into account many lessons from the war and with a very modern radar fit (Hollandse Signaal). They were both commisioned in 1953 and served with the RNethN into the 1970s, and were subsequently both sold to Peru. De Ruyter survives until the present day as 'the last gun cruiser in the world' under the name of BAP 81 Almirante Grau of the Peruvian Navy.
This model is a prototype build of a new multi-media kit, engineered by myself and to be ready for the market in the course of 2010 under the MW Models label. Using the basic resin parts, still lacking their details, my friend Hans Bosma built this kit into a stunning model of this beautiful medium cruiser from the Fifties. He used a lot of stock PE for adding the details, and also made use of resin and PE parts from the Hr.Ms. Friesland kit from MW Models, providing many typical Dutch details like radar antennas.
