by Edward Pinniger
1/96 HMS Grey Goose (John Piper Models)
The 145-foot Steam Gunboats (SGBs) were the largest of the Royal Navy Coastal Forces small craft, and the only ones to be steam-powered and to have steel rather than wood hulls. Powered by twin steam turbines, they had a maximum speed of 35 knots, not much less than that of the smaller Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) although their acceleration was poor. These craft were very heavily armed for their size; HMS Grey Goose as represented by my model (in mid-war fit) has one 3” gun, two 2pdr “pom-pom” guns, two 20mm Oerlikon guns, two twin Vickers .50 machineguns, two torpedo tubes, and depth charge racks! 60 SGBs were originally planned to be built, but due to lack of shipyard space, only 7 were actually completed. They were built in 1941-42, by several different shipyards (Grey Goose was built by J. Samuel White, Cowes)
The John Piper Models 1/96 scale kit of HMS Grey Goose was produced in the early 1980s, along with a Flower-class corvette in the same scale. Sales were apparently poor (probably due to their very high price, along with the much cheaper Matchbox 1/72 corvette being released around the same time) and they were not in production for long. They can still occasionally be found on the second-hand market, usually at quite reasonable prices given their quality and original cost.
The John Piper kits have resin hulls, etched brass superstructures, and fittings and detail parts made from cast white metal and photo-etched brass. Their quality, detail and accuracy is very impressive even by current standards! - there really isn't much that needs to be changed or added to even by the most demanding modeller. The only negative points are a few parts (such as the prop shafts) supplied as metal castings which really ought to be made up from brass wire, like the mast; and the photo-etched railings, which in 1/96 scale look much better as individual stanchions rigged with wire. This is what I did (using Dean's Marine 1/96 PE stanchions). Other than this, my model is built "out of the box" and painted as HMS Grey Goose (S309)
