by David Smith
1/700 Hospital ships (Scratchbuilt)
SS Uganda Hospital ship
Affectionately known as Mother hen as she serviced the 3 smaller ambulance ships, HMS Hydra, Herald and Hecla, they dealt with injured from both sides and were protected by the Geneva Convention. She was also known as NOSH – Naval Oceangoing Hospital Ship. (Presumably MASH related).
The ship was originally named the Karatina and was the sister ship to the SS Kenya.
Built by Barclay Curle and co in Glasgow, launched in 1952.
Length 539 ft 9 in
Beam 71 ft 5 in
Draught 27 ft 5 in
Displacement 16,907 t
Speed 16 knots
She was taken over from school’s cruises to be a hospital ship, requisitioned on the 9th April and left for the South Atlantic on 19th April.
She had red crosses on the funnel and two on each side of the hull. She arrived in the S Atlantic on the 11th May.
Basic plans were drawn out from a side profile of the ship altered to a scale 1:700 size. Again some guesswork will be involved but hopefully it will look something like.
I have learnt a lot building this ship, essentially a liner and therefore different from naval vessels. The lifeboats are a bit rough and ready and with hindsight a lot more time should have been spent sanding them down and added more detail. Unfortunately I am a little impatient and always want to see a model completed. I wish that I could develop more patience and take my time, when will I realise that I am not in a race.
Painting is proving a challenge, I am now brush painting all my models and I am not very happy with the finish when compared to air brushed models.
A few details still need adding, railings and so on, it still seems very uncluttered on top, cannot find any pictures that are clear and so it is difficult knowing what to add. The red crosses were hand painted- I am not very happy with them, may have to redo them
I have now dirtied my model and added rust smears and than varnished it, still not sure about rails it may take an awful lot!
Hecla Class Ambulance ships
HMS Hecate A137 HT not converted for ambulance work replaced Endurance in Falklands
HMS Hydra A144 HD All built 1965 at Yarrow
HMS Hecla A133 HI
HMS Herald A138 HE built 1974 Leith
HMS Hydra sold to Indonesia in 1986 and is now the Dewa Kembar.
Details of the class
Displacement 2000tons
Length 79m
Beam 15.4m
Draught 4.9m
Carried 1 Westland Wasp
Speed 14 knots
Converted to ambulance ships in 1982 and had a RAS position fitted.
They carried up to 100 critical patients at a time from the hospital ships to Montevideo for the flight home at a time. Each ship had 2 Surgeon-Lieutenants, 4 medical assistants and 30 of her crew trained as nurses.
Plans were scaled from photographs and construction continued in the usual way. Components were made so that they could be fitted after painting.
I have decided to build three of this class.
Two as ambulance ships and the third as HMS Hecate, HMS Hecate was sent to replace HMS endurance on ice survey work. The 2 ambulance ships will be HMS Hydra and HMS Herald (slightly different).
Building two together seems easier than building just one, but I suppose all the hard work was done on the first one really. Should I build number 4? I would then have the set; initially I was going to build one of each class, so perhaps I will stick to this for now.
Not sure about putting the railings on first, now painting the decks is a real problem, have to hand paint them and try to be really careful. Unfortunately this will lead to some touching up. I am not very leased with my painting skills. I really need to try to improve here.
