1/72 British Sub Holland I (Choroszy Modelbud)
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by Ralf Roggeveen |
1/72 British Sub Holland I (Choroszy Modelbud)
By a supreme irony the Royal Navy's first submarine, commissioned in the first year of the 20th Century, was invented by John Philip Holland (1841 - 1941), Irish-American nationalist, who had designed it specifically to destroy that very navy. The Fenians could not afford such weapons and did not know how to operate them, but the US Navy bought the patents in 1898 and later sold them on to Britain where five were immediately built by Vickers who soon improved them into the A-Class, the rest is history. Although the Holland boats were obsolete by the start of the Great War, this was where the first crews first learnt their trade. It had a crew of 7, surface displacement of 63 tons/submerged: 74. Surface speed: 8 knots/submerged 5 knots. Armament: 18 inch/457mm Whitehead torpedo. Dimensions: 53ft 3 in (16.3m) x 10ft 3 in (3.1m) x 11ft 6in (3.5m).A beautiful large model by the Polish company Choroszy Modelbud. A lot of resin, but no metal parts, crew figures or decals included. It required quite a bit of sanding and filing, but fitted together reasonably well. I have added chains, piano wire cables and officers and sailors from the excellent Gunthwaite Miniatures range. Second World War figures, but uniforms did not change that much in the first half of the 20th Century; they make all the difference in this large scale. The blue '1' decals were borrowed from a WW2 German aircraft kit. As a bonus you get parts to build a model of the torpedo which is seen here on its own mounting being inspected by the Weapons Officer. I also scratchbuilt improved interior detail on the open hatch, adding the ladder, etc. and put Clearfix to seal the observation slits.
