Longtime Alnavco customer Jon Sumida has provide us with some photos and techniques for WWI ship modifications. Jon is a published author and professor of history at the University of Maryland.
Jon’s words about the modifications: “The major modification project was Orion out of KGV (they are in the 2nd BS 2nd division).”
“The KGV had to be cut in half and shortened amidships and at the stern. The superstructure was built up from wire, scrap, plastic rod, brass tubing slices, and card–note especially the screens around the boat well.”
“Considerable work was also required to make the Hercules out of Neptune, and modifying Neptune to be Neptune was also non-trivial.But arguably the most arduous project was making the Lions work.”
“For this I had to make new funnels out of aluminum tubing, modify the superstructure with plastic scrap and card, and most difficult of all, hollow out the boat well. The ships were painted to match the home fleet dark gray of the Home Fleet in 1914. This gives the ships a very different demeanor than the medium gray of the war after the fall of 1914.”
“In general, I found replacing the cast masts with wire and cleaning up the molding flaws resulted in very convincing representations.”
“For your information, I am publishing a long article on British naval tactics from 1914 to 1916 in the upcoming Naval War College Review (Summer 2007).”
“This is a refinement of arguments published in the 2003 Journal of Military History ‘A Matter of Timing: The Royal Navy and the Tactics of Decisive Battle, 1912-1916.”
