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  1. Happy New Year to all! Received the Round2 re-release of the old Lindberg Q-Ship for Christmas. This wasn't one I ever did as a kid---though I did a lot of Lindberg as a child (which pretty well dates me)---but I had a very nostalgic thrill unwrapping the box and seeing the familiar 'Lindberg Line' logo on the label: great memories of quick-but-fun tube-glue-smeared builds, followed by epic naval battles with my brothers, similarly-equipped, on the rolling green 'ocean' of the back yard grass. I have read quite a bit about the Q-ships and the battle against u-boats during both World Wars, though WW1 was sort of their heyday. Q-ships were most often aged merchantmen, intended to be 'decoys' to lure unwary submarines to attack---ideally by surfacing to use their deck guns, not wanting to waste valuable torpedoes on such a plodding and 'helpless' target---at which time the Q-ship would run up the White Ensign, expose the concealed guns and torpedoes with which she had been equipped, and try to take out the submarine at close range. Assessments by the Admiralty after the Great War concluded that in 150 engagements, British Q-ships destroyed 14 U-boats and damaged 60...but at a loss of 27 Q-ships out of 200 commissioned. Q-ships claimed about 10% of all U-boats sunk, "ranking them well below the use of ordinary minefields in effectiveness." [Info and quote from the Wikipedia article.] The kit itself is a real artifact of its time (mid-50s?), and oh-so-typical 'Lindberg' in having rather strange lines, simplified or non-existent detail, generally poor replication of prototype---and their odd 'trademark' tennis-court-marking (raised) plating lines on every surface, vertical and horizontal. [To be fair, it sort of 'works' for the hull, but not much else.] Online assessments suggest it's broadly patterned on the USS ATIK---which was an actual Q-ship, albeit of WW2 vintage (though the merchant ship from which it was converted was from 1912)---and spectacularly unsuccessful, being sunk in its first action in 1942. The box art and decals show the ship's decidedly non-warship lines...painted in overall naval grey...and with big white hull numbers on the bow, which might send a sort of 'mixed message'---and not the good kind---to any stalking U-boat. The general consensus among modelers seems to be that the hull is a good starting point. My own addendum to that would be that if the 1/390 scale is correct (and it seems close: ATIK's dimensions would yield a scale of 1/382), then at least it's compatible with 1/350-1/400 p/e and spares, which will make detailing easier. [I should add here that the only 'Q-ship' aspect included in the kit are two very strange-looking 'deck guns'---which one online reviewer likened to looking like something out of Star Wars---and 'false deckhouse' boxes or crates to drop over them, to conceal them. A quick glance suggests that built as per instructions, the 'guns' might not even clear the bulwarks...rather limiting their use against any but high-flying submarines...which I don't think came into widespread use until some years later. ] Let me say at the start that this is not intended to be an 'historically accurate' build: if that were the object, scratch-building would be far simpler. I intend to honor the nostalgic spirit of the thing by building the kit...only adding and detailing to make things a bit less wonky, and more fun. My tentative idea is to configure it more to the actual appearance of a WW1-era 'tramp steamer' collier (which the deep hull and the 'short' lines would seem to suggest)---chiefly by adding hatches and raising the funnel height, and fixing booms and masts, which---besides being too few and completely lacking in detail---are far too long for the ship's size. The 'surprise' Q-ship bit might lend itself well to showing the ship looking 'normal' from one side---the 'helpless' coaster or tramp steamer caught alone by the evil hunting U-boat---and show the other side 'cleared for action' with guns revealed, etc. [Haven't decided to embrace my umpteenth-childhood by making these 'working' features or not...we'll see.] An online toddle took me to the stirring account by Captain (later Vice-Admiral) Gordon Campbell, detailing his assuming command and fitting-out of the WW1 Q-ship HMS Farnborough (alias Q.5). That ship would later 'trap' and go toe-to-toe with the Kaiser's U-83...ultimately sinking the U-boat after a harrowing and determined action...and earning the good Captain a VC in the process. (His award was known as the 'Mystery VC'; since the Q-ships and their activities were a closely-guarded secret, no details could be published of why or under what circumstances the award had been made!) [A link to a great summary of that action is here.] As though fortune were smiling on my little project, it turns out that February 2017 will mark the 100-year anniversary of that remarkable battle...so I might just be able to make it under the wire. Captain Campbell's account offers a great deal of useful information as to armaments (which seem largely to have been left to each fitting-out captain's individual discretion) and some of the 'ruse' features fitted and employed to periodically alter the ships appearance and 'identity.' I intend to use his account as a guide to 'fit out' my own fictive Q-ship. That's the plan---hopefully she'll be done by the Centenary of HMS Farnborough's epic battle with SM U-83. Any comments, advice, remonstrations or pointing-out of overlooked info will be gratefully received. Photos to follow.
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