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HMS Bulwark


Kevdan

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There's not a lot available, in fact there are very few kits available of post war British Aircraft Carriers, off the top of my head the list is something like this:

1/350 scale

Airfix HMS Illustrious

1/400 scale

Heller Arromanches (French Navy but British built Colossus Class)

1/600 scale

Airfix HMS Victorious

1/700 scale

Orange Hobby HMS Hermes (officially same Centaur class as Bulwark but much modified and essentially unique) resin kit

Orange Hobby HMS Victorious resin kit

Revell/Dragon Invincible class

Fujimi HMS Ark Royal (50's era before full angled deck)

Fujimi HMS Eagle (50's era)

I'm pretty sure that's it, so not a lot to work with unfortunately.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks for the reply,

I've looked a few times but never found anything, He did also serve on the Hermes but for a very short time, but when he tell his "tales of when I was in the Navy " Lol, he always talks about the Bulwark, I then just take the mickey cause Im ex Army so we do have a bit of banter.

Thanks anyway.

Kev

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Kev, as a Centaur class carrier you could heavily modify anything R12'sh that's available; or, as I've seen done, convert the Airfix Victorious, following the Bulwark route instead of the Hermes one...I'm not that brave, but I've seen it done on a couple of the warship sites. Good diagrams would be my first step but Ant has pretty well covered it. I'd really love to see one though as I remember my sister setting off a fire system in a Wessex below decks of Bulwark when she was at HMS Terror in the early 70's. Happy, happy days!

Best of luck with your project, and I do hope you can turn something up.

Nobby

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Cheers Nobby,

Like I said before it's for a mate of mine who served on her, for his 60th which isn't for a couple of yrs so got plenty time to play.

Why couldn't he be in the Army like me, Artillery, tanks and AFV are easy to come across. But he was a matelot so not much I can do about that, Lol. only Joking, everyone that's taken the queens shilling is good in my book.

Kev.

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Cheers Nobby,

Like I said before it's for a mate of mine who served on her, for his 60th which isn't for a couple of yrs so got plenty time to play.

Why couldn't he be in the Army like me, Artillery, tanks and AFV are easy to come across. But he was a matelot so not much I can do about that, Lol. only Joking, everyone that's taken the queens shilling is good in my book.

Kev.

Well if that's the case I'll try and find some links for you. One granddad was a WO1 in the Seaforths and the other a sergeant in the RA, both parents RN so you can say it's all one big family of sorts...I'll see what I can do.

Graham

PS Maybe your mate remembers the incident in 1970 when they were alongside at Sembawang.

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Hi Kev. I was on the Bulwark '66/67, she was know as the Rusty B, so give a pice of 3mm steel plate grey one side rust the other, tell him it's piece of the original... Maybe witha plaque attached with your mates rank and name, etc, and the date he was aboard.

Colin

Edited by heloman1
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  • 1 month later...

Hi guys,

Im looking for a kit of HMS Bulwark Circa 1980ish, a mate of mine served in the RN and It's coming up to his 60th birthday so thought I'd do something for him.

hope you can help.

Kev

Sorry, only served on the latest incarnation but I do know someone by the name of Kev who served on above named vessel.

Good luck in your quest

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Hi Kev. I was on the Bulwark '66/67, she was know as the Rusty B, so give a pice of 3mm steel plate grey one side rust the other, tell him it's piece of the original... Maybe witha plaque attached with your mates rank and name, etc, and the date he was aboard.

Colin

Hi Colin,

were you onboard on the trip up to Hong Kong for the 'riots'? I think it was about Feb 1967.

Mike

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There are also the L'Arsenal 1/700 resin kits of Colossus class carriers. It is probably easier to convert a Colossus-class kit than the Victorious, but I haven't tried either. On the other hand, I suspect that the resin kits will be more difficult to chop than the polystyrene ones.

Edited by Graham Boak
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There would need to be a lot of cutting of a Victorious, with the large rounded stern, to a square transom stern of Bulwark.

Victorious (as rebuilt 1958) =

Length at waterline - 753 feet

Length overall............781 feet

Beam..........................103 feet

Bulwark

Length at waterline......

Length overall.............737 feet

Beam...........................123 feet

The above shows considerable differences in length and breadth.

A conversion is not impossible but to me it sounds as difficult as converting an Me109 to a Spitfire.

Mike

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If you have good drawings, to be honest you'd probably be better scratch building her than trying to convert a totally different carrier. I went on board the a Rusty B once; when I was a sprog one of our Engineer officers had been on board when she had the hydrogen fire that finished her career (& very nearly sank her), so he managed to get permission to show us round her decommissioned hull at Fountain Lake. I remember that he had what looked like a ball bearing on his desk, but which turned out to be a piece of fuel tank that got so hot that it melted, only for the fuel to cool it into a perfect sphere.

Deeply scary; the inside if her boilers looked like it was made of melted plastic.

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I know it sounds improbable, but here's a link. I've seen other conversions too, one with a work in progress thread too. Can't remember if it's on the ATF site. See what you think...but again, good drawings must be the start.

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/cv/hms/hermes-600-rc/rc-index.html

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