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Whaling Ships?


Paul Wagner

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I have a hankering to do a whaling scene, but being vaguely fussy about scale I'd like it to be somewhere up around OO/HO and 1/72 (that way I can get lots of little figures involved). But what kit would be appropriate? Someone suggested an Aurora "Wandering Whaler" but I can't find one... Any suggestions?

Paul

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Here is my small whaling diorama, the steam whaling barque Esquimaux, laid alonside an ice shelf. It is scratchbuilt though, as I have never been very successful with kits. Kits of commercial ships are few and far between anyway!

Bob

 

Edited by ShipbuilderMN
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Here is another, the whaleship Essex, that was sunk by an enraged sperm whale in 1820. I found the plans in the book In The Heart of the Sea. I have no in-depth knowledge of whales or whale ships, but simply built these two because I found plans in books and felt like something different. The Esquimaux plans were found in a Model Shipwright magazine a number of years ago! These are the only two whaleships I have ever built, as my prefererred field is the grossly unpopular subject of merchant ships!

Bob

 

Edited by ShipbuilderMN
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If you can find one, the Airfix Classic Ship "HMS Discovery" will do the job. She was originally the whaling ship "Bloodhound" it seems. Certainly looks very like one!

This is an American whaler of around 1850:

2007-4713.jpg

This is the "Discovery"

Type%203%20Discovery.jpg

If you're up to it, cloning the Discovery's boats so you have a few more whaleboats would probably be a good idea.

bestest,

M.

Edited by cmatthewbacon
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The Revell-Monogram Charles W. Morgan is a very nice kit and considering it's age (late 60s), it does an excellent job of representing a 19th century American whaler. The kit is 1/110 scale. It occurs to me that the European model railway scale 'TT' is fairly close at 1/120 so I guess you could get figures to match the kit fairly easily?

There is also a smaller scale kit of the same vessel by Academy- called a 'New Bedford Whaler' also scaling out quite nicely, but smaller at 1/200. Here's a picture of mine under construction, which after completion I gave away- but the postcard behind it is 6'' long, so that gives an idea of scale.

DSC01042.jpg

Will

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1:72 scale your only choice is likely to be the Matchbox/Revell Flower Class corvette. The design is based on the Whale catcher "Southern Pride" and so would probably fit your requirements, with some modifications.

To complete the circle, some of the Flowers were converted to Whalers post-war e.g. HMCS Mimico

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If you can find one, the Airfix Classic Ship "HMS Discovery" will do the job. She was originally the whaling ship "Bloodhound" it seems. Certainly looks very like one!

The Airfix Discovery is Scott's 1901 ship (RRS Discovery) as now moored in Dundee, not the earlier HMS Discovery - the ship were similar but not the same

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The Airfix Discovery is Scott's 1901 ship (RRS Discovery) as now moored in Dundee, not the earlier HMS Discovery - the ship were similar but not the same

Oh, bother... good point.

Well, I guess the AIrfix classic ship still looks like a whaler, if that's all that's necessary!

bestest,

M.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Oh, bother... good point.

Well, I guess the AIrfix classic ship still looks like a whaler, if that's all that's necessary!

bestest,

M.

Discovery was designed like a Whaler, and built at a whaling ship builder, but was purpose built as an Artic (Antartic) exploration vessel.

Amoung other modifications, the captains cabin was moved amid-ships to aid communication with his officers in extreme weather - this caused the ship to be about 10' longer than a more coventional whaler.

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