Steve Jones

typical pusser - looks like its held on with plastic sheeting and a bit of string.....

Max, the main difference between the Argintinian 42's and our is ours float!!!

'Carriers'? do you mean the navy's new mobile deck hockey practice venues? lol!

the way things are with this government, I wouldn't be surprised one of them ends up being called 'FS La France' or something like that, while the other one becomes 'HMS Fountain Lake Jetty 6' cos we won't be able to afford to send it to sea

given this governments spending cuts, how about Delusion, Fantasy, Illusion, Speculation? Shouldn't need more than about 4 names anyway!!

there's only half of her left! she sitting a lot higher in the oggin than when I was on her!

nice one WEM! Plenty of scope for conversions there!

wonderful conversion job there mate, and those in the planning stage, what a collection that will be - proper ships that actually look like warships! Hoping to scratchbuild an 'Apollo' some time in the future but can't decide if it should be pre or post minelayer conversion. Steve

got mine a couple of weeks ago - it is just the best reference book available for this era, on a par with Mr Burt's books on the battleships.

Jonny, I have a few photos taken by my great uncle on HMS Bee (I think) showing the 19th Shanghai river gunboat flotilla 1923 summer deployment, complete with hand drawn map - fascinating! There used to me a website called 'hmsfalcon' or something like that that covered all the gunboats but I've not been able to find it lately - if you can get on that, you will have all the info you need! Steve

Got my copy delivered middle of last week - well worth the wait! Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in dreadnoughts (well, British ones anyway!)

given our current government, it's quite probable that at least 1 will be called FS 'la france' or something similar!

dont forget there are all those spare phalanx's taken off 42's/CVS's & the assault ships

dunno about them being 'stuffy' - they probably worked out it would take an extra tin of red paint to keep it looking smart and the current defence budget cant stretch that far!!

Mmmmh, so MOD want to build 13 and the Brazilians may be interested, so thats 10 for Brazil and 3 for us, so how about 'Faith', 'Hope' and 'Charity'? If you think I'm being a tad pessimistic, beware those who trust politicians!!

Flag 'F' at the dip - preparing/temporarily suspended fixed wing flying ops, close up - carrying out fixed wing flying ops. Flag 'H' has similar meaning but for helos and other furious palm trees. The 'ball/diamond/ball' is flown whenever any ship is restricted in her ability to manoeuvre, including flying ops. Emergency F or H would be flown if a petrol pigeon or plane actually crashed/ditched The destroyer/frigate performing plane guard would have a seaboat closed up ready to go. Be aware, war canoes do not precede the 'H' or 'F' with the answer/code pennant unless they are communicating with merchant ships - the meanings are completely different from the RN signal book. From memory code hotel means 'I require a pilot' - but not the flying type!! Hope this helps Steve

I was on 'Invincible' then - Staff College Sea Days were a right pain in the a***! But it is nice to remember the days when we could actually gather enough war canoes together to do something like that!

Boxer was my last ship, she was very 'slab sided' so would be fairly easy to do with plastic card, even the bow didn't have much flare and all the superstructure was flat sided - no curves worth speaking of!

just heard from 'Pen & Sword' that this one has been delayed slightly, so will now be out in 'a couple of weeks' - even more nail chewing!!

Agree with you Jetgrob, but may have to suck it and see when their 1/350 Lord Nelson comes out!

Surfsup, I got a 350 resin Invincible from ISW - leave it well alone mate, I'm still getting up the courage to start it but it's so bad I keep wincing! If you've got very deep pockets, Combrig's 'Tiger' looks very good! Steve

stunning model - hats off to the guy! Steve

lovely model - takes me back a bit, old ships and all that!! Steve

A type 14 from finewaterline? excellent news Mike, can I pre-order mine now? Steve

beware converting batch 3 to batch 2 - Boxer & Beaver had different fire control radars and a lower hangar than the rest of the batch 2's. Steve