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The seventh HMS GLASGOW, built on the Clyde, was a Southampton-class light cruiser, a sub-class of the Town-class and commissioned in September 1937. During the first 8 months of WW2, she was assigned to the Home Fleet and operated predominantly in Norwegian waters. On 29 April 1940, she evacuated King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav of Norway, Nygaardsvold's Cabinet and part of the Norwegian gold reserves when they fled from Molde to Tromsø, escaping the advancing German forces. She then departed to the United Kingdom on 1 May. King Haakon later wrote a letter of thanks to GLASGOW's Commanding Officer, Captain Frank Pegram expressing his gratitude. When I took command of the eighth GLASGOW in July 1997, that letter was framed and hung in the Wardroom and so this model was built as a dedication to that mission in 1940 and all "GLASGOW Old Boys". It represents her as she was just after sailing from Molde with the King embarked preparing to engage a German destroyer at the mouth of the fjord. The model is based on the Airfix HMS BELFAST. One would think it is a simple conversion, one Town-class cruiser to another. But it is not. BELFAST was a batch 3 and as such was longer, had very different superstructure arrangements, massive torpedo bulges and it would be easier to list the elements that were not scratchbuilt! Even they were modified and detailed such as the funnels and main armament. Key changes included: Cutting and shortening the hull Removing the torpedo bulges Scratch building the fwd superstructure and elements of the after superstructure Dropping Y turret down to 1 deck level (and X turret to 01) Super detailing the bridge Thinning all bulkheads Opening up the secondary armament Extensive use of WEM photo etch Not overly happy with the sea - the photos I found of GLASGOW during that operation show the sea to be around Sea State 6 with lots of white horses. I'm not sure that this really captures that. I have no idea if the camouflage pattern on the port side is correct; the only image I could find of her early war camouflage is on p148 of the excellent Neil McCart book on Town class cruisers and that only shows the stbd side. I've also recently found out the catapult bed is the wrong colour. I found a fascinating RN instructional film on YouTube about how to launch a Walrus from a cruiser catapult, dating from 1942, which clearly shows the track to be greasy steel rather than painted.