HMS Bellerophon, 1982 - The Last Fighting Battleship

[Alan P]

This is a very late refugee from the long-finished What-If III Groupbuild, but only just finished today. The build and very long, but I hope entertaining, backstory thread is HERE

It was built from the Heller 1/400 Richelieu kit with Atlantic Models photoetch for the Frog/Novo 1/415 HMS Tiger, plus lots of scrap PE, scrap parts, and scratchbuilding. It depicts the RN Battleship HMS Bellerophon in 1982, just before she led the Falklands task Force as flagship.

 

 

Hope it meets with Your Whifferness' approval

All the best,

Al

 

Also if you haven't seen it already, you must check out @ArnoldAmbrose's companion piece, a superb rebuild of Airfix's HMS Tiger as HMS Minotaur in 1/600 here:

 

[raptormodeller]

I've already said it, but I'll say it again: What a BEAUTIFUL piece of modelling

chomp chomp

-raptor

[Cookenbacher]

Wonderful whif Alan. It may have come in handy in 1982 - I suppose a Harrier could even make use of the heli-deck. I forgot how great the backstory is, and just had to read it again.

[Paul A H]

Now that is one deeply cool whif!

[stormfrontmodels]

That is fantastic! Well done!!

[Alan P]

Pics restored! Enjoy.

[Vince1159]

I missed this so thanks for reposting the pic's,what a beautiful build...

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday @Alan P, I've just seen this, it's great. I love this sort of thing, it's a pity you did this before I joined Britmodeller. I enjoyed the back story and had a laugh at some of the character's names. A bit of a theme with the first few? 😁 You said that after purchase there were toilets fitted. What did the original crew do? The practice of the days of sail - bums over the bow? A bit wet in heavy weather.

     All in all I think this is a very interesting model and story. I wish I'd seen it develop. Regards, Jeff.

[Alan P]

5 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday @Alan P, I've just seen this, it's great. I love this sort of thing, it's a pity you did this before I joined Britmodeller. I enjoyed the back story and had a laugh at some of the character's names. A bit of a theme with the first few? 😁 You said that after purchase there were toilets fitted. What did the original crew do? The practice of the days of sail - bums over the bow? A bit wet in heavy weather.

     All in all I think this is a very interesting model and story. I wish I'd seen it develop. Regards, Jeff.

Thanks Jeff, the toilet thing is a long running and (obviously false) stereotypical view the British assume about their Gallic neighbours regarding toilet hygiene. I think it's based on the early experiences with 1970s autoroute services when Brits started taking driving holidays to Europe en masse for the first time 😂 the facilities were somewhat...spartan at the time!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday @Alan P, I've had another look at this, I still enjoy it, and still have a laugh at some of the character's names. But I'm afraid to tell you - you've made an error. I don't know how I missed it before. The letters 'B P' painted on the aft end of the flightdeck. shouldn't they be 'B R', for the nickname Billy Ruffian? 😀 

I actually had the name HMS Bellerophon in mind for a whiff cruiser I want to do in the future. Oh well, first in, first served. I'm sure I'll think of another.

     It's still a great model, and story. While I usually do ships that actually existed, in their historically correct guise and situation where I can I still like to wander into the world of whiffery. It can be interesting and a lot of fun, and I plan to do more myself.

Regards, Jeff.