Brian Wilkins Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 Hi all, I am starting a 1/350 Royal Navy fleet and I am looking your answer to this question: What is the most historically significant ship in the Royal Navy fleet? I am open to all eras and any type of vessel. If you have a model and manufacturer in mind I would appreciate knowing your picks. I am looking at the models below but I am open to any and all models. 1/350 Tamiya Prince of Wales Battleship 1/350 Trumpeter HMS Zulu British Tribal Class Destroyer 1941 Kit 1/350 I Love Kits HMS Ark Royal 1939 1/350 Trumpeter HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH 1/350 Trumpeter HMS Zulu British Tribal Class Destroyer 1941 Kit 1/350 Trumpeter HMS HOOD Thanks for the feedback, and, happy modelling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jb65rams Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 If you are looking for historically significant, can’t look past HNS Dreadnought. Trumpeter and Zvedza both do it in 1/350. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Wilson Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 Historically significant? If you're talking after the age of sail then: HMS Warspite - Queen Elizabeth Class for both World wars HMS Sheffield - Town Class, World War II HMS Dreadnaught - 1906 for technical development HMS Illustrious - Illustrious Class - Taranto HMS Victorious - Illustrious Class - Op Pedastal I don't know if there's a Sheffield in 1/350. Belfast is available She saw a lot of action. I don't think there is a WWI Warspite but there are ones in the WWII configuration.. No Illustrious that I know of. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilkins Posted May 14, 2022 Author Share Posted May 14, 2022 Thank you all for the input. I live across the pond so my context is limited in terms of what British ships rise to the level of historically significant. I am going to do some reading on the ships that were mentioned above so that I can learn about why these vessels were important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adm Lord De Univers Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 (edited) Depends on what you mean by historically significant, the Royal Navy goes back a fair ways, so the limiting factor is probably going to be your choice of scale and whether you want to do ships in the age of sail, pre-dreadnoughts etc. In terms of battle honours, there is a link on this page: http://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/Battle_hons.htm. These transfer so whilst Warspite has a metric ton, its the WW1-2 variant that is the most decorated individual ship. If we're going by famous, Victory, Mary Rose, Warrior are likely in contention due to their museum status as well as actual careers (esp the former) or technological development (esp the latter). But you could make an argument for the Mora (William the Conqueror's flagship, so not RN but still). If you want just powerful brute force, something like the Rodney might be included, any ship that laid waste to the Bismarck is a good contender and is quite unusual looking (and has some quite nice camo). During the period of 'Pax Britannica', there is a whole roster of significant ships that never really saw much action, but are fundamental to development of modern warships, HMS Devastation (first class of ocean-going capital ship that did not carry sails, and the first whose entire main armament was mounted on top of the hull rather than inside it - wiki) springs to mind. Cool name too. The Nemesis 1839 is another, but I don't think you could really, strictly say RN and good luck finding a model of her, and you may not be content building something so heavily involved in the Opium Wars. If this is what you mean by significant I recommend a trawl through wikipedia and scalemates to find the one(s) you're most interested in. Wiki will detail how the classes lead from one to the other, but be warned you'll be spending more time researching than modelling... Vanguard as the last RN battleship would be another contender and is a looker, Iron Duke as Jellicoe's flagship, the WW1 battlecruisers ofc... and we havent even gotten to non-capital ships. Prince of Wales for the dubious honour of being a modern capital ship sunk whilst underway in open water? Err, Dreadnought as the UK's first SSN, Thomas, Sovereign of the Seas, Henry Grace A'Dieu, Prince, Golden Hind, Revenge, if you want sails...the list goes on and on. So unless you want an armada, you may want to put in some constraints on how big a fleet you want. In terms of single most historical ship, well imo there's only really one contender and she's my profile pic. A grand old lady who despises the knocks of war. David Ps, my profile pic is ofc THE Warspite. Edited May 15, 2022 by Adm Lord De Univers tired 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilkins Posted May 26, 2022 Author Share Posted May 26, 2022 (edited) Thank you for the insight, and you make several very good points. I am going to take your advice and put some constraints on the size of my fleet (but an Armada sounds good.). I am admittedly obsessive and I see alot of ships in my future. Edited May 26, 2022 by Brian Wilkins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted May 26, 2022 Share Posted May 26, 2022 Although not in your preferred scale, include a Mary Rose and/or HMS Victory [usually about 1/400] just to show the difference in size of one of these early ships to the more modern warships Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilkins Posted May 28, 2022 Author Share Posted May 28, 2022 I think your idea is brilliant. I love the notion of lining up the 227' HMS Victory next to the 613' HMS Belfast (or similar modern RN warship) to show the size difference. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted May 28, 2022 Share Posted May 28, 2022 Gidday Brian, for a comparison how about HMS Victory and HMS Nelson/Rodney? The 104 gun three deck HMS Victory may not have been the most powerful ship of her day (I think there may have been some four deckers) but I think she came close. I've also read that at the time of their completion HMS Nelson/Rodney with nine 16-inch guns were the most powerful in the world. Just a thought. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Wilkins Posted May 28, 2022 Author Share Posted May 28, 2022 Thank you for bringing those vessels to my attention. They are truly awesome and at 727' they would fit the bill perfectly. Thanks for weighing in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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