'Q' ship reissue

The English weren't going to expose expensive ships to bait a U-Boat.  I believe the way they outfitted them you could call it kit bashing also.

And the "Bobtail cruiser" too.

Fred, I'm curious to see what you do with it.

Q ships were a designation for heavily armed merchant ships with their weapons concealed.  Looking generic is part of the job description. The displacement of the Q ships used by the Royal Navy in WW2 started at 610 long tons and topped out just short of 6000 tons.  

Kind of looks like USS Carolyn aka USS Atik AK-101.

I believe there were only Q-ships in WWI.  They were called armed merchants or raiders in WWII.

Well yes, the RN used them in WW1 and they were called something else by the USN in ww2 but it was the same concept. A posthumous novel by Ernest Hemingway  "Islands in the Stream" probably had an influence as did the 1977 movie starring George C Scott.

Weren't the US armed merchant ships of WW2 more of a way of protecting actual cargo ships rather than use for baiting U-boats?

Yes you are correct, but mostly for self protection from surface subs and aircraft attacks.

Blame the $18 rip off on us old farts who want to relive our dime store memories.  Glad to see you posting the kit.  Looks like a lot of fun.  

I remember having a few of these as a kid and they did float well, especially when Dad taught us to use modeling clay along the keel for ballast.  The clay also required more BB's from the BB gun to sink it in the neighbors pond.

Scott

Ought to dredge that pond. Might have some treasures!

Dad was digging up plastic props and melted plastic in his vegetable garden for years.

This kit is ready to motorize. There is a propeller shaft tube molded into the hull and there are parts for a battery mount, not mentioned in the instructions.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but just working from memory, think that the kit is actually a model of the "Hog Islander" cargo and troop transports mass produced in Philadelphia towards the end of WW I and "reboxed" by Lindberg as a "Q" ship, but don't think any of them ever served in that capacity

Although it kind of resembles a Hog Islander that has been squished fore and aft, it wouldn't make a serious model of that type. The kit says it's scale 1/390, which might lead one to believe it is a scale model of something, but as I said, it looks more like the old steam collier coastal freighters. In that case the 1/390 is a fantasy.

Fred

I wouldn't be surprised if the scale of the kit was designed to fit in the boxes Lindberg had in stock.  In reading the story about Revell more then one model was made to scale to fit box stock they purchased at great discount.

This is interesting. Hog Islanders were 380 feet long, and the kit measures about 12 inches. I'll measure it exactly later. So the stated scale of 1/390 does make sense for a Hog Islander. But it just doesn't look right, to me. More study is warranted.

Fred

There seems to be several reference to similarity to the USS Atik, AK-101 which looks pretty similar and was 382 feet long.

On a funny note, on the http://www.scalemates.com/ web site it is written " 2014 - New Tooling "  

I don't understand why the ship manufacturers have not given us a 1/350 plastic Q-Ship,or German WWI or WWII Raider like Wolf or Atlantis.I think they would sell rather well.

On further research, this kit could be bashed into a Hog Islander, with a lot of work. Just about the entire top works would have to be scratch built. The bulwarks fore and aft of the house are too scooped out, and the stern needs some work. A build of the S.S. Robin Moor would be cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Robin_Moor

Fred

I would buy a 1/350th kit of a WWI commerce raider if that ship was or could be converted to the SMS Cormoran...

Its a nice scale. GMM makes a fret of 1/400 USN parts, primarily for the old Revell flat bottoms, but it's been giving up goodies for me for years.

And there's lots of 1/400 stuff, primarily from L'Arsenal, for all of the Heller warships.

Must not add to stash, must not add...

Looks like the Aurora Atlantis in being a mixture of two scales for boxing purposes.I think would would need to lengthen the hull to have equilibrium.

There are a few builds around the Net for visual confirmation

Here is the picture set at Navsource.org.  This site is a non-profit, if you like them they need donations.

USS Atik AK-101, ex-Carolyn ID 1608

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/171608.htm

Ss Carolyn was a early twentieth century trans Atlantic steamer. Easy to find the Black Ball Lines livery.

Interesting little kit and kind of out of no where.

Not exactly a Lykes Line Victory, but might be fun.

Now :

Here's some meat for scratch - built , kit bashing ! This thing shocked me when I opened it . Definitely NOT the Aurora " Atlantis " !

  Okay , what now , $ 18.00 Bucks for what ? How about this ? An old crew owned, Tramp of the type that sailed every ocean after WW-1 and into WW-2 that looked like it would sink any moment and Never got over 10 knots - if that . And starred in movies with the likes of " BOGEY " or Kurt Jurgens !

    These types were the ones that got convoys into trouble .They always sailed as fast as the SLOWEST ship . Can you imagine the frustration of captains of ships that could go up to 10 or 15 at being held back when U-Boots were out there ?

I believe that I will still (like my Bobtail Cruiser ) get my money's worth by going that way .( the " Bobtail , ( four of them ) have been practice grounds for ship related detailing or bashing .) To this day .Can you imagine a bobtail with the Revell Long Beach type bow ( enlarged of course ) ? Well there you have it ..     Tanker-Builder

I think GMorrison has it. This seems to be the USS Atik/SS Carolyn. There are a couple of black and white pics on the web, as well as the Bull Line stack livery for the Carolyn.

I have found USS Atik at the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships

www.history.navy.mil/.../atik.htm

Yud think meebee as a "Q" she didn't have those big naval numerals on the bows?

Ya, think?  I wonder what the "cataclysmic explosion" was?

OK, I think I have this figured out. The USS Atik/Carolyn was 382 ft long with a beam of 46 ft. Check my math, but that means the length is about 8 times the beam. But this kit is way too short for the beam. It's only about 6 times the beam. Look how stubby it looks. If you made the length of the kit hull 8 times the beam, the hull should be around 15 inches long, instead of the 12 inches it is. So what did they do with the extra 3 inches or so? It looks to me they cut about 1.5 inches out of the hull both fore and aft of the midship superstructure! If you add that inch and a half back, the ship looks just like the pictures of the real thing. They must have had a bunch of foot long boxes. If you increased the hull to what it should be, the scale changes to somewhere around 1/300.