Model Lead Boats

[Alan ToddParticipant @alantodd47391]

Hi, my first post!

I wonder if anyone can give me information about a set of lead model boats given to me by my brother? He gave them to me when he moved house and insists that they were mine when a child, however, I have no recollection of them at all. They are all marked on the underside with their names and include ships from Germany, France, Japan, USA, and UK. They range in size from around 3.5 inches to a minute 1 5/8 inches. Pictures are attached.

Alan Todd.

[Alan ToddParticipant @alantodd47391]

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Interesting models. They are actually quite crude and maybe to 1:2400 scale. It would be interesting to know who the manufacturer was.

Colin

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Could they be 'Warship Spotter Models'?

[Alan ToddParticipant @alantodd47391]

There is no sign of any manufacturer's mark and I too wondered if they could have been used for recognition.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Alan

This could be a good research project, a starting point would be to identify as many of the models as you can and then Google as far as you can go.

Good luck

Paul

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I have a reference book for 1:1200 models and these certainly don't feature although they seem to cover WW2 from what I can see.

The lower ship in the top photo is clearly HMS Renown as reconstructed.

Colin

[Alan ToddParticipant @alantodd47391]

They are actually 1:3000 and I have spent quite a while searching online for them.

Looking very closely there are slight scratch marks on a few of them and I can make out a word that looks like MOMO on four of them. There are also numbers scratched into some of them, on the smaller ones some of these have been partly painted out so that the name could be written on.

During my online searches I came across a site called Mick Yarrow Miniatures selling 1:1200, 1:3000, and 1:4000 models, presumably for wargamers. Using the numbers that I could read from the models I have checked his listings of 1:3000 ships and four of the numbers,3060, 3072, 3042 and 3073 correspond to the names on these models, Yamato, New Mexico, Chitose and North Carolina. The other two that I could read do not correspond though, 3027 Brooklyn is listed as Alabama, and Kumano is marked with same number as Yamato, 3060.

I think I'll E-mail Mick Yarrow to see if he has any information on them.

Alan.

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