Report from Colin Bishop (Orginally published in 2008) On a Baltic cruise to mark a birthday, the significance of which I’d prefer to forget, one of the ports of call was Stockholm. It’s a very attractive city but for me the highlight was a visit to the Vasa museum. As many readers will know, the…
The ocean tugs of the US Navy’s Powhatan class, which entered service between 1979 and 1981, remain the most recent such vessels in the American fleet. Only the first two Nimitz class aircraft carriers have been operating longer, thanks to a round of costly life-extending modernisations.
This steam tug is a familiar site in Vancouver Harbour and the surrounding waterways as she is still seaworthy, but her towing days are long behind her. This wooden hulled vessel was built as a tug during 1922 at the Vancouver False Creek Shipyard and was tasked with towing barges loaded with gravel, building stone…
John’s grandfather was Leslie Rowell, the founder of Lesro Models and chief designer of Aerokits. Alas, he died in 1992 after a long battle against cancer and, unfortunately, by the time John was old enough to appreciate the beautiful models Leslie had created, he had retired and sold the business. Before passing away, however, Leslie…
The Veron story is inseparable from that of its chief designer, Phil Smith. Phil was first and foremost an aeromodeller, and his Impala 52 slope-soaring glider design, selling to the tune of 140000 kits, probably introduced more people to the delights of this form of flying than any other, including me. However, it is his…
The West Coast of Scotland steam puffer has long been a favourite subject for modellers, with a number of kits and freelance examples appearing in the marketplace. Since the history and development of this somewhat unique type – which has a well-deserved place in Scottish folklore – has been well documented previously, only a brief…
This was not so much a kit conversion as a complete rebuild on a commercial hull. For several years I was a Police Inspector in Hong Kong and spent some time with the Marine Police Department. Legendary in police lore were the two post war ‘cruising launches’ Police One and Police Two, which were actually…
