[no4mkit]

Hey 1250,

I'm not much of a ship collector but am interested in the British CAM and FCS ships, mostly the CAM ships of the Empire series. Can you tell me what is out there, the scale and availability?

[1250ships]

Originally Posted by no4mkit

Hey 1250,

I'm not much of a ship collector but am interested in the British CAM and FCS ships, mostly the CAM ships of the Empire series. Can you tell me what is out there, the scale and availability?

There are CAM ships in both 1/1200 and 1/1250. However as far as I know there are none currently in production.

Just looked- you can get the CAM ship Empire Dawn produced by Santa Rosa models in resin 1/1200 scale from L. Wiedling in Germany for 49 Euros. Wiedling will remove the German VAT of about 16% from the price if it is shipped out of Germany. I highly recommend Wiedling- great service from them. www.wiedling.de is their site.

[no4mkit]

Thanks for the good info 1250ships. Too bad they don't have a photo of the Empire Darwin model on their site. One more question - do you know of a source for schematic drawings of any of the CAM ships or the catapult gear used to launch the Hurricats?

[1250ships]

Originally Posted by no4mkit

Thanks for the good info 1250ships. Too bad they don't have a photo of the Empire Darwin model on their site. One more question - do you know of a source for schematic drawings of any of the CAM ships or the catapult gear used to launch the Hurricats?

I have never seen any drawings. Just photos.

OK- did a Google image search and turned up this drawing of Empire Faith:



Not good enough to model with though. It sure looks like to me the structures were fairly simple. Just launch rails with some lattices supports.

On the Empire Darwin model check out this post: How about a CAM ship Hurricane? The upper model pictured is by Santa Rosa and might be Empire Darwin. It isn't marked on the bottom and I don't remember which one of the 3 CAM ships they made it is. But it should give you an idea of the level of detail on the model as it is by the same manufacturer.

Santa Rosa ships are no longer made. The model maker, John Staggs, passed away last year.

[1250ships]

For those interested in learning more about 1/1250 and 1/1200 scale models one of my fellow collectors has written a book on the subject.



The book is 176 pages, hardback, with excellent photos. Available now at Amazon: Amazon.com: Miniature Ship Models: A History and Collectors Guide: Paul Jacobs: Books

Is there anything comparable available covering diecast aircraft?

[no4mkit]

Originally Posted by 1250ships

I have never seen any drawings. Just photos.

OK- did a Google image search and turned up this drawing of Empire Faith:



Not good enough to model with though. It sure looks like to me the structures were fairly simple. Just launch rails with some lattices supports.

On the Empire Darwin model check out this post: How about a CAM ship Hurricane? The upper model pictured is by Santa Rosa and might be Empire Darwin. It isn't marked on the bottom and I don't remember which one of the 3 CAM ships they made it is. But it should give you an idea of the level of detail on the model as it is by the same manufacturer.

Santa Rosa ships are no longer made. The model maker, John Staggs, passed away last year.

Thanks 1250 - good info on the models. I found that pic recently too after some extensive web searching. I've recently bought the only two books I could find on the subject of the CAM ship Hurricanes: "Hurricats" by Ralph Barker and "The Catafighters" by Ken Poolman. Both are great reads on the subject and have several photo's I haven't seen anywhere else, but sadly no plans of the catapult gear. I've been doing some detailed analysis of photographs of the cat gear and drawing some plans up on my own, but there are a lot of engineering questions that the pics don't answer. For the sake of my project, I'll just have to make due with that!

Thanks again for the help 1250 - I do like your CAM ship models!