HMS VANGUARD BATTLESHIP MODEL
HMS
Vanguard was a British fast battleship built during
World War II and commissioned after the war. She was the
biggest, fastest and last of the Royal Navy's
battleships.
Vanguard was well armored and well regarded as
seaworthy, able to keep an even keel in rough seas.
Displacing 44,500 tons, HMS Vanguard was only exceeded
internationally by the Iowa and Yamato classes. Intended
for use in the Pacific, the ship's speed of thirty knots
would be fast enough to catch and destroy the Japanese
Kongo-class battlecruisers.
Work on the HMS Vanguard's design commenced before the
war. The design went through several evolutions before
the keel was finally laid in 1941. The British had four
old 15-inch guns and turrets in storage to allow one
ship of a modified Lion-class battleship design to be
completed faster than the five ships of Lion class that
had already been laid down. Work proceeded slowly,
incorporating the lessons of the war, and Vanguard was
not finally completed until late 1946.
Vanguard
had significant sheer and flare at the bow. At 814 ft 4
in, the ship was significantly larger than her
predecessors, almost 50 feet longer and displaced about
6,000 long tons more than the older ships. At full load,
Vanguard had a metacentric height of 8.2 feet. She was
divided into 27 main compartments by watertight
bulkheads.
By the
time Vanguard was complete, the war was over and new
technologies had rendered battleships largely obsolete
as the primary means of asserting sea superiority.
HMS
Vanguard's first task was to convey King George VI and
his family on the first Royal Tour of South Africa in
1947. She spent the rest of her career with the Home
Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet. Throughout her
career, the battleship usually served as the flagship of
any unit to which she was assigned. Her complement was
115 officers and 1,860 men.
After a
refit in 1955, HMS Vanguard was taken out of service,
becoming flagship of the Reserve Fleet in October
1956. In this role, among other things, she provided
sets for the film Sink The Bismarck. By this time
she was also Britain’s last battleship, as the King
George V class were disposed of by 1957. In October
1959 Vanguard was sold to the breakers, and in August
1960 was towed out of Portsmouth for scrapping at
Faslane. She did not go quietly, running aground on the
way out. She was pulled free after about 45 minutes and
left the harbor – ending an era in British naval
history.
We offer this
primarily wood HMS Vanguard battleship model in two popular
scales:
29" long x 10" tall x 6" wide (1/350 scale)
$2,790
Shipping
and insurance in the contiguous USA included. Other
places: $300 flat rate.
This
model is in stock and can be shipped within five
business days.
49" long (1/200 scale)
$5,450 Shipping
and insurance in the contiguous USA included. Other
places: $500 flat rate.
For larger sizes,
please email us for quotes.
ModelShipMaster.com's
warship models are far more accurate than any
commercial entities in the world and this HMS
Vanguard model is a prime example. Google the
model's name and you will quickly see some prominent
features that distinguish our quality:
masts, radars, anchor
system, dark wood deck, windows on the
superstructure, antiaircraft guns.
Learn more about the
HMS Vanguard battleship here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_(23)
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