In 2007, a visitor to our website brought to our attention that with all the ships we had built over the years, we had not built a
model of any of the RAN’s Hydrographic vessels. He asked if we would like to correct this by building a model of each of the
vessels currently in service with the Navy’s Hydrographic fleet. The models would be of one of each of the Hydro ships
HMAS MELVILLE (HS-246), HMAS BENALLA (SML-04), and models of the Survey Motor Boat (SMB, as carried by the MELVILLE and LEEUWIN)
and the WYATT ERP the Antarctic Survey Vessel (ASV).
Work began when APS Models finally had the reason to complete the mould for the Hydro Ship which had begun many years ago.
Work stopped when there were no takers for the 1:72 scale fibre-glass hull. Now that there was a customer for her, the mould
was completed in quick time and the models begun.
The BENALLA model was also built to a scale of 1:72, however with the configuration of the ship, being a catamaran hull,
it was decided to build this hull in our workshop. The entire hull for this model was constructed of Evergreen styrene as was
the superstructure for both this model and the MELVILLE. Bridge structure windows were drawn up and then laser cut by
TJM Laser Engraving, here in Tumbarumba. This method allows for beautiful even looking windows and saves hours in cutting out
these features.
The models of MELVILLE and BENALLA were completed in June and driven to the RAN Hydrographic Office in Wollongong where
they were ecstatically accepted by the officers there. The ASB and ASV are in the pipeline to be built in the near future.
These models are being built to a scale of 1:25 and WYATT ERP will stand out in her fluorescent orange colour scheme. |
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