SPA Modeler

This month has been a month of completing a couple of shelf queens, with possibly more on the way. This has been under construction for more than five years.


The Maddog Manufacturing Shipyards has launched this RAF Rescue Launch for shakedown cruise and delivery to my British Navy:












That is the ancient Airfix original issue of that kit in 1/72 scale. It took some doing, and some parts are still missing but for a started kit that I got in our Distressed Kit Auction, it looks pretty good to me.


Thanks for looking in.

Well done. It looks great!

Very nice finish Mark! If you had not said anything, I would have no idea that it was missing any parts. Those distressed kit auction purchases can be a serious challenge due to multiple reasons such as the original owner’s skill level or losing parts…

Oh wow... very nice, Mark!

Man I like that one a lot mark! Did they steal the turrets from the RAF? Never seen a ship with turret bubbles like that. Maybe they deployed on the North Sea

Good Job, Mark!

Great work Mark!

Wow! Thank you guys for all the awesome comments!

Bruce, I wouldn't call myself a master; I still have a very long road to travel to get there. As for the separate build logs, it's tough to do. I tried it once long ago and it took me forever to find all my logs so a lot of my in-progress work was never seen. Now imagine having to do that four other times in other Forums. This just seemed so much easier putting them all in one thread. Soon after that, someone called out that I was like a factory doing all these...and Maddog Manufacturing was born! In the distant past I used to pose my work in a factory photo base with several guys on and around the work as if they were building them. I wish I could get a larger factory photo base to start doing that again....

Thank you again Bruce, it is always a thrill to see your replies.

Lyle, thank you.

Thank you Carlos! Yes, those distressed kits can be a bit challenging, but I do enjoy bringing them back to life. I think this is probably the ninth distressed kit I've completed. I was lucky that this one wasn't started; it was just in the auction because of said missing pieces.

Thank you Blacksheep!

John, thank you.Yes, they did deploy in the North Sea, the Channel and the Atlantic side of the British Isles. I do believe they acquired a few turrets from the RAF but from my understanding, they did that because the spray from the fast travel tended to blind and soak the gunners as well as affect the gun's firing mechanisms, apparently more than the deck level gunners it seems. This is probably because of their height. The deck level guys are a bit more forward on the deck too, so less spray hits them when this boat is going at speed.

Thank you John!

Thank you Mike!

That looks like a mighty fine vessel! Very interesting markings, which makes sense for a rescue ship. Congrats on taming it and making it look so good!