FrancisMcN

21 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Ras, I was wondering how the gun could fire on the beam as the firing position would necessitate the gunner hanging over the side of the boat. So I looked back at plan which seemed to indicate that deck extensions were fitted on either beam. Was this the case and if so were they demounted and stored when the gun wasn’t in operation ? If so where were they stored.

I came across a few pictures of the two boats at Lake Tanganyika preparing for action of which the attached clearly shows the deck extension partly folded on the foredeck of one of the boats.  I haven't seen anything in print to suggest that the extensions were removed and I would have thought that they would have been in place for at least the first action with the  Kingani and only removed after that if they had proved to be more of a hindrance overall.

Sorry for the delay in replying Ras - my laptop developed the black screen of death so I am waiting it to be repaired and then see if I have lost the data I had on Mimi ...........

On the figures, they  are the result of going through all the 1/35th military figure sets I have and finding the closest match to each position - I think the 3 pdr gun crew started life manning a WW2 2 pdr anti tank gun for example.  I usually took a resin casting of each then butchered and added as needed to achieve the final result in what I guessed would be the uniform for RN ratings in the middle of WW1 Africa!  Spicer-Simpson had his own ideas on the correct rig and he is based on a highlander bagpiper.  I suspect there ought to be a couple more crew for ammunition resupply.  I left off all the canvas screens and shade on the basis that they would have been taken down when clearing for action.

The attached gives the best I have on the cockpit - it looks like there is a gap in the forward bulkhead allowing access to the engines.Francis

Hi Ras,  You might find the thread I started on the builder's model of Mimi in Toronto of interest and my interpretation in 1/32nd scale:

Also I have a set of the hull lines you can have a look at if you haven't gone too far with your alternative source to change again.  Are you in a position to look in on the model at AGO Toronto?  I would have loved the chance to check whether I had missed anything important in the cockpit or the central compartment.

Hi Roger,

I am doing LCT 7404, a later batch LCT Mk3 which is the sole survivor of its type and is now on display at the Portsmouth D-Day museum.  The original winches were removed  when the craft was reconfigured as a NSC(L) engineering support vessel for Far East service but has now been rebuilt as far as possible back to her 1944 configuration.

Francis

I am modelling WW2 tank landing craft in 1/72nd scale which has two dual purchase hand winches to raise and lower the bow ramp.  These  winches are visible from external as they are located in an open area under the fore decks but I only have the attached drawings to work from at the moment.  The main framework is about 1.5m in length.  Can anyone point me to a photo of a similar winch by any chance so I can get a better idea of how they were built?  many thanks for any advice.

Given the modelling aspect of this site, there might be some interest in Martin Saville's "Hornblower's Ships their history & their models" published 2000 by Conway.  It mainly covers the making of fairly large scale models for the TV series in Russia and a bit on the full size ships alsoo used for filming.  There are a number of drawings from a variety of sources of the basis for the models.

Is there any chance some of the fittings such as guns and boats could be made available separately by Amati as they are very useful in other KM ships that are only available as card models?  I subscribed to the Hachette Hood and bought in addition several specific issues to provide me with the guns and boats for lots of other RN WW2 subjects in 1/200th but that option is no longer available.

There is a related thread here and it may be worth searching for other posts by Prof Tilley there too:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/p/72084/743327.aspx#743327

I caught a glimpse of her recently alongside the pier when UK TV did a report on the Mayflower 2 replica being refloated at Mystic harbour