1/700 HMS Malaya 1940 (HP models)
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by Jerry Lloyd |
1/700 HMS Malaya 1940 (HP models)
HMS Malaya was a gift to Britain from the Federated States of Malaya, a Queen Elizabeth class super-dreadnought she was built by Armstrong Whitworth on the Tyne river completing in February 1916 with a top speed of 24 knots she was fuelled by oil rather than British coal which caused a huge scandal at the time with Churchill pushing through the QE class project to completion only with Jacky Fishers' support, my model depicts HMS Malaya as she looked in the Med fleet under Admiral Cunningham when her armament was 8 x 15inch (800rounds), 12 x 6inch (1,560 rounds), 8 x 4inch (2,240 rounds), 16 x 2pdr pom-poms (11,520 rounds), 16 x 0.5inch MGs (40,000 rounds) and 2 x Supermarine Walrus aircraft launched by a DIIH (Direct action Mk2 Heavy) catapult, in 1940 she could still manage 23 knots on a calm sea (3,298 tons of fuel oil carried) which burned at a rate of 40.5 tons per hour at full power or 18 tons per hour at 10 knots, HMS malaya was not fitted with radar until July 1941 and her aircraft were removed in October 1942, with her old engines in a bad way she went into reserve in 1943 when all of her 6inch guns were removed, refitted again in 1944 for D-Day bombardment duties she became a training ship in 1945 and was scrapped in 1948.
