by Michel Baartmans
1/700 Hr.Ms. Holland (Scratchbuilt)
Name ship of a class of 6 armoured cruisers built between 1896 and 1900. Her sister ships were 'Zeeland', 'Friesland', and the second batch 'Noordbrabant', 'Utrecht' and 'Gelderland', all named after provinces of the Dutch kingdom. They were built for trade route protection and defence of the Dutch East Indies and are often considered to have been the most gracious ships of the Dutch navy.
The model is based on drawings from the book 'Pantserschepen, pantserdekschepen, Monitors' from Dutch publisher Lanasta. These drawings showed the ship with fighting tops, although the ships themselves never carried these. I built those anyway. The hull was constructed using the bread and butter technique, involving large doses of putty and sandpaper. Boats, davits and guns came from the Seals Models equipment set, with the gunshields made from CA-glue infused paper. Cutting, folding and glueing 12 five-sided gunshields no more then 3 mm wide was quite a nerve-wracking experience. The photo-etch came from a WEM 'Askold' set. As my first cruiser-sized scratchbuild ship, it is a bit of a test vessel and 'technology demonstrator' and it shows. But in the end, she conveyes the gracious lines and appearance of these cruisers well, and that is the whole point.
