DM-14 USS Rizal
by Dave Becker

1/350 USS Rizal DM-14 (Iron Shipwrights)

Kit is the Iron Shipwright 1/350 resin Decatur kit.  Much modification work was done to turn it into a 1920's four piper converted Minelayer. Mines were made from colored beads bought at Hobby Lobby.  Mine rails are scratch built using parts from P.E. ladders.

Joining the Pacific Fleet upon commissioning, Rizal cruised along the U.S. west coast into 1920 on exercises and training duty. Subsequently modified
for service as a light minelayer she was classified DM-14 on 17 July 1920. Rizal departed San Diego 25 March 1920 for the Far East. Calling at Honolulu,
Midway, and Guam, Rizal arrived Cavite, Philippine Islands, on 1 May 1920 to assume the duties of flagship of the Mine Detachment Division of the
Asiatic Fleet. With Filipinos constituting the majority of her crew, Rizal remained on the Asiatic Station for 10 years. She spent long months anchored
in Chinese ports during the spring, summer, and autumn months. Her most frequent ports of call were Shanghai, Chefoo, Chinwangtao, and Hong Kong.
She was decommissioned and sold in accordance with terms of the 1931 London disarmament treaty.