by Mario Grima
1/72 K9 & K16 Flower Class Corvettes (Revell Germany)
One year ago I took on a project for a friend of mine building a Revell Corvette and making it R/C with multi functions, Always wanted one of these so I wound up building two.These are the completed results, The K9 and the K16. I picked the numbers and name out of random but the camo schemes on both ships are legit. Both ships are built the old school way (no photo etch or expensive replacement parts) I worked with and around the kits included details. The two 20 canons that the kit comes with are terminal. To replace them I took a 20 canon from a Revell 1/72 kit pt 109 and cloned it to create resin ones. Both ships feature real wood decks,gun sounds,fog,smoke generators bilge system,internal hull lights for port holes, cabin lights, and navigational lights. The Flags are cloth ones from Modelflags.com. The X antenna on the top mast is the actual antenna for the ships rx. I made the ship so that the mid section can be removed by unscrewing 6 brass screws for major access and can be done in 5 minutes. For minor access (battery replacements) the rear deck slips off with the removal of one screw. The spare mortar dept charges normally should go up to the cabin wall, but because of the access to the machinery I had to move them more closer to the stern wall. To keep that at a minimal the boats have a recharge feature by unclipping the sky light structure and pulling out the attached jack. The bow and stern decks are permanently glued and sealed. The Achorholes are sealed internally also with silicone. The bilge exists are made from rivets below the waterline and valves keep the water from blowing back into the boat. The Rudder is actually made of brass, but to keep it looking real(concaved) I incased the kit rudder around it, so the brass one and its brass rod became a sort of skeleton. The boat has several override switches so I built an open & close metal bin like structure behind the AA gun platform to keep some of the switches hidden and safe. As these ship hulls come in 4 sections I reinforced them with resin, & marine epoxy for extra strength. These kits hull plates may be exagerated but I left them alone. Also the dreaded portholes have been reinforced with clear epoxy internally to keep them from being knocked out from water pressure or age. All Batteries are secured in silos to keep them from swaying about and the main battery packs are secured with Velcro.
