by Jim Baumann
1/350 HMS Otus S18 (Resin Shipyard)
Whist having my new Kitchen installed in my house by Frank and his son Nick, it transpired that Frank had served on a number of submarines back in the mid 1960’s. His favourite boat, in which he did 2 trips, was HMS Otus. HMS Otus (S18) was an Oberon class submarine built in 1962 in Greenock, Scotland. In her first commission HMS Otus partook in large-scale missile trial exercises in the Atlantic. Thereafter visiting both the USA as well Halifax, Canada. Decommissioned in the early 1990’s she awaited her seemingly inevitable end at Harry Pounds scrapyard in Portsmouth Harbour for a number of years- until being rescued by a German Businessman who had the boat towed to Sassnitz Harbour, on the Isle of Ruegen in Germany. She remains there afloat open to the public daily. http://www.hms-otus.com/
The new kitchen was being installed beautifully, with great attention being paid to the tiniest detail! The idea was formed in my mind to present Frank with a model of his old boat as a token of gratitude for his perfectionism and tenacity in the face of a very demanding client! A plea for help on the Modelwarships.com forum for a suitable kit in 1/350 elicited two options; the kit from ‘Fleetline models’ of Australia or the kit by Canada’s ‘Resin Shipyard’.
Initially I ordered the Fleetline kit, but production difficulties at their end prevented it being delivered in time for its intended recipient, so I ordered the Resin Shipyard kit, intending to backdate the enlarged sonar dome back to 1960’s configuration. Mentioning this to Mr Scannel of the Resin Shipyard, he very kindly sold me a kit and an experimental waterline testshot casting of an earlier version of the O-class submarine, which had the smaller dome- saving a lot of time and work.
Along with a very helpful and comprehensive photo CD from Resin Shipyard and a number of book and Internet images I felt well-armed to build this submarine reasonably quickly without getting ‘too involved’....
Other than some intensive painting, the only modifications I made were:
The model was placed in a sea base made of artist’s watercolur paper, cut slightly undersize in places so as to curve up the hull to show the sub moving at a fair clip! The method has been previously described in the Modelwarship forums here.
The casing party are by L’Arsenal; period lifejackets were made of white glue, straps drawn in with sharp pencil !
Overall an excellent, cleanly cast kit that built into a fine replica of an Oberon class submarine.
Frank was very pleased when he received his old boat in its glass case; portrayed leaving Portsmouth Harbour with the casing part saying a silent farewell to loved ones ashore….
