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Description
Bassett Lowke steam destroyer D41 HMS Walpole. About 41 inches - looks to have been restored including changing the rudder post to take radio control. So that it has a receiver and rudder servo. Looks to have been done professionally in which case probably by Bassett Lowke themselves in the late 60s early 70s. The motor and propeller turn over but is not tested. The motor and boiler are typical Lowke, I think the motor is BL Eclipse and the burner gravity fed with a lever for opening and closing on the top.
It is hard to believe that it is 100 years old. One can only see the age in the crazed original paint beneath the later paint on the superstructures of the deck whilst structurally the hand carved interior from a single piece of wood and machine made outer are period of BL.
The top front cabin hides the tank for fuel . The hull is carved from one piece of wood and the deck is mahogany ply. I'm not sure if there was originally a spotlight in the middle center by the rotatable torpedo tubes, of which the bottom cast parts are all that remain. It is very impressive in scale with a massive keel weight and dwarfs in volume and weight the electrically driven version next to it from the 30s. By no means perfect with cracks in the deck and spalling of paint , but structurally sound, rare and very impressive size. Not to mention a nice conversion if you wish to use radio control whilst retaining all the features of the original. (It might be necessary to change the receiver and or battery pack as they are untested. The stand is nicely home made with green baise covering a solid wood saw attachment. The railings are obviously a home made add on as the original never had them. However they are not bad and quite well made.
The top front cabin hides the tank for fuel . The hull is carved from one piece of wood and the deck is mahogany ply. I'm not sure if there was originally a spotlight in the middle center by the rotatable torpedo tubes, of which the bottom cast parts are all that remain. It is very impressive in scale with a massive keel weight and dwarfs in volume and weight the electrically driven version next to it from the 30s. By no means perfect with cracks in the deck and spalling of paint , but structurally sound, rare and very impressive size. Not to mention a nice conversion if you wish to use radio control whilst retaining all the features of the original. (It might be necessary to change the receiver and or battery pack as they are untested. The stand is nicely home made with green baise covering a solid wood saw attachment. The railings are obviously a home made add on as the original never had them. However they are not bad and quite well made.
The only other one of these exact models I've seen has all grey upper parts and it too looked restored - but like this boat - the portholes front and back are painted different colors - shown in the last picture above. There is a similar later steam version made in the same hull as the electrically driven version but that has a longer metal superstructure and is significantly smaller than this one. Such is the condition of both boats I think they were both restored by BL themselves.
