rnsteampicket

This is a scale model of a Royal Navy steam picket boat of the type that was carried on all British capital ships from around 1903 until the beginning of WW2. Although all such picket boats entered service wearing various shades of overall grey with the planked decks painted-over, in peacetime, many were smartened up to varying degrees, with considerable amounts of varnished wood, more brightly coloured hulls and polished brass. Our hull is moulded with bow bulwarks, keel, stem and rubbing strip. Displacement of the finished model would be around 15lbs (6.8kg), and although most model examples will be electric-powered, the hull is capacious enough to be fitted with a small model steam plants. The fact that steam plant will be completely enclosed makes everything slightly more difficult however, so some previous experience of steam would be helpful here. It is of course possible to use this picket boat hull as the basis for a model of a typical civilian steam or motor launch, and quite a few customers have done this over the years, with results very similar to the slightly larger 1912 steam yacht tender hull.