HMAS Melbourne R21 Aircraft Carrier

I decided to build the Melbourne mainly because my brother served on her. I drafted the plans from the very basic drawings supplied by the naval department and had then enlarged to suit my needs. During construction I was visited by several friends who had served on her only to be told, "That bit is not right, nor that, nor that..." . I soon came to realise that the original plans were not accurate to the time period that I was building for and also only showed one side of the ship. So it was back to the drawing board and start again.

In the end I was able to draw detail from photos, books and general knowledge from people who had served on HMAS Melbourne. All of these sources combined to an extremely accurate depiction of the ship in the period around 1974. It was quite a challenge because there were so many refits and upgrades during her long career.

The construction process overall took 13 months. I used the original plan to give me the hull of the ship, which was constructed out of plywood. Regardless of all the refits to the ship over the years the hull remained the same and the original plans were perfect to assist in cutting and shaping the bulkhead.

Following creation of the bulkhead and waterproofing, we used the swimming pool to test balance and weight. Some things did work and some didn't. It had a bilge pump in it that worked very well when stationary, but wouldn't work while moving. It didn't cause any problems for the working of the ship so I left it be.

Several people, including Terry my brother who served on the ship in '74 and some of his shipmates, provided photographs of scenes on the Melbourne during their time served. One of the more enjoyable parts of the process was using these images to recreate the actual scenes in miniature on the model.

I purchased tiny figurines and made silicon moulds. This allowed me to make multiple figurines so I could cut and reconstruct them in to various poses to match the photographs. In the end, I recreated an extremely accurate model right down to fire extinguishers and hoses, tools and lights, aircraft, workers and bludgers all caught on photos from those who served on her and aided me with so much information from the numerous personal photos. However, it was the extremely valuable stories of incidences, mishaps and general everyday life on board that came to the fore and I was able to relay those stories to others when I had her on display.

Another challenge was the electronics. The finished model had rotating radars, internal lights, flashing runway lights and the raising and lowering anchor. The Sea King helicopter rotors spinning on call, as well as all the radio control for engines and rudder. When they were all working how they should, it truly was a sight to behold.