Famous Ship Models: Royal Yacht Britannia and Bluenose

Two very different famous ships

The Royal Yacht Britannia and the schooner Bluenose are both national icons, but they make very different models:

• Britannia is a large, elegant mid-20th-century motor yacht. You’ll mainly be building and painting superstructure, and there are few kits of her.
• Bluenose is a 1920s Canadian fishing and racing schooner, a classic planked and rigged wooden ship model with plenty of kits and well-documented plans.

Royal Yacht Britannia

The real ship

HMY Britannia was built by John Brown & Co. at Clydebank on the River Clyde and launched by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 April 1953. She served the Royal Family for over four decades, carrying the monarch and other members of the family on hundreds of overseas voyages and state visits. She was designed so that she could be converted to a hospital ship in wartime, though that never happened.

Key features for modellers:

Britannia model kits and plans

Britannia is a popular subject, but complete wooden kits of her are uncommon. Options include:

• Small-scale resin kits. EV Model has produced a 1:700 resin Britannia with a hull of about 180 mm and a photo-etched brass sheet (see how to use photo-etched parts). A German review praised the fine casting but noted that the instructions are photographs only, with no paint guide, and that the masts and flags have to be made or sourced separately.
• Plans and fibreglass hulls. British model boat plan services and specialist hull suppliers have offered Britannia plans and hulls for larger working or display models. Check current availability.
• Scratch building. Many of the finest Britannia models are scratch-built from general arrangement drawings and photographs, often in timber and styrene sheet. Our guide to reading a model ship lines plan helps with the hull.
• Ready-made display models are widely sold, but they’re finished models rather than kits. See where to find ready-made model ships.

Tips for a Britannia model

• Get the hull colour right. The deep royal blue, gold band and white superstructure define the ship. Test your paints on scrap first.
• Pay attention to the masts and flags. Britannia’s three masts and royal flags are what make her recognisable from a distance.
• Choose a date. Boats, aerials and some deck details changed over her career, so pick one period to model.
• For a working model: Britannia is long and relatively narrow, so keep batteries and ballast low and the superstructure light.

Visiting Britannia for research

Britannia is now a visitor attraction at Ocean Terminal in Leith, Edinburgh. It’s a superb research trip for a modeller: you can see the decks, boats, bridge and fittings up close.

• When was she decommissioned? On 11 December 1997.
• Is it free to visit? No. Britannia is a paid visitor attraction. Check the official website for current ticket prices and opening times.
• How much time do you need? Many visitors spend around two hours aboard. If you’re photographing details for a model, allow longer.
• How much did she cost to build? Published figures put her original build cost at roughly £2 million in early-1950s money.

The schooner Bluenose

The real Bluenose

Bluenose was a Grand Banks fishing and racing schooner, built at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and launched in 1921. She was designed by William J. Roué and commanded by Captain Angus Walters. She became famous for winning the International Fishermen’s Races against American schooners. Her image has appeared on the Canadian ten-cent coin since 1937.

After the age of sail fishing ended, Bluenose was sold as a freighter and was lost on a reef off Haiti in 1946. A replica, Bluenose II, was launched in Lunenburg in 1963 and has since undergone a major rebuild.

Bluenose model plans

Bluenose is one of the best-documented schooners for modellers. Sources often mentioned by builders include:

• Model Shipways plans by Ben Lankford, assisted by Erik A.R. Ronnberg Jr., produced for the Model Shipways Bluenose kit at 3/16 in = 1 ft (about 1:64)
• Plans prepared by John R. Stevens for the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg
• L.B. Jenson’s measured drawings in his book on Bluenose II and the great fishing schooners
• P.F. Eisnor’s Bluenose plans, available as a multi-sheet set
• The Bluenose Practicum by Gene Bodnar, a step-by-step building guide to accompany the Model Shipways kit

Builders researching scratch builds sometimes report small discrepancies between plan sets. If accuracy matters to you, compare more than one source and check against photos.

Be careful with websites offering “free Bluenose plans PDF” downloads through suspicious links. Stick to recognised publishers, museums and modelling forums.

Bluenose kits

Several wooden kit makers offer the Bluenose or Bluenose II, including Model Shipways in the US and Billing Boats in Denmark, along with Spanish and Italian makers. When comparing them:

• Scale: A 1:64 Bluenose is a substantial model with a long bowsprit and main boom; smaller kits are easier to display.
• Hull construction: Most are plank-on-bulkhead. Some older American kits used a carved solid hull. See plank-on-bulkhead vs plank-on-frame and our guide to planking a wooden model hull.
• Rigging: A schooner’s fore-and-aft rig is far simpler than a square-rigger’s, which makes Bluenose a good step up for a builder who has finished a first small kit. You’ll still need to tie ratlines on the shrouds.

Original Bluenose or Bluenose II?

Bluenose II follows the original’s lines but differs in a number of deck and rig details, and both have changed over time. Decide which ship, and which year, you’re building before you start detailing the deck. Your kit’s instructions will usually say which version it represents.

Choosing between them

Looking for more famous ships? See our guides to HMS Victory kits, USS Constitution kits and Cutty Sark kits.