Greetings,
I think I just learned that the British Empire class freighters where the prototype for the Liberty ships. If I wanted to add a British freighter to my collection of ww2 ships, but Loose Cannon is no longer available, would one of the Liberty ship kits be a close enough approximation?
Does anyone know if there were many obvious visual differences that would make this a big no-no ?
Thanks,
- Lambert
1:700 British Empire Freighters
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Rick_H
- Posts: 278
- Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2005 2:06 am
- Location: Seattle, WA
Re: 1:700 British Empire Freighters
The Niko CAM ship is an Empire freighter with a catapult added. Delete the cat and you are in business.
Rick
Rick
On the workbench:
1/700 HMS Swiftsure - Combrig
1/700 CGC Chelan - White Ensign
1/700 HMCS Forrest Hill - HP
1/700 Ulsan - Kobo Hiryu
--and dozens more
1/700 HMS Swiftsure - Combrig
1/700 CGC Chelan - White Ensign
1/700 HMCS Forrest Hill - HP
1/700 Ulsan - Kobo Hiryu
--and dozens more
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Pieter
- Posts: 1612
- Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:19 am
Re: 1:700 British Empire Freighters
Empire freighters were not standardised like Liberty ships until 1942 so they were not really prototypes for the Liberty ships. The Liberties evolved from an earlier design through the canadian built Fort and american Oceans to the Liberties. The difference with the Empire B (which Niko based its CAM ship on) is mainly in the shape of the hull. More info in my thread on 'granddad'', SS Embassage. The thread also shows (I hope) that a conversion from a trumpeter Liberty is not that difficult. I build Embassage, the Ocean class Amstelveen and the Liberty Ivan Polzunow for a small presentation at ESM in Houten in 2024. https://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/v ... p?t=393567
Last edited by Pieter on Fri Sep 18, 2026 4:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Terry Pottle
- Posts: 36
- Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2005 2:24 pm
- Location: Hamburg, Germany
Re: 1:700 British Empire Freighters
Pieters conversion is really very nice.
His mention of British Tramps by I G Stewart, will probably be hard to find now, but there is a book by John Henshaw, Liberty’s Provenance, which explores the evolution of the US Liberty ships, and includes several line drawings of precursors – including Embassage. It’s a good read. Published by Seaforth in 2019, ISBN 978 1 5267 5065 1.
The most concise listing – with some line drawings - is by Mitchell & Sawyer Empire Ships of WW2, published in 1990, They also produced a book about the Oceans, Forts and Parks in 1996
Good luck with your project
His mention of British Tramps by I G Stewart, will probably be hard to find now, but there is a book by John Henshaw, Liberty’s Provenance, which explores the evolution of the US Liberty ships, and includes several line drawings of precursors – including Embassage. It’s a good read. Published by Seaforth in 2019, ISBN 978 1 5267 5065 1.
The most concise listing – with some line drawings - is by Mitchell & Sawyer Empire Ships of WW2, published in 1990, They also produced a book about the Oceans, Forts and Parks in 1996
Good luck with your project
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Bertu
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2023 3:20 pm
Re: 1:700 British Empire Freighters
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, exploring these should keep me out of trouble for a while.
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Quincy
- Posts: 2221
- Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 9:41 am
- Location: Monson, MA.
Re: 1:700 British Empire Freighters
You can also make the Gyoten and Gyoku Marus with a little bit of scratchbuilding using this freighter.
Bob
Bob