HMS Amethyst was a Black Swan Sloop built in WW2 but made famous by the Yangtse Incident in 1949 when she was fired upon on her journey up the Yangtse River to Nanking and subsequently grounded on a sand bank for some six weeks until she made her get away.
This model is based on the plans available in Les Brown's book the Black Swan Class Sloops and incorporates the modifications made to the ship before its service in the Far East.
The model is scaled to 1/48th scale making a model about 1600mm long and 205mm wide. If printed at 66% it would be scaled at 1/72nd scale and be about 1100mm long. However a model at this scale might need a little modification to the access hatches for motors and batteries.
I have included a full instruction booklet with illustrations that is over 40 pages long, but if you find issues or problems I'm very happy to answer emails. There is a link to the instruction manual for free download at the end of this description.
The pictures show the model on the water. She sails very well indeed, a very stable model ballasted with batteries and about 3kg of lead sheeting and is quite capable in windy and pond rough conditions. She is twin screwed and has a good turning circle of about 3x her own length, but this would be greatly improved if twin speed controllers were used.
I have printed her in PETG filament and she uses about 4 reels. Some fittings were printed using a resin printer - the gun director, the Oerlikon guns on the bridge wings and the Bofors guns, but all these could with care be printed with a good filamenbt printer too.
The printer used was a Creality K1 Max which has a maximum build plate of 300mm cubed. The maximum size of parts in the print is 220mm cubed except for the lattice mast, but I have included a two part mast as well for those with a smaller printer. I have been requested hull sections for printing with a smaller printer and I have now included these so that everything can be printed witha printer with an build area of 200mm cubed.
She has been a fun project to design, and a great model to sail. I hope you enjoy building her!
If you wish to look at the building instructions, here is a link to a free download so you can see what is involved https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-print-models/hobby-diy/robotics/hms-amethyst-black-swan-sloop-radio-controlled-instructions
