The Ship
HMS Vengeance was launched on February 23, 1944 by Swan, Hunter, Wigham, Richardson and was completed & commissioned at Newcastle on January 15, 1945. She served in the British Pacific Fleet based in Hong Kong and returned to Britain on 13 August 1946. In December 1948 she was employed on six weeks of cold weather trials in the Arctic. She was Flagship of the Third Aircraft Carrier Squadron (Home Fleet) in 1950-51. In 1951, she relieved her sister ship, Warrior on trooping duties in the Far East. In 1952 she ferried troops to Singapore and aircraft to Malta and then served as a training carrier in Home waters. She was refitted in 1952-53, during which time she was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy on 13 November 1952, pending completion of HMAS Melbourne, and sailed to Australia in January 1953. On 12 August 1955 she return to the UK, and was placed in reserve until being sold to the Brazilian Navy on 14 December 1956. Refitted at Rotterdam until 1960, she was renamed Minas Gerais and served until the year 2000.

HMS Vengeance Main Characteristics

Builder: Swan Hunter; Laid Down: 16 Nov 1942; Launched: 23 Feb 1944; Completed: 15 Jan 1945

Displacement: 12.190 tons normal, 18.040 full load; Length: 211,84 m (oa); Beam: 24,38 m (wl); 24,38 m (flight deck); Draught: 7.16 m (deep load)

Armament: 16-40mm/60 cal Bofors (single), 12-40mm/60 cal Bofors on six twin mountings. Machinery: Parsons geared turbines; 4 Admiralty 3-drum Boilers; 2 shafts. 40.000 SHP; Speed: 23.5 knots max. Range: 12,000nm @ 14 kts; Aircraft: 48; Complement: 850 (ship) + 450 (air group)

The Model
The model is made in 1:700 scale and represents HMS Vengeance in 1956 prior to her sale to Brazil. This model is completely scratch-built, except for the aircraft, Bofors single guns and the photo-etch fittings,. The materials used were a combination of balsa wood and Plastruct polystyrene sheets for the hull, superstructure, gun shields, and other parts; copper wire and Plastruct rods for the masts and double 40mm gun barrels. It took four months to build her.

As I mentioned above, I used some WEM Fittings (40 mm singles, boats and photo-etch: a WEM cruiser crane, similar to those used in this carrier. Additionally I used the Gold Medal Models 1:700 British Aircraft Carrier photo-etch set for the radars, antennas and rails. The aircraft displayed in this model are five WEM Hawker Sea Fury and five WEM Fairey Firefly, with their respective photoe-tch fittings.

To build the model, I used drawings of the French carrier Arromanches from the Musee de la Marine, drawings of HMAS Sydney as well as several photographs of various Colossus class carriers kindly provided by Mr. A. D. Baker III who contributed greatly to this project. Also, I want to thank to Anthony Coffey of the HMS Vengeance Association for some detailed information about the ship.

For the painting of the model, Mr. Peter Hall from WEM assisted me with information about the ship’s colors. For the hull and vertical surfaces I used a mix of 70% light sea gray (FS 36307/Model Master 1726 or Humbrol 127) and 30% flat white (Humbrol 130). For the flight deck, I used Humbrol 126; deck green for the weather and boat decks (Humbrol 88); yellow (Humbrol 24) for the landing strip center line and white (Humbrol 130) for the for deck markings and code letter. For the funnel exhaust and for the waterline I used Black (Humbrol 33). The color of all the rafts fitted to the aircraft carriers, post 1945 was the same as the ship sides i.e. light gray.

I have taken six months to make this model and which has been a goal of mine for more than 22 years, which I finally have achieved. I have made a silicone mold of this model in order to make resin copies for build some Colossus variant models.