The Three Headed Dog: HMVS Cerberus scratchbuild in 1:600

 The wreck of the breastwork monitor HMVS Cerberus sits in Half Moon Bay, Melbourne, Australia, where she was sunk in 1926 as a breakwater. She sits there, decaying away, despite valiant efforts to preserve what is one of the last of the monitors. See: http://www.cerberus.com.au

Since reading an interesting account of the birth of the Victorian Navy (eg. of the Colony of Victoria ... not the era) by Wilson P Evans - "Deeds Not Words: The Victorian Navy", The Hawthorn Press, Melbourne 1971 - I've longed to have a scale model I could do some "what if" naval gaming with.

Why buy, when you can build, I say! Here is the first steps towards bring the Three Headed Dog back to life again - if only on the gaming table. The scale is 1:600.

With the basic turret roof in place, the pile of PVC begins to reflect the Three Headed Dog!

Interior of the aft turret awaiting the gun ports to be cut and the main guns fitted.

Gun ports cut and barrels fitted.

With the upper deck sitting in place, it's not looking right - too thick? Maybe it'll improve when the superstructure, mast and ship's boats are in place.

Well, the Flying Deck did improve visually when I cut it to the correct width (original was 20 feet wide). Then I've added the mast, fighting top, funnel and rear access to gangway.