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Chitral was a P & O liner built in 1925. She and her sister Comorin were requisitioned as armed merchant cruisers in 1939. Chitral was equipped with seven 6” guns and two 3” guns and at the same time her after dummy funnel was removed. Later three 4” guns were substituted for the 3” guns and a radar tower added. In 1944 she was returned to the Ministry of War Transport as a troopship, and post-war returned to her civilian role.
Her wartime service saw her initially with the Northern Patrol. In 1939 she
picked up 10 survivors from the Rawalpindi (another armed merchant cruiser)
after that ship’s gallant action against the Scharnhorst. In 1940 she was sent
to search for survivors of the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay which had also
been sunk by Admiral Scheer while protecting a convoy. 1941 saw her transferred
to the Eastern Fleet where she remained until 1943. The model is intended to
depict her on convoy duty in the Indian Ocean with her elaborate false bow wave
and wake.
The model is scratch built from styrene sheet using the 1/500 scale plans
published in Modelarstwo Okretewo reduced to 1/700 scale. The commercial items
used are railings from the Gold Medal merchant ship PE set, some White Ensign
ships boats and Niko’s excellent 4” guns with L’Arsenal perforated beams used to
make the tops of the skylights.