Originally built as M29, one of five small monitors designed to give close in support to troops attacking coastal defences, was launched on 22May 1915. She was armed with two 6"guns one forward and one aft plus a small calibre machine gun just forward of the bridge. As soon as she was commissioned she was dispatched to the Mediterranean where she provided support at Gallipoli. She was then sent to Egypt as protection for the Suez Canal. After the end of WW1 she saw action when she supported the white Russian forces in the Black sea. The exact dates of her conversion to a buoy tender then coastal mine layer are not known but a year of 1927 for the mine layer role is most likely. That is the target year for
this build. When she carried 52 'H' Type contact mines, she was later converted to carry 16 'L' type remote detonation mines and this is how she saw out the early part of WW2. In May 1941 Medusa was converted yet again to a mobile repair workshop for minelayers. Not long afterwards she became a submarine depot ship and renamed Talbot. Badly damaged during an air raid on Malta in March 1942, renamed Medway II and towed back to Britain, finally being scrapped in
1947.

The model is built entirely out of plasti card, plus photo etch by L'Arsenal who do a very useful range of 1/350 p/etch.