Corazzata Roma

This is a working model of the Italian battleship Roma, a Vittorio Veneto class ship of the Italian Royal Navy. She was sunk in 1943 near La Maddalena Island (Sardinia) by a rocket fired by a german airplane, just one day after Italy surrendered to the Allies.

This 1/100 scale model is 240 cm long and 33 cm wide at maximum. It weights nearly 40 kg including the battery and the ballast.

This model was built between May 2001 and May 2003 using the original blue prints and referring to drawings of the actual ship, which allowed for referring the real ship, creating the best solution to adapt the drawing to a sailing ship.

The model was made with a pine-plank bottom and plywood for the transversal frame. The frame was then water-proofed with a fiber-glass coating.

The decks are made with 6- 10 mm thick birch plywood and the superstructures are made with wood, plastic, resin, alluminium and brass.

The model is remote-controlled and has 4 electric engines with 2 trimmers, one for each side. The model also is equipped with lights on the main deck and sirens. This equipment is also remote-controlled.

All the lifeboats, the carley boat, the Fiat 626M truck, the Fiat Berlina, the catapult and the Ro-43 airplane are hand built using copper and wood.