HMS Picton "Ton" Class Minesweepers M 803 Triang Minic Ships 1959-64

Price: NZ$9.24

Code: BH327

HMS Picton “Ton” Class Minesweepers M 803 Triang Minic Ships 1959-64

These are the Tri-ang Minic Ships models of some of the one hundred and sixteen ships of the Royal Navy’s “Ton” Class of minesweepers which were built during the 1950’s. All of these ships were named after villages in Britain ending with “ton” the name ship being HMS Coniston.
John I. Thornycroft & Co Ltd, of Southampton acted as parent firm to the group of fifteen smaller shipbuilders who were contracted to build most of these ships.
The “Ton” Class ships were designed to counter the magnetic mine with an aluminium framed double skinned mahogany hull. Superstructures were also constructed of aluminium and other materials with similar low magnetic attraction properties to reduce the risks of magnetic mines. The ships low displacement and shallow draught helped to protect them from pressure mines and moored mines.
The original ships had an open bridge structure and lattice mast which were replaced in later ships by an enclosed “frigate” bridge and a tripod mast. Copper sheathing was originally used to protect the timber hull but this was later replaced by a Cascover nylon sheathing.

In worn original finish, some chipping and in a good play worn condition for its age. Unboxed model. We have several in stock at any one time and the item you receive will be in similar condition to the one photographed here.

We have a very large collection of minic pieces to list if you are looking for anything in particular please email through the contact page on this site.

This section of the shop is about the amazing original series of diecast metal ships and harbour playset accessories, produced under the Tri-ang Minic Ships name in England between 1959 and 1964. As well as the later series of models produced under the Hornby Minic name during the early 1970’s.

The “TRI-ANG” trade mark itself resulted from a play on the truism “three lines make a triangle” the “three lines” in question being the brothers William, Walter and Arthur Lines who founded Lines Bros Limited just after the First World War.

The Tri-ang Minic Ships name comes from the original manufacturer Minic Limited a subsidiary of Lines Bros Limited, owners of the famous “TRI-ANG” trade mark.

The models were produced by Lines Bros Ltd’s Tri-ang Works at Mordon Road, Merton, London SW19 with production moving to Minic Limited at Market Way, Canterbury, Kent during mid 1960.

The original range of ships and harbour accessories are waterline models manufactured to a scale of 1:1200 scale, where one inch is equivalent to 100 feet, the same scale that was used in the manufacture of ship recognition models for training Allied naval and airforce personnel during both the First and Second World Wars.

When Lines Bros Ltd was broken up in the late 1960’s the “TRI-ANG” trade mark remained with Tri-ang Pedigree, another Line Bros subsidiary which was also active in New Zealand and Australia, while the “MINIC” trade mark was transferred to Hornby together with the tooling for the Minic Ships models.

All of the models produced under the Hornby Minic name were produced in Hong Kong after Hornby moved their manufacturing in the early 1970’s. Hornby produced only a limited selection of the original models but also introduced four new models of famous battleships – USS Missouri, IJN Yamato, DKM Bismarck and DKM Scharnhorst.All of the ship models produced under the Hornby Minic name were fitted with a red plastic base equipped with plastic rollers.

The original Tri-ang Minic and Hornby Minic series of models are no longer in production and to the best of our knowledge the tooling for these models no longer exists. So the original models have become quite collectable as they were only made for 6 years and being mainly children’s toys, many sadly have not survived. What has is in various states of repair! Still they are an incredible early 1960’s toy which can be arranged in attractive displays, and enjoyed in many homes or businesses where a nautical theme is desired.