Scale: 1:192. A remarkably intricate and highly detailed model of a ‘W’-class destroyer HMS 'Warwick' (1918), made by one of the 20th century’s most celebrated modelmakers and draughtsmen, Norman Ough. His trademark style of 1:192 scale, extremely realistic, waterline models of warships is well known among serious ship-modellers, and has frequently been imitated but never bettered.

Ough’s passion for and understanding of the subjects he depicts is clearly evident in this example. The paint finish for instance, rather than having a uniform flatness, shows all the wear and tear, repairs and replacements, of the actual vessel. And HMS ‘Warwick’ did go, literally, through the wars.

In the First World War, at Zeebrugge, it was the flagship of Admiral Sir Roger Keyes. At Ostend it was hit by a mine which broke her back. HMS ‘Velox’ towed her back to Dover where it underwent extensive repairs. ‘Warwick’ was commissioned again for the Second World War but met her end on 20 February 1944 when the German U-boat ‘U-413’ – the very sub which the ‘Warwick’ had been sent to destroy – beat her to it and sank her in four minutes with a torpedo to her stern which set off an internal explosion. Forty-three of her crew were killed.