As some you may recall, a while ago, I obtained Gollevainen's kind and generous permit to update his HMS Göta Lejon. The thread was labelled "Tre Kronor-Class Redux".
I was, however, never entirely satisfied with my effort and I never got down to do the camouflaged version either.
To create the perfect drawing of these two sisterships has been something of a life-long obsession with me. I began in the early 1980s with the reading of Axel Zettersten's monumental brick edition of "Svenska Flottans Historia". I was 5 when the Göta Lejon was sold to the Chilean navy, in 1970. (only to have her first Chilean Captain being a member of the Junta that toppled and murdered President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973.
So, having obtained a veritable fount of new information, I can now present, what I hope shall be the ultimate and definite album on these two ships.
We begin with the HMS Tre Kronor as she appeared as completed, in 1947:
![[ img ]](http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/SW_CL_TreKronor-CoA.png)
Between 1950-53 both ships were taken in hand to have their superstructures and armament rebuilt and modified. This is how the Tre Kronor appeared during her last commissioning, in 1958. She was afterwards laid up and, eventually sold for scrap, in 1964:
![[ img ]](http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/Sw-Cl-TreKronor_1958-CoA.png)
Her sister enjoyed a rather longer and more eventful life, including the sale to Chile and participation in the dirty war against opponents of the Pinochet regime. From 1953 (after a short cruise the same year) she spent almost five years in yard hand to be thoroughly modernized. As the ship was taken out for her last commissioning, in the fall of 1963 this is how she appeared:
![[ img ]](http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/Sw-Cl-Gta_Lejon_1964-CoA.png)
The last chapter of her Swedish service I like to call, in Swedish: "Sista sjökrigsrustningen" - or last war-like commissioning. This took place in Jan - Oct. 1964 and was the very last ever cruise under the Blue-Yellow three-guidoned naval flag. The final Swedish cruiser "Skipper" was Capt. (kommendörkapten) Roland Engdahl. The Göta Lejon has been repainted in a camouflage pattern seeking to emulate the natural geographic patterns of the rocky, narrow Swedish skerries.
With this excercise a chapter was closed which had lasted for almost a hundred years of Swedish cruiser development, which included the White Swan of the Baltic - the armored cruiser HMS Fylgia, and the revolutionary airplane cruiser HMS Gotland, of 1934 vintage.:
Here she is - Sista sjökrigsrustningen - HMS Göta Lejon as of 1964 dressed all in purpose-like warpainting. Do note that she is carrying the Alouette II (HKP2) lashed to her "Bertil"-turret. This was due to the visit by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Airforce Gen. Torsten Rapp in June, 1964 :
![[ img ]](http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/Sw-Cl-Gta_Lejon_1964_camo-CoA-0.png)
The helicopter, a Boeing Vertol 44B (HKP1), though strictly speaking not a part of the ship, is included in order to highlight the importance that the Swedish naval strategists saw in the proper employment of large helicopters, a usage of which Sweden was one of the pioneers.
But naturally I respect if you don't wish to do it, we have to drawn according to our hearts eh? 
