The sisterships HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious started out as "Large Light Cruisers"/ light battlecruisers. They, along with their half sister, Furious, they were the fastest of the early British carriers with a maximum speed of 30 knots. The pair was lost early in the war. Courageous was hit by two torpedoes from U-29 on September 17, 1939 and sank in 15 minutes. Glorious was caught flatfooted with no aircraft patrols, by German Battlecruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on June 8, 1940.  One of the first German shells struck a ready aircraft on the deck, disabling Glorious from launching aircraft. In an action taking 70 minutes, the Glorious and her two escorting destroyers, Ardent and Acasta, were dispatched by the German twins.

British carriers have been neglected by model producers to a large extent. H-P Models of German has stepped into the void and started producing 1:700 scale models of these early British carriers. John Currie has photographed the components of the H-P Models Courageous and Glorious.

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