Paul E

A difficult decision! I bought a NOVO version with the intent to build and I am glad I did, although there wasn't that much of the original kit that was used and of those bits that were utilised were all modified in some way or other.

So I have had a look at my Decal stash and the Illustrious nameplate is included on the Hawk Graphics 1/350 modern RN decal sheet. However, when compared to the nameplate provided on the Airfix decal sheet there is a substantial difference in size, with the Hawk Graphics name being a lot smaller.

The pink banded missile is definitely a telemetry shot. I just relooked at the photo again and you can see the temporary tracking antenna on top of the gun in the background of the photograph

The long black stripe that is present on drill and live sea dart missiles is to indicate alignment for the launcher rails. The missiles can only be loaded on to the launch rails one way. So marking the missiles with a black lines helps identify the orientation of the missile for handling. I suspect the pink nose cone and banded missile is a telemetary shot and the war shot is white all over as in the top left photograph. As for the text, all the missiles are individually serial numbered. I don't know the specifics of the numbering but the missiles under went a number of modifications through life and the serial numbers would reflect that.

Sorry to say the Resin Shipyard and Hawk Graphics are no longer trading, I know one of the partners. I may be able to help with the name plate though as I am certain it is on the 1/350 RN generic sheet of which I have. I will check when I get back home in a couple of days.

I forgot to mention the Sea Dart comes in two parts the main body which is powered by a ramjet and a boost motor that gets it off the launcher and jetisons when the missile is in flight. The boost motor on the drill Sea Dart missile is oxford blue.

It is correct that Sea Dart drill missiles are red and live missiles are overall white with brown and yellow explosive bands. Sea Wolf drill missiles are blue with live missiles also being white with a black nose cone and brown and yellow explosive bands. The explosive bands by the way are yellow for the warhead and brown for the rocket propellant.

There were no obvious differences between HMS Broadsword and Battleaxe in 1982, Both had the larger funnel and had the motor whaler as the sea boat.

I am very interested in seeing how you get on with this kit as I am very tempted by it, although I am thinking of a conversion to Canadian Coastguard without the pop gun. The USCG Sentinel class is based on the Damen Stan 4207 design which is used by quite a few countries including the UK Border Agency, so there is plenty of scope for variation with this kit.

Thank you Francis, that would be very helpful.

I am looking for a drawing or a clear image for a Simple Tachymetric Director used in some RN ships post war as shown in the picture

My preference is for waterline ship models, it makes them come "alive" in my mind. Making a sea base is not that hard with some of the materials now available. AK Interactive make an excellent gel that I now use for my models. There is also a tutorial by AK on Youtube. The main issue I have is cutting full hull models down to the waterline, I just hate having to do it.

This is impressive work, I built the Resin Shipyard 1/700 version of a Halifax Class last year as my COVID lockdown project and I had wondered about trying it at 1/350, your build is giving me good insight to what to expect from the ISW kit.

Very nice build indeed.