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Hello Britmodellers here are pictures from my current build on my bench ( or better one of them) Its Trumpeters H.M.S Hood in 1/350 scale. Its my first attempt to add more details on a 1/350 warship. The kit was started right after i got it in my LHS, as an intended oob build, like my other ships i had at that time. While building her ( that was in 2007 or 08 ) i discovered modelling sites like Modelwarships.com or websites about the real Hood, learning about the wrong main gun turrets and the posted ships had so much more details. After i became unhappy with my idea it quickly stalled. Filling and sanding the seam running around Hood hull didn t helped either. Some month back, i decided to give this one a second go, with some more budged and some more skill, i ordered an photo etched set from Eduard, gun turrets in resin from WEM, just before they went out of business, and a detail set from Trumpeter with beautiful turned brass gun barrels. Adding PE stuff proved difficult and progress was slow, a bit later i gor me a self adhesive wooden deck from Pontos and my Hood project was running well until live stopped this in summer 2015. ( incl. two BM Group Builds ) Now i have some days of until the new year and Hood is back from the mothballs.

Flower Class Corvette, HMS Spiraea Mirage Models 1:350 The Flower class were an essential resource for North Atlantic convoy protection until larger vessels such as destroyer escorts and frigates could be produced in sufficient quantities. The simple design of the Flower class using parts and techniques (scantlings) common to merchant shipping meant they could be constructed in small commercial shipyards all over the United Kingdom and eastern Canada, where larger (or more sophisticated) warships could not be built. Additionally, the use of commercial triple expansion machinery instead of steam turbines meant the largely Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve crews that were manning the corvettes would be familiar with their operation. Flower-class vessels were slow for a warship, with maximum speed of 16 kn (30 km/h). They were also very lightly armed as they were intended solely for anti-submarine warfare; many of the RCN's original Flower-class ships were initially fitted with minesweeping equipment, while virtually all of the modified Flowers were fitted with a limited anti-aircraft capability. The original Flowers had the standard RN layout, consisting of a raised forecastle, a well deck, then the bridge or wheelhouse, and a continuous deck running aft. The crew quarters were in the fo’c’sle while the galley was at the rear, making for poor messing arrangements. The modified Flowers saw the forecastle extended aft past the bridge to the aft end of the funnel, a variation known as the "long forecastle" design. Apart from providing a very useful space where the whole crew could gather out of the weather, the added weight improved the ships' stability and speed and was retroactively applied to a number of the original Flower-class vessels during the mid and latter years of the war. The original Flowers had a mast located immediately forward the bridge, a notable exception to naval practice at that time. The modified Flowers saw the mast returned to the normal position immediately aft of the bridge; however, this does not seem to have been done in all of the modified builds or conversions of the original vessels. A cruiser stern finished the appearance for all vessels in the class. HMS Spiraea, a long fo’c’sle Flower, the subject of this kit, was launched on 31 October 1940 at Glasgow, Scotland and entered nominal service on 27 February 1941. In 1943, she recovered the survivors of two separate sinkings (the merchant vessels Oporto and Fort Howe), of which the Fort Howe effort was in conjunction with Alisma. Surviving the war she was sold to the Greek Navy and renamed Thessaloniki. The Model Originally released in 2013, Mirage Hobby have now re-issued this lovely little kit. The kit comes in a top opening box with a nice representation of the ship at sea on the front. Inside there are three sprues of medium grey styrene, a small sheet of etched brass and a small decal sheet. Normally, being more of a short run kit, you would expect some flash etc, but this is not the case. There is only a little flash but no other imperfections, but the sprue gates are quite extensive, particularly noticeable on the davits and yardarms, so be very careful when removing these and other small items as they are liable to break. Alternatively these could be replaced with aftermarket items. The moulded details are quite restrained but well done. The hull appears to be correct, including the stem post which doesn’t look like an 8 x 8 block as per some other kits. Unfortunately the instructions leave a lot to be desired, in that the diagrams are small and quite cluttered, it may be best to scan it and blow it up to at least A4/page. The build begins with the joining of the two hull halves followed by the quarterdeck and forward bulkhead. The fo’c’sle and shelter decks are then attached. On the quarterdeck the two depth charge racks, each of two halves are glued into position, along with the depth charge derrick, Ensign Staff, two mushroom vents, three rows of spare depth charges a hatch and two pairs of bollards. Along each side of the shelter deck there are two depth charge throwers, plus seven spare depth charges on the port side and eleven on the starboard side. On top of the depth charge rails a platform and Carley float are fitted. Moving foreward the shelter deck is fitted out with the single 2pdr PomPom gun and mounting, ventilators, davits, ready use lockers, winches, and to the sides, two sets of Carley float racks. The funnel base is then attached, followed by the three piece funnel, four ventilators, chimney pipe and steam pipes. Further foreward still is he bridge, the base of which is made up from four sides, onto which the open bridge moulding, which includes the bridge wings is attached, the wing supports are then fitted along with the main boat davits, two on each side, just aft of the bridge. The radio room, also made from four side pieces is assembled and fitted to the bridge deck, whilst aft of the bridge, the ships boats are shipped along with the Carley floats. Aft of the radio room is the radar lantern, made up from three styrene and one PE part is glued into position, followed by the two 20mm Oerlikons, one on each bridge wing and the foremast with separate yardarm and crows nest fitted. In front of the bridge there is a large breakwater, in front of that the 4” main gun and its bandstand, whilst to each side of the bandstand a splinter shield is added, as well as two davits and a spare anchor. Right foreward, on the fo’c’sle the numerous bollards, cleats, and other fittings are attached, as well as the windlass, a pair of ventilators and capstan. The two anchors are then glued into position and the build finished off with the fitting of the ships railings, which are provided as PE parts. The kit provides a small stand, with a single pedestal on which to display the finished model. Decals The small sheet contains the ships pennant numbers for the sides and stern, ships nameplates and a single White Ensign. The kit is for only one ship, but the full colour painting guide shows her as painted in two different schemes, one for 1941/42 and one for 1942/43. The artwork shows both sides even though they were identical, it’s nice to have. Conclusion Whilst I have built a couple of Mirage Hobby kits, they were in their 1:400 scale range, and to be honest they weren’t particularly brilliant. This kit and that of her sisters is definitely a step up. The mouldings are great, the addition of PE very useful and it should build into a nice little model of a very important class of ship. The only point I will have to reiterate, is that you will need to be very careful removing most of the smaller parts. Rather than using side cutters I would recommend a new scalpel blade to cut the sprue gates and subsequent clean-up. Review sample provided by

USS Kitty Hawk Detail Sets Eduard 1:350 The Merit International/Trumpeter USS Kitty Hawk kit came out last year, yet Eduard have finally released their etched sets for it. As useful as they are, they don’t address one of the primary problems of the kit, the lack of hanger details. That said the rest of the model is provided with plenty. The five sets reviewed here cover pretty much every external part of the model, there are three, two sheet sets contained in large zip-lock bags and two single sheet sets, contained in the standard sized poly sleeve. Set one, (53-170, Island), is a two sheet set containing over 188 parts. These include replacement platforms, platform supports, all the railings required, numerous other fittings and their structures, replacement numbers, in the blocked light style for each side, replacement vertical ladders, and a replacement bridge window section. There is also a full complement of light bars, watertight doors, cable reels, SATCOM aerials, ECM arrays, SPS-49 array, SPS-64 array, mast fittings, yardarm railings, wind indicators, and navigation radar. The funnel receives new caps and walkway, whilst the AN/SPS 48 radar not only gets a whole new array, but a completely new mast as well, complete with all the platforms, railings and doors for the control room at the base. Sheet two, (53-171) is another two sheet set and contains parts to superdetail the hull and deck. Naturally most of the sheets are taken up with new railings, along with the numerous cable reels, and watertight doors, but there are a selection of replacement platforms, their supports and both vertical and inclined ladders. Also included are additional deck houses, replacement parts for the RIBs, additional access platforms, saluting guns, sponson supports, crane fittings, bridle catcher supports and deck edge aerial platforms. The instructions also show how to modify one of eh deck edge mounted radomes to the correct shape. Sheet three, (53-172), is another two sheet set, and whilst there are lot of parts, they are mostly used to replace the kits deck and elevator mounted safety nets. There are also even more railings, along with emergency weapon dumping slides, a new ensign staff and Jack staff with the associated railings used only when in port. The flight deck is fitted with an all new set of edging that goes the whole way round the deck and several new platforms, and, of course, more inclined ladders. Sheet four, (53-173), is a smaller single sheet set, containing parts for the carrier air wing. Each aircraft has different parts replaced, such as the Hornets receiving new pylons, wheels, undercarriage doors, catapult bar and tailhook. The Intruders get, new wheels, undercarriage doors, tailhook, aerials, and, if you’re a complete masochist, an open aft equipment bay. The Seahawks are also given new wheels, and a choice of extended or folded rotor blades, tail rotor, and the instructions show where to cut if you wish to fold the tail. The Hawkeyes, receive new rotor dome pylon supports, wheels, tailhook and undercarriage doors. The set is not confined to the aircraft, all the ground equipment is provided with more detailed parts, such as tow bars, forklift cage and forks, tow truck front and rear panels, fire hoses, steering wheels and the APU extension for some of them. The big crash crane is fitted with a new operators cabin, ladders, cable wheels, support beams, and cross members. Sheet four, (53-174), is also a single sheet set and contains new cradles for the ships boats, along with ninety triple racks for the life raft containers that are sited around the flight deck, along with their supports. Whilst not particularly difficult to fold, they may become a little tedious, so probably best to do them all at once. Conclusion The USS Kitty Hawk kit is a fabulous piece of moulding and design, even without the hanger details, these sets at least makes the external details stand out and with care should make the finished model look amazing. Maybe Eduard could do something for the interior now, although I know a couple of other companies and individuals who have taken up this particular challenge. Review sample courtesy of

Typhoon Class Submarine Mikro Mir 1:350 Built primarily for long missions under the polar icecap, the sheer size of the Typhoon, known indigenously as the Akula Class, was simply mind blowing. She was half the length of an Nimitz class aircraft carrier and about 2/5ths its displacement. A submerged Typhoon was said to reach 48,000 tons, while its western equivalent, the almost as long Ohio Class "boomer," displaced "just" 19,000 tons. The Typhoon's massive tonnage comes from the fact that they were basically two Delta Class submarine hulls mated together and built outward from there. They could carry 20 R-39 SLBMs, each with 10 multiple re-entry vehicle (MIRV) warheads. In other words, this submarine could rain two hundred nuclear warheads down on western cities and military installations in a single barrage. Seeing as the ship was designed with Arctic patrols in mind, she could break through the ice and fire all of her missiles while surfaced if need be. Additionally, she possessed six 533mm tubes that were capable of launching Type 53 torpedoes and SS-N-15 "Starfish" cruise missiles, although these were tertiary capabilities in comparison to her primary mission as a nuclear "second strike" deterrent. What made the Typhoons even more threatening was that they were among the quietest vessels ever built by the USSR, and they were fast, capable of hitting around 28kts underwater. In effect, tracking these suckers was a top priority for NATO, and especially the US, and it was not that easy for America's silent service to do so. Additionally, these ships were prime targets on America's nuclear hit lists while in port as they could launch their missiles even while tied up to the dock if the orders to end the world as we knew it were ever given. In the end just six Typhoons were built during the 1980s, and most were withdrawn from service within a decade and a half of their christening. Today a single boat, the first of her class, the Dmitriy Donskoy, is still in service, acting partially as a missile development test boat as she was updated and converted to carry the newest Russian SLBM, the RSM-56 "Bulava." The two other remaining Typhoons that were still in Russia's reserve inventory are being scrapped as the cost of refitting and operating them is deemed too high. In their place, the more streamlined, efficient and cost effective Borei Class, although not necessarily cheaper to build, and its second generation derivative, which were designed around the RSM-56 SLBM, will solidify its grim role as Russia's primary second strike nuclear deterrent. Interestingly enough, before the final decision was made to scrap all but one of the remaining Typhoons, the shipyard that originally built them was floating some pretty wild concepts in an attempt to see that they were refurbished and put back into active service. Some of the ideas proposed were to refit the ships as natural gas, oil and cargo transports capable of delivering large quantities of stores to Russia's most northern outposts. The Model This is my first look at a Mikro Mir kit in its raw state and I have to say initial impressions are pretty good. The kit comes in a colourful top opening box with what looks like an actual photograph of a Typhoon on the lid. Inside there are four hull sections, two smallish sprues and two separate parts for the fin all in a light to medium grey styrene. Also included are two small etched sheets, a tiny clear styrene sprue and a sheet of decals. On initial inspection the details are nicely moulded, but be aware that this is more like a limited run kit and as such will require a bit more fettling and fitting than a model from one of the larger mainstream manufacturers, it is not a shake and bake. This is particularly seen in the fitting of the hull sections which come in separate bow and stern sections for both upper and lower hulls. Some careful sanding will be needed to get all the parts to fit nicely, but try not to sand too much otherwise you will lose some of the moulded detail. Unfortunately the instructions are little on the small side and I found the easiest way to view them was to scan them into the computer and blow them up, certainly helps with identifying where the smaller parts go. The best way to construct this kit will be to glue the bow and stern sections of the upper and lower hulls before attaching the now two halves, (horizontally), together. With the hull sections glued together there are several fittings to be attached to the lower hull, these include the keel strakes, two, what I can only presume are water intakes, each consisting of two halves, the two piece rudder onto which two PE strakes are fitted per side, and two other parts, fitted aft of the water intakes, which I cannot identify. Turning the sub over the upper hull is fitted with the tower/fin, which is provided in two halves, is assembled, with a floor section sandwiched between them about two thirds of the way up the fin. The small brass parts that make up the antenna/periscope wells are fitted before closing up along with the clear parts that make up the front windows. The fin is then topped off with a selection of antenna poles and periscopes, and finished by fitting the PE handrails around the base. The upper rudder is of the same construction as the lower and once fitted into position two similarly unidentifiable parts to those on the underside are glued into place, followed by the two bowplanes. The two propellers are each made up of individual PE blades glued onto the styrene propeller boss, which is then completed by the fitting of four small strakes into the front of the boss. Once assembled, the two propellers can be glued into place. The two single piece sternplanes are fitted with inner and outer PE plates before being glued into position aft of the propellers which are then enclosed by upper and lower cowl sections. Finally two rounded plates are fitted to the outside of each of the aft horizontal planes, completing the build. A small stand is provided to mount the model on, or you can provide your own method of display. Decals The small decal sheet provides quite a lot of markings for the submarine, mostly for the individual hatches and openings, but also for the escape/access hatches which are provided as two parts to improve the opacity of the white sections. There are also depth marks for the bow, amidships and stern plus two Russian Ensigns. Although marked MikroMir, the decals have a Bergamot feel about them which may or may not be a good thing. Once again I scanned the decal placement sheet into the computer which helped a lot in identifying where the decals go. Conclusion This is a very interesting kit in that it may take a little longer to put together, requiring a little more patience and care with the fit, but at the end of the day you will have a very nice, and accurate model of the imposing Typhoon class submarine. Having seen a couple of completed models they really do stand out from the crowd. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

HMS Arrow Atlantic Models 1:350 The Type 21 Frigate was the Royal Navy’s first privately designed ship taken into service for a long time. The RN had a requirement for a general purpose vessel to replace the Leopard and Salisbury class Frigates that were not very well suited to escort duties due to their diesel power plants. Vosper Thornycroft came up with a modern designed frigate that they claimed was comparatively cheaper than the Leander class frigates already in service. The new ship was all gas turbine powered and was not restricted by having to allow time for boilers to bring up steam for propulsion. The Admiralty ordered eight ships of the new class beginning with the name ship HMS Amazon with all of the remainder of the classes names beginning with A and these were all accepted into service between July 1974 and April 1978. The type was well liked by all those that served in them, but because of their small size and lack of long range radar, there was no prospect of being able to modernise them as they were already close to their top weight limits. All of the class served during the Falklands campaign of 1982 with Amazon being the only one to arrive late in the second group of ships, after the Argentine surrender. Two of the class were lost to enemy fire. Ardent was strafed and bombed repeatedly by flights of aircraft on the 21st May and sunk. Antelope received bomb hits om the 23rd May which failed to explode, but one was set off by the disposal team attempting to defuse it. The resulting fire set off the ships magazines which broke her back and sinking her. HMS Arrow was built by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, Glasgow and launched on 5th February 1974 by Lady Raper, wife of Vice Admiral Sir George Raper, Arrow was the fifth Type 21 Frigate to be built and the first to carry Exocet missiles. She was commissioned on 29th July 1976 in Sunderland, the town to which she was affiliated. HMS Arrow served along with all her sister ships that made up the 4th Frigate squadron, during the Falklands campaign in 1982, and was in the first wave of ships deployed. She claimed the distinction of being the first ship to fire on the Argentine shore positions as well as the first ship to be hit by enemy fire after being strafed by a fighter jet. She went alongside HMS Sheffield after the missile attack which disabled her, and helped to take off the survivors. She operated in and around Falkland sound with HMS Alacrity, keeping the seaway open and providing gunfire support to the troops ashore. After Arrow returned from home she went into refit until September 83 after which she headed back to the Falklands as guardship. She also spent time in the West Indies as guardship and carrying out anti piracy patrols. HMS Arrow served in the fleet until 1994 after which she was decommissioned and sold to the Pakistan Navy and re named PNS Khaibar. She remains in service to this day in the Pakistan Navy where she serves alongside the other five remaining Type 21 Frigates that were purchased from the United Kingdom. Model The kit comes in the standard sturdy Atlantic Models box filled with poly chips to protect the contents. The metal, (39 parts), and smaller resin, (20 pieces) parts are contained in to zip lock bags stapled to a piece of card, whilst another, slightly larger zip-lock bag contains the larger resin parts, (4 pieces). The upper and lower hull sections are further protected from damage, by being wrapped in bubble wrap. There is a long envelope found at the bottom of the box containing the large sheet of etched brass, whilst a separate disc holder contains the instruction disc and a sheet of decals. When the hull is unwrapped the first thing that strikes you is the cleanliness of the resin. It is silky smooth, with no sign of deformation, bubbles or other imperfections, Peter must also have the shrinkage weighed off, as when the two sections are joined, (at the waterline) they are a near perfect match, with only the slightest difference at the rear which can easily be sorted with a couple of swipes of a sanding stick. The rest of the resin parts are just as well moulded, although the large sections of the superstructure do appear to have more pour stubs on their undersides than normal. These are needed to ensure that all the superb detail on these quite large sections are moulded correctly. They just need some careful removal with a scalpel blade and a sanding stick. The foremast and most of the smaller parts have some flash, but it’s very soft and easily removed. The white metal parts are the only pieces that have any flash, but again, this will be easily removed and cleaned up. The large etch sheet is what we have come to expect from Atlantic Models, beautiful clean relief etching, great design and lots of parts, and is probably the area that makes these models more for the experienced modeller than even the resin. Before any construction can take place, make sure you clean all the parts in warm soapy water to get rid of any mould release agent that may be attached. Once the parts have been cleaned it’s on with the build, beginning with several sub assemblies, namely the 4.5” gun turret which is made up form a resin turret, white metal gun and four etched parts. The two 20mm Oerlikons are each made up from four etched parts, whilst the single Seacat missile launcher is made from a single resin launcher, four PE guide rails and each of the four missiles from three PE parts. The two Corvus chaff launchers are also of resin and have an etched flare launcher fitted to the two tubes. They are then fitted to the bases, each of which has an etched railing to their rear. The 913 fire control radar can be used as is, a single piece resin part, or, for the more adventurous, the radar dish can be removed and replaced with and etched piece. The two double Exocet launchers are also moulded in resin, and are fitted with the four Exocet canisters and handed etched platforms with railings to the front. If you wish, you can leave the canisters off; as they weren’t always fitted, just check your references. The main radar platform is fitted with PE under panels. The foremast has been moulded with several sensors attached, but since these can be quite brittle, PE alternatives have been provided. The Type 1006 radar platform is fitted with the white metal radar and PE railings, whilst at the top of the mast the Abbey Hill array is attached, followed by the Type 992 platform, with its metal 992 and IFF Interrogator arrays, PE railings and front mounted antenna. The PE yardarms and aerials are then attached to the mast sides, front quarter and forward faces. The compelted mast can then be put aside to dry properly. There is more PE work next with the assembly of the wire antenna collector, small boat stowage, into which the small resin boats are fitted, small boat davit. The main mast can be assembled either as an early or late version. If you’re modelling the late version, you will need to cut the PE DF antenna off eh PE part and glue to the resin section of the later version. Both version are then fitted with the yardarms and their supports. The small boat stowage, Corvus chaff assemblies and small boat davit are fitted to the mid section of the superstructure, whilst he funnel section is fitted with the two resin SCOT platforms, with PE railings, SCOT transmitter house, funnel intake grilles, exhaust grilles, auxiliary conning station and several small PE railings. The main boat davits are next, these are made up from two PE parts each and there are four davits to be assembled, each pair joined by another PE part. The PE life raft racks are then folded to shape and fitted with the metal liferafts, before being located around the ship. The metal anchor are glued into position and the forward railings attached to the foredeck. In B position the missile launchers are attached, along with the RAS post and missile telemetry aerial. The bridge section and 01 deck railings are then attached, followed by the 20mm Oerlikon assemblies. Around the funnel section the intake box supports are fitted to each side, along with the respective railings, two further intake grilles on the aft section of the funnel, the ships boats and their davits, and the two triple torpedo tubes. The hanger section is fitted out with the Seacat launcher and associated radar on the roof, a choice of either early or late shield railings, to each side, flight deck netting, either raised or lowered, flightdeck lighting rig, and hanger door. Since there is quite a bit of detail, which can be further improved by the modeller, inside the hanger, you may wish to cut down the hanger door and depict it in the open position. On the quarter deck there is a rack fitted with a pair of acoustic decoys, another for fuel tanks, a small davit and obligatory railings. If you are building the model full hull, then you would have already fitted the upper and lower hulls together and cleaned up any joins. Whilst the instructions show them fitted last, it may be an idea to fit the two white metal stabiliser fins, rudders, metal propeller shafts, white metal propellers and white metal A frames before beginning any of the topside work. The kit also comes with two helicopters, a Westland Wasp, with resin fuselage and etched flotation gear, undercarriage main and tail rotors. The other is the Westland Lynx, again with resin fuselage and PE rotors, but this time with a separate tail which can be posed in the folded position. The main rotors of both helicopters can be shown folded, the lynx having blade fold poles fitted to the tail sides. Decals The single decal sheet contains the main pennant numbers for F169, F170 and F184, with F185 included int he transom mounted numbers. There individual numbers included to enable the modeller to produce pennant numbers for any ship of the class. To aid with this the ships names for the whole class are also included along with the appropriate flight deck code letters. The flight deck also receives the correct white markings, whilst the hull has the depth marks provided and the helicopters the correct codes for the nose of each helicopter for each ships flight along with roundels and Royal Navy lettering. The decals are very nicely printed, with very little carrier film and are quite thin, although I understand they aren’t as thin as Atlantics own HMS Leopard and HMS Puma kits, which were a little too unforgiving. Conclusion Well, once again Atlantic Models have done it again, producing a kit that has been on the wish-lists of many a maritime modeller for a long time. Not only that, but Peter has produce, in my opinion another winner. The mouldings are superb, the etch amazing and even if you don’t like the use of white metal, there is still a place for it if it helps produce amazing models, which with a bit of care this kit can be done. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of Peter Hall of

in 1940 the British Government realised that they would need more ships to get essential materials from the United States than they had the shipyard capacity for, especially due to the continuous bombing of their shipyards from German bombers. As a consequence, a British delegation was formed to go to the U.S. with the sole intention of ordering ships that were being built in America. At that time though, the Americans were themselves busy building there own commercial merchant fleet (they had not yet been drawn into the war) and their yards were full building the 'standard types' of the C-1, C-2 and C-3 designs for private shipping companies. Whilst touring these sites and seeing their designs, the British contingent realised that these ships were large, welded types and they were taking too long to build to meet Britain's urgent needs. A representative in the delegation, from J.L Thompson Ltd of Sunderland, had taken a set of plans of their own design (which was to become Britain's Empire Ship type), of which was based on the s.s. Dorington Court of 1939. The plans were for the construction of a 10,000 deadweight ton (dwt.) standard, dry cargo steamship with a gross registered tonnage (grt.) of approximately 7,000 tons and providing a speed of 11 knots. The design was presented to the U.S. Maritime Commission with the aim of being able to produce a simpler vessel to build, as compared to the C1 -C-3 types, thereby reducing shipbuilding time in order to meet Britain's urgent requirement. As the months of 1940 progressed, the commission finally authorised the building of sixty vessels from this design and a new shipping syndicate, namely Six Services Incorporated, was set up which consisted of two shipbuilding companies - Todd Shipyard Inc. and Henry J. Kaiser Inc. with each yard delegated to produce thirty of these ships each. Slight modifications were made to the original design and they received the designation 'Ocean Type' with each vessel's name being preceded by the word Ocean; as in the first launched being Ocean Liberty. Late in 1941 everything changed with the attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the United States into the war. The need for more shipping, both merchant and naval, became as urgent for the U.S. as it did Britain and so, with a few more changes to that original British design, the famous Liberty Ship was conceived but that is a different story. This build, my third in the 'Taking a Liberty' series will be based on the genesis of all this; converting the Liberty Ship back, to the original design type for a 10,000dwt. standard dry cargo ship originally based on the s.s. Dorrington Court. This plan shows the original design that was taken to the U.S.A. and which formed the basis of the Ocean type (and subsequently the Forts, Parks and Heads that were built in Canada); however, on initial examination of this plan and that of the Liberty ship you will notice that they appear not to have the same shape. The hull dimensions are the same but the upperworks were modified, mainly out of the need to keep building time down and, as such, the Liberty had a centralised midships accommodation block whereas the British vessels had split accommodation structures. Also, the Liberties had bulwarks along their sides whereas the original had chain rails. There were other minor differences which I hope will become evident during the converting of the Liberty Ship kit. The main work for me on this Liberty Ship kit will be to remove all the bulwarks along the sides, construct a new split-structure and modifiy the poop deck for a British merchantman in wartime. The initial stages of the build will be the same as my other project "Taking a Liberty No.1 - Royal Navy repair ship" therefore I will not take up space repeating those stages here. Well, that is my cunning plan and now I need to get some serious researching done in between continuing with the other two 'Taking a Liberty' WiP's! I hope to be able to post some images soon and also hope that you will find something different and interesting as this build progresses. Mike

IJN Shimakaze detail set Infini Models 1:350 One of the latest releases from Fujimi in their 1:350 ship range is the IJN experimental destroyer Shimakaze, to go with it they have also released a couple of etched sets of their own design. Whilst they are quite nice, this new set from Infini Models is an order of magnitude better. This being my first look at an Infini Models product, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, even after the packet had arrived from Sovereign Hobbies. At first glance it looks like any other etched detail set, although in a thicker plastic wallet, upon opening, this all changes and you realise that not only do you get three quite large sheets of relief etched brass, but five small zip-lock bags with the multitude of turned brass parts, another bag with a very small sheet of adhesive backed wood and a reel of lycra thread. So, pretty much everything you need to build a top glass model. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow and look very similar to the style Pontos use, which means you will be best to make annotations to the kit instructions showing where the brass parts will need to be added and any superfluous kit detail removal. When looking at the instructions you will see that it looks like a lot of the kit parts are replaced with etch. You’re pretty much using just the hull, deck, superstructure, funnels and main gun turrets, so be prepared for an exacting build. Before starting construction, the modeller should go through the instructions and remove all the detail parts from the kit, such as watertight doors, platform supports, funnel caps and the Type 13 radar array. You can then start to build up the etched sub-assemblies, beginning with the depth charge rails and racks. The depth charges are provided as a string of turned brass parts which need to be separated and fitted with the end caps before being glued into position in the etched rails and racks which have been folded to shape. The torpedo tubes and main turrets are then built up, and fitted with a multitude of fixtures and fittings, and, in the case of the turrets, replacement turned barrels. The single 23mm mountings look to be about the fiddliest of all the sub-assemblies, and there are fourteen to make. Each barrel needs to be cut from its moulding block, as these don’t appear turned, due to the superb spring detail on them. The breech section is then folded to shape and the barrel inserted. Each gun is then fitted with the ammunition cartridge, pedestal mount, shoulder bars, and finally the pedestal itself. The twin, (one mounting), and triple 23mm, (four mountings), mounts are built in a similar way, with the breech sections folded and the barrels fitted, followed by the mounting, splinter shields, sights, seats and turntable. As with the depth charges, the cable reels are provided as a string of drums which need to be separate before each is fitted with end plates, then to their respective cradles. With the kits moulded funnel caps removed, the etched parts can be added, the front funnel with four parts, the rear with two. There are also large ventilator grilles to be fitted. The bridge section is then fitted with the wind deflectors, rear decking, watertight doors, cable reels, bridge screens, scuttles and railings. The foremast is provided with replacement yardarms, yardarm supports, vertical ladders, platforms, anemometer, and wind director. The rest of the set, contains the various gun platforms, their supports, a full complement of ships railings, the fixing strips for the linoleum, Type 13 radar, and the davits for the ships boats. Talking of which the cutter is provided with adhesive wooden decking, brass thwarts, new cradles and a set of oars.r, whilst the motor boat is fitted with new railings, lifering, rudder and propeller. The highly detailed accommodation ladders can be posed in use or stored on the ships deck. The associated cranes are also provided, as are the fixed steps fitted to each side of the quaterdeck. A nice touch is a pair of torpedoes and their transport trolleys which can be glued in any appropriate position the modeller wishes. Conclusion As an introduction to Infini Models products this set is pretty darn amazing. Everything is so well etched, turned or moulded it can certainly be placed as high as more established brands, if not higher. The inclusion of almost everything a modeller will need to make a museum quality model, including the rigging is very welcome, only some chain needs to be sourced. Considering the set comes in a reasonably small packet, it’s amazing what Infini have managed to include. Very highly recommended Review sample courtesy of:

I have a few projects on the drawing board, all of which involve the Liberty Ships of WW2 fame. My intention is to build at least three different types/classes of ship using the Trumpeter 1:350 Liberty ship kit as a basis; (if I can find more kits in sales or at affordable bargain prices) and hopefully I will be able to produce some WIP's that will keep me occupied during the period from now and through the autumn and winter evenings. This thread is the first such project and I shall be using the Trumpeter 1:350 kit of the John W. Brown version to make a conversion build. The vessel to be built will be HMS Assistance [AR-17], a repair ship of the Xanthus sub-class of Liberty Ship types. Two were completed for the Royal Navy, one was an aircraft depot/repair ship and served in home waters whilst the other, HMS Diligence [AR-18], served in the Far East as a destroyer depot/repair ship. Their time in the Royal Navy was short-lived, due to the ending of hostilities, and they were returned to the U.S.A. in 1946. Although my intention is to build this kit as the aircraft depot/repair ship HMS Assistance, I may change my mind and build it as HMS Diligence; if I can find some research data on which destroyers might have been alongside her in late 1945 whilst in the Far East. This will be a waterline version and I hope to place the finished model in a sea setting diorama, but that is a long, long way in time to be concerned with at the moment. Starting with the base, I have glued a sturdy piece of brass rod in place. This is more to give the model some weight as I don't think these models suffer from any warping or bending up of the hull over time. Next element is to add some strengthening plates to the mid deck sections, before adding the bow and stern deck pieces. This area of the kit's deck is unsupported underneath and can bend and cause the joins to part when sanding and fitting parts etc. Virtually all of the deck fittings, especially the hatches, will need to be removed before any further work can be undertaken. The RN versions had much larger accommodation and working spaces than the standard cargo ships, plus they had additional armament and sponsons; most of which will need to be scratchbuilt for this conversion. The deck area has been cleaned down to the basic level and just needs all the holes and gaps filled before the actual build can start. I shall be using plans, which I found on-line, that I have resized to 1:350 so that they match the kit in size. This will help considerably in identifying each structure's required dimensions and their locations. Final thing for this post is to mask all the gaps and joins and then fill with thinned Green Putty. The thinner is cellulose thinners and is mixed with the Green Putty to act like a thick surfacer which I can paint on using a standard modelling paint brush. The holes in the deck have been plugged with white styrene rod and cut flush to the deck. When the putty has completely dried, I shall remove the tape and then get down to sanding everything smooth with wet and dry. Hopefully in the next session I will be able to start making up some of the structures. cheers Mike

HMS Scorpion Atlantic Models 1:350 HMS Scorpion was an S-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, the eleventh of her name, commissioned on 11 May 1943. Initially she was to be named Sentinel, but this was changed following the loss of the Dragonfly-class river gunboat Scorpion in the Bangka Strait in February 1942. Scorpion joined the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow on 11 May 1943 and was deployed on patrol in the North-western Approaches. On 20 October she joined an escort group of nine destroyers, a Norwegian corvette and two minesweepers which sailed to the Kola Inlet as part of Operation FR, tasked to bring back merchant ships that had been waiting in Russian ports over the summer while the Arctic Convoys were suspended. Covered by dense fog, convoy RA54A arrived safely in Loch Ewe on 14 November, while the destroyer flotilla turned around to escort Convoy JW 54B to Archangel. She returned to Scapa Flow, but was out again on 10 December to screen the battleship Duke of York and cruiser Jamaica which had been ordered to sea to cover Convoy JW 55A. The Kriegsmarine did not emerge and so she sailed with the battleship all the way through to the Kola Inlet, an unusual and risky move that surprised the Russians. Scorpion covered Duke of York as she returned west to refuel in Akureyri in Iceland on 21 December 1943. The Home Fleet left Iceland on 23 December to cover Convoy RA 55A and Convoy JW 55A, alerted of German intentions to intercept one of the convoys by Ultra intelligence. On 26 December the German battleship Scharnhorst, escorted by five destroyers, attempted to attack the ships of Convoy JW 55A, but were driven away by Admiral Burnett's three light cruisers and then cut off by Admiral Fraser's force. During the action Duke of York hit Scharnhorst's starboard boiler room with a 14 inch shell, slowing her briefly to 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) as she attempted to evade the British fleet. This provided the destroyers with an opportunity to attack with torpedoes. Closing from astern, Saumarez and Savage fired star-shell, blinding the Germans to the approach of Scorpion and the Norwegian Stord on the starboard side of the battleship. The two destroyers launched 16 torpedoes, scoring one hit, and driving Scharnhorst into firing range of Saumarez and Savage, which scored two more hits. This crippled the German ship and allowed the slower Duke of York to catch up and sink her. After the battle Scorpion picked up 30 survivors and sailed on to the Kola Inlet, arriving there on 27 December. She returned to Scapa Flow with the rest of the fleet on New Year's Eve. In March 1944 Scorpion was assigned to the "Ocean Escort" force for Convoy JW 58, one of the largest Arctic convoys of the war. All ships arrived safely and Scorpion returned with Convoy RA 58. Scorpion was then assigned to Force S, alongside several other S-class destroyers, part of the Normandy invasion fleet. During May she took part in preparatory exercises before sailing to Spithead early in June. She crossed the channel on 5 June and took up position off Ouistreham to bombard targets in support of Allied landing forces in the Queen Sector of Sword Beach. On 7 June she was assigned to patrol the Eastern Task Force area following the loss of her sister ship, the Norwegian Svenner to German T-boats. On 9 June she was detached with Scourge to reinforce the O-class destroyer flotilla against the threat posed by the German heavy destroyers from Brest. She spent the rest of June, July and August on patrol in the English Channel protecting convoys from E-boats. Scorpion returned to escorting the Arctic convoys in September 1944, screening the battleship Rodney in support of Convoy JW 60 and then Convoy RA 60. In October she was diverted to support Operation Lycidas, screening two escort carriers, Fencer and Trumpeter, as they carried out aerial minelaying around the Norwegian coast. In November, sailing with Savage, she carried Norwegian troops to the Kola Inlet (Operation Freeman), their role being to join Red Army as it pushed the Germans away from Murmansk back into Norway, lending authority to the Norwegian Government in exile. She then joined the escort for Convoy RA 60A on 11 November. Later in the month she supported two more operations with escort carriers off the Norwegian coast near Karmøy on 20 November (Operation Handfast) and then near Mosjøen on 27 November. She escorted Convoy JW 63 over the New Year period, her anti-aircraft gunners accidentally shooting at (and missing) two Wildcats which had been launched to intercept a German aircraft. She escorted four more Arctic convoys early in 1945, RA 63 in January, RA 64 in February, and JW 65 and RA 65 in March. She was also deployed to support three more operations in the North Sea in February, Operations Selenium, Shred and Groundsheet. She continued in service with the Home Fleet until VJ Day in August 1945 when she was placed in reserve. In October 1945, Scorpion was sold to the Dutch Navy and renamed Kortenaer, serving as a destroyer until 1957 when she was converted to a fast frigate. She was broken up in 1962. The Model Originally, this kit was to be released by the old White Ensign Models. Unfortunately they folded before this could take place, or should I say fortunately, as this and her sister kit have been taken up, like many of the old WEM kits, by Peter Hall at Atlantic Models. Issued under the WEM banner of Atlantic Models the kit arrived at BM’s London offices in the standard sturdy cardboard box. Inside the kit was smothered in poly chips, which provide the much need protection when in transit. Once the poly chips have been removed there are two zip-lock bags, one containing the resin parts, the majority of which in held in small zip-lock bags, whilst the other hold the holds the white metal parts and lengths of brass wire which are used to make the propeller shafts and the basis for the early style tripod mast, late main mast and yardarms. There is also a length of plastic rod which is used to make the depth charges from. As we have come to expect from Atlantic Models, the casting of the resin parts is exceptional, with no signs of imperfections, or bubbles, and only a small amount of flash which is very thin and easy to remove. I wish I knew how Peter does the masters, as there are parts that shouldn’t be doable with resin, such as the main section of the forward superstructure, which includes the chimney “sprouting” from the rear underside of the lower bridge wings. You will need to be careful of this when building, as, if you are as clumsy as I am when building, you will knock it off. There are quite a fe moulding points on the underside of each superstructure section, but, once again these shouldn’t take too long to remove and clean up. The hulls are where these kits really shine, and this is no exception, although when mated there does seem to be a slight undercut to the lower hull which will need to be filled and sanded to make the hull section smooth. If you are making the kit as a waterline, then you will not need to worry. The metal parts never seem to be quite as sharp as the resin, but that is the nature of the material, there are still well moulded, just a little fuzzy. Since you will need to clean most of them up, due to flash and material excess, you can give them a quick swipe with a sanding stick to sharpen them up. Construction begins with the assembly of the main gun turrets. The open turrets will need the gun opening to be cleaned out as they are flashed over out of the box, the metal guns can then be slid into position on their trunnions. The twin 40mm Bofors mount is also assembled at this point, and consists of a resin mounting and metal guns. To the Bofors mount the seven etched parts and a small section of 10thou plastic are attached. The twin 20mm Oerlikon mounts are next, each made from a metal mount and metal guns. Two Oerlikons are fitted to the superstructure mounted just aft of the funnel, this is also fitted out with a platform onto which the main searchlight is fitted along with the appropriate length of railing. The Bofors platform, fitted between the two torpedo tubes is fitted with the Bofors gun, two Carley racks and their floats. With the superstructure sections fitted to the hull the four main turrets can be glued into their respective positions. To the Bridge structure, the main director, director access platform, Type 285 Yagi aerial array, DF aerial, signal lamps and DCT Control tower are all attached, along with the bridge screen and optional bridge awning. The forward superstructure section is fitted with another pair of Oerlikons, lower wing support braces, two Carley float racks, plus floats. There is an option of early or late fits of foremast, the early is made up from the lengths of brass rod, etched braces and yardarms, which can be strengthened with more brass rod, and a white metal crows nest. The mast is usually free from top fittings, but can be fitted with the Type 291 aerial. The later mast is a lattice type, with the PE sections glued together and topped off with a platform with railings. The platform is fitted with a weather vane frame and the cheese slice style radar antenna. The yardarms are then attached, along with the topmast which can be fitted with either a Type 291 radar antenna or an MF/DF antenna. To the foreward end of the rear superstructure an optional single pole past or lattice mast with optional Type 291 or MF/DF antenna is fitted, along with a long length of vertical ladder stock. The Oerlikon platform is fitted with a small mast or wire antenna spreader, basically a length of brass wire with a PE yardarm. The funnel is fitted with a pair of platform braces/handrails, funnel cap and siren bracket, whilst the ships boat davits are folded to shape and attached to the ships boats, the cutter being fitted with the PE thwarts and gunwhales. Each of the depth charge throwers are made of PE and once folded to shape fitted with a length of plastic rod cut to size and fitted with PE end caps. More depth charges are need for the PE stowage racks and stern rails which are fitted with a TSDS gantry. With the superstructures glued to the decks, the two torpedo tubes can be attached, along with their respective cranes. Alternatively you can use the white metal parts for the throwers, with charges mounted and the the separate charges for the racks and stern rails. The ships railings can then be glued into position, along with the PE anchor cables and anchors. The two torpedo deck catwalks, each made from three PE parts are glued between the respective superstructure sections over the torpedo tubes. If you are building the model full hulled, the two lengths of brass wire used to make the propellers shafts are slid into the A frames and glued into position, followed by the propellers and finally, the rudder. Conclusion This has got be another winner from the hands of Peter Hall, the release of this and its sister ship, HMS Vigilant fills another gap in the maritime modellers wish list. The superb moulding and detailed parts, resin, metal and in particular the etched brass will go towards making a wonderful model of an important yet mostly forgotten class of destroyer. Very highly recommended Review sample courtesy of Peter Hall of

I have managed to acquire another Liberty ship kit and therefore can start with my second conversion project; this one will be a merchant cargo ship. With the ending of hostilities in 1945 most of the surviving Liberty ships were returned to the United States. Some of these ships were used to return military personnel from the theatres of operation back to their homelands; whilst other vessels were utilised to repatriate PoW's back to their own countries. The remaining vessels were either utilised by American shipping companies or laid up in case of requirements for re-activation at any point in the future; although their weapons were dismounted. Meanwhile, nations across the world had suffered terrible losses of shipping and personnel during the war and those ship owning companies had urgent needs to replace their vessels in order to re-start the work of rebuilding and recovery. Building new ships could take years, plus the costs would run into millions of pounds/dollars which, in those austere times of the immediate postwar period, was not readily available therefore other means were urgently needed to help overcome this shortfall. As such, the U.S. Government; having been regularly petitioned by all of the allied nations to sell off surplus stock, authorised the release for sale to foreign nations some of the laid up tonnage for commercial use. The majority of the vessels released for sale were Liberty Ships and this offer was immediately taken up by the allied countries such as Great Britain, Greece, Norway, France and even Italy as a quick and cheaper means of getting the movement of essential products around the globe. Following the initial allowance to those countries mentioned, further sales were later authorised to Belgium, Netherlands and China. Of the 2,710 Liberty Ships that were built during the war, 127 were sold postwar to Great Britain (some of these were already under British management through original lend-lease agreements) with one such vessel being bought by T. & J. Harrison and Company Ltd, Liverpool and which they named Successor. This vessel will be the subject of my conversion project and I shall use the Trumpeter 1:350 scale Jeremiah O'Brien as the base kit. portion of a painting of s.s. Successor by Colin Verity The initial stages of the build are identical to my other project "Taking a Liberty No.1 - Royal Navy repair ship" therefore I will not take up space repeating those stages here. What is different though is that the hatches will remain in place and some of them will be opened, as they would be for loading and unloading. This causes a change to the normal assembly process of the kit in that Liberty ships had additional holds in compartments just below decks; these decks were commonly known as 'tween decks. The opening of the hatches on the main deck means that the 'tween decks will be exposed below and therefore I shall need to scratchbuild this area from styrene sheet. These ships had welded hulls which left long seam lines along the length of the hull. I have tried to emulate this by scribing some lines along the kit sides. I have used Dymo-type tape along the proposed area that I wish to scribe here. The hatch covers have been opened up on the main deck pieces, plus the 'tween decks structures have been cut, including three of the four visible hatchways being opened. Here, the 'tween decks have been temporarily fitted in place, and the main deck attached, to check for fit and alignment of the hatchways. I need to prime and paint the internals of the model before I can proceed any further, hopefully I shall be able to do this soon and have more to show over the weekend. Thanks for looking. Mike

HMS Warspite Trumpeter 1/350 History HMS Warspite was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the Royal Navy. During World War II Warspite gained the nickname "The Grand Old Lady" after a comment made by Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham in 1943. Warspite and the other vessels in her class were advocated by Admiral Sir John 'Jackie' Fisher, and Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. She served in both World War I and World War II, earning the most battle honours ever awarded to an individual ship in the Royal Navy, including the most awarded for actions in the Second World War. Upon her completion, Warspite displaced 33,410 tons. She was 639 ft 5 in (194.89 m), had a beam of 90 ft 6 in (27.58 m) and a draught of 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m). Her initial armament was 8 Mk I 15-inch/42 guns placed in four twin turrets, 14 single Mk XII 6-inch guns, two single 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and four single 3-pdr (47 mm) saluting guns. Along with that, she had 4 21-inch (530 mm) submerged torpedo tubes. The battleship was refitted at Portsmouth between 1934 and 1937 at an estimated cost of more than £2 million (equivalent to £641 million in 2008, using a share of GDP with her internal components being extensively modernised. The project replaced her propulsion machinery and installed six individual boiler rooms, with Admiralty three-drum boilers, in place of 24 Yarrow boilers; geared Parsons turbines were fitted in four new engine rooms and gearing rooms. This increased fuel efficiency, reducing fuel consumption from 41 tons per hour to 27 at almost 24 knots, and gave the warship 80,000 shp. The weight saving on the lighter machinery was used in increasing protection and armament changes. Deck armour improvements were similar to those in Malaya except the 1,100 tons of armour added covered the boiler rooms as well. The 6 inch guns had their protection reduced - four guns were removed as well in widening the forecastle - and the conning tower (200 tons weight) was removed. Four twin 4 inch guns and four octuple 2 pdr pom-poms were added for her A/A defences. The turrets were removed and altered to increase elevation of the guns. This gave them a further 6,000 yards of range - a maximum of 32,000 yd (29 km) with a 6crh shell. Deck armour was increased to 5 inches over the magazines and 3.5 inches over the machinery. Her superstructure was radically altered, allowing an aircraft hangar to be fitted. The fire control was also modernized to include the HACS MkIII AA fire control system and the Admiralty Fire Control Table Mk VII for surface fire control of the main armament. Throughout WWII Warspite served in most theatres of war, from Norway, to the Mediterranean, and in the Far East. She gained more battle honours of any ship in the Royal Navy and became a household name as “The Grand Old Lady”. Although there were proposals to retain her as a museum ship, the Admiralty approved Warspite's scrapping in July 1946. On 19 April 1947, Warspite departed Portsmouth for scrapping at Faslane, on the River Clyde. On the way, she encountered a severe storm and the hawser of the tug Bustler parted, whilst the other tug Melinda III slipped her tow. In storm force conditions Warspite dropped one of her huge anchors in Mount's Bay, which did not hold, and the storm drove her onto Mount Mopus Ledge near Cudden Point. Later refloating herself she went hard aground a few yards away in Prussia Cove. Her skeleton crew of seven was saved by the Penlee Lifeboat W. & S. There were several attempts to refloat her but the hull was badly damaged and Warspite was partially scrapped where she lay. The Model Arriving at BM towers this kit, the latest release from Trumpeter come in a similar sized box to their HMS Queen Elizabeth. The full colour artists representation on the box top shows the Warspite at sea being overflown by the ships Walrus aircraft. On lifting the lid there are the two hull halves, two deck pieces and seventeen sprues of grey styrene packed inside, along with a large black stand, a small etched brass fret, and a small sheet of decals. All the parts are very well moulded with no signs of flash and very few moulding pips on each sprue. The hull parts are full hull only with no option to waterline, although with any model where there is the will there is a way. The moulding is superb, but there appears to be something really kooky about the armoured bulges. Having checked in the Conway Anatomy of the Ship and both of R A Burts books on British Battleships there doesn’t appear to be any of the undercuts or ridges that are shown on the hull sides. The shape of the foreward bulge also appears to be wrong as do the anchor chain hawse pipes, bow and stern profiles, both of which appear too curved. The number of scuttles at the bow is also incorrect, there being too many on the two levels beneath the main deck. As with most ships the construction starts with the hull and the joining of the two halves. This is facilitated by the inclusion of eleven bulkheads and two joining beams which go towards making this a very strong and sturdy structure. Once the hull has set then the quarterdeck is fitted, as are the eight 6” casement guns, after which the main deck can be fitted, once the aft bulkheads either side of X turret barbette have been attached. Turning the hull over the four propeller shafts, A frames, propellers, two rudders and the stern anchor a glued into position. With the hull turned upright the quarterdeck details are added with the bitts, windlasses, vents, davits inclined ladders, ensign staff and the Admirals sternwalk decking, railings and roof. The ships boats are then assembled; these consist of upper and lower hulls or thwarts depending on whether they are motor boats or cutters. The construction moves onto the rear superstructure, made up of three sides and roof, onto this the rear armoured rangefinder, observation tub, chimney, main mast and Type 282 radar. Moving forward the twin hangers are built up port, starboard, centre and rear bulwarks. There is some basic detail that could be enhanced should the hanger doors are to be modified into the open position. The hanger assembly is then attached to the superstructure deck, followed by the upper and lower bulwarks and eight 40mm ammunition lockers. Two deck houses are assembled, each of four pieces and attached to the hanger deck. Onto these the PomPom deck is fitted followed by the boat deck, ships boats, ten life rafts, PomPom splinter shields, inclined ladders and lastly the four eight barrelled PomPoms. The completed hanger assembly is then fitted to its position on the main deck, along with two wing structures. The four 4” twin turrets, made up of the guns, trunnion mounts, turret floor and splinter shields. The completed turrets are then fitted to their respective mounts. The main bridge structure consists of B turret barbette and deck, under which the three bulkheads go to make up the lower superstructure. Onto this, the six piece Queen Anne Mansion style structure is constructed and fitted to barbette deck. Onto this the signal deck is attached, with the wireless office fitted to the bottom right hand corner of the deck. To the rear and sides of the deck the various signal lamps, flag lockers and binoculars are fitted. Onto the signal deck the lower bridge deck is attached followed by the bridge itself. The whole construction is completed with the fitting of the bridge wings, spotting binoculars, Type 282 radar, Type 284 towers and radars, foremast, with radar lantern, top mast yardarms, and the main fire control radar. The assembly is then fitted to the main deck, as is the aft superstructure assembly. For each of the four turrets there is the option of either fixed barrels with blast bags or moveable, without the blast bags. These are then fitted to the turrets which are then fitted to the turret bases. A and Y turrets have just a small local control rangefinder, whilst B and X turrets are fitted out with wide rangefinders, 20mm Oerlikon tubs, Oerlikon cannon and ammunition lockers. After the construction and fitting of the funnel and ships cranes, the rest of the ship build concentrates on the many smaller items, particularly the foredeck fittings, bitts windlasses etc, bow anchors, breakwaters, ventilators, cable reels, boat booms and davits. The completed turret assemblies can then be fitted to their respective positions. There are two Walrus aircraft provided on a clear sprue. These consist of upper and lower wings, engine pod, propeller, single piece fuselage, horizontal tailplane, wing floats and extended main wheels. The interplane struts are solid and if anything is to be changed for etch it these items. Etch The small etched fret provides the Type 282 and 284 radars, funnel grille, Oerlikon splinter shields, catapult ramps, aircraft launching trolleys, and sternwalk railings. Decals The small decal sheet provides two type of Jack and White Ensign, (wavy and straight), and insignia for the two Walrus’ consisting of roundels for the fuselage, upper and lower wings, plus fin markings. Conclusion As is sometimes the case with Trumpeter, the promise is there but the reality is not always what one would have hoped. It may just be me, but the hull armour and armoured bulge do appear really odd, certainly not matching what I have in my references. Yes it could be made good with plenty of patience and filler, but that’s up to the individual modeller. The rest of the kit looks ok, although if could really do with an etched detail set to finish the model of properly. I haven’t been able to compare this release with that from Academy, but I would go for the Limited Edition kit from them if you can get one. I can still recommend this kit, but with the reservations above, as she will still have the look of this great ship if you can live with the inaccuracies, or maybe put the extra effort in and waterline it. Review sample courtesy of

IJN Mikuma Eduard 1:350 The Tamiya IJN Mikuma kit has been out some time and is a very nice kit in its own right, even though Tamiya missed a few details out. Now I’m sure Eduard have released these sets before, but cannot find the date of first issue, although the kit itself was last re-issued in 2010. The two sets arrived in zip lock bags with the new style yellow card inserts. Ships railings, (53166). If you think the title says it all, you’d be wrong, whilst there is a full ships set of railing on the single large sheet of relief etched brass, there is so much more. There are the ships anchor chains and stops, bollard tops, crane hooks for the smaller cranes, cable reels, for which the inner drum needs to be made from styrene rod, jack staff combined with a crane jib, some awning stanchions, watertight doors, new deck hatches which can be posed open or closed, and a selection of liferings. The ships boats are provided with new fittings, such as cradles, propeller shafts, propellers, rudders, thwarts, oars, railings, steering positions, wheels, liferings and ensign staffs. The mid section of the ships structure need to have some details removed before the etch can be added, and this includes the splinter shields around the secondary armament, access hatches on the aircraft handling deck and the boat cradles. The splinter shields around the bridge structure are also replaced. The set also includes new accommodation ladders, complete with the handling chains which are fitted to the kits cranes. The aircraft cradles, both for moving around the deck and on the catapults are fitted with new details and the midships section of the hull is fitted with new platform gratings and the torpedo handling cranes. There are more hatches and watertight doors fitted to the stern area along with additional cable reels and the ensign staff. Superstructure, (53167). This is another single sheet set contained within the same style packaging. The large sheet is full to the edges with replacement and new parts. Along with more replacement watertight doors, the sheet contains new intake grilles, searchlight towers, bases and railings, walkways, ladders, foot and hand rails for the funnels, along with new funnel caps and platforms. The aircraft/boat handling cranes is provided with a new jib, platforms, vertical ladders and braces, whilst the AA directors are fitted with new vision doors and the main mast with new platforms, ladders, armoured doors and yardarm walkropes. All around the superstructure there are additional liferings, inclined ladders, and yet more intake grilles. The aft mounted AA platforms are fitted out with new decks, supports, ready use lockers, inclined and vertical ladders, as well as having the kit splinter shields removed and replaced with brass. There is a completely new walkway between the forward and aft superstructure elements, whilst both of the catapults are completely replaced with brass parts. The rest of the sheet contains parts of the various weapons, with the most complex parts being used for the twin 25mm mounts for which only the kit barrels are used, the rest replaced. All the main turrets are fitted out with new ladders, railings, armoured doors, blast bag fittings and handrails. B and X turrets also have the prominent radio aerial masts attached to their roofs, something which the kit is missing. Conclusion The Tamiya kit is very nice out of the box, but with these two sets you could dramatically improve the finished model. There are so many parts that you will need quite a bit of patience and care to fit them all, as with any etch set, but the results will be worth it. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Masts and 14 Barrels 1:350/700 Master Models Master Models continue to build their range of accessories and barrels in both 1:350 and 1:700. Having released two sets of yardarms in both scales, they have now released two sets of tapered masts to go with them. [sM-350-89] The first of the mast sets is contained in the standard Master packaging, only the internal bag is compartmentalised, allowing each of the four masts to be slid into their own pouch. Each mast is 100mm or 4 inches in old money and are meant to used as the main section on larger ships masts.. [sM-350-90] Set two in 1:350 also contains four mast sections, each 100mm long, but these are more tapered and a meant for use as the top sections on larger masts or the main section for smaller ships masts. The tips of these are quite sharp so be aware when using them and you might want to keep any models with them fitted in a case, as they could easily damage an eye for the unwary. [sM-700-47] For those modellers who like their ships in 1:700 scale, Master Models have masts sets for you too. Set one once again has four mast, as per the 1:350 sets, but each are 60mm long. Whilst they are meant to be used as the main section of larger ships in the smaller scale, they could also be used in :350 ships for the very top of taller masts. [sM-350-48] This second set also has four masts, again each 60mm long and again for use as the top sections of large ships masts, but could also be used on smaller ships. They could also be used as gaffs and other mast parts on larger scale ships. Now these are the sharpest of the four mast parts and boy are they sharp. I actually drew blood trying to get one out of the packaging, so the warning above is even more relevant with these. [sM-700-50] This and the next set return to what Master do best, and that is to make turned metal barrels for model warships. This set contains twelve 14 barrels for use with the Tennessee and New Mexico class battleships. These barrels are for use when there are no blast bags fitted to the model. [sM-700-51] This second set of 14 barrels is as per the set above, only for use when blast bags are fitted to the turrets. Conclusion I just love what Master do. Everything is so precise and realistic looking, which is exactly what we, as modellers, are looking for. The mast sections will be a real boon to those who dislike the slightly bent look that injection moulded masts can get when the rigging is attached, with these sections and the yardarms mentioned earlier, you will have a nice sturdy mast. Just be careful when handling and once built. The barrels are just what we have come to expect from Master Models and make for very convincing replacements to the injection moulded parts, which can look quite clunky in comparison. Very highly recommended Review sample courtesy of Piotr at

Having got my build of HMS Phoebe out of the way, it is time to move on to my third and favourite ship; HMS Somerset on which I served from December 1994 to May 1998. Somerset is the 11th Type 23 Frigate (although her yard number was T23-12). I joined the ship whist she was in build in Glasgow and had the privilege of being part of the team that brought the ship to life. I am intending to model Somerset as she was in the period 1997 to 1998 and the starting point is the Trumpeter 1:350 HMS Kent kit and White Ensign (now Atlantic Models) Etched brass. I am hoping that unlike my model of HMS Phoebe that this will be a more straight forward kit build, although there are subtleties in the ships of the class which will no doubt require some attention. I will point these out during the build but I know there will be very little need for scratch building. I need to say at the outset this is my first build at 1:350 scale and I am hoping the larger scale will be “easier” than my previous attempt at 1:600. First steps, building the hull; I had previously started the model with the intention of having a full hulled model and then I abandoned it. But having successfully built Phoebe in the intervening period I have changed my mind and I have decided to convert the model to waterline as I think ship models look best when they are portrayed in their element. Unfortunately this necessitated a serious hack, once the waterline had been established. Before hack: After hack: and cleaned up:

(The Ready for inspection thread can be found here.) This is the "Russian Navy SSGN Oscar II Class Kursk Cruise Missile Submarine" kit from HobbyBoss, in 1:350 scale. Length: 440mm Width: 52mm Parts: 143, inclucing 7 parts photo etch (PE name plate) (Most are missile parts probably) I had so much fun making my submarine models, that I might as well start on this one now. It is a little big for my Ikea "Detolf" glass cabinet, so I will have to get another cabinet soon, or I can at least place the model diagonally inside the cabinet for now. Please let me know if anyone knows how to best cover the openings around the glass doors in cabinets in general, so that dust won't enter in between the gaps when the doors are shut. I think I have seen some kind of brush-like tape, but I wouldn't know where to find such a thing. I think I will model this submarine with the hatches closed, for all the launch tubes. I am not a fan for having open panels on my models unfortunately. The painting scheme that come with the kit indicates a black and red color for the hull. The decals are few and small'ish. Unlike the Akula model, which comes with decals for a big white line around the hull.

IJNS Destroyer Kagero Eduard 1:350 It hasn’t taken long for Eduard to release these two sets for the new Tamiya 1:350 IJNS Kagero destroyer kit. Unfortunately I haven’t got my hands on the kit itself, so it’s taken a little while to figure out what parts Eduard have provided, as their instructions still let them down. Fortunately the etched brass doesn’t and there are more than enough details, both additional and replacement to satisfy the most ardent maritime modeller. Part 1 (53161). Whilst the majority of the larger parts on this single sheet make up the ships railings, which look distinctly of the Japanese style, not just generic, the set also includes numerous other much smaller details. All the inclined and vertical ladders are replaced, as are the anchor cables, which while a little flat on their own, it looks like there is enough stock to double the chains up, giving a more scale depth. There are new watertight doors, propeller guards, replacement side walls and doors for the forward torpedo reload boxes, new doors for the aft torpedo box, new grilles, platforms and cable reels, for which the modeller will need to provide some plastic rod for the reel centres. There is a replacement DF loop and support frame, new turret mounted aerial masts, a new griller for the large intake just forward of the funnel and the ships boats receive new thwarts and oars. The masts are fitted with new yardarms, rope walks, a weather vane, gaff, and braces. Part 2 (53162) This set also contains a single sheet, but this time it is crammed full of smaller detail parts. There are new davits, rangefinder doors, depth charge racks, windlass tops, winch control hand wheels, and more watertight doors. The frameworks that straddle the forward and aft torpedo reload stores are completely replaced with a pair of delightful PE parts that’ll require some careful folding, new funnel cap grilles, torpedo handling cranes, ships crane main jib, funnel foot and hand rails, searchlight faces. Then there are quite a few platform support brackets, along with complete replacement of the twin 25mm gun mounts, which include a new base, seats, hand wheels, sights and foot pedals. The bulky torpedo tubes and fitted with new scuttles, hand wheels for the loading end of each tube, hand rails, access doors, and top mounted toe guards, whilst the turrets receive new strakes for the sides and handrails for the front, sides and roof. Conclusion Eduard continue to release superb sets for us maritime modellers, no matter what ship is released, they have a set or five for it. Having looked at a built up model of the Tamiya Kagero, these sets will certainly help make it into not just a more detailed model, but one with a much highly level of finesse and accuracy. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Note: The finished model can be found here. This is the "USS Los Angeles Class SSN-688/VLS/688i *3 in 1" kit in 1:350 scale from HobbyBoss. I think I did a great job getting that nice surface finish in the end with my other submarine model that I finished some time ago, and I hope I can repeat that success here. I am going for the oldest version here, as I kind of like the fins on the conning tower. Those fins are removed on the 688i variant. I have no interest in the VLS variant. First step will be to glue the two big halves together and try to get as good of a connection as possible, and then try to sand it all down to get the smoothest result. This is important, because any subtle gap between those two parts will show after having airbrushed the model. For color, I will try using Vallejo Nato Black this time, and not just black. Hopefully, the hull will be gray'ish enough for me to add some black Tamiya panel line accent color to make the details on the hull pop. As for the stand, although it is tempting to put a metallic color on it, I think I should simply go for piano gloss black, and sand off the letters on the photo etched name plate. That way the stand looks the same as with my other submarine models from HobbyBoss. The color scheme for this submarine is mostly hull red for the lower part, and black for the top side, with some kind of "spotted cow" pattern on the tower pieces. Looking at the schematics, there is a giant bull decal that goes onto the hull at the front, but I think I will not put it on the model.

USS Texas Detail Sets 1:350 Eduard It hasn’t taken long for Eduard to release sets for the Trumpeter USS Texas, and whilst they can’t help with the fixing of the major hull errors in the kit, they will be able to add lots of extra that should pull the eyes of the visitor to your club stand or display case away from those areas. As is their way, Eduard have released separate sets that cover certain areas of the ship so that the modeller doesn’t have to buy what they don’t want to detail, which also helps keep models within budgets. Part 1, AA Guns - (53-154). This single sheet set does exactly what it says on the packet, provides lots of extra detail to the ships AA weaponry, Quad 40mm Bofors, single 20mm Oerlikons and the single 5” guns. The kits 40mm’s are completely replaced with etched brass, with the exception of the actual gun barrels. So, that’s a new mounting base, railings, gun mounting, turntable and splinter shield. The 20mm’s are provided with new shield, ammunition drum faces, front and rear, new sights and shoulder harness, along with a new hand wheel. The 5 inchers are also fitted with new sights, plus two gunners seats, the left hand of which incorporates the foot rests/firing pedals. There are enough parts for all the guns in the kit, so be prepareds for some long, fiddly modelling sessions, especially for the Oerlikons as there are forty two of them, along with 12 5” and 8 quad 40’s. Part 2, Railings and Ladders - (53-155). Another self explanatory set, the single sheet includes complete set of main deck railings and a selection of inclined ladders for around the ship. Now whilst these are very nicely done, the instructions are completely inadequate, in that they only show where one ladder is fitted. Ok, it’s easy enough to replace any kit ladders with eh etched ones, but it would have been nice it Eduard had confirmed this. A nice touch is the inclusion of two accommodation ladders, these are quite complex multi part assemblies, but will look great when fitted. Part 3, Superstructure – (53-156). The large single sheet, along with one very small sheet of etched brass contains all the parts required to detail the superstructure of the kit. The parts replace all the AA gun deck mounted splinter shields, both fighting tops and their support frames and hand rails as well as their top mounted radar arrays. Apart from the king posts aqnd their centrally mounted mechanisms, the cranes are completely replaced with brass and come with cable drums and hooks which can have wire added to give them a little more life. The bridge superstructure has additional wire spreaders fitted, as well as vertical ladders, mast platform and railings, whilst C turret is fitted with a replacement catapult, which is a model in its own right and looks fantastic, even in its flattened form. The funnel receives new ladders, hand and foot rails, funnel cap grille, and wire spreaders, and the ships boats are fitted with new gunwhales, rudders, propellers, thwarts, engine covers and cradles. Lastly, both of the ships aircraft are provided with new interior parts, such as the instrument panels, seating and bulkheads for the front cockpit, whilst eh rear cockpit gets, aq new decking, DF loop and machine gun, plus it’s mounting rail. The outside of the aircraft receives replacement struts for the outer floats, access ladder, access steps, bomb racks, engine wiring harness and main float wires and rudder. Part 4, Deck – (53-157). Whilst eh set above provides many of the new splinter shields required for the AA weaponry, this set adds to that with all those that are fitted to the main deck. The kit items will need to be carefully removed and the areas cleaned up, but the brass does give them a more scale thickness than plastic ever can. They will require some careful bending and rolling though, so if you haven’t got the tools required, now’s the time to acquire them. Each splinter shield is also fitted with a variable number of triangular supports, which will also need a steady hand to attach. All the bollards, windlasses are fitted with new top plates, and there are new hawse pipe gratings and hatch covers provided. The main gun turrets are not only fitted with new railings, ladders and the like, but Eduard has even included a tampion for each gun muzzle. The main turret barbettes, particularly B and D are fitted with hand and foot rails, again requiring careful rolling to shape. Conclusion Eduard are very good at getting the most detail into a model ship and these sets will really help set the completed USS Texas off. Whilst I can recommend them to any modeller who has had some experience with etched brass, they certainly are not for the novice, so it might be best to start with something simpler to gain experience before buying these sets. Whether the kit is worth detailing to this extent is entirely up to the modeller but I will probably give it a try someday. Review sample courtesy of

I hope these photos will do, because I have dropped my model off at my local hobby store for their display stand there. They are lacking finished models in the maritime department so to speak. My WIP thread is here. This 1:350 submarine model from HobbyBoss was airbrushed with Vallejo Air colors, and I used five layers of Humbrol Clear for the gloss coats, making the surface smoother, covering the decals and for covering the Tamiya panel line accent color I added as a wash. Building and airbrushing submarine models is great fun! Only challenge is really to sand the two hull parts properly, so that there is no visible seam (or try to). It is also a challenge to keep the dust off the model at all stages of the airbrushing work.

German Z-32 Destroyer Eduard 1:350 Eduard haven’t forgotten the Dragon Z-32 kit, even though it’s been out for quite a while, with the release of these two sets of relief etched brass, absolutely filled with detail accessories. (53151) The single sheet contains a range of fittings for the turrets, several types of inclined ladders, torpedo launcher control positions, which are little kits in themselves, with a lot of detail included, right down to the control boxes and seat. There are a number of life rings, gratings for the square Carley type floats, funnel cap and railing for the funnel and new shields for the flak guns . For the ships boats there are a new set of oars, new rudder and propeller. There are a range of replacement deck hatches, which can all be posed open should you wish, whilst there are also replacement cable reels, for which the modeller will ahve to provided the drum out of plastic rod. The radar array is completely replaced with a very detailed unit which will make all the difference to the look of the ship along with the rope walks for the yardarms. (53152) This single sheet set contains a full ships complement of railings, which always help give the model a more accurate look. Along with the railings there are a set of replacement mine rails, which, once the kits details have been removed, will need to be carefully glued into place. Each rail consists of a base section, much like the sleepers of a railway track, and two separate rail sections, which will be quite demanding to get right in this scale, but well worth the effort. Conclusion Eduard continue to release superb sets for us maritime modellers, no matter what ship is released, they have a set or five for it. These sets will certainly help improve the look of the Dragon kit, but probably not good for the novice though, as there are some quite awkward parts to fit. Review sample courtesy of

HMS Queen Elizabeth Part V Eduard 1:350 This is the fifth set that Eduard have released for the Trumpeter HMS Queen Elizabeth, the other four having been reviewed HERE. This single sheet set contains items for the decks and main batteries. For eh decks there are parts for eleven differently shaped hatches and the surrounds, each hatch being able to be posed open if required. The set also includes the anchor cable, anchor chains, holdback chains, deck plates, hawse pipe gratings, and the main breakwater, with separate supports and storage lockers. The watertight doors on the kit parts are removed and replaced with etched doors which can be posed i either open or closed states and each of the carley floats are given new gratings and straps. Around B and X turret trunks the ventilator trunks are replaced, as are the small cranes around the ship. Each of the secondary armament turrets have two gun guides fitted, whilst the main turrets are fitted out with new ladders, range finder fittings, and tampions for the barrels, complete with ships crest. The 20mm Oerlikon tubs are completely replaced and fitted out with ready use lockers. Lastly the Walrus aircraft are provided with new interplane struts, propeller and deck handling trolley/launch cradle Conclusion When this set is used in conjunction with the other sets it will go towards making a super detailed museum quality model. Of course, being separate you don’t need to go the whole hog, just do the areas you think needs it the most. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

USS Oliver Hazard Perry Eduard 1:350 The Academy Oliver Hazard Perry has been out for quite a while now and since the Premium Edition is no longer widely accessible, Eduard have now released an etched set for it. The single large sheet contains parts for the whole ship, but is mostly taken up with the various railings and flight deck netting. Starting from the bow, there are new bow mounted breakwater supports, hawse pipe grille, hatches and fittings for the missile launcher base. Moving aft to eh superstructure there are new vertical ladders, flag lockers, RHIB cradles and launch davits, funnel mounted intake grilles, radar supports, and Phalanx mounting details. The large AN/SPS-49 radar array is a complex set of etched parts which will need some careful shaping and gluing. The other radars are provided with additional etched parts, whilst the satnav array is completely replaced. The main mast is fitted with all new platform supports and undersides along with their railings. The RHIB is provided with a replacement engine casing and new steering wheel, as well as a new transom. The Seahawk helicopter can be made with the addition of folded or spread main rotor blades, and comes with additional detail in the form of tail wheel scissor link, tail rotor and its pitch controls, and a small tail mounted panel. Conclusion Definitely as set aimed at those unfortunate enough not to have the Premium Edition kit, this set will add plenty of extra detail to the standard kit, that it really does need. It’s quite a simple set all in all, so would make a good starting point for those modellers entering the world of etch for the first time. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

USS Enterprise, CV-6 Merit International 1:350 Enterprise sailed off the South American for her shakedown cruise and operated off of the east coast of the United States and the Caribbean Sea until Apr 1939. Transferred to the Pacific, she trained navy pilots on carrier operations. When Pearl Harbor was struck by the Japanese in Dec 1941, she was en route from Wake, thus escaping potential damage or destruction. Her aircraft scouted the area for retreating Japanese vessels but failed in the search attempt. They did, however, find and sink submarine I-70 on 10 Dec 1941. In late Dec 1941, she sailed for Wake to assist the defending the garrison, but it was already too late to make a difference. Beginning in Jan 1942, she began operating in the South and Central Pacific. On 1 Feb 1942, her task force struck the Marshall Islands, dealing significant damage, although the Enterprise received minor damage herself. During Feb and Mar, she continued to supply the aircraft that attacked various Japanese bases in the Central Pacific. She returned to Pearl Harbor in late Mar 1942 and received repairs. In Apr, she provided air cover for the USS Hornet to launch the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. In early May, Enterprise sailed south in anticipation of what would become the Battle of Coral Sea, but she arrived too late to participate in the action. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 26 May, and immediately began to prepare for another anticipated action somewhere off of the Hawaiian Islands. On 28 May, she set sail from Pearl Harbor as the flagship of Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance "to hold Midway and inflict maximum damage on the enemy by strong attrition tactics." On 4 Jun 1942, a combination of luck and skill on the part of pilots from three American carriers led to the discovery and sinking of four Japanese fleet carriers. Enterprise's pilots were given credit for the sinking of Soryu and Akagi. She returned to Pearl Harbor undamaged on 13 Jun. On 15 Jul 1942, Enterprise sailed for the South Pacific. As a part of Task Force 61, her aircraft support the landings on the Solomons Islands on 8 Aug. On 24 Aug, she participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. With Enterprise's aircraft lured to a sideshow by light carrier Ryujo, aircraft from Shokaku and Zuikaku passed the anti-aircraft curtain laid down by North Carolina and other ships and attacked Enterprise. One of the three bombs that hit Enterprise passed through several decks aft and exploded deep in the carrier and caused serious fires and casualties. However, effective damage control kept her from being disabled. She was able to restore use of the flight deck briefly while the Japanese aircraft returned for fuel. Enterprise managed to transfer the majority of her aircraft to Henderson Field at Guadalcanal before limping away to the southeast to fight another day. During this confrontation, Enterprise's aircraft also disabled the Japanese seaplane carrier Chitose, though she would be saved. After down time between 10 Sep and 16 Oct, she returned to Task Force 61 in late Oct. On 26 Oct, she engaged in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands with carrier Hornet. Initially hidden in a squall, Enterprise was hidden from Japanese detection, leading to Hornet bearing the entire weight of the attack by herself. But by 0930 that day, Enterprise's aircraft found the Japanese carrier Shokaku and commenced their own attack. Without adequate fighter cover, Enterprise's dive bombers suffered heavy losses, but did successfully plant several 1,000-lb bombs on Shokaku causing damage so heavy that she was to be placed in repairs for nine months. At 1000, Japanese aircraft found Enterprise, and just like Enterprise's aircraft they mounted an uncoordinated attack on the enemy vessel. Out of the 23 bombs released, only two landed on the Enterprise. The first hit exploded 50 feet under the forecastle deck, and the second crashed into the third deck before exploding. Despite damage, Enterprise was not disabled. The Japanese sank the carrier Hornet and sailed away with a tactical victory. On 30 Oct 1942, Enterprise made port call at Nouméa, New Caledonia for repairs. On 11 Nov, she sailed prematurely for the Solomon Islands again with repair crew still on board due to war demands. She arrived at the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, in which battle her aircraft helped in the sinking of 16 ships (including helping to sink the battleship Hiei) and damaging 8. She returned to Nouméa on 16 Nov to complete her repairs, and spent most of Dec 1942 and Jan 1943 at Espiritu Santo for training. On 30 Jan 1943, Enterprise's aircraft flew air cover during the Battle of Rennell Island. Between 1 Feb and May 1943, she covered troops and supplies being shipped to the Solomons Islands. On 27 May 1943, she received the first Presidential Unit citation won by an aircraft carrier. On 20 Jul 1943, she made port call at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for an extensive overhaul. Returning to action in Nov 1943, the Enterprise provided air-support during the landing on Makin Island. During the night of 26 Nov, she launched the first carrier night fighters of the United States Navy. She returned for Pearl Harbor after launching an aerial attack on Kwajalein on 4 Dec. Between 29 Jan and 3 Feb 1944, the ships aircraft, as members of Task Force 58, attacked the Marshall Islands and Kwajalein. On 17 Feb, she attacked Truk in the Caroline Islands. Three days later, she launched a strike on Jaluit Atoll. From this point on, she provided air cover and close ground support on nearly every landing operation, large or small, in the Pacific. One of the major engagements she participated during this time was the Battle of the Philippine Sea between 19 and 20 Jun 1944, where she provided air cover for the landings at Saipan. At the end of that battle, 429 Japanese aircraft were shot down at the total cost of 29 American aircraft. Between Oct 10 and 20 1944, Enterprise attacked Taiwan, Okinawa, and the Philippine Islands in preparation of an invasion of the Philippines. During the Battle of Sibuyan Sea, her aircraft played a major role in the sinking of several major Japanese vessels. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 6 Dec 1944 after another month of support in the Philippines area. She returned to the Philippines at the end of the year, performing raids on Japanese shipping as well as providing day- and night-time fighter escort for bombers that headed for the Japanese home islands. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, Enterprise's aircraft provided air cover between 10 Feb and 9 Mar. On 15 Mar, she departed Ulithi for attacks on Kyushu, Honshu, and Japanese shipping but was turned back on 18 Mar after receiving damage from a Japanese bomb. Between 5 Apr and 11 Apr, she supported the Okinawa landings and received damaged from a kamikaze aircraft. She returned to Okinawa once again on 6 May after receiving repairs at Ulithi, but was once again damaged by kamikaze on 14 May 1945. She sailed for repairs at Puget Sound Navy Yard and remained there until the end of the war. After the war, Enterprise participated in Operation Magic Carpet that brought troops back to the United States. While in Britain, she received the British Admiralty Pennant, the only ship outside of the Royal Navy to receive the honour. Enterprise was decommissioned in Feb 1947 and after a bid to save her for use as a museum ship failed, she was sold for scrap to the Lipsett Corporation of New York City. The Model At last, those of us who build maritime models in 1:350 have a kit of the USS Enterprise from WWII. It’s been an awful long time coming, but has the wait been worth it. Well, we shall see. The kit comes in quite a large oblong shaped top opening box, although not as large as one would expect. Inside there are seventeen sprues in a light grey styrene, which is also used to produce the single piece island, central hanger roof section, two hanger floor sections , two flight deck sections and of course the magnificent single piece hull. In addition there are fifteen sprues of clear styrene for the aircraft, five sheets of relief etched brass, a large decal sheet and a large black stand. As we have come to expect from the likes of Merit, the moulding of all the parts is superbly done, and there is only one small area with an imperfection, and that is a small sink mark on the single piece hull, around the area of a sprue gate, as seen in the close-up picture of the bow., Of course there is no flash, but there are quite few moulding pips, mostly on the smaller parts. For those who wish to build this kit as a waterline I’m afraid that you’re out of luck, unless you wish to take a Dremel to the hull. Speaking of which, the hull plates do look a little over done, but it’s nothing a bit of sanding can’t cure. What is nice is that much of the interior of the hanger deck is included, although it’s not overly detailed, so will give those super detailers something to do. Taking the hull in hand, construction begins with the fitting of the four propeller shafts. Each shaft is attached to the hull via two A frames and a propeller. Once the single rudder has been attached the hull can be turned over using the steadying nature of the large base the main hanger deck, along with the separate foredeck, with two holes opened up from the underside, can be glued into place. The foredeck is the scene of the next four steps in the instructions, with the fitting of the four capstans, eight cleats, eight bitts and two hatches. The six flight deck supports are attached, along with the anchor chains, two 20mm cannon and the Jackstaff. Now, although the instructions call for the PE railings to be added to the foredeck at this point, it would probably be best to leave them till later in the build as they would be prone to being knocked off. The two, two piece platforms are assembled and glued into position and fitted with their PE railings. The three inner panels for the foreward lift are fitted. The ships weaponry is built up in a series of sub-assemblies, with the twenty three 20mm Oerlikons made up from the cannon/pedestal, and PE gun shield, the quad 1.1” machine guns are made up from 3 styrene parts and the eight 5” mounts consist of the single gun barrel, breech mechanism, railings and gun captains stand. The foreward superstructure, consisting of three parts is glued to the foredeck, with the port and starboard 5” gun decks attached four of the 5 gun assemblies can be glued in place, along with the quad 1.1” machine gun mount, its platform and two support legs, which is glued right on the prow, just aft of the Jackstaff. The foredeck flight deck supports fitted earlier are now fitted with the flight deck strengthening beams, moulded as a single part, (This area is ripe for the aftermarket companies to reproduce in PE, much like Hasegawa did with their carrier detail sets). The port and starboard bow catwalks are assembled and attached to the crossbeams and the side of the hull, with a PE catwalk folded to shape and fitted to the foreward beam. Much like the foredeck, the quarterdeck area is kitted out with the various deck fittings, capstans, bitts, cleats and hatches, followed by the rear bulkhead, flight deck supports and crossbeams. The rear 5” decks and their guns are glued into position, along with the aft catwalks and stern mounted PE catwalk. The starboard hanger walls are each made up form two halves, providing detail for both the interior and exterior. These are then detailed with various styrene catwalks and PE platforms, whilst the hanger side openings are fitted with their respective shutters. Although the shutters are moulded in the closed position, it wouldn’t take much to either cut a number off the block of shutters, or leave them off altogether and fashion rolled up versions out of spare PE or even paper and scratch build some supports. The port hanger walls/hull side plates are quite a bit different form their opposite halves, but are again detailed using a mix of styrene and PE, and also have the shutter parts in the closed position, (see above for solution). Both hanger walls/hull side assemblies are now glued into position on the hanger deck, along with a boat davit on the port side. Before the flight deck can be attached, the interior of the hanger deck is further detailed with the addition of some trunking and wall sections, whilst on the exterior the numerous inclined ladders of varying lengths are fitted between the various platforms and decks. The four ships boats each consist of the upper and lower hulls, and which once assembled are each glued to their respective six piece cradles, and into position on the ships side decks. Along with the two aft mounted cranes, each made up form three PE parts. The hanger roof structures, consisting of three large individual parts are glued to the hull sides, covering the hanger. The two flight deck sections, the largest of which requires certain holes to be opened up, are glued into place, along with the PE railings on the exposed main deck areas. With the flight deck on, she’s beginning to look like a carrier, but there’s quite a few parts to add before she’ll really look the part. These include the three lifts, the bow anchors, crash barrier, three gun tubs, two director tubs, the eleven piece deck crane, which, apart from the king post, is made up entirely from PE and the three quad 40mm bofors mounts, each consisting of four parts. The rest of the catwalk railing can now be attached, and the ships light AA weaponry fitted into their positions along the catwalks. The degaussing cable run is made up from several lengths of PE, which needs to be carefully fitted around the top of the hull, just beneath the main deck level. The two Mk 37 directors are each assembled from four styrene and seven PE parts, whilst the main CXAM radar array consists of five styrene parts and five PE parts. The foremast is now built up for the main platform onto which the multiple arms of the PE supports are attached to the underside, along with the three support legs, and long vertical ladder. There is a second platform fitted on support legs, and window framework attached to the topside of the first and the mast top, with yardarm, along with the CXAM radar are glued to the top platform. Two more yardarms are attached between the first and second platforms. The single piece island is fitted with the Admirals and control bridge decks, then festooned with styrene platforms, searchlights, and other deck fittings, plus a the associated PE railings The funnel cap is glued into place and fitted with three PE funnel caps and a length of railing that surrounds the entire cap walkway. The two Mk37 directors are fitted, one on the foreward end and one of the aft end of the island structure, these are followed by the foremast assembly and the main mast. The completed island assembly is then glued into position on the starboard side of the flightdeck, completing the build of the ship. But what of the aircraft I hear you ask, well, each of the three types, TBD-1, SBD-3 and F4F-4 each come in multiple parts, the two fuselage halves, separate wings, horizontal tailplanes, cowling, undercarriage and propeller. There are five aircraft of each type, if you want to fill the flightdeck, then Trumpeter already do separate packs of these aircraft. The wings of the F4F-4 and TBD-1 can be posed folded, whereas the wings of the SBD didn’t have the option to fold. Decals The very large decal sheet, which unfortunately was curled up in the review sample as its only just smaller than the box is wide and it got a bit squished, is actually very well printed. There are a full range of markings for the flightdeck, including the lift surrounds and three dotted lines. Two that extend the full length of the deck and the middle one extends aft from the bow to just aft of the middle lift. The large flightdeck id numbers could be used, but these were generally painted out during the war, or at least painted black, whereas these are a very bright white. There are also examples of the Stars and Stripes plus Jacks in wavey or straight forms. Each of the aircraft is provided with a full set of stars, plus individual aircraft codes. The decals look suitably thin, so great care will be need when laying the flightdeck stripes down, they appear in good register and nicely opaque, which will be handy if you use the large deck numbers. Conclusion It’s great that, at last, the maritime modeller can now build all three US carriers used at the Battle of Midway. It has been a long time coming, and they say patience is a virtue, particularly for a modeller. Well that patience has been rewarded with a super looking kit. I’m not a huge fan of clear styrene for use with the aircraft, preferring them to be made from standard coloured material, but I guess I’ll have to live with that, as there’s no other option at the moment. From what I’ve seen during the research for this review, the hull looks to be ok in shape, only the plate detail may be a little on the heavy side, which will be a relief to those that found the Trumpeter Hornet kit a let-down with the hull. I’m sure that once built it will make an excellent addition to any collection. Very highly recommended Review sample courtesy of UK Distributors for

HMS Queen Elizabeth Eduard 1:350 The Trumpeter 1:350 HMS Queen Elizabeth has been out for a little while now, and Eduard have only just released some etch for it. Well, I say some, in fact it’s four sets, covering the whole ship. Set one, (53-145), is a single sheet set, which contains a ships worth of railings, some inclined ladders and four accommodation ladders, with the foreward pair being “double” depth, and really quite complicated so will require great care in folding them to shape. Be careful when fitting the railings, as there only appears to be just enough for the kit, with no spare lengths of stock railings if you make a mistake. Sheet two, (53-146) is a slightly larger sheet and contains parts to super detail all of the tertiary anti-aircraft weapons. The 20mm Oerlikons, of which there are seventeen, receive a new gun shield and support, traversing wheel, front and rear sights and the shoulder arms. The twin 20mm mount require a bit of surgery before the etch can be added, by the removal of the gunners seating position which is completely replaced with a carefully folded etched part. The gunner also receives a new seat and gun sight, whilst the two guns are fitted with ammunition cans. For the octuple Pom Pom, the ammunition tanks are removed from the kit part as are a couple of parts from the mount base, which will be used on the new etched base. The gun block is fitted to the etched mounting, which is complete with the gun sights and fitted with the new ammunition tanks, the mount is then glued to the base, along with the railings, mount electrical boxes and other fittings. Sheet three, (53-147), is more of a general purpose set and includes lots of smaller items, such as the watertight doors, vertical ladders, funnel cap grilles, various platforms and walkways, platforms supports, Type 284 radar arrays and mountings, Type 282 radar arrays and mountings, plus Type 281 radar arrays for both the foremast and the mainmast. The set also includes the bridge canvas awning, flag locker, mast yardarms, a new star platform and its associated supports and a new DF aerial and its platform. There are quite a few of the kit parts that need to be modified or removed before any of this etch can be added, so best read the instructions and do the removing first. Sheet four, (53-148), contains the parts for the ships boats and cranes. Each of the cutters receive new gratings, decks, thwarts, seats, oars, rudders and either a tiller or wheel. There are replacement cradles provided for all boats, including the special ones which fit into the larger cutters for small boats to be stacked on them. The motor boats also receive new internal gratings, decks, and varying sizes of cabins and windscreens. The larger of the motor boats also have additional railings and masts and are fitted with either single or twin propeller shafts and rudders. As with the cutters, each boat is sat upon up to three cradles. Both the ships aircraft/boat cranes are completely replaced with etched brass, including the crane mounting structure, winding gear the booms, secondary jibs and hooks. When assembled these cranes will look so much better than the kit parts, even with the etched booms that are included n the kit. Conclusion The Queen Elizabeth is a very nice kit in its own right, even though the hull has some major errors, but these can be alleviated by building the model as a waterline in a seascape. The addition of these etched sets will be the icing on the cake and, with care, can make a good model into a great one. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Maritime Accessories 1:350 Master Models Master models continue to build up their range of 1:350 scale armament sets, but they are now increasing the items produced to add other accessories, which now includes two of the three releases reviewed here. As usual they are up to the standard we’ve come to expect from Master Models. [350-086] The first set is for the Trumpeter Tsesarevich 1904 which not only includes both main, (305mm), secondary, (152mm), but also tertiary armament, (75mm, 47mm, 37mm). These are all direct replacements for he kit parts, and will need the removal of the kit barrels before drilling appropriate sized hole into the breech for the tang of the barrel to be glued into. As you can probably imagine the smaller calibre barrels are extremely small and fiddly, but they will certainly add the scale look of the completed model when fitted. [350-087] This set is the first of a new line from Master, and consists of a selection of turned brass yardarms. The contains two of each size which are 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, 30mm, and 35mm. Whilst they are beautifully turned, the smaller yards are very prone to being bent, and due to the packaging they are even more prone to this on removal, (ask me how I know). When straight, they are direct replacements for the kit parts are and, as with the barrels we’re more used to receiving from Master Models are a much better scale thickness than injection moulding can manage. [350-088] This second set of yardarms provides the modeller with another six yards, similar to the above set, but of the larger yards seen on the likes of battleships. There is one yard per size and come in 40mm, 45mm, 50mm, 55mm, and 65mm. Whilst these are less prone to being bent on removal from the packaging, the ends are still very thin and can easily be bent if you’re a little heavy handed. Oh yes! They are blooming sharp too, as I found out when trying to lay them out for the photograph. Conclusion The barrels for the Tsesarevich are well up to the standards we’ve come to expect from Master Models, with the added distinction of being some of the smallest turned parts I’ve seen in 1:350. The new yardarm sets are also a very useful and welcome addition to the product line. Apologies for the fuzziness of the smaller parts, but my camera just couldn't focus on them. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of Piotr at