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700 scale HMS Sheffield released


cruiserguy

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Good Afternoon Everyone,

I have just read on Steelnavy that L'Arsenal have released a 700 scale kit of the cruiser HMS Sheffield. Here's a link to the kit, but it's a US site. I have no idea who would stock this kit in the UK now White Ensign Models are no more.

http://freetimehobbies.com/1-700-larsenal-hms-sheffield-model-kit/

Best Wishes,

Will.

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You can order it direct from L'Arsenal in France. Mélaine will be happy to process the order for you.

I've bought loads of stuff from them recently and they provide a good and friendly service.

Mike

Plus if you buy them from l'arsenal in France, they'll be none of the horrible VAT/customs import charges due to France and the UK being in the EU.

The big question is - is it better than the WEM kit? Then the dilemma is whether or not to buy it or wait and see if it appears in plastic? I think it will appear in plastic seeing as we've had the less well known Naiad in plastic and Penelope will be here in plastic soon but when? I certainly want a Sheffield to go with my Renown and Ark Royal!

thanks

Mike

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This will do nicely as a Newcastle. I agree that a Town class would seem an obvious choice for a plastic kit but that's been said for decades.

There is a builder's model of Newcastle here in Barrow in Furness. It's in the Furness General Hospital. I pass it every time I go to the MS support group that meets there.

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I went to Barrow to see builder's models in the museum, but didn't think to look in the Hospital. Though I'd love to see that, I'd prefer to build her in her mid-war state after repairs in the US, because of the more interesting colour scheme. Prewar she'd look just like Sheffield, so either the White Ensign or L'Arsenal kit would do for that. It seems rather a shame that both chose the same ship.

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Hi David,

HMS Sheffield was the first RN ship I spent time on after finishing training, so it would be really good if you could take photos and post them on here please.

Mike

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  • 2 weeks later...

Managed to get some photos of the HMS Newcastle model. Unfortunately, ther was quite a bit of relection of the bright sunlight coming through windows of the corridor that the model is in. Hopefully I will get some more when the evenings darken later on in the year.

https://david-j-ross.smugmug.com/ModelShip/Builders-HMS-Newcastle/

Newwcastle-01-S.jpg

Newcastle-08-S.jpg

Edited by David J Ross
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  • 1 month later...

It's beautiful isn't it? It was often a sort of apprentice piece. A class of apprentices would work together on it, because it brought together the skills they had learned- wood working, fabrication, sheet metal working, fitting and turning, painting and sign writing, etc. My dad can remember working on one as a Portsmouth Dockyard apprentice in about 1957, but the distance of time has dimmed his memory of what it was. He told me that his group took an X craft midget submarine apart and sectioned it as part of their ship science training. There was still so much surplus being gradually scrapped in the post war decades, that they were seen as learning resources. Pounds Scrapyard was breaking a lot of ships then- Fareham creek was stuffed with surplus/mothballed vessels. They went and spent time watching the scrapping process, to learn how ships were built. He said that he helped work on a Flower Class corvette.

Edited by Andy Robbins
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  • 3 months later...

The L'A SHEFF will be a little gem. The White Ensign 1:700 S was an ill-fitting, chunky, misshapen (the bow knuckles were crudely represented as "bow rolling hills") atrocity best chucked into the dustbin of history. And, L'A is following her with a JAMAICA, the long-awaited Colony Class. Three cheers for L'A! The only problem I foresee is that the supports for the radar lantern, etc, look perilously thin. I wonder if the photo etch will be too frail to work?

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  • 1 year later...
On 8/11/2015 at 0:27 PM, David J Ross said:

Managed to get some photos of the HMS Newcastle model. Unfortunately, ther was quite a bit of relection of the bright sunlight coming through windows of the corridor that the model is in. Hopefully I will get some more when the evenings darken later on in the year.

https://david-j-ross.smugmug.com/ModelShip/Builders-HMS-Newcastle/

Newwcastle-01-S.jpg

Newcastle-08-S.jpg

Completely out of the blue, I was in Furness General Hospital today (to measure up for replacement elevator equipment) and walking through came across this beauty - I stopped and my mouth fell open on seeing it, the guy showing me round must have thought I'd seen a ghost or something - but the model in its display case is totally awesome. I tried to get a few photos, although difficult with its reflective glass case. There was another similar sized model of a large old merchant vessel near one of the hospital entrances.

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