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Royal Navy Battleships Photo Etched Detail Sets 1:700 Starling Models Starling Models is the brainchild of small scale ship modeller and fellow BM member Mike McCabe. He created the company following the demise of White Ensign Models in order to attempt to satisfy the appetite of detail hungry maritime modellers everywhere. Employing experience gleaned from designing photo etch sets for other manufacturers, Mike has developed his own range of products and we've received the first two sets for review. Most photo etch sets for naval subjects tend to be either ship-specific or completely generic (e.g. ladders and railings). These sets fall between the two camps by providing a range of parts for a number of specific ships on each fret. I think this is a great idea, as it enables the modeller to upgrade the parts that will benefit the most from replacement without going completely overboard (no pun intended) with hundreds of tiny details. Royal Navy Battleships Set 1 1:700 Starling Models Set one includes a range of semi-generic parts, including doors, ladders, twenty Oerlikon guns, two types of railing, hatches, boat oars, type 271 and type 291 radar arrays, propellers for the Walrus aircraft and details for the searchlights. According to Starling Models, there should be enough of these parts for two vessels. Also included are cranes for the King George V class battleships (2), HMS Renown (2), HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant (2) and HMS Nelson (1). Royal Navy Battleships Set 2 1:700 Starling Models The second set comprises a single fret which also contains several lengths of railings and ladders, as well as stairways, doors and boat oars. Also included are eighteen sets of Oerlikon guns and six sets of quad Vickers anti-aircraft gun mountings. A couple of Type 271 radar arrays are also provided, along with five sets of boat oars. Last but by no means least, there are cranes for HMS Warspite, Malaya, Rodney and Barham, which also benefits from a replacement aircraft catapult. Conclusion It may well be fiddly and it may well end up stuck to your fingers half the time, but you have to admit that a small scale warship never really looks complete without the addition of photo etched parts to represent the finer details such as ladders, railings and cranes. I'll lay my cards on the table and say that I really like the format of these new sets from Starling Models as they represent a very efficient and cost effective way of sprucing up a number of ships models from just a couple of semi-generic frets. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of