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Hi, long time visitor but first time poster here. I am hoping someone can help with some information for a diorama I am currently working on. It is based on a story my Grandfather told me about his time in the Merchant Navy, I'll include it here as best I remember it as it may have some details that someone can use to point me in the right direction. He joined the Merchant Navy in '41, sailed from Aberdeen on his first voyage, heading for somewhere in the Indian Ocean or Pacific, via the Cape. En-route he had his first real encounter with the Royal Navy when they laid over at Gibraltar. As he told it, soon after they arrived, a battleship called in but could not berth (Not sure why, maybe no free space?) and as his ship had free hold space they assisted in ferrying fuel and supplies over to the battleship so it could continue its journey. Of course, most of his story concerned dealing with Sailors on shore and later on having to deal with small boats ferrying crew back to the battleship as they were trying to unload onto her decks at sea. Now I realise this is very likely an Apocryphal story, He did like to tell tales. However, I thought it would make an interesting diorama, a Warship at anchor, merchantman alongside, small boats in the water around them, certainly unusual. I am assuming the Battleship in question was the Prince of Wales returning to Scapa Flow after escorting convoys to Malta. As she is a pretty well documented ship I don't have any issues there. Tamiya kit, eduard PE and it's got all the small boats I'll need. What I am stuck on is the "Merchant Vessel". The only kit I can find is the Trumpeter liberty ship. Could it have been a liberty at that time? (or more likely a victory I suppose), But victory ships were coal fired and the story specifically mentioned transferring fuel. It was certainly armed with at least some AA guns as they crop in another story. How likely is it that it was the class the Liberty ships were based on? (I forget what they are called). Would it most likely have been in re-painted navy grey, or in merchant colours - and if in merchant colours what is the best bet on what those might have been? I realise that's a lot of "what ifs", especially for a story that might never have happened. But even if it is a tall tale I'd like to get things as accurate as I can.

To go alongside the Merchant ship conversion I'm doing is HMS Prince of Wales. This is Tamiya kit, so far with Eduard PE. Crew figures are from North Star. I wont repeat the story of what's going on here, that's in my other thread. Short version is this is PoW calling in at Gibraltar after her short stint with Force H in the med in September '41. Not a whole lot to show here so far but I guess every build log has to start somewhere I've done a bit of assembly and some prep work. Roughly how the two will be positioned The kit's fine, a little tidying up of injection mould lines. Not massively detailed but that's fine as I'll be adding in what I can from the PE kits and some scratch build if I need to. I would dearly love to add wooden decking (I know, I really should have made this choice before I assembled and base coated) and some detail parts from Micro Master or Blackcat...but I also like to set a deadline and budget for these things or they drag on forever. Sadly I'm already at £250 of my £350 budget for the whole diorama and I still need to get resin and a perspex case cover. So we'll see ... once I get further down the line I might decide to stretch my budget a bit and get some resin pom-poms and deck detailing sets. I am planning on having a lot of crew figures in this one, maybe around 200, engaged in various activities. Transferring stores from the merchant, off duty crew relaxing forward of the A gun, re-embarking after going ashore at the stern, servicing the Walrus and various other maintenance tasks as the mood takes me. Many of the small boats will also be in the water.

HMS Prince of Wales Kagero Super Drawings in 3D No.69 HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. She was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait against the German battleship Bismarck, operations escorting convoys in the Mediterranean, and her final action and sinking in the Pacific in December 1941. Prince of Wales had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her dry-dock, being attacked and damaged by German aircraft. Her brief but storied career ended 10 December 1941, when Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse became the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck lies upside down in 223 feet (68 m) of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea. This is the latest book in Kagero Publishing’s superb series of Super Drawings in 3D, although this one is definitely thicker than the previous releases. As with the previous books it has a brief history and the ships specifications at the beginning. This includes the following:- Overview Design Propulsion Armaments and fire control Armour Service Conclusion The rest of the ninety three pages are filled with the now well known style of beautifully drawn 3D renderings of every part of the ship. It is obvious that a lot of time has been taken to get the drawings this good and accurate, and there is a wealthy of information for the modeller to use during their build. Every area of the upper hull and superstructure is dealt with plus the lower hull including the propellers and rudder. There are a lot of close up renders of most of the equipment fitted, such as the PomPom mounts, 5.25” turrets, ships boats, funnels, Walrus seaplane and main turrets, as well as the longer view, showing how clean the design was even though she had so much equipment onboard. As is the norm with this series, Kagero have included a double sided A2 fold out sheet with a three view on one side, unusually in 1:350, with additional drawings of the ships fixtures, such as turrets, main directors, torpedo tubes, AA turrets, ships boats and radar, in either 1:50, 1:100, 1:150 or 1:350 scales. Conclusion I wish I had owned this book when I built the old Tamiya 1:350 kit, it would have enabled me to give the sort of detail it deserved, maybe will be able to do it justice in the future build now. If you love British battleships and like to model them as accurately as possible then this book is most definitely for you. Review sample courtesy of

I recently purchased Flyhawks 1:700 scale HMS Prince of Wales as much out of curiosity as anything. I have some of their etch sets which I have found to be extremely detailed and wondered how their full kit would stand up against the brand I usually purchase at this scale, Tamiya. So lets start with stating the obvious, the Tamiya kit I am using as the comparison (the KGV kit) is a mid 80's release and so I do expect the age to show. Normaly I add etch to a kit to bring it up to standard so to make it a fair comparison I will include the the Eduard etch set as part of the comparison, this also brings the price tag about level at £35. The Flyhawks kit at £35 is the fabled as the deluxe edition which has extras to the standard kit. Interestingly it is stated to be battle of the Denmark strait fit, thus as New. First thing to note is that the box is considerably bigger, this is not some form of marketing ploy, the box is rammed with parts. First Item out of the box is a print that has some history on the back. that's followed by instructions, decals, etch bag after bag of sprue a plastic box of parts a metal box and weight and the hull sections. Unlike the Tamiya kit there is an option for full hull as well as waterline. comparing the two hulls length and width is the same but the detail on the Fyhawk hull is much nicer with the panel lines shown. the armour belts are different lengths though so one of them is wrong! [/url Same is true when we compare decks the tamiya planking runs the full length of the deck where as the Flyhawks deck has plank lengths. not sure if the pattern is correct but it will look good under paint. The level of detail carried on the Flyhawks deck is superb making the Tamiya deck look a bit Barron. The Tamiya kit comes with two large sprue, Flyhawk have lots of smaller sprue, there is more sprue material than part material. The first item spotted was the crane, very nice it is too, this would look great without modification, but an etch replacement is supplied. Where as the Tamiya crane (bottom pick) is essential to replace. [ Now I have always accepted that Tamiya's turrets are good for the scale, but Flyhawk blows them out of the water excuse the pun, the detail is exquisite. interestingly Flyhawk have the barbette and the turret floor as a single moulding. There is a stack of 4 tiny sprue that have some tiny parts on them such as deck guns. nice detail but actually the barrels look a bit chunky compared to Tamiya equivalents (bottom pic) It is with the superstructure that the Flyhawk kit really begins to stand out, the level of detail is breath taking and where the holding prices may have limited detail they do the panel separately rather than compromise. The kamiya kit needs aftermarket etch as it is almost bereft of any detail and where some definition is present its a none descript lump. The hanger is another area where both kits have internal detail but it is definitely not correct on the Tamiya kit where as the Flyhawk offering looks much more authentic The more you look at the kit the better it becomes, one very nice feature is the two funnel stacks which are moulded as a complete item with what looks like the correct rivet pattern. no more sanding the assembly and losing the shape!! The funnel caps are ok even passable but still on the thick side. all in all they far surpass the Tamiya funnels. Again I have always considered the Tamiya ships boats good for the scale, but again Flyhawk have raised the bar a notch or two. the detail is oversize but the impression is still better; especially when you compare the admirals barge. The sprue keep on coming, I have built 1:350 kits with fewer parts! The Flyhawk mast is not so good dont get me wrong it looks the part other than it is very warped, due to how thin it is, this will have to be replaced and I believe there is a superset mast set the Flyhawk sell. Although the tamiya mask is slightly heavy yo know it won't mind the rigging where I suspect Flyhawks may just give some moment, brass masts would be better but Tamiya takes the prize for the injection moulded masts (Last pic). Flyhawk include a seaplane, Tamiya don't bother. the detail of the plane is great and should look the part once painted. * Instructions are good if not a bit fussy. lots of sub assembly diagrams help with the huge number of parts. not as easy to follow as tamiya instructions but they are in colour with plenty of detail. The Flyhawks kit has some decals, couple of white ensigns and decals for the aircraft. given that this kit can be full hull I dont think it would have broken the bank to add displacement markings for the hull its a shame they are not there. but then Tamiya don't supply any decals. That compares the basic kits, but as I said I would not build a Tamiya kit without etch and, also as I said earlier, this is the ultimate Flyhawk set which comes with etch, so lets look at the etch next. Eduard supply all the railings you need plus various ladders and parts that improve the surface detail along with a number of replacement deck guns across two small frets. Flyhawk supply three frets of etch that also cover the railings and ladders as well as replacing some of the kit parts and the crane. there is a propeller for the sea plane and anchor chain and replacement funnel caps the finest of the etch is apparent particularly on the inclined ladders that really look correct, an achievement at this scale. But Flyhawk do not stop there Inside the small plastic box are twelve bags contains replacement brass barrels and an assortment of other tiny brass and resin parts such as cable reels and mushroom vents - I will say that again bras and resin mushroom vents, at 1:700 scale!!! I hope they put spares in as these are microscopic. Finally there is a metal box that contains the coat of arms for Prince of Wales that can be screwed onto a display base. Conclusion The Flyhawk kit is very comprehensive with excellent detail. when you consider the price tag it stands up well to buying a Tamiya Kit and adding barrels and etch. may only criticism is the mast that is bent. I am looking forward to building this kit and at this stage would certainly look to buy another Flyhawk kit in the future Jase

Hi all, after a visit to the Lego museum in Prague (yes!) I decided to pick up the POW which I started and never finished. As I already started once and then gave up for time reasons, decided to open this WIP post to get a bit more social pressure and finally deliver Can't wait to buy my second model though! Here are a couple of photos, some pieces are painted already some other only have the first coat of grey. PS: If anybody could point me to a nice guide on model painting it would be great! Any feedback super welcome!

RN Battleship HMS Prince of Wales 1:350 Eduard Etch sets The Tamiya HMS Prince of Wales kit has been out for too many years to mention being initially released in 1986. Now whilst other companies have produced detail enhancement sets for this kit, Eduard hadn’t, until now. These three sets provide pretty much everything the modeller requires to really go to town on what is already a good kit. As usual some additional plastic rod will need to be provided by the modeller and some of the kits detail will need to be removed before the etched parts can be added. Detail set- (53-079) comes on two sheets of relief etched brass to the usual high standard set by Eduard. The larger sheet contains a myriad of parts such as watertight doors which can be posed open or closed, hatches, inclined and vertical ladders, ammunition lockers, flag lockers, replacement 20mm cannon, complete new mountings for the 40mm Pom Poms along with replacement ammunition racks and even the ammunition belts. There are also replacement aerials for the 285 Yagi radar arrays and new mounts for fitting to the main director housings. The foredeck breakwater is completely replaced with as are the anchor chains and their respective stop chains. On the quarterdeck there is a complete replacement for the aft Pom Pom tub. The searchlights are provided with new support brackets and the numerous liferafts have new inserts that represent the wooden tread boards. The smaller of the two sheets also has additional hatches and ammunition lockers for the aft Pom Pom tub. In addition there are replacement aerial arrays for the Type 282 radar, new Type 273 radar lantern and the large 281B radar arrays. The Walrus aircraft are supplied with new propellers, struts and the launching and handling cradles. Apart from other smaller items such as the Pom Pom ammunition cradles, davits, searchlight fronts and their hand wheels, the rest of the sheet contains replacement structural items. These include the supports for the foredeck breakwater, new platforms for the bridge wings, and funnels, plus new funnel caps. The main mast has a new starfish platform with its respective supports, whilst the yardarms are provided with new ropewalks and there is a new support platform for the topmast. Lifeboats – (53-092). This single sheet set is exactly what it says on the packet. In that it contains parts to detail the ships boats, ranging from new decks, both upper and internal, deckhouses, windshields, propellers and rudders for the larger motor boats and Admirals barge. To new internal decking, gunwhales, thwarts, rudders and oars for the cutters, whalers and dinghies. Each boat is also provided with a pair of new cradles for them to sit on. Railings and Cranes (53-089). With the title of this fret being so very descriptive, it’s not difficult to see that this provides ships railing which cover all sections of the ship from the main deck upwards, including the turret tops. There is a selection of three bar and two bar rails the majority of which are shaped to fit their specific positions. The two main ships cranes have replacement jibs, cables, rollers and hooks, along with railings and access ladders. Also included in the set is a pair of accommodation ladders and platforms, and what look like fifty eight liferings, but these aren’t mentioned in the instructions. Conclusion Whilst these sets do provide some lovely extra detail for the venerable Prince of Wales kit I feel that Eduard have arrived at the party a little too late. Still that probably won’t mean that modellers new to the genre won’t buy them. Eduard should also look at sorting out their instructions which aren’t the easiest to use. But with the standard of etch that we are used to seeing from them I can recommend them highly as the kit does really need at least some etch to bring it alive. Review sample courtesy of