HMS Campbeltown F86 Type 22 Frigate Batch III - Orange Hobby 1:700

[Julien]

HMS Campbeltown F86 Type 22 Frigate Batch III
Orange Hobby 1:700

 

 

The Type 22 or Broadsword class of Frigate were designed in the 1960s during the Navies reappraisal of the surface fleet following the cancellation of the carrier programme. The class were all originally to have names beginning with B after the Type 21s had names beginning with A. They were designed to be a specialised anti-submarine platform as part of the Royal navys contribution to NATO. Their main war time job would have been to patrol the G-I-UK gap and shadow REFORGER convoys from the US.

The main anti-submarine weapons would be the ships Lynx helicopter and triple torpedo tubes on each side. These would be guided by a towed array sonar. Anti-aircraft/missile missiles in the form of the Sea Wolf missile system; and anti-ship missiles in the form of the Exocet system were also added. As was the thinking at the it was decided no gun was needed. This was unique at the time of the design.

The Type 22 was delivered to the Royal Navy in three batches. The second batch were stretched in length and a new computer assisted command system was fitted. In order to differentiate batch I and II ships, batch II ships would be named with a B. It is estimated that had it not been for the Falklands war there would have been no more Type 22s after batch II.

The last four of the Type 22s, or batch III were a greatly improved design. The ships were deigned to have a more general warfare role. The Royal Navy was able to feed the many lessons learned the hard way in Falklands into the re-design. The gun would finally return to the ships. The four exocet launchers were removed but the ships would not loose their anti-ship missile capability. The four exocet were replaced with a double quad Harpoon launcher which was situated behind the bridge, this effectively doubled this capacity. The ships would also be fitted with a Close In Weapons System capable of hitting sea skimming missiles in the form of the 30mm Goalkeeper.

Following on from batch I and II batch III ships would have names starting with C. The batch III ships were the largest Frigates built for the Royal Navy and would often act as flagships for NATO and RN task forces. It is often said that the Batch III Type 22 was the ship the Navy got right, and the review has to agree with this. They were also good look ships as well. In the end only 4 out of an originally wanted 12 ships proved to expensive for the RN to operate and all four ships were paid off in 2011. It is not know if they were offered for sale as previous Type 22s were, but in the end all four were scrapped in Turkey in 2013.

The reviewer must admit to having a personal interest in these ships as I helped build F86 HMS Campbeltown, during my spell as a lowly apprentice in the late 1980s at Cammell Lairds in Birkenhead. In fact I still have one of the tickets I got for the launch.

 

Can you see me in the crowd?

 

 

The Kit

 

The kit in a fairly smallish box into which all the parts fit snuggly, with the main hull part wrapped in bubble wrap. A bit of a dilemma as you can damage the parts taking them in and out of this box, but in a bigger box they have much more potential to rattle around and get damaged in transit. I am sure most modellers will have spare boxes to contain the parts.

The main hull complete with most deck housings comes as a complete one part casting which is water line, no lower hull is included. The only main parts missing from the single part casting are the funnel assembly, and the two main masts. The funnel assembly comes as one part on its own. The two masts are moulded together with the funnel top and the Main Gun Turret, this being of the later Kryten type. A small resin sprue provides the hull straightener's seen on F85 & F86. three further sprues provide the rest of the resin parts. These include the Seawolf directors and launchers, ships boats, boat launchers, life raft canisters, two larger Sat antennas; and the Goalkeeper gun system. Finally in resin a Merlin 101 helicopter is provided for the flight deck. Three smaller sat antennas are provided in turned brass, along with the 4.5" gun barrel and the Harpoon Missile tubes. 6 Small sheets of etched brass are included for the rest of the details.

Construction starts with the cockpit opps! aircraft modeller alert!! Well if you follow the instructions it actually starts with building up the Merlin Helicopter. Nor much to do there, just attach the resin sponsons and decide if you would like a folded or deployed main rotor. Attach the tail rotor, main door, and windscreen wipers (really small in 1/700!).

 

 

 

The next steps have you build the turret, and install it onto the foredeck. Foredeck railings are added along with the bridge railing, and bridge deck railings. The screen on top of the bridge is also added along with the fore Seawolf director railings. The Forward Seawolf director and launcher are assembled and installed, along with the Goalkeeper gun.

 

Following this the Harpoon launchers are assembled and installed. This is followed by the rest of the railings in this area. The funnel block is then constructed and attached to the deck. At the same time the satellite antennas and railings are added to the deck house forward of the funnel. The masts, rear Seawolf director & launcher are then added to the hanger roof after they have been assembled. Railings and ladders are then added to the hanger area.

 

The next stage consists of adding a multitude of small items such as locker, liferafts, doors etc to the outside of the ship. The flight deck railings are added. These can be added in either the lowered or raised positions. The rear flag staff can also be added as appropriate.

 

The final main stage is probably one of the most intense (after adding all those small items), it is the construction of the main masts. These have as the core a central resin part onto which all the photo etched parts must be added. Finally after this the ships boat platforms and boats are added.

 

 

Photo Etched Parts
6 Small sheets of PE are included with the kit.

 

 

• 1. The largest sheet which consist of mainly the ships railings, these are incredibly fine in this scale.
• 2. The second sheet contains the details for the masts and the walkways/railings for the directors.
• 3. The third sheet contains parts for the small mast in front of the rear Seawolf director, the flight deck railings and the deck watertight doors.
• 4. The forth sheet contains the hanger doors, jackstaff, rear flag mast, a couple of mast parts, some anchor chain, and the platform areas for the ships boats.
• 5. The fifth sheets contains the ships boarding ladder.
• 6. The sixth sheets contains both open and folded main rotors for the Merlin helicopter along with the tail rotor, and a couple of other helicopter parts.

Decals
The single sheet of decals is fairly small. It includes the pendant numbers for both ships, the warning markings for the main gun & Seawolf launchers; along with the flight deck markings, the ensigns and ships crests. Everything looks in register.

 

 

Instructions
I don't normally comment to much on instructions as they are a fairly standard item. The instructions here though arrive on 4 sides of A4 rolled up in the box. 3 are double sided which is a great deal less than ideal. Its no hassle for most people to copy these but not great if you like to lay the instructions out in front of you. There seems a lack of progression between the sheets and no real step numbers. They jump around between areas and this does not look to good. There are also omissions in where the instructions show you to add parts, but not how they are built up?

Conclusion
This is a very welcome release and in it Orange Hobby has produced, what I can only describe as a winner. The details they've managed to fit into a 1:700 model is amazing, although somewhat tiring for some eyes. This is where a good set of magnifiers will really help. The only thing I would like to see in the kit is an early form of Gun Turret in order that and earlier ship could be modelled, along with maybe a Lynx as well.

Highly recommended (but then I am biased! )

If you wish to see some pictures of the Real 1:1 scale kit them please click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of British Forces Models

[Guest]

Yes,I have one, its worth every penny , when you look at the batch 1 done by WEM ,which was some yrs ago,(in their defense),its was good for its time,but its amazing how resin models have come on in recent yrs.

Here is its build the WEM version http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234943484-hms-battleaxe-type-22-1700-wem-resin-kit/

[Nobby57]

Good review Julien and it is lovely to know a bit about your background.

Having the Victorious and Hermes kits (neither started), I can endorse what Julien and Chewitt have said regarding the quality of Orange Hobby kits. My quandary is which to build first, however, as Julien has mentioned, the instructions will require lots of studying. I have photocopied my separate instruction sheets for ease of reference and to preserve one 'pristine' set.

As I seem to be getting back into ship modelling, no doubt I shall be making an OH Type 22 at some stage.

Thank you both,

Graham