Airfix HMS Devonshire – D02 (A03202V) 1:600

[Mike]

HMS Devonshire – D02 (A03202V)

1:600 Airfix Vintage Classics

 

 

The Devonshire was the first of the County Class Destroyers to be completed in 1960 at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, not a million miles away from Britmodeller HQ.  It was commissioned by the Royal Navy in ’62, taking most of the rest of the year to work-up to operational readiness before returning to her home port of Portsmouth in the south of England.  The ship had been designed around the unproven Sea Slug anti-aircraft missile system from the outset, which was intended to take down enemy aircraft before they could release stand-off anti-ship missiles aimed at the fleet they were protecting.  Sadly, the only time the missile was used in anger during the Falklands war, the results were less than impressive.  She also carried a supply of Sea Cat missiles, and fielded two twin 4.5” main guns in boxy turrets in front of the superstructure, anti-aircraft guns, and two racks of three torpedoes.  She could also carry a Wessex helicopter on a small pad on the aft deck.  I suspect I may have seen her during one of my summer holidays with my folks in the 70s, as we were sometimes visiting Portsmouth and other ports during Royal outings – totally coincidentally, of course.  Our theory was she used to follow us round the country.

 

HMS Devonshire served in the Navy until she became a victim of defence cuts in 1978, after which she was decommissioned and in the harbour where she languished for six more years that included a failed sale to Egypt before an ignominious end.  It was decided somewhere high up that she could perform one last duty for her country as a target for missile tests for the then-new Sea Eagle anti-shipping missile, the British equivalent of the Exocet missile.  After the trials she was finally sunk by British submarine HMS Splendid, in their own test of the new Mark 24-Mod-2 Tigerfish torpedo, which at the time had a poor reputation for reliability.  An 80% detonation rate was good enough to see the Devonshire to the bottom of the North Atlantic however.

 

 

The Kit

This is one of Airfix’s Vintage Classic line, which is a clear indicator that it is an old tooling that dates back to 1963, just one year after she went into service with the Navy.  You shouldn’t expect great things of these vintage kits, as technology has changed immeasurably since they were tooled and released.  Time takes a toll on toolings of even the toughest metals, and quantities of flash are inevitable eventually, and there is some evident on this kit as you can see in the photos.  The kit arrives in a slim red-themed box, and inside are two sprues and the deck in grey styrene that don’t have the outer runners that we are now used to these days.  Saying that, none of the parts had fallen off the review sample’s runners.  The box is completed by the instruction booklet with colour profiles inside, and a small decal sheet.

 

 

 

 

Construction begins with the hull, which is split into two halves that have the demarcations between the underside anti-fouling, boot-topping and the upper colour marked out for you by fine raised lines, which should speed up masking immensely.  The deck is a long section with a step up behind the front turret, which has planking engraved into the forward section, plus the anchor chains, bulwark and the turret bases moulded into it.  The stepped-down rear deck is a separate part that also has another part to create the step itself, then the basic superstructure is fitted.  The forward section is made from two halves plus the upper deck, and it locates on the main deck by a large rectangular upstand moulded into the deck.  The rear superstructure is a single moulding that locates on a C-shaped raised mark and a square mark at the rear.  A pair of W-shaped anchors fit into the hawse-pipe outlets on the sides of the bow, then the hull is flipped over and the twin propellers are installed on long shafts that have support struts roughly half way along their length, plus a separate twin-boomed strut further aft.  Behind the blades are two rudders that fit into holes in the hull, which need drilling out for a better fit.  There are a couple of ejector-pin marks in the neighbourhood too, so two jobs can be carried out at once.

 

Righting the hull, the superstructure is then fitted out with twin funnels; flying bridges; twin masts with arms and antennae; four life boats and ship’s tender on davits; weapons turrets including the Sea Slug turret at the rear and other small parts.  The pair of gun turrets each have separate barrels slipped into elevation slots in the front of the boxy structure, and these are slotted into holes in the bases, held in place by friction or glue at your whim.  Abaft the superstructure the basic shape of a Westland Wessex with separate main and tail-rotors can be glued to the deck after putting the white location markings on the surface, then a pair of staffs for the jack and ensign are glued into holes in the bow and stern deck.

 

A pair of simple stands are included on the sprues for you to use if you wish, one at each end of the completed model.

 

 

Markings

The Devonshire wore grey throughout her career, but the markings option that is provided in the kit depicts her as she was in 1968, with its Wessex in blue/yellow livery with decals to finish the job.  From the box you can build this:

 

 

 

Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin satin carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

1:600 isn’t a massively popular maritime scale, but if you want a small-scale HMS Devonshire this is still pretty-much the only game in town, but if you wanted to put more detail into it, Atlantic Models do a Photo-Etch (PE) upgrade set.

 

Recommended.

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

 

[Basosz]

Wasn't Devonshire the ship that was sunk in that James Bond movie?

[VMA131Marine]

How different was Devonshire to HMS Glamorgan or HMS Antrim during their Falklands service? Glamorgan and Antrim were both Batch II ships, which Wikipedia says were 2 feet longer than Batch Is like Devonshire. Not sure what the other differences are and my assumption is that the Airfix Devonshire shows her mostly as-built versus after a decade or more of refits and upgrades.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 8/13/2022 at 4:58 AM, VMA131Marine said:

How different was Devonshire to HMS Glamorgan or HMS Antrim during their Falklands service?

Gidday, quite a bit I believe. I didn't know about the extra 2 feet of length, but as that equates to 1mm of model length I can live with it. One glaring difference is the bedstead radar scanner atop the main mast. Batch 1 had a single bedstead, batch 2 ships had a double. Also. 'B' turret was replaced with four Exocet canisters. These came as additions to the kits in the Falklands set. The fore and main masts were different. Boats were re-arranged plus other equipment fitted.

     There are also some inaccuracies to the kit but that is outside the scope of your question. Those members of Britmodeller who were former crew members of these ships would be able to give you more detailed answers I think. They have certainly helped me, as I'm currently doing a Devonshire to Glamorgan conversion. But my skill is rather average. HTH. Regards, Jeff.

[mick b]

As well as Atlantic doing PE as Mike says; Starling Models have a new 3D printed set which looks very tempting.

 

Mike

[junglierating]

On 8/12/2022 at 9:39 PM, Basosz said:

Wasn't Devonshire the ship that was sunk in that James Bond movie?

I thought that was the faux DORSETSHIRE 🤔 

[Basosz]

3 hours ago, junglierating said:

I thought that was the faux DORSETSHIRE 🤔 

Ah thank you. Kinda close though

[Basosz]

On 6/23/2023 at 10:45 AM, junglierating said:

I thought that was the faux DORSETSHIRE 🤔 

Wikipedia says that it's actually the Devonshire

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 6/29/2023 at 9:32 PM, Basosz said:

On 6/23/2023 at 4:45 PM, junglierating said:

I thought that was the faux DORSETSHIRE 🤔 

Wikipedia says that it's actually the Devonshire

Yes but a Type 23 frigate, not this HMS Devonshire. Regards, Jeff.

[Basosz]

47 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Yes but a Type 23 frigate, not this HMS Devonshire. Regards, Jeff.

Oh that's more knowledge than I have. I don't know the ships in our own navy, let alone of other countries

[RichG]

Always liked the shape of the Counties; sort of epitomises the '60s Royal Navy I think. I've just started the kit and I always like to see what you can do to improve these classic / vintage kits. Got some aftermarket to improve it, 3D resin, PE and even some wood decking (1/700). I know its got accuracy issues but hopefully I can find some info on correcting it.* 

 

BTW the "HMS Devonshire" in Tomorrow Never Dies is actually the Type 23 (Duke Class) frigate HMS Westminster (F237) and was used to portray all three fictional British warships in the movie: HMS Chester, HMS Devonshire and HMS Bedford. HMS Westminster was completed in 1992 and remains in service with the Royal Navy. She entered a two-year refit to extend her life until 2029; however the refit has now been suspended due to the ship's poor condition, making her future uncertain.

 

Rich

 

* PS I've now found some good info on correcting the kit in this build thread

 

 

Edited July 13, 2023 by RichG