ON THE SHELF
MARITIME KITS114 View more reviews online:www.airfi xmodelworld.com http://www.airfi xmodelworld.com 115HMS Lively 1941
By: Flyhawk
Item no: FH 1121
Price: £24
Web: http://www.flyhawkmodel.comFlyhawk has continued with its
L-class destroyer subjects, with
HMS Lively being the third to
date, and can be built as either
a waterline or full-hull model.
There are 13 styrene runners,
plus separate upper/lower hulls,
waterline plate, forward and aft
decks, aft gun platform and bridge
superstructure, plus eight turned
brass gun barrels. Modellers
unfamiliar with Flyhawk’s exquisitemoulding are in for a treat; gun
and bridge wing walls are wafer-
thin, funnels are hollow one-piece
items, different styles of depth-
charge throwers are replicated
accurately, all ammunition
lockers are supplied, and turret
shields have convincing bolt/
rivet detail. In short, it contains
features expected of much larger
scales and not 1/700. A similar
attention to detail is noted on the
painting guide, which also covers
the Carley rafts and ships’ boats,
with the vessel in Admiralty Dark
Grey 507A/Light Grey 507C
camouflage; typical of Royal Navy
ships in 1941.L-CLASS BATTLER
POLISH NAVAL STALWART
CARRIER CLASSIC GLOBAL EXPLORER
Golden Hind
By: Airfix
Item no: A09258V Price: £32.99
Web: http://www.airfix.comAirfix takes another nostalgia
trip with its Golden Hind,
first released in 1977, and
the styrene contents are
unchanged. The parts are well
detailed for their age, although
several larger components (hull
halves and deck) may suffer
from warping due to their size,
and there was flash present
on AMW’s sample. Compared
with Airfix’s other sailing ship
releases, the Golden Hind is
more refined, in part due to its
larger scale, and includes five
crewmembers (two powder
boys, two deck cleaners and an
officer). The moulded features
are convincing, notably on the
dead-eyes and lanyards, while
the main deck cannons require
just the muzzles hollowing
and attachment of breech/
recoil ropes. As with all other
such kits in the Vintage Classic
range, the original pre-formed
shrouds have been replacedwith an ingenious plastic jig
and two lengths of thread (two
pages are dedicated to rigging
diagrams; a third explains how
to use the jig).HMS Ark Royal
By: Airfix
Item no: A04208V
Price: £16.99
Web: http://www.airfix.com
Along with HMS Hood and
Bismarck, HMS Ark Royal is
arguably one of Airfix’s best-
known ship kits, so its return
is most welcome. It comprises
‘open style’ styrene runners, plus
separate hull halves and flight
deck, and is intended to be built
in full-hull configuration (a two-
piece stand is included). The ship’s
defensive weapons are replicated
in full, albeit basic form, with
eight twin 4.5in (110mm) anti-
aircraft guns, eight quad-Vickers’
gun mounts and six octuple
2-pdr ‘pom-poms’. There’s also
a representative air wing, with
six each of Fairey Fulmars and
Swordfish, four with extended
wings and two with folded. All
three deck lifts can be positioned
open/closed, and the lattice deck
masts can be placed in the raised
or lowered positions (the latter are
suitable for flight operations). No
decals are included, but the single
colour scheme depicts the vessel
as it appeared in 1940/41.with an ingenious plastic jigORP Garland 1944 G-class
Destroyer
By: IBG Models
Item no: 70007
Price: €16
Web: http://www.ibg.com.plCertain British warship classes
seem to receive little attention
from kit manufacturers, and the
G-class destroyer is a case in
point, with IBG’s ORP Garland
just the second in 1/700 (and the
first styrene offering). It comes
on four styrene runners and a
comprehensive photo-etched
brass fret (which supplies
railings, ladders, Oerlikon guns/
shield and tub walls, boat
davits and depth-charge racks/
stowage) and all plastic partsare moulded crisply. Just a
waterline model can be built,
and the vessel is in a late-war
configuration, with two 4.7in
(120mm) gun turrets, a single
quadruple torpedo launcher,
forward-mounted ‘hedgehog’
anti-submarine spigots and six
20mm Oerlikon mounts (two of
which replaced one of the rear
4.7in turrets). While the single
scheme provided portrays HMS
Garland (H37) as it appeared in
1944, markings are also included
for sister-vessel HMS Glowworm
(H92), plus HMS Hotspur (H01),
HMS Harvester (H19), HMS
Ilex (I61) and HMS Greyhound
(H05), indicating H-, Havant-
and I-class destroyer kits are
planned by IBG in the future.1/7001/600 1/721/700