Ratch Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 History: HMS Ajax was a British Leander-class light cruiser first launched in March 1934. It was a vessel with an illustrious career. Perhaps her most famous action came at the beginning of the Second World War when she led an engagement against the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic, which led to the scuttling of the mighty Kriegsmarine surface raider. In-box Review: This is a re-issue of the 1965 1/600 scale kit. Dimensions are 281 X 28mm. Parts count is 91 pieces. Skill Level is 3 and 2 Flying Hours are printed on the box. Moulded in dark grey styrene on runners, the mouldings look crisp and clean. Detail quality is adequate for a kit that is nearly sixty years old. The country of manufacture is India. Instructions are printed in an 8-page, A4 booklet with 13 assembly steps. Link to Instructions. Airfix provides a guide for paint colours depicting the ship in December 1939, during the famous action of the Battle of the River Plate in the South Atlantic. No decals are provided. Paints advised: 11 Metallic Silver 27 Matt Sea Grey 33 Matt Black 34 Matt White 55 Metallic Bronze 64 Matt Light Grey 71 Satin Oak 73 Matt Wine These are not included in the kit. RRP £15.99 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 G'day Ratch, has this kit been re-tooled or is it the original tooling with "Vintage Classics" stamped on the box? 6 hours ago, Ratch said: Detail quality is adequate for a kit that is nearly sixty years old. That would suggest the latter. Regards, Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 I think the turrets could do with a bit of a rework Ratch. Simple to do and will make a big difference to the finished kit. There was a post about this some time back. I'll try to find it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 This is the link to the post in question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 You can see what he did here 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 G'day again, yeah the turrets are something I was going to mention a little later. I first did this kit about 20+ years ago and I found that the turrets wouldn't sit flat on the barbettes. They would slide back, but filling them with scrap sprue fixed that. What I didn't notice at the time was that the turrets were also too shallow and the gun barrels too flat, they weren't round. The depth issue can be easily fixed with sheet styrene and this will fix the sitting-flat issue at the same time. The 4-inch guns also could be improved. At this point of this post Sailorman's two posts above have just come on line, making my comments here a bit superfluous. But I'll continue anyway, as I modified the 4-inch mounts a little differently. I think this kit is very basic, for example the anchors and screws, but I also think it lends itself well for a host of conversions. Some I've done are to HMAS Perth, HMS Penelope, HMS Ulysses (basically a Bellona class) and HMS York. The last two obviously require turrets from a different kit. And if the modeler is into what-ifs (as I am) then the range of conversions opens even further. I have at least one in mind. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valhalla Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 33 minutes ago, Sailorman said: You can see what he did here That's quite a transformation. It's amazing what you can do with styrene sheet and wire 20 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said: The 4-inch guns also could be improved Now these also look great but a bit more time consuming I would have thought Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 26 minutes ago, Valhalla said: Now these also look great but a bit more time consuming I would have thought Yeah, a little bit, particularly as I didn't have any alternative guns. I had to scratch them too. I can list the modifications that I did, with dimensions but this is Ratch's thread, not mine. Regards, Jeff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratch Posted September 6 Author Share Posted September 6 Jeff, I don't have the knowledge of the accuracy of this kit - I bow to yours and Patrick's - so I leave you to point out areas where improvements might be made 😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArnoldAmbrose Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Thanks Ratch but I guess it depends on how much an improvement a modeler wishes to make. When I first did this kit it was not long after I took up modeling on a continual basis and my builds, including this one, were done OOB. As you know, I don't do PE or AM stuff, whereas others do superb models with them. My models are more basic, with my additions being scratch built. I'll just go with basic improvements that I think anyone could do. I'll leave the more advanced improvements to those that do them. From what I know (and it isn't a lot with this ship) I think the kit is more basic rather than inaccurate, although there might be minor errors. From an accuracy point of view, one alteration that a modeler wishing to depict her as at the River Plate in December 1939 is the fore mast. It was a pole mast at the time, although the kit supplies a tripod. Further to what we've said on the guns, those 6-inch turrets shown above were done by @KiwiKev I believe, and it would be better for him to run through his work I think. He's also done superb work on the boats and PE. I can give a run-down on what I did to the 4-inch mounts if you wish, but again others have done other methods that look very good. If a modeler can find anchors elsewhere then use them. The anchors on my kits weren't very good. There's always lockers, hawser reels, vents etc and other assorted fittings that can be added to make the ship look busy, more cluttered. But that depends on how far a modeler wishes to go. My personal opinion is that this is a good starter kit for anyone with little experience who may be thinking of getting into 1/600 scale ships. Not very expensive, simple, can be done almost OOB but can be improved to a greater or lesser extent as the modeler desires. HTH. Regards, Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Mine was an very early build and very much out of the box other than the use of PE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratch Posted September 6 Author Share Posted September 6 I built this more than 20 years ago - OOB except for the dazzle camo 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A J Rimmer Posted September 9 Share Posted September 9 Really interesting discussion chaps - I've never actually built a ship (okay I think I might have started one once) but it does looks from what you guys are saying that these old Airfixc kits are a good starting point for a bit of improvement. I've often thought that just the addition of some generic railing would look good. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sailorman Posted September 9 Share Posted September 9 Yes, they are good fun PE railings etc make for a vast improvement in the finished result. This is the Ark Royal I built some years back. I haven't built any warships for quite a while now ..... more into liners ..... but I wouldn't finish a model ship without a good PE set. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratch Posted September 9 Author Share Posted September 9 Yes the railings do make a difference 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A J Rimmer Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 Both of those look excellent Gents! @Sailorman ah the Ark - love that ship. That's the kit I've actually tried to build twice but failed miserably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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