06205-2 1/600 King George V

John Symmons · May 5, 2019

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Some history or prologue.

This is not a history of the ship but of this particular model and me trying to build it.

For a change of pace I’ve dug out this old kit , it’s copywritern 1980 on the main deck and the catalogue no is 06205-2.. I’m not sure when I brought the kit or why, but I must have been going through a model ship spree at that time as I also brought the Prinz Eugen at about the same time.. If it was about 1980 I was back in SA and living in Durban or to be more precise Amamzimtoti just south of Durban. The kit has been started two or three times over the years and now in 2019 I’ve decided it’s time to start a fourth time; hopefully I’ll finish it this time. All the parts are there, most still on the sprues, except part 156 which seems to have broken off the sprue. This is what looks like a single 20 mm AA gun or a signalling gun that sits atop the B turret, this look to be easily replaced with some stretched sprue so shouldn’t prove to much of a problem. I do remember when I first started the kit one problem that stopped me was that one of the lower bridge pieces was mal-formed and couldn’t be used. I had a simular problem with the Airfix Prinz Eugen at about the same time, but thankfully Airfix replaced the parts, even sending them to SA. This kit was one of the last few that Airfix did in their 1/600 ship series and I remember noting how much Airfix had improved their ships from those early days of the Cossack & Graf Spree. The Prinz Eugen was of the same era and both kits are superb, not only in their detail but also the fit. One thing that did impress me was that the model can be built as a water-line model, with some easy modification. I’ve gone-on previously about full hull models so I won’t repeat myself. So some time in the past I’d cut off the lower hull and joined the hull and deck and made a start of a seascape and also assembled some of the superstructure sub assemblies, and started painting them in what now looks like gloss enamels. I’d probably been using what I had at the time as this was way before the days of acrylics, so a lot of that old paint had to be removed. Not sure how I did it as that seems to have been done at one of the earlier starting attempts. All that was left was the black boot topping. The deck was left with old Humbrol enamel Oak colour but all the moulded on deck fitting will have to be repainted.

Re-starting for the fourth time.

I’ve started repainting the various superstructure pieces and painted the bridge decks in a Dark Sea Green, (Vallejo 70.868 (164)) and the hull and superstructures in Dark Sea Grey, (Vallejo 70.904 (158)). For the camouflage on the hull I’ve used Matt White and Olive Green as recommended in the Airfix paint guide, unfortunately the colour call-out numbers don’t say what make of paint they refer too, so I’ve used Vallejo Olive Green ( Vallejo 70.967 (82)) and matt white is matt white in any make. In painting the hull the boot topping was masked off and the hull sides air brushed with Vallejo surface primmer. The port side brushed with dark sea grey and the starboard with matt white. Then the camouflage added free-hand with a brush and the boot top masking removed. I’m quite pleased with the outcome, it might not be perfect but it’ll do for me. I’m not going to go too postal with this build although I’ve some time previously drilled out the port-holes and opened up the bridge windows, but for now it’ll be O.T.B. with no added photo etc although I might make some decals for the Walrus.

This really is a wonderful kit and really deserves much more T.L.C. than I’m going to give it and it really could do with some PE railings but for now I’ll stick to what’s in the box. That’s about where we stand at the moment still a lot of work to do on the main deck repainting all those tiny fittings and finishing off the superstructures then it’s off to the armament and boats etc. I’ve included a few photos showing where I’m at and more will follow in due course. Just hope I don’t get side-tracked again, hopefully this review will help to keep me focused. Enjoy the photos, and see you next time.

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Port side with the unfinished sea scape and equally unfinshed superstructure parts

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The more interesting starboard side, buta right pain to paint either with a brush or airbrush.

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Everthing just clipped together for a posed shot. and a look-see. Lot of more work to come.

Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

Sailorman · May 7, 2019

Looking good.....looking forward to following this build!

Ratch · May 7, 2019

This is a splendid kit John, you'll enjoy it.

John Symmons · May 13, 2019

Continuation of K.G V build.

Still remaining focused I continued adding all those small bits to the bridge decks only managed to drop one but found it several hours later while looking for something else. Those small bit are really tiny so painted them on the sprues having to then touch-up later. One thing this’ll teach you is tweezer control so as not to send the parts pinging away. Then it was onto the AA gun deck after finally assembling to bridge decks into place.

I feel I have to comment on the finesse of the moulding as those 40 mm quad bofors gun have to be seen to be believed, I’d say they are up to resin standard and when you think the kit was from the 80’s this is really quite remarkable. If I was making this kit blind, that is without knowing the make, I’d certainly never say it was an Airfix kit, maybe the plastic would give it away in some resects as it’s a darker harder plastic than Airfix use today, and the parts are shinny from a polished mould. The plastic is still softer than either Tamiya or Revell, and the fit and engineering rules out Academy and Trumpeter, so guessing the kit’s make would be a problem, but you could be forgiven in thinking it was any of the previously mentioned makes. Anyway back to the build; the AA gun deck went together without any apparent problems, after the various bits were painted and assembled. Just one thing to remember is leave the mast location holes free of paint otherwise you might have trouble fixing the masts into place.

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Bridge completed.

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Bridge & AA gun deck, those hanger doors are very well done pity one couldn't be opened showing a Walrus with folded wings.

The rear boat deck was next, as this was pre-assembled earlier all that was really needed, after touching up some dodgy paint, was adding all those boats all 10 of them. Here you’ll have to follow the instruction otherwise you could easily run into trouble. Airfix have never been good at giving painting guides for ships boats so I've use some artistic licence, painting then in mid sea grey with light sea grey insides except the covered ones I painted the covers white, The smaller launches having the tops canopies gloss white and the insides and screens gloss wood with red seat coverings. Again these boats are probably the best I’ve seen from Airfix and the fit into the locating holes was spot on. The larger launches were painted with gloss wood decks and cockpit screens with gloss white canopies and again red seats with gloss royal blue hulls, I really liked the way they fitted onto the boat racks, almost idiot proof, again well done Airfix. Once the boats were in place the funnel and aft bridge were added with the aft gun directors and what I take is the aft galley chimney.

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The aft boat deck T=that thing sticking up at the rear I take is the aft galley chimney.

Then it’s onto the armament. The main 14 inch guns are in the usual Airfix style. I didn’t dill out the barrels as they were too fine for a 0.5 mm drill and I didn’t want to damage them. This is were the older Airfix kit were let down as these 14” guns are finer than the 11’ ones on the Graf Spee I recently built. All gun were fixed solid as I now regard movable things on ships as “play value” and if they move someone, usually me, will move them, and if moved something WILL break. So now no movable play value bits. The only thing I had to do was replace the missing small gun on B turret with something scratch build, not too difficult. (See photos.) Again the the 5” AA guns were no problem. All guns being painted dark sea grey. British war-ships are a bit boring when it come to colour but I must admit the camouflage on the hull, even if it was a bit of a pain, certainly adds some interest and colour.

After the armament was done I made the cranes again gluing the jibs solid at maximum elevation and adding some rigging, (I couldn’t help myself.) another cudos for Airfix is that the cranes have been moulded with open jib work and that's in 600th scale, i've got several kits in 1/350 scale with filled in jibs, again well done Airfix. Then added the final bits to the deck being the three small boats and the life rafts.

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The B and Y main turrets with the scratch built gun on the B turret the other things on the top of both turrets are those useless U.P. launchers that the Royal Navy tried to deter low flying aircraft. There didn't work and were soon scrapped

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The main and secondary gun togeter with the cranes yet to be rigged. Note the open jib work & that's in 600 scale.

Next thing will be fixing all the above to the hull and mounting the hull onto the sea-scape and adding the masts. One thing I’ve discovered with dry fitting is that the bridge and AA gun deck will have to be fitted together as part of the bridge fits under a funnel platform while some steps from the gun deck fit over a bridge deck. Also there is a square structure at the rear of the bridge that butts up against the fore funnel. I had to slightly flatten the funnel and make the rear face of the bridge structure concave as there wasn’t enough space between the two to allow the bridge and gun platform to sit squarely on the main deck. This could be caused by my assembly as I did find the funnel didn’t fit properly as it was being fouled by the raised AA gun platform, although this piece did have very positive locating. Just something to be aware of if anyone is building this kit.

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Three views of the King George V with the parts just placed on the hull and on the unfinished sea base.

Up next is mounting everything and fixing the hull to the sea-scape and adding the masts, hopefully next week.

Hope you enjoy the photos and remember we do this for fun John the Pom.

John Symmons · May 17, 2019

Final part.

I was quite impressed with this kit that I started to check-out the remaining two Airfix 600 scale warships in my stash, the HMS Belfast and the Prinz Eugen both in later boxing styles. The HMS Belfast showing the made-up model on the box and dated 1986 and a Humbrol Product but also showed it to be made in France by Heller. The Prinz Eugen also was also made in France by Heller and again states it being a Humbrol product and dated 1990. Anyway back to the King George V.

I’ve now fixed the hull to the sea-scape base this was done using the tile cement I originally used for making the sea-scape. I usually use this for my sea-scapes as when I stared making them for my water-line ships I experimented with several materials and read and watched a lot of “how-to’s” none of which really appealed to me, especially the silicon one; then I had one of those light-bulb moments, I’m sure we’ve all had them. I had some left over ready mixed tile cement so I tried that and it works a treat. I did a description of the method in my 17/18th January 2016 posting on the Airfix Cambletown & Manxman (PG 97 of my postings. Sorry the photos are no longer available.)

Once the base had fully cured the base painting was finalized, and the masts could be assembled. Each mast is made up of 4 parts, the main pole plus the tripod stays then a small star-fish top then the top mast. These in typical Airfix fashion are built from the bottom up. Not the easiest method but as long as you leave plenty of time for the glue to set when you’ve done the base tripod it works. I did foresee that the locating holes for the tripod stays might be a bit hard to find so I did slightly enlarge them before cementing their structures to the main deck, and lightly scraping the ends of the mast stays. It helped but the fore mast was still a right pigs-ear to correctly get into place. The aft mast was made easier as I’d found I hadn’t glued the large launches onto their cradles, so it

was easy to remove them giving me room to see what I was doing. So if you’re making this kit don’t glue the launches on until after you’ve assembled the bottom of the aft mast. Maybe you could do something simular for the foremast?? Before adding the mast top pieces I added some very basic rigging to the mast tops. I did have a problem in deciding which way round the aft top mast went. The instructions show it with the yard-arms high above the top look-out platform were-as the paint guide and box art show the mast top the other way round. So it was off the find any reference photo I could find, eventually I conclude the instructions had the piece shown upside down, the yard-arms go in the lower position. I then added two very fine yard-arms higher up made from very fine stretched sprue as I’d seen these in the reference photos I’d consulted

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The tile cement I use for my sea-scapes and other diorama modelling. It really does stick to almost anything even that horrible slippery rubber type vinyl soft plastic Airfix and many other makers use for their small figures. About the only manufacture who seems to have done something about this horrible stuff is Zvezda who recently changed to a soft plastic that takes paint and normal styrene glue.

When dry the very rough rigging was completed and a flag made from tissue, wood glue ball point pens and very fine fibre pens. The final pieces added were the bow and stern jack stays. A quick check over and paint touch-up where needed, mainly the masts, and she was finished.

I conclusion this is certainly one of the better Airfix ships if not THE best, it’s the best Airfix one I’ve encountered. I did start this kit with some trepidation expecting to to find it more of a job-of-work to lessen my stash, but eventually once I’d got into it I really enjoyed it, and I’m actually reasonably pleased with the outcome. Maybe not the best ship I’ve made but seeing as it’s made OTB or OOB I feel its turned out quite good. The kit itself is reasonably straight forward to build it’s just the painting especially the deck and camouflage pattern that’s going to take some time. I’ve read several reviews and all say that deck takes about 2 or 3 days to paint. Then you have the hull camouflage that’s impossible to mask so it has to be brush painted. Luckily I managed to airbrush port side dark sea grey and the starboard side white thereby getting over the problem of brush painting white over a darker colour. The white on the port side is reasonably easy to paint and as it’s so small and at the water-line so any bad coverage isn’t really noticeable. In one review of an unpainted model the reviewer did say that painting this model wasn’t for the faint hearted and that you couldn’t really airbrush it, it had to be brush painted. True but then most model ships, especially WW 1 & 2 warships, are not really airbrush friendly considering the amount of masking you’d have to do, Maybe in the 200 or bigger scales airbrushing becomes a more viable option, but at 600 scale not really. He also said the gap ,between the bridge and AA gun deck shouldn’t be there, but on checking my references Airfix have got it right. Earlier I mentioned that a folded wing Walrus would’ve been nice, but I see the Belfast does have this feature and a propeller on the Walrus Now if Airfix could include this in the KG V future releases that would be a bonus.

Would I recommend this kit? Yes I would but be aware you’re going to have patience in painting it, but the end result is worth it, about the only thing needed to make this kit REALLY stand out is a set of PE railings. WEM used to do a complete set for this kit but WEM seems to have vanished, but I see Atlantic Models has now taken over the 600 scale PE market, so hopefully railing should be available. Maybe Airfix in a future release could partner with Atlantic and include a set of PE railings with a “Premium” release, And how about a vac formed sea-scape base for a water-line model. Well! It’s just a thought. Those deck railings are actually quite easy to add to the model you just have to believe you can do it. To finish off I’ll quote “Ian Wilkins” who reviewed this kit in 1997 on the Steel Navy web site.

As far as I know there are only two other full hull representations of KG V class ships, the Tamiya 1/350 scale KG V and POW and the Revell KG V and POW kits in an oddball 1/570 scale. The Airfix kit is both cheaper than the big Tamiya offerings and more detailed than the Revell. I can't rate this kit highly enough, I'm giving it five stars for its value, detail, and finished appearance. Its not quite as good as the Airfix Repulse (one of the best ship kits ever?) but its very good none the less.

You can find his full review at http://www.steelnavy.com/kgv.htm

Foot note.

Earlier when checking the other two Airfix kits in my stash I was also checking the box K.G. V model came in; I noticed a different catalogue number on the box, actually two catalogue numbers. The number I’ve quoted in the title was taken from the instructions, but the box has 06205-1 were-as the instructions has 06205-2 on them, ???. Then looking for a copy-write date I see C.P.G. Products Corporation 1981 and Made in France, this is printed on a separate sick-on label, then a catalogue number 071479 printed near the Airfix logo. ???

What this sort-of boils down to is I was looking to see if these two later kits were of simular moulding and detail quality as the K.G. V kit, I’m pleased to say they are. I think that most of the false starts with the K.G. V have had to do with the very basic detail and quality of the earlier Airfix ships in this scale, especially after making a couple of 350 scale models. (See my build post of the Graf Spee.) Now after building this kit I’m much more confident in doing the other two models. I’m pleased to see that Airfix are re-releasing some of these older war-ship models, but it did surprise me that Airfix went with the Graf Spee, Bismark and Hood, The Graf Spee really needs some work done on it, especially the masts and guns, (See photo below) and the Hood is in the pre-war fit and also needs some serious work to bring it up to a decent standard, I’ve built the Hood twice and both times it left me disappointed. When I built the Bismark I really enjoyed making it, but the model while looking like the Bismark and generally reasonably accurate the hull is too short by about an inch and the bow is the wrong shape and too narrow. But then these three kits are probably OK for nostalgic builds. Hopefully Airfix will re-release their later models such as the King George V, Prinz Eugen, Fearless and the Repulse that Ian mentioned above (I might even be tempted to buy one myself if it was re-released.) as these were all superb kits and worthy of what Airfix is now producing and hopefully could generate enough interest in the 600th scale for Airfix to bring their older moulds up to a better standard with some re-tooled parts, or even completely retool them or add new ships to the range like the HMS Furious in it’s many guises. And again add some PE railings. I’ll only add, I will be getting the re-release of the Ark Royal if it ever reaches Cape Town.

Photos of the completed HMS King George V and a couple with the Graf Spee And HMS Cambletown & HMS Manxman on the first effort at a sea-scape and using PE parts.

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Just a few views of the King George V cruising along at low speed. Not much wash from the propellers and a low bow wave and very little white water wash from the hull.

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Various views of the superstructure and showing some of the incredible fit and detail on this model.

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Two views of the KG V with the Airfix Graf Spee Note the thickness of the main mast compared to the KG V, also the Graf Spee 11” guns are quite a bit thicker than the KG V. Also look how empty & open the Graf Spee looks compared to the KG V.

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A very much what-if of three views of the King George V cruising with and escort of the HMS Cambletown and HMS Manxman.

Well that’s it guys hope you enjoyed my adventure with the King George and looking at the photos. I must admit this kit has re-awakened my desire to do some more ship modelling, so maybe I’ll tackle the other two Airfix kit in my stash in the not to distant future. As usual all comments welcome.

Remember we do this for fun John the Pom

T2B · May 26, 2019

Your KGV looks very very good John. I did one myself about 15yrs ago and your right it is a very good kit but don't think mine is as good as yours! And I do like your sea-scrape too.

Hopefully your review will encourage Airfix to do some totally new tool 1:600th scale ships!!!

cfoster_1 · July 8, 2020

Hi. I picked up this kit a few years ago without instructions would someone be able to send them to me?

Ratch · July 8, 2020

Instructions are available here

KaleuNW · September 20, 2023

Where are the photos?

Have you fallen victim to the Corona virus?

Ratch · September 20, 2023

Where are the photos?

Have you fallen victim to the Corona virus?

Some time ago this site was changed. All the old images went missing. We were assured that the techies were working on restoring them, but it hasn't happened. We've learned to live with it.

John Symmons · September 29, 2023

Hi KaleuNW.

Just saw you asking about those long lost photos of my Airfix KG V build. i checked through the photos of my old models but no trace of KG V. so iu thought they were lost for good. Then I accidentally found a model related docs in my documents folder, then there was an XP files then a Built models folder and guess what? there were all the old photos of the KG V build posted above.

I'll wont repost all the photos as to be honest I'm not too sure what goes where but I'll re-post the more salient ones. Firsly some views of the finished model.