HMS Amazon build

[KiwiKev]

The 1:600 HMS Amazon kit is a good basis for building a detailed model if you can get your hands on one. I was lucky enough to find one online locally for a reasonable price so this is the "next" project.

[KiwiKev]

This old kit provides yet another post WW2 Royal Navy subject to go with HMS Victorious, Fearless, Devonshire, and Leander.

It has some strange features, such as spikey parts for the masts that turned out to be the yard arms in triangular shape, I guess to try and capture both the horizontal arms and the bracing in one piece.

The gun turret isn't too bad in profile but rather square in plan and will be filed to a rounder shape.

The Sea Cat launcher will be scratch built as the one on this model is another weird and wonderful attempt to approximate it.

There are a few other "adjustments" to be made but they shouldn't be too hard to do. I also have the Excocet cannisters from the Leander kit and they will be used to detail the deck directly in front of the bridge where HMS Amazon received these missiles.

[KiwiKev]

Someone suggested that Airfix designed this kit based on preconstruction drawings. That would explain why some things appear to be in the wrong location.

Ship's boat davits seem too far forward, the torpedo tubes should be further aft. These are all details that are easily fixed.

Surplus WEM photo etch will be put to good use for yard arms, and the Exocet set supplied with a Leander kit will form the basis for this model.

I toyed with replacing the bridge, as it doesn't have the outward lean of the window pane surfaces, but after adding the housings for the wipers and fitting window panes made of black painted paper, it looked quite good so I used the one supplied. It does at least have very clearly defined pane locations. I didn't actually count that the number was right but it looks the part.

[KiwiKev]

Slightly more detail added now. To avoid an overly bland look it pays to study photographs, map out conduits, junction boxes and ventilation ducts and add them using wire, styrene, and anything else that will work. Having said that, some surfaces of the real ship were actually quite flat and featureless.

Note the stern side plating has been cut down around the transom whereas the original kit hull is full height all the way back. The boat davits are set further back than the holes provided, as are the triple torpedo tubes. The short main mast has yet to be fitted with PE yard arms, I'll leave those till last thing before painting to avoid knocking them off again.

[KiwiKev]

This project seems to have fallen together rather quickly. All of a sudden its finished. The joy of doing a smaller model. Quite a nice basic kit which with some added details and adjustments to the layout ended up a respectable addition to the collection.