1/350 HMS Belfast 1942 (Trumpeter)
|
by Robert Apfelzweig |
1/350 HMS Belfast 1942 (Trumpeter)
Summary of this build's composition:Trumpeter's HMS Belfast portrays the ship after its early war repair/rebuild, late 1942 to early 1943. The kit is generally quite good (aside from the incorrect funnel shapes, minimal bridge baffles and the usual awkwardly fashioned 20 mm guns) and is well-detailed with the WEM photoetch set, which I purchased prior to this company's demise. The Hunter deck is the first I have used from this vendor; the wood material is quite thin, more so than from Pontos or KA, and there was significant blistering after adhesion, especially along the margins, but this was easily fixed with some added CA glue. The Hunter deck also comes with very useful (and generous) copper anchor chain and a photoetch fret of cable reels, which are absent from the WEM set. Online searches for high-resolution images of HMS Belfast primarily show her in her current museum ship appearance, not how she looked midway through World War II, but her rigging system was fairly simple and Trumpeter's camouflage scheme (included in a color plate with the plastic kit) seems to be accurate. As usual with Trumpeter, the main gun turrets are meant to be glued in place, but can be easily engineered to permit rotation without falling off from the decks. Properly installed, all the brass 6-in. and 4-in. guns can elevate, the former independently of one another. Trumpeter's kit comes with its own photoetch fret of ladders and radars, but these are duplicated with better detail in the WEM set.
- WEM brass photoetch
- MasterModel 6-in., 4-in. and single 20 mm guns
- Hunter wood deck
- Tamiya acrylic and Modelmaster enamel paints, Liquitex cadmium red medium hue 2 spray paint for lower hull and blue for the stand
HMS Belfast's career is fairly well-known; I'll just mention that the ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy barely a month before the outbreak of World War II, struck a mine off the Firth of Forth in November 1939 and was laid up for repairs and refitting until recommissioned in November 1942. She escorted Arctic convoys to the USSR and played an important role in the Battle of the North Cape on Dec. 26, 1943, when the German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk. HMS Belfast was one of the first Allied warships to open fire on the Normandy beaches on D-Day, and was sent to the Far East after Germany's surrender to fight against the Japanese, but was too late to see any action before their surrender. The ship served for several years of shore bombardment during the Korean War and was eventually laid up in reserve, to be ultimately saved from the breakers by a trust established in her name, and since 1971 has been a museum ship and is now moored near Tower Bridge on the Thames, London.
