1/350 HMS Montrose (Trumpeter)
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by Frank Spahr |
1/350 HMS Montrose (Trumpeter)
Building HMS Montrose
This model was built from the 1:350 injected plastic kit by Trumpeter. It is a very nicely produced, well-fitting kit, with some (rather uber-delicate) PE, and builds really well. There are some glitches, though, most notably the absence of the new style „Kryten“ gun turret, even though shown on the boxart. The 30 mm guns are the older style, too, so basically this is the original HMS Kent kit with different markings only.
I was lucky in not just having a number of good images of Montrose taken in 2011 by a friend of mine during a harbour cruise at Plymouth /Devonport, he was also in possession of a spare Kryten turret from the fine WEM kit, and willing to part with it. I also obtained the excellent WEM PE set (which proved to be easier to work with than the extremely delicate Trumpeter items) and built the kit. I did some very limited detailing, for instance I drilled some tie-downs into the helo deck, added some shelving inside the hangar, did some detailing of the RAS stations, and covered the old-style 30 mm´s with „tarps“ made from cigarette paper soaked in floor polish. For the helicopter's rotor, the kit part was used, as it had more structure to it than the PE item. I had to sand the brittle clear styrene down to a few stray microns of its life to get a decent thickness, though. It took some time to saw open all the bridge windows, but I was pleased with the effect and prefer it to just painting them.
The model was painted mostly in Vallejo paints, after some de-greasing and priming with automotive primer. Only limited weathering was done using artists oils. A number of the excellent North Star resin figures was used to bring life to the ship. The vessel was rigged using UNI flyfishing thread gauge 8/0, glued with CA glue.
The base was made very early in the project, using a piece of 40 mm insulation foam board, cut to size and a cutout provided for the hull. The base was then carved into the approximate wave and wake pattern, sanded, puttied and sealed with white wall paint, applied in a stippling motion. Green and blue acrylics were sprayed to get the proper shades. After a thorough curing time, the base was sealed with solvent based clear gloss spray paint from a rattle can. That cured, some drybrushing with white artist´s oil paint and some effect with clear gloss acrylic gel completed the project.
I plan to yet add a machined brass barrel to the gun once available.
All in all very neat and affordable model kit of a very good looking
modern warship in my book, but you need to be aware of the above mentioned
glitches and consult your references.
