by Dr György Pék
1/700 HMS Brilliant (WEM)
This is my WEM 1/700 HMS Brilliant which went through a prolonged gestation of three years with construction suspended for more than one year due to certain problems. It is now ready and will be part of a Falklands dio that I hope to finish in a considerably shorter time. This is my first ever resin kit and I have to admit that the construction was not without difficulties. The tendency to warp is a permanent cause for concern because once remedied it can return later so the best thing to do is to keep the ships screwed down to a flat base. The kit itself is well researched if simplified a bit but it has one major flaw: the forecastle deck seems to be too narrow, there is hardly enough space for the Exocet launchers. This fault is almost impossible to cure and is best left in the original condition. I tried to superdetail the model according to the excellent Jecobin plan which obviously represented the major source of information to WEM during the preparation of the kit. I used certain parts of the WEM Type 42 set which boasts much finer railing than the one included in the Brilliant kit. My model features a srcatchbuilt bridge with some crew members inside. I used WEM colourcoats and about 140 crew members from Eduard "man the rails". I hope to present the Falklands Task Force to you soon.
