more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Dido 1942 Royal Navy Dido Class Cruiser Kit (K702)
H.M.S. Dido was in fact the sixth of the class of light cruisers that bore her name, launched on 18 July 1939, and completed in September 1940. The class was derived from the Arethusas, and was intended to boost the number of cruisers as quickly as possible. The ships were designed to mount 10 x 5.25" dual purpose guns in twin turrets , as used as secondary armament on the King George V class of battleships, but due to supply shortages, a number of the ships did not receive their full number of these guns before commissioning. Dido entered service with only four of the turrets fitted, mounting a 4" starshell gun in place of Q turret. Her fifth turret was eventually fitted during her refit in Brooklyn Naval Yard in late 1941. The ships proved to be an adequate compromise, excelling against neither surface nor airborne targets, but able to engage either with reasonable effectiveness. They handled well, almost destroyer like, but pitched heavily due to the weight of the three turrets forward. Some of the class had Q turret removed to save on the ever increasing topweight. Dido served with the Home Fleet 1940-41, then sailed for the Mediterranean. She was bombed off Crete in May 1941, resulting in her repairs and refit in Brooklyn. She returned to the Med, being involved in the sinking of three enemy supply ships off North Africa in December 1942, before rejoining the Home Fleet in 1944. The surrender of Copenhagen was taken by Dido in May 1945. She joined the Reserve Fleet in 1947, before being finally broken up at Barrow in 1958. Dido’s battle honours were as follows: Crete 1941, Sirte 1942, Mediterranean 1942-44, Malta Convoys 1942, Sicily 1943, Salerno 1943, Aegean 1943, Anzio 1944, South France 1944, Arctic 1944. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Brilliant 1982 Type 22 Batch Royal Navy Destroyer Kit (K704)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Broadsword 1981 Type 22 Batch Royal Navy Destroyer Kit (K705)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Sheffield 1941 Royal Navy Southhampton Class Cruiser Kit (K706)
HMS Sheffield 1941. Southampton class 6" cruiser as she appeared during the Bismarck chasemore.. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Edinburgh 1939 Royal Navy Modified Southhampton Class Cruiser Kit (K709)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Battleaxe 1983 Type 22 Batch Royal Navy Destroyer Kit (K710)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Bluebell 1942 Royal Navy Flower Class Corvette Kit (K713)
In 1938 it became obvious to the British government that war with Germany was inevitable. Permission was therefore granted to the Admiralty to expand the Royal Navy to meet the threat from the Kreigsmarine. It was assumed that the country would be at war by 1940, and it was all too clear that existing designs for escort vessels to accompany the forthcoming convoys would be impossible to build in sufficient numbers in the time available. In 1915, the Middlesborough shipbuilders Smith’s Dock Co. Ltd. had met a similar requirement by the adaptation of an existing whalecatcher design, so the company was again approached for a solution. The design of the recently built whaler Southern Pride was enlarged and adapted to produce a design which could be produced quickly in large numbers. So was born the Flower class corvette. The Flowers were small, cramped and uncomfortable. They were slower than a surfaced U-boat and pitched and tossed in a heavy sea to the extent that numerous crewmen were injured by being hurled around on board. However, the Flowers had a number of important attributes. They were extremely seaworthy, had a long range and could out-turn a U-boat, plus although the hull and machinery were old fashioned, they were equipped with the latest asdic and radar, and crucially, they were available | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Chester 1916 Royal Navy Birkenhead 4 Stack Class Cruiser Kit (K714)
HMS Chester 1916. 4 stack Birkenhead class cruiser as she looked at Jutland, where the 16 year old crewman Jack Cornwell's refusal to leave his post when badly wounded won him a Victoria Cross at the cost of his life | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Kashmir 1939 K Class Royal Navy Destroyer Kit (K715)
HMS Kashmir was launched on 4th April 1939, being commissioned on 26th October. The K class formed the 5th Flotilla, originally intended for the Mediterranean, but the outbreak of war led to them being retained with the Home Fleet in 1939. In November, Kashmir, Kingston and Icarus sunk U35, before the class became involved in the Norwegian campaign in 1940. By April of that year, all seven surviving K's were in the Mediterranean and were committed to the evacuation of Crete in May, where Kashmir was sunk by the Stukas of I/St.G.2 on the 22nd. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Sussex 1942 Royal Navy County Class Cruiser Kit (K716)
Sussex was launched on 22nd February 1928 by Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn, and completed in March 1929. The outbreak of war delayed a planned refit intended to add, amongst other things, a side armour belt, and then during routine machinery repairs on the Clyde, she was hit by a bomb on 22nd November 1940. Being unmanned, she was quickly gutted by fire and a serious explosion, at which point the decision was made to flood her in order to minimise further damage to the ship and surrounding yard. As a result, Sussex capsized and settled on the bottom of the basin. She was later refloated and repaired, finally recommissioning in August 1942, when she joined the Home Fleet. The following year she went to the Far East, before a refit lasting from June 1944 to March 1945. After a time with the 5th Cruiser Squadron, Sussex went into reserve in 1946, being sold for scrap in 1950. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Warspite 1942 Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth Class Battleship Kit (K717)
H.M.S. Warspite is probably the best known Royal Navy warship of all time, next to H.M.S. Victory. She was launched on 26th November 1913 at Devonport, the second of the five Queen Elizabeth class of battleships. These ships were the first R.N. vessels to mount 15" guns, in a hull that achieved a good balance between speed and protection, resulting in one of the most successful class of battleships ever designed, a factor which kept them in service until the end of World War Two. Warspite commissioned on 8th March 1915, joining the 5th Battle Squadron at Scapa Flow. After a grounding and collision, she was back in action in time for Jutland on 31st May 1916, during which Warspite was in the thick of the fighting. At one point her rudder jammed and she turned almost two complete circles under the German guns before coming back under control. The return to Rosyth for repair was not without incident, as she was narrowly missed by two torpedoes from a U-boat, which she attempted to ram. Despite the severe damage she had received at Jutland, Warspite suffered only 14 dead and 17 injured. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Penelope 1940 Royal Navy Arethusa Class Cruiser Kit (K719)
H.M.S. Penelope was the third of the Arethusa class of light cruisers. She was launched on 15th October 1935, and completed in November 1936, serving in the Mediterranean until 1939, when she returned to home waters. She took part in the Norwegian campaign in 1940, during which she was extensively damaged by grounding on an uncharted rock. After repairs were completed, Penelope sailed to join Force K in the Mediterranean in 1941, with which she spent an extremely active two years, being involved in a number of successful actions against the Italian fleet. During this period she gained the reputation of being the most bombed ship in the Royal Navy, becoming known as H.M.S. Pepperpot on account of the number of holes punched in her structure. She was finally torpedoed and sunk by U-410 off Anzio on 18th February 1944, going down with the loss of 415 hands. Penelope's battle honours were as follows: Norway 1940, Malta Convoys 1941-42, Mediterranean 1941-43, Sirte 1942, Sicily 1943, Salerno 1943, Aegean 1943, Anzio 1944. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Queen Elizabeth 1918 Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth Class Battleship Kit (K721)
On November 28, 1916 when Admiral David Beatty replaced Admiral Jellicoe as Fleet Commander, Beatty selected Queen Elizabeth as his flagship. As the dashing commander of the battlecruiser force prior to his elevation to fleet command, it was to be expected that Beatty would appreciate the value of the fastest battleships in the fleet. From November 1916 to February 1917 Queen Elizabeth was fitted for duty as fleet flagship. From 1917 to 1918 she received other changes. Deflection scales were painted on either A & X or B & Y turrets, range finder clocks were added, coffee-box search light towers were added abeam and abaft of the second funnel, two 3-inch high angle anti-aircraft guns were added and range baffles were removed. Towards the end of 1918 the class received flying-off platforms to B and X turrets for Sopwith Camel fighters and Sopwith One & ½ Strutter reconnaissance aircraft. According to R. A. Burt Elizabeth did not receive these but there are photographs of the ship showing the flying-off platforms in place. John Campbell states that all five ships received the flying-off platforms by mid 1918. While serving as flagship at the end of the war. The naval terms of the armistice with Germany were arranged aboard Queen Elizabeth on November 15 at Rosyth. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 Mountbatten's HMS Kelly Sept 1940 K Class Royal Navy Destroyer Kit (K722)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Buttercup 1942 Royal Navy Flower Class Minesweeper Kit (K723)
HMS Buttercup was launched on 10th April 1941 and completed on 24th April the following year, after being converted for the minesweeping role during construction. This conversion included the addition of an acoustic hammer on an A frame at the bow, and a LL sweep gear, which was a rubberised cable towed astern through which an electric current was passed to explode magnetic mines. On commission she joined the Section Belge of the Royal Navy, crewed by men of the Belgian Free Navy, allocated to Escort Group B5 based in Londonderry. She soon moved across the Atlantic to New York in order to bolster the U.S. anti-submarine effort until the U.S. Navy worked up to the standard of efficiency in this field that the R.N. had attained over the preceding two years. Buttercup returned to Liverpool in January 1943 to continue convoy escort duties until being withdrawn for refit to prepare her for her part in the Normandy invasion. Following this she returned to her escort duties before being transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy in December 1944 as the R.N.N. Nordkyn. She continued with escort work until May 1945, and on the 13th of that month sailed for Oslo, one of the first Norwegian ships to return home. She served with the R.N.N. until 1957, when she was sold into mercantile service. Buttercup was awarded the battle honours Normandy 1944 and Atlantic 1942-1945. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Jervis 1945 J Class Flotilla Leader Royal Navy Destroyer Kit (K724)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 Russian Askold 1905 Tsarist Cruiser Kit (K725)
The Askold was launched in 1900, being probably the fastest Russian cruiser of the time. She was quite unique in appearance, having 5 tall funnels. She proved her worth in the Russo-Japanese war
In WWI she served in the Mediterranean and White Sea, where she was later captured by the British and commissioned in August 1918 as Glory IV. She was sent back to Russia and broken up in 1921. The money raised from her was used to build new Russian railroads | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Barham 1941 Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth Class Battleship Kit (K726)
In Preparation | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Norfolk 1990 Royal Navy Type 23 Duke Class Frigate Kit (K728)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Renown 1942 Royal Navy Renown Class Battlecruiser Kit (K738)
HMS Renown of 1893 was the 7ship of the name in the Royal Navy. She was the last 2 class battleship ordered by the Royal Navy. Mounting only 10-inch guns, she was much lighter armed than the standard British battleship, of the Royal Sovereign Class of 1890 with their 13.5-inch guns or the Majestic Class of 1894 with their 12-inch guns. Renown had something that the stronger battleships did not have, speed. At a time when the standard British battleship was lucky to reach 17 knots, the Renown did 19.75 knots on trials. Jackie Fisher loved his Renown and he loved her greatest strength, speed. In addition to serving as flagship for Admiral Fisher, the 7 Renown occasionally served as a Royal yacht and in 1905 took the Prince of Wales, future King George V, and Princess of Wales to India. This Renown was sold for scrap in 1914, just before the start of the war. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/350 2 x Elco 80ft PT-109 Torpedo Boat Kit with Photo Etched Parts (K741)
with 4 x 21"Tordepo Tubes , twin 0.5" machine guns, 37mm M3 & a 20mm Mk4 Oerlikon Cannon. 6 Mark 6 depth charges were also carried. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Starling 1943 Royal Navy Modified Black Swan Sloop Kit (K742)
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more | White Ensign Models 1/700 Royal Navy Banaff Class Escort Sloop Kit (K743)
U.S. Coast Guard Lake class cutter, supplied to the R.N. under Lend Lease for duration of WWII as Banff class sloops.more.. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 USCGC 1941 Lake Class Coastguard Cutter Kit (K744)
more.. | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Ajax 1941 Royal Navy Leander Class Cruiser Kit (K745)
Due soon | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMNZS Achilles 1945 Royal Navy Leander Class Cruiser Kit (K746)
Due soon | |
more | White Ensign Models 1/700 HMS Neptune 1941 Royal Navy Leander Class Cruiser Kit (K747)
Due soon | |
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