Shelf Oddity Review

Shelf Oddity

1/350 Danton Upgrade Set

Reviewed by Martin J Quinn
November 2020

Shelf Oddity of Poland has sent us some upgrade sets for review. One of them is a photo-etch set designed for the HobbyBoss 1/350 Danton, set SO23506, 1/350 Danton (for HobbyBoss kit).

The Danton was a French semi-dreadnought. According to Wikipedia, "She was a technological leap in battleship development for the French Navy, as she was the first ship in the fleet with turbine engines. However, like all battleships of her type, she was completed after the Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought, and as such she was outclassed before she was even commissioned."

Laid down in February 1906, launched in 1909, Danton didn't enter service until 1911. She served mostly in the Mediterranean, where she was torpedoed by U-64 on March 19, 1917, taking 296 crew with her. Remarkably, Danton's wreck was discovered in 2007 during a survey for an underwater gas pipeline. She is reported to be in excellent condition, sitting upright on the seabed.

For more on the history of Danton, you can check out here Wikipedia page, where this information came from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Danton

Click to enlarge images

DANTON'S PHOTO-ETCH

There are two photo-etch frets in the package. Part include gratings for front and rear bridge decks, replacement railings for front and rear bridge decks, casemate covers, porthole covers and hull doors.

The photo-etch looks well etched and there is some terrific relief etching on many of the parts. The deck grating are especially impressive looking.

Close ups of some of the parts details.


INSTRUCTIONS
There are no instructions in the box, but the packing directs you to the Shelf Oddity website, where you'll find a PDF of the instructions, which are six pages long.

CONCLUSIONS

This photo-etch set will be really useful for those wishing to super detail their HobbyBoss 1/350 Danton. The detail and relief etching is quite nice, and should really stand out on your model. Combrig also produced a 1/350 Danton, but I do not know if all the parts in this set would fit that kit. Additionally, I don't know if this set would work with any of HobbyBoss' other Danton class releases, especially the deck grates.

This is Shelf Oddity's set SO23506, 1/350 Danton (for HobbyBoss kit). It lists for about $ 17.50 USD, and is available directly from Shelf Oddity, who I'd like to thank for this review sample. Highly recommended for those building the HobbyBoss Danton .