MT Miniatures
1/700 Ton Class Minsweeper


 
Reviewed August 2016
by Martin J Quinn
HISTORY
The Ton-class were a group of 119 minesweepers built mostly for the RN but served with other countries as well. According to Wikipediea, “The class served as patrol vessels in Borneo, Malaysia, Northern Ireland and Hong Kong. The mine hunters played a significant role in the Suez Canal clearance after the Yom Kippur war. They also provided the backbone of the UK's Fishery Protection Squadron.” 

For more, see the Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton-class_minesweeper
MT Miniatures has released a resin model of the Ton class minesweepers.   The kit consists of seven parts – one resin and six white metal.    It comes packaged in a bag, with the hull wrapped in bubble wrap, and the additional six parts in a smaller plastic bag.  click to 
enlarge images
THE HULL 
The model is small – just about 2 ½ inches long – and cast in a very dark gray resin. The hull, superstructure, funnel and most of the deck fittings are all cast as one piece. The length and beam of the model scale out just about perfectly to the real thing. 

Overall, the casting on my example is bit soft on the details. There are marks on each the side of the hull which will need to be sanded smooth. I noticed that the port side strake on the side of the hull is higher than the starboard side, especially closer to the bow. There is a thin resin over pour on the bottom of the hull, which will need to be sanded off. 
WHITE METAL PARTS
The remaining parts are all white metal. They include two guns, two davits, a mast and what looks like a pole mast that slots behind the mast and the funnel. They are typical of most white metal parts, a bit simplistic and not much detail.
DECALS
There is one small decal sheet included with the kit, pennant number M1134.  MT Miniatures also offers a pennant number decal set as a separate item. 
INSTRUCTIONS
The instructions are a one page affair, with an exploded drawing of the hull and white metal parts, showing you were to attach said white metal parts. There is no history, painting instructions or color call outs.  The modeler will have to consult his references. 
CONCLUSIONS
This kit is a little soft on details, and appears to be geared more for the collector than the detail enthusiast. That’s exactly who I’d recommend it for – the collector. If you need the channel swept for your modern Royal Navy frigates and carriers to pass, then you’ll need to add this minesweeper to your scale model fleet. 

This is an inbox review of MT Miniatures kit number MTM036, 1/700 Ton-Class minesweeper. It retails for £7.95 ($10.28 USD) and is available directly from MT Miniatures or from many of our other fine sponsors. Thanks to MT Miniatures for this review sample.