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The Combrig St. Vincent
With this release of St. Vincent, Combrig
continues to round out the dreadnoughts of the Royal
Navy's Grand Fleet, at least in kit form. The
kit is boxed in a sturdy white box, with a photo of
the St. Vincent on the cover. The
contents are (mostly) well packaged, with soft foam
filling the box and preventing the contents from
shifting. The smaller parts were once
again packaged in one bag. While Combrig has
greatly improved their packaging with much sturdier
boxes and foam to protect the contents, I'd still like
to see them partition the smaller parts into separate
bags, so the larger superstructure parts aren't
bumping up against smaller, more delicate parts.
Fortunately, this time, nothing was broken. The
model represents St. Vincent as built.
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| THE HULL |
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The hull appears to scale out
pretty much perfectly in length and beam.
It's sharply cast in light gray resin, with good
details. The planking - while there are no butt
ends - is very crisp. There are well cast
bollards and chocks, breakwater and anchor handling
gear. The coal scuttles are noticeable but
overstated. There is also nice detail on
the sides of the hull, such as the armor belt and
scuttles. Compared to the hull of an release -
Conqueror - in the photos below, the latest Combrig
kits are more detailed. I like the subtle
lines cast into the deck to mark where the
superstructure parts are located.
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE AND FUNNELS |
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Most of the superstructure parts
are on two thin resin wafers. The wafer with the
larger parts is paper thin, the parts should be able
to be removed quite easily. The two largest part
on this wafer make up the base of the superstructure
for the model, with the larger one going on top of the
other. The upper superstructure part the
bulkheads integrally cast into it, with an open
top. Inside, on the deck, there are subtle lines
cast into the deck help locate additional
parts. Once you've painted and installed
the parts inside this, other decks lays over
it. The openings for the secondary guns in
this part with have to be opened with a sharp hobby
blade. The funnels are two parts - the
wider base and the thinner, flat funnels
themselves. This is so the tops of the
funnels can be installed after the funnel bases and
after the deck close it all up. All the parts
are up to Combrig's usual high standards.
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| MAIN BATTERY TURRETS |
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The design of the St Vincent
class was derived from that of the previous Bellerophon
class, with more powerful guns and slight increases in
size and protection. Bellerophon was
a derived from Dreadnought, so St. Vincent has a
similar main battery layout, with five turrets - three
on the center line and two wing turrets. The
turrets are sharply cast, though you'll have to sand
down the part that fits into the barbettes to get them
to fit properly, at least on the three forward most
turrets. The main battery rifles are cast in
resin, with open muzzles. They look decent, for
resin, but many modelers may prefer to replace them with
metal barrels.
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| SHIPS BOATS |
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There are a dozen ships boats included with St.
Vincent. The quality is the usual
high standard of the boats found in Combrig's
kits.
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| ASSORTED PARTS |
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The rest of the parts included
capstans, cable reels, davits, the large boat boom
that is mounted to mainmast, anchors, searchlights and
numerous other small parts. Some of these parts
are so small, that I suspect that when the Combrig
crew asks the boss if the parts are small enough, he
says, "Nyet, make smaller". The boat boom
is particularly impressive, and the casting is first
rate all the way around.
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| PHOTO-ETCH |
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One fret of photo-etch is included
in the kit. It includes the complex
midship boat cradles, starfish, braces, supports,
funnel caps, bridge facing (with windows) and a
complete set of railings. The only thing
not includes are masts, yards and torpedo net
booms.
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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The instructions - while typical
in layout for Combrig – are much more robust than
earlier kits. They are 13 pages long, over
seven, double sided sheets of paper. There is a
parts manifest, instructions on how to make the
'self-made' torpedo net booms, mast and yards,
followed by a much more extensive step-by-step build
instructions.
There are no color callouts or painting instructions,
but a nice plan and profile view of St. Vincent
on the first page. Kudos to Combrig for
continuing expand and improve their
instructions.
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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looking kit of one of the Grand Fleets lesser known
members. The casting is up to the usual Combrig
high standards. It's got a nice, complete
photo-etch sheet and expanded instructions. The
packaging of the overall product is very good, though I
still wish Combrig would split the smaller, delicate,
parts into a separate bag from the larger parts, to
prevent breakage. It doesn't seem like that
would be a hard thing to do. The only thing
missing is masts, yards and torpedo net booms, but then
the inclusion of those parts would push the price point
much higher.
Overall, St. Vincent is
another excellent offering from Combrig. Highly
recommended, especially for First World War and/or
Grand Fleet fans.
This is Combrig’s 1/700 HMS St. Vincent, kit
number 70624. The model lists for $100.00, and is
available from many of our fine sponsors. This is an
in-box review, your mileage may vary once you commence
construction. Thanks to Combrig
Models for the review sample.
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