| HISTORY |
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| HMS Hermes was the Royal Navy’s and the world’s first purpose
built aircraft carrier. Ordered in 1917, she was not commissioned until
early 1924 due to numerous delays. She spent her early career in the Mediterranean
and on the China Station. Placed in reserve in 1937, the gathering clouds
of war led to her re-commissioning as a training carrier in 1938. Ill equipped
to fight in the Second World War II, Hermes served the Royal Navy faithfully
until sunk in the far east by Japanese Dive bombers off of the east coast
of Sri Lanka with a loss of 307 men. |
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| Flyhawk’s 1/700 1937 Coronation Fleet Review HMS Hermes
is based upon their excellent kit of the Hermes released in her final 1942
configuration. It will build into the HMS Hermes as she looked during the
pre-war fleet review for 1937 Coronation of King George the VI. There appears
to no new tooling, this version just uses different parts from the original
tooling. However there is new photo-etch, new instructions and decals,
rigging material, and the addition of a fret of Supermarine Walrus aircraft.
As with the 1942 kit, this kit contains a copy of the kit’s box art. The
box is separated into two sections, with all the parts in plastic bags.
There are 16 sprues in this kit plus the major hull parts bagged separately.
The instructions show a waterline plate weight, however that was missing
in my sample. |
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| THE HULL |
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| The upper hull is probably one of the finest I have seen
molded in plastic in 1/700 scale. There is hull plating is perfect as far
as scale effect goes and the portholes are molded with waterways. All the
hull details are finely molded. The hull appears to be perfectly to scale. |
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| The single piece hangar deck fits into the hull, with three hangar
sides molded in. They have detail molded on both sides. |
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| The lower hull has plating that carries over from the upper hull. The
bilge keels and docking keels are a nice touch. |
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| FLIGHT DECK |
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| The single piece flight deck is nice detailed on both sides,
but only your mind’s eye will be able to see the bottom from the hanger
deck below. The arrestor wires look great, and the flight deck even has
the Hermes unique after “hump”. |
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| THE ISLAND |
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| The parts for the island are on multiple sprues. The base of the island
– is slide molded and seam free. Check out the detail molded in the photo. |
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| PARTS SPRUES |
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| There are 16 sprues for this kit, I am sure you will not need all of
the parts as some are for the 1942 version. The parts on the sprues seem
to be well engineered and again flash free. The following photos show you
the parts sprues in detail. |
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| AIRCRAFT |
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There are 4 Swordfish aircraft, and two Walrus, for a total of 6 aircraft.
Each aircraft is well thought out with one piece airframes so none of the
nasty seams like with some other 1/700 scale aircraft. Parts are included
for open or folded upper and lower wings, nine parts for the Swordfish,
ten for the Walrus, not
including the photo etch detail. |
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| PHOTOETCH |
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| Here is where Flyhawk shines, and this PE set is no exception. There
is enough detail to make the finished kit a jewel in its own right. The
set seems complete, with no obvious omissions, so you should need nothing
after-market. |
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| DECALS and RIGGING |
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| Fly Hawk includes decals for all the markings needed for the ship in
review condition, complete with all flags and markings for her aircraft.
Also included is the finest rigging material I have seem come with a kit,
a nice touch. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| Flyhawk give the builder a set of full color instructions printed on
heavy paper with a full color painting guide. They are well written and
logical, and should make construction of this finely detailed kit easier
than most. |
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