| HMS Campbeltown was a Wickes Class destroyer,
built in the US in 1919 as the USS Buchanan. In 1940 the obsolete ship
was handed over to the Royal Navy Destroyers for Bases Agreement which
was in desperate need of convoy escorts. HMS Campbeltown became famous
with operation "Chariot", the St-Nazaire raid, thus preventing the Germans
from using the dry dock facilities to repair their capitol ships. For the
raid the Campbeltown had two over funnels removed and the other two cut
at an angle to resemble German destroyers. More about the raid can be read
on the The St. Nazaire Society
site..
Fly hawk is taken their successful USS
Ward kit added a new deck, bridge and many new pieces to capture the
look and feel of the each HMS Campbeltown during the raid.
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| HULL PARTS |
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| The kit is a full hull kit with separate lower hull
and waterline plate. The upper half is molded using slides to allow for
detail on both sides and still produce a one-peice hull. The lower hull
fits nicely on the upper part with a nice joint that will need very little
work. Notice the last image below shows the parts sitting together, impressive
engineering! It is a good thing that the lower hull is included as this
ship had to be lightened considerably to clear the channel. It rode
higher in the water than normal. If you choose to model it after
ramming the drydock you're going to need lower hull anyway. |
Click images
to enlarge |
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| SPRUE D |
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| The Propellers, shafts, rudder and some rafts are molded on this sprue. |
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| SPRUE E |
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| The main sprue features a one piece deck that includes realistic camber,
a nice touch! Molding is pretty good and the parts look crisp and nicely
detailed for this small scale. |
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| MISCELLANEOUS SPRUES |
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| Image of some of the parts cut from other sprues are shown below. Among
them are slide molded funnels with open ends, and deckhouses with detail
all around. If you look closely you can see rivet details on the 3 inch
gun assembly. |
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| SPRUE GB06 |
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| Life rafts also nicely molded and incredibly detailed for the scale. |
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| SPRUE GB23 x2 |
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| 20mm machine guns are nicely molded but fixed in the horizontal position.
They feature very thin gun barrels. |
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| PHOTOETCH |
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| Photo etch railings, supports, letters and chain are among the
details included here. They stand to hold full hull version is also
included with the ship's name etched on. |
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| DECALS |
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| During the raid the German flag was flown to confuse the enemy, the
British flag was raised during the final run to the target and FlyHawk
includes both versions. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| Two color sheets are included showing all the parts along
with painting guide. These are pretty extensive and should be all you need
to build the Campbeltown.
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| CONCLUSIONS: |
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FlyHawk continues to release important new ships in 1/700 scale.
I'm impressed by both the level of detail and the research that went into
designing this kit. It appears to be a spot on match for the HMS
Campbeltown during Operation Chariot. Highly recommended.
Thanks to FlyHawk
Models for the review sample. |
