| The HMS Daring is the lead ship of a
new class of Air Defense Destroyer intended to replace the older Type 42's.
The first new DD since the days of the Cold War. Designed to have a stealthier
silhouette and featuring a new AEW system these sleek new destroyers
can track and destroy five times as many targets as their predecessor.
There are six of these new ships planned with three (Daring D32, Dauntless
D33, and Diamond D34) completed so far. Dragon D35, Defender D36, and Duncan
D36 are still in the building stages as of now.
Cyber-Hobby a division of Dragon Models has followed up with their other
state of the art release, the Independence
LCS-2 with this one representing the Royal Navy's latest and
greatest. Like their other new ship releases this one has a lot of great
features.
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| SPRUE A |
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| The main sprue includes a one piece main deck. This is
a big plus as some companies chose to mold these are two or even three
parts. Having one piece minimizes the amount of fitting that the modeler
will have to do. |
Click
images
to enlarge |
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| The superstructure parts and even some deck parts are molded
separately. This will make painting a little easier as you can assemble
and paint the main deck before adding some of the details that are difficult
to mask around. Five bladed propellers and thin propeller shafts are well
molded as are the main deck gun and various parts. Even the antenna parts
are nicely done for plastic. If you think they are overly thick, don't
worry you have a photo etch option too.
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| SPRUE B |
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| The superstructure parts are included on this sprue. Slide molding
is used to allow for some parts to have detail molded on more sides. This
allows the parts to be produced without having to join several parts and
then fill the resulting seams. Detail is very nice overall and even the
hanger has some interior detailing. |
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| SPRUE C |
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| A separate upper and lower hull are included giving the modeler a choice
of full hull or waterline display. Both feature nice molding and sharp
features. The lower hull includes some really nice thin molding around
the bilge keels and stabilizer fins. |
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| The fit between the upper and lower hull is good. So the
modeler shouldn't have to spend a lot of time filling and sanding. The
engineers at Dragon have designed the tool for the lower hull to allow
maximum detailing in a single part. Very impressive!
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| SPRUE B2 |
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| This is the standard Royal Navy weapons sprue with parts found on typical
warships. In this case you only need the Helo, so you will have a lot of
nice spare parts to upgrade your other Royal Navy ships. |
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| PHOTOETCH |
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| A photo etch fret is included with the safety netting for the help
deck on the stern and the optional brass antenna for the mast. Also included
are the roll up doors for the hanger and accommodation ladders. |
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| DECALS |
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| The decals are supplied for not only the Daring, but also the next
two ships in the class. They include warning circles hull number, deck
markings and ships badges for the first three ships. Roundels for the Helo
are also included. They are all sharply registered and of the typical quality
you would expect from Cartograph of Italy. |
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| SPRUE Z |
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| The base for this kit has been designed based on how most modelers
like to display their ships in full hull mode. The stands which resemble
lamp finales are even slide molded so they have no seams to fill and sand.
Hole locations are provided so all you have to do is open them up with
a knife or drill. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions are six pages with lots of subassembly
views that are easy to follow. The last page features a painting guide
showing decal placement. I don't really care for the order of assembly
as most modelers will finish the hull and deck before adding the superstructure
parts and details that can get knocked off while trying to fit the parts.
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| BUILD UP PHOTOS |
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| On the right is the promotional poster showing some of the features.
Below are photos of a fully assembled production version of this kit. Everything
shown is included. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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 The
Cyber-Hobby line of ships are intended to be an more affordable line of
ship model kits, however this one features much of the same Smart Kit molding
and features that Dragon includes in their other new 700 scale ships. I
am glad to see them tackling new subjects such as this new state of the
art British Destroyer using the same state of the art molding that sets
them apart from other manufacturers.
These new kits. HMS Daring (Item No. 7093) are now shipping to stores.
You can get it now direct from Dragon
USA or CyberHobby for about $34.95. A great price for a nicely optioned
and detailed ship of this size. |
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