Airfix 1/600 Scale HMS Iron Duke
Review by Ian Wilkins
 

Another of the more detailed Airfix Ships and a fairly unusual model. I can't think of another injection kit of a WWI battleship. There are lots of small parts and the model assembles into a fairly visually complex representation of the real ship. The model proports to represent the vessel in her wartime configuration but there are discrepancies. The bridge/foremast assembly is more accurate for the 1920s and if you wish to model the ship as at this period a new mainmast and searchlight platform will have to be fabricated. I reccommend R A Burt's British Battleships of WWI as an aid in this as it has superb line drawings of Iron Duke in both 1914 and 1921 configurations. This kit has lots of conversion potential to other capital ship classes of the period and provides a range useful components for scratchbuilds as well. The kit was recently re-issued by Airfix and is very welcome.
 
 

The bridge assembly on this kit is way to tall when installed. It should roughly come out level with the top of the fore funnel. As you can see in this picture it is very much taller than this. I suspect the problem lies in the heights of the superstructure blocks on each platform. I will check this out properly in the near future. A reader e-mailed me about this some time ago and I forgot! I just found the old e-mail, sorry!