Reviewed by Martin Quinn
Photos by Timothy Dike |
| With the onset of war in August 1914, three additional
ships of the Royal Sovereign class (and an additional Queen Elizabeth-class
ship) in the 1914 naval building program were canceled. However,
the return of Jackie Fisher to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord in late
1914 transformed what were supposed to be three R-class battleships into
two new Battlecruisers - Renown and Repulse. Ordered just after the
Battlecruisers smashing success at the Falklands, the pair were built in
a remarkably short period of time. Renown was built at Fairfield
in Govan on the River Clyde, and was completed in just over a year and
a half. Graced with good looks, superb 15 inch guns and great
speed, Renown had minimal armor. When she joined the fleet
in late 1916, it was after the Battlecruiser debacle at Jutland, making
her and her sister very unpopular ships.
Due to the lack of armor, the sisters ended up shuttling in and out
of dockyard hands for improvements, such as raising the forward funnel,
re-arranging the searchlight configuration and installing additional deck
armor. These trips to the dockyard earned the sister the nicknames
"Refit" and "Repair". When Renown finally joined the fleet
for good in 1917, she joined the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, where the
highlight of her World War I career was the surrender of the German Fleet
in November, 1918.
Amongst her duties post war was her role as Royal Yacht, making
two trips to Australia and New Zealand. Extensively rebuilt in the
late 1930's, she served in a variety of theaters during the Second World
War, finally succumbing to the scrappers torch in 1948. |
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| HULL |
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| Renown was 794 feet overall, with a beam at her widest point of 90
feet. In 700 scale, that would equate to an overall length
of 13.6 inches and a width of 1.5 inchs. The NNT Renown scales
out pretty much perfectly to the real thing. |
click images
to enlarge
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| However, the curve of the bow doesn't look pronounced enough,
and the width of the waterline looks too wide, from the bow back to the
first barbette, depriving the model of the graceful shape that the real
ships have.
The armored belt looks oversized and a bit out of scale, and I thought
the boat cradles are a bit thick. On a positive note, overall
the hull is nicely cast, with fine details and most of the first deck of
the superstructure cast in place. The deep recesses under the
01 deck are finely reproduced, leaving a thin and realistic looking overhang,
and the cable reels looks as if they are wound with actual cable.
These ships were launched without wooden decks, so deck strips (also
called 'foot strips') were installed for traction (Battlecruisers,
John Roberts, Pg 49). You'll find these strips all along the
deck. They look convincing, and will be toned down even further with
a coat of paint.
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE PARTS |
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| Being a World War I ship, the superstructure is pretty sparse, but
what parts are here are generally well done. Some of the parts
are on a wafer, while some are on a 'sprue' (which I prefer). Some
highlights of the superstructure parts include nice recessed vision slits
in the armored conning tower and some crisply cast parts, including some
of the hatches and other deck fittings. However, some of the portholes
are a little shallow and will need to be drilled out further. |
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Renown and Repulse were launched with funnel of an even height, but
shortly after entering service, the forward funnel was raised on both ships
- similar to what was done to the Invincible class Battlecruisers - to
clear smoke from the bridge. The kit comes with two funnels
of even height, which means represents this model 'as built'.
The funnels are well cast, if a little devoid of detail (no external piping
is included), though the tubes coming up from the stacks are a nice touch.
The searchlight platforms are also 'as built'.
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| MAIN GUNS |
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| The main battery turrets are, in my opinion, the weakest part of the
kit. The width of the turrets appears to be too narrow, with
not enough curvature to the forward face. This gives them the
appearance of being decidedly under scale, especially when compared to
the turrets in the Tamiya Repulse kit, or the White Ensign Renown (though
these may be a different design after the ships 1939 rebuild). There
are both resin and brass barrels included in the kit. The resin
barrels come in two styles - with and without blast bags. While
the resin barrels are serviceable, I prefer the brass barrels. With
a bit of patience, you could probably use the resin blast bags with the
brass gun barrels. |
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| SECONDARY GUNS |
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| The secondary guns are really well done, especially the
triple 4 inch guns. The guns and the platform are cast as one, made
to slide into the very thin and finely cast gun shields. There
are also some other secondary weapons and they are crisply cast as well.
The fidelity of the gun shield is really amazing in this scale. |
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| FITTINGS AND FIXTURES |
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| The smaller fittings and fixtures are well done, with a minimum of
flash. Among the parts are search and signal lamps, anchors,
and gun directors. |
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| BOATS AND RAFTS |
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| Since this an 'as built' model, Renown carried a fair number of boats,
many right on the main deck. The boats are nicely cast, but seem
a little soft on details. |
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| DECALS |
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| I hesitate to call the decals a "sheet", as they are so small - it
only consists of two flags, the White Ensign and the National Flag.
The decals are okay - I'll probably dip into the spares box and see if
I have anything better before using these. |
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| PHOTO ETCH |
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| The photo-etch set is good. It consists of inclined and
accommodation ladders, funnel grates, boat cradles, supports for the 01
deck and boat davits. It even has some what appears to be 3D etching
on the photo-etch for the boats. However, there doesn't seem
to be a lot of railing for a ship the size of Renown. If there is
enough, there it probably just enough, so be careful when railing the model. |
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| METAL PARTS |
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| The metal parts consist of the brass barrels for the 15 inch main guns.
These are really nice, and as mentioned above, I would use these in place
of the resin barrels included with the kit. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions consist of 3D exploded view of the ship
on 3 double sided pieces of paper on landscape format. On the
last page is a profile view of the ship with call outs for which Humbrol
color (codes only) to use. While not extensive, they are better
than the instructions that I've seen with other kits, and should be sufficient
to build this model. Still, I would have liked to have seen
names to go with the color call outs and a plan view to go with the profile
view. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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It's great to see so many unique World War I ships being released.
Being a huge "fan" of Battlecruisers, I was eagerly anticipating this model.
On the plus side, it's impressive in size, and compared to the plans in
Ensign 8 on Renown & Repulse, it certainly looks like an early Renown.
However, it's not without it's flaws. While the casting is nice,
the issues with the shape of the bow and the gun turrets knock down what
could have been a terrific kit into a good but not great model.
I think the choice of as "as built" Renown was odd, since the ship was
quickly modified. That being said, I'd still recommend this model
to fans of either World War I ships or fans of Battlecruisers (or both!).
Thanks to NNT for the review sample. |
