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1/350 Mk33 Gun Director with Mk4 Radar
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April 2023 |
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| Kraken Hobbies has sent along another one of their products for review. This set contains a set of gun directors and radars: 1/350 MK33 Gun Director, with MK4 Radar. The MK33 gun director with the MK4 radar was found on the Gridley, Bagley and Benham class destroyers, as well as on the carrier Wasp. The website Military History says: "The Mk 33 GFCS was a power-driven fire control director, less advanced than the MK 37. The Mark 33 GFCS used a Mk 10 Rangekeeper, analog fire-control computer. The entire rangekeeper was mounted in an open director rather than in a separate plotting room as in the RN HACS, or the later Mk 37 GFCS, and this made it difficult to upgrade the Mk 33 GFCS. It could compute firing solutions for targets moving at up to 320 knots, or 400 knots in a dive. Its installations started in the late 1930s on destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers with two Mk 33 directors mounted fore and aft of the island. They had no fire-control radar initially, and were aimed only by sight. After 1942, some of these directors were enclosed and had a Mk 4 fire-control radar added to the roof of the director, while others had a Mk 4 radar added over the open director. With the Mk 4 large aircraft at up to 40,000 yards could be targeted." | |||||||||
Click to enlarge images |
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| NEW ORLEANS CLASS MK9 TURRETS | |||||||||
| The packaging is in the usual large
plastic clamshell container, with one printed raft secured to the bottom
of the packaging with thick double sided tape.
The set includes two 3D printed MK33 directors, with the MK4 radars integrally printed on. Overall the detail is good. There are some hatches and doors printed to the sides of the director, and the MK4 radar is well done, with a printed mesh "screen". These radar screens look really good, though there are a few holes, especially around the central bar that supports the radar, that don't appear to be fully open. Though that could just be the mount blocking the openings. |
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| CONCLUSIONS | |||||||||
| Looking to upgrade one of those older resin Gridley,
Bagley or Benham class destroyers, or that CV-7, all of which
have been languishing in your stash, waiting to be built? Well, these
parts should certainly help improve the look of those old kits (along with
other 3D printed upgrades). It will certainly beat trying to wrangle
a PE radar screen into shape. My only thought would be to go easy on the
paint, or you'll end up clogging the radar mesh.
This is Kraken Hobbies 1/350 MK33 Gun Director, with MK4 Radar. It retails for $9.99 USD, and is available directly from Kraken Hobbies, who I'd like to thank for this review sample. Recommended! |
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