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by Christopher Martens |
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| HISTORY | |||||||||||||||||
| BAP Almiralte Brau was a scout cruiser that impressively
served 51 years in the Peruvian Navy. The Grau was designed and built by
the British and consequently wouldn't be out of place in the Royal Navy.
Her main armament were two 6-inch (152mm) guns supplemented with a smattering
of 14 and 3-pounder pop guns. As benefitted most scouts, the Grau was protected
by the latest in paper protection, boasting mostly 1 1/2" and 3" "well,
you tried" spec armor. Her top speed was a respectable, for the time, 24
knots with a cruising range 3,276 nautical miles.
At the time of her order, Peru had boasted one of the most powerful navies in the Americas. However, losses during the (first-ish) Pacific War necessitated some replacements. Grau's purchase was funded via "patriotic boards" (read: state-sponsored panhandling) due to tensions with Chile and Ecuador. The Grau was one of two identical cruisers paid for in this way, the other being her sister the BAP Coronel Bolognesi. The Almiralte Grau was launched in 1906 and arrived in Peru in 1907.
Both sisters were well-loved by the Peruvian Navy. Both were heavily modified
over their long lives, receiving substantial AAA fit just before and during
the Second World War as well as a new tripod mast. The Admiralte Grau saw
action against Colombia in 1932, facing mercinaries hired by the Colombian
State. She saw further action against Ecuador in 1941 (unrelated to World
War II). The Grau was finally decomissioned in 1958, capping over fifty
years of service.
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| THE HULL | |||||||||||||||||
| The Admiralte Grau's hull is cast in light grey resin like all their newer products. Small details (coal scuttles, decking, vents, etc.) are plentiful. Doggy Industries continues to show improvement of their casting and molding techniques. This small kit (with some exceptions listed below) wouldn't be amiss among some of Combrig's newest resin kits. | |||||||||||||||||
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| BRIDGES AND SUPERSTRUCTURE | |||||||||||||||||
| Doggy offers two of Grau's
configurations in this box: pre- and post-rebuilds before/during World
War II. The former offers both a resin bridge and potential photo etch
replacement. The late build is offered only in resin. Given the high quality
of included photo etch, I wish Doggy had offered a photo etch replacement
for the later configuration. The resin bridges are well-cast, but molded-on
"railing" is quite thick and out of scale. Still, the pilothouse on the
1944 bridge is impressive. I will remove and replace the edges with photo
etch when I build this kit. I do rather like the funnels, though. The pipes
are extraordinately finely molded.
I've included the Carley floats in these photos since they came with
the 1944 conversion parts. They're well-cast and only surpassed by some
newer 3D printed resin offerings.
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| MISCELLANEOUS PARTS | |||||||||||||||||
| These wafters contain everything
from the ship's weaponry to various deck bits.
These resin parts' quality is in the upper-average of what we can find on the market today. Given the Doggy's size, that's impressive. Like the hull, the parts are well cast and would easily take to more detail if the builder desired. My only complaint would be that the ship's boats are a little primitive and shallow. |
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| MAIN GUNS | |||||||||||||||||
| Grau had two 6" semi-protected guns. The resin kit offerings are pretty nice and better than a lot of kit-based resin offerings. With the included brass barrels, they will satisfy the vast bulk of modelers. | |||||||||||||||||
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| PHOTOETCH | |||||||||||||||||
| Doggy's photo etch design continues to be extremely impressive and easily in competition with major aftermarket companies like Artist Hobby and Five Star Models. The company also seems to use brass like those detail up sets do: remove (or don't have) detail. Use brass. Personally, I'm a fan of this approach. Doggy's relief work here is fantastic. I'm especially fond of the bridge and pilothouse that I absolutely will use when I build this kit. | |||||||||||||||||
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| INSTRUCTIONS | |||||||||||||||||
| Cheonan's instructions are shown as a complete kit with various photo etch parts identified with numbers cooresponding to the sheet. Resin parts aren't numerically identified, but this really isn't necessary. Dog's instructions remind me again of aftermarket companies like Five Star that also resort to this method. I don't have trouble understanding placement, but mileage may vary. | |||||||||||||||||
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| CONCLUSIONS | |||||||||||||||||
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This is a neat little kit that can be had for around $49 shipped off of eBay to the United States. The kit's base price is $28.76. Dog Industries' subjects are always unique and give us a number of ships that would not otherwise be available in resin or plastic. Given my love of more obscure subjects, I love this. Doggy Industries continues to show improvement and put out higher and higher quality kits. I do wish the 1944 bridge structure was also offered in photo etch. The more primitive option is just that good. I want to thank both Doggy Industries and ModelWarships for this kit. I will enjoy building it! |
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