reviewed by Timothy Dike |
| The HMAS Perth was originally built as the HMS Amphion,
a Modified 'Leander' Class in 1936. She operated with the Royal Navy until
1939 when she was sold to Australia and recommisioned as HMAS Perth. The
ship had a rather brief peacetime career showing the flag at the Worlds
Fair in New York in August of 1939. With war imminent Perth sailed from
the West Indies to Trinidad and onto Venezuela to protect convoys. Later
that year she sailed via the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean to refuel
Canadian destroyers Ottawa and Restigouche in the Cocos Islands. Convoy
duty brought her back through the canal and into the Atlantic. Early in
March 1940 she returned to the Pacific and sailed onto Sydney to bolster
Australian forces in their home waters. Perth operated with Canberra and
made voyages as far away as the Middle East protecting convoys. 1940 saw
her operating in the Mediterranean waters with several trips to the British
island fortress of Malta. While there she was near missed by a German bomb
and required repairs in Alexandria, Egypt. She participated in landing
troops in Greece and patrolled the eastern Med. She had a small role in
the Battle of Matapan that saw the Italian Navy lose five ships. Perth
helped evacuate troops from Greece to Crete in 1941 and spent much of the
following months dodging german bombs. Later that year luck ran out and
she received a near miss that damaged her boiler room and went back
to Alexandria for repairs. Perth returned to action off the coast of Syria
shelling Vichy French forces until she was relieved by HMS Hobart. She
sailed for home waters in July of that year arriving in mid August. Following
a refit period in Sydney Perth began patrols in the waters around Australia.
Following the Japanese entry into the war, Perth was sent to Java to
bolster Allied forces. In February Perth joined Dutch cruisers De Ruyter
and Java, along with the USS Houston and HMS Exeter and HM Jupiter, Electra,
Encounter, and two Dutch destroyers and four old US four pipers to stop
the advancing Japanese ships in the battle of the Java Sea. Perth and Houston
survived to fight another day, that day came all too soon. Perth and Houston
left Tjilatjap and sailed to Sunda Strait . At almost midnight with Perth
in the lead a lone Japanese destroyer was engaged. It wasn't long before
more showed up and attacked from all directions. Perth made a charge for
the straight, but was met with two torpedo hits that forced her to abandon
ship. Shortly after more hits were scored by both torpedoes and shell fire
from the pursuing destroyers. Perth sank at 0025 March 1, 1942. She was
joined not long after by the Houston effectively ending any realistic attempt
to stop the Japanese landings in the area. Half of her crew was lost in
the action with more dying as POW's.
The Perth and crew sailed into action knowing the odds were against
them. Yet they bravely fought on to the bitter end. It is nice to see this
famous ship offered as this new kit from NNT. It is available in basic
for or in the high tech version with added photo etch, and brass barrels.
The kit is designed with extra parts to allow you to model most any version
from 1939 to her loss in 42.
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| HULL |
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| The hull is nicely cast in waterline style with some really nice deck
and hull detailing. Wood planking and metal diamond plate is nicely done
on the deck. Bits and open chocks are cast on and are very finely executed.
The hull includes both open and plated over portholes. Much of the main
superstructure is cast on and also includes nice surface detailing. |
click images
to enlarge
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE PARTS |
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| Superstructure parts and splinter shields are cast on three wafers.
Detail is well done but the thickness of the wafer will require a lot of
sanding to free the parts. The main bridge looks nice as do the funnels.
I think the latter would have looked a little better if hollowed out and
supplied with separate funnel grills. Overall detail is good and casting
on the actual parts looks good. |
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| MAIN GUNS |
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| Six 6" 50 cal main gun turrets are provided. Two with gun tubs mounted
on top. Two extra mounts are included in case you want to do a 1939 version,
the tubs are for the 42 version. Resin gun barrels are provided for the
basic kit, but I would recommend springing for the premium kit for the
brass ones. |
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| TORPEDOES |
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| Three banks of torpedoes and a new platform are provided. These are
well cast and the platform also includes some nice diamond deck plating. |
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| SECONDARY GUNS |
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| The smaller guns are really nice. The 102 mm guns are very detailed
with a separate base, gun assembly and shield. These are very finely detailed
and are the best I have seen in this scale. The pom poms are nicely done
also. |
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| FITTINGS AND FIXTURES |
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| Boat cradles, searchlights and other fittings are provided on these
sprues. |
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| BOATS AND RAFTS |
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| A variety of ships boats are provided along with life rafts. Not all
of these will be used but are included so you can do early or late versions. |
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| FLOAT PLANE |
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| A nice Walrus float plane is provided cast in three parts. |
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| DECALS |
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| A single decal sheet is included with ships names for both Perth and
Hobart. A flag decal, and aircraft roundels are also included. They are
sharp and clear and you can make out the ship names even in this small
size. |
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| PHOTO ETCH |
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| Two frets are included in the basic kit. The first
provides some finely etched cranes, catapults, and a variety of other parts.
Machine guns and radar antenna are among them. The second fret contains
some bracing for the platforms. Both frets are etched in stainless steel
by Eduard. |
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Extra details only available in the Hi-Tech
version.
| HIGH TECH VERSION UPGRADES |
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| A fret of Tom's Modelworks 3 rail set is included. There are more than
enough rails to do this ship and give you plenty of extras. |
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| Another Tom's Modelworks set is included for the Radar's. The set provides
a nice selection of radar antennas to do the ship. The bonus is that you
will have some extras for other projects. |
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| A real bonus is these nicely machined brass gun barrels. These are
extremely fine and even have the barrel ends drilled out for a hollow appearance.
The barrels have a nice taper and include a mounting pin to make it easier
to attach. |
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| BUILD UP PHOTOS |
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| Norbert Thiel of NNT provided these shots of the finished model. He
used the Hi-Tech version with a little extra scratchbuilding as he plans
to use this model in a diorama. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions consist of five pages with a brief history
and two pages of bill of materials. The forth page is an exploded view
of the assembly and the last page shows camo and some additional assembly
notes for early and late war versions. Lacking is a graphical illustration
of the many parts. I also think a few more pages could have been devoted
to the assembly process. But these are adequate to allow you to build the
ship. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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 I
am glad to see this famous ship finally being released by NNT. It is a
nicely detailed kit with a lot of potential. A little pricey, but it offers
the modeler with their best option to build an accurate version of this
ship with the least effort. I like the option to buy the Hi-Tech version
for the bonus parts. You can order yours direct
from NNT as the standard version; #NNT 70031 HMAS Perth for $109.81
US or 79.00 EU or the Hi-Tech version #NNT 70031 HT HMAS Perth Hi-Tech
for $137.61US or 99.00 EU. |
