AJM Models
1/700 HMS Ulster Queen (1944)


 
Reviewed January 2025
by Martin J Quinn
HISTORY
MV Ulster Queen was a passenger ferry operated across the Irish Sea between 1930 and 1940. She became an auxiliary anti-aircraft cruiser, HMS Ulster Queen and never returned to civilian service.  The Belfast Steamship Co. received three 3,700 ton Harland and Wolff-built motorships in 1929 and 1930, the world's first diesel cross-channel ships. Ulster Queen was the second of these.

Ulster Queen ran aground off Maughold Head on the Isle of Man on 28 February 1940. She was refloated on 27 March and taken to Belfast for repairs.  Requisitioned by the Admiralty as an auxiliary anti-aircraft cruiser, she was substantially modified. Her boat deck and one funnel were removed and armor plating was added to the hull. She was armed with six 4-inch guns in three turrets and smaller AA weapons. Commissioned as HMS Ulster Queen, she was purchased outright by the Admiralty and served with the Russian convoys, in the Mediterranean and in the Far East before being paid off on 1 April 1946. The modifications were too substantial for her to return to passenger service.  She was laid up, and eventually scrapped in 1950.

For more on Ulster Queen, see her Wikipedia page, where this history was taken from, here.  There is also a fascinating account of her wartime service by a member of her crew, here.

AJM Models Ulster Queen

AJM Models HMS Ulster Queen. comes in a sturdy white box, with a photograph of a completed example of Ulster Queen on the cover.   The model depicts Ulster Queen in her guise as an anti-aircraft ship.  While the box cover touts her service during the "Normandy Invasion", Ulster Queen actually saw service mostly in the Med, taking part in the landings at Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Southern France. The parts are cast in a gray resin.  Included in the box are over one hundred eighty resin parts, with photo-etch, decals and brass wire. 

THE HULL 
Compared to the real ship, according the dimensions found on Wiki, the hull scales out slightly over-scale in length (by 7 scale feet), but spot on in beam.  She's well cast in gray resin, with "engraved" lines on the deck to mark the locations of the deckhouse and other small parts.  This will help when placing parts on the hull.  The hull has prominent plating on either side, which seems to have been added during her conversion from a liner to a combatant.  There is also openings in the sides of the hull, where mooring lines would be run, that will have to have the flash removed. The bottom of the hull does have some slight over pour, but that will be easily sanded away.

DECKHOUSES/FUNNEL 
When the Ulster Queen was rebuilt, her superstructure was stripped down, her two funnels trunked into one, with smaller deckhouses running fore and aft.  There are four of these deckhouses included.  Also included is a large platform for the bridge, a funnel, and tall platforms for searchlights.  The 4 superstructure parts are on heavy casting blocks, which will take some effort to remove and sand down. Overall, detail is good.  I especially like the sharpness of the recessed 20mm gun positions, and the openings for the "inclined ladder" that disappear down from the bridge.

SMALLER PARTS 
Included as part of the smaller parts are deck edge AA platforms, vents, a lantern radar, another small deckhouse, bridge equipment, directors, searchlights, depth charge throwers, paravanes, anchors, bollards and ready ammo boxes.  Casting is decent, though there are a few voids on a few of the parts.  I suspect some modelers will probably want to replace some of these  parts with 3D printed upgrades. 

WEAPONS
The weapons include parts for the 4in main battery, quad pom-poms and stands for the 20mm guns.  All of these resin parts are supplemented by photo-etch parts.  Again, some modelers may choose to discard these and go with 3D printed versions.

SHIPS BOATS/RAFTS
There are five boats and 18 rafts included with the model.  Casting quality is decent - one of the boats in my sample has a void in it.  The rafts are well done, the "netting" in the center of the rafts is almost translucent.  Again, some might want to upgrade these parts with 3D printed versions. 

DECALS 
There is one very small decal sheet included.  This includes flags as well as draught markings for the ships hull.

 
BRASS ROD 
Three pieces of brass rod are included for the masts.

 
PHOTOETCH
Ulster Queen comes with one ship specific, photo-etch fret, as well as three smaller frets for the 4" gun shields. 

INSTRUCTIONS
The instructions, parts of which are in color, are spread out over five double sided sheets of paper (the last page is blank).   Page 1 consists of a manifest of all the parts.  The rest is in typical AJM fashion, with exploded views showing you the step-by-step build instructions for the ship itself.  They seem fairly logical and straightforward, though I did notice that, like the instructions in some of their other kits, they never actually show the final placement of some of the superstructure parts, they just refer to the step in the instruction where that particular part was assembled, then point an arrow to the location on the hull. But we, being modelers, don't generally follow the instructions, right? 

Finally, there is a very nice painting guide of Ulster Queen in camouflage on the last two pages. This shows both port and starboard patterns, as well as an overhead view of the ship.   The color callouts are for Lifecolor paints. Paint callouts from other brands - such as Colourcoats - would be welcome. 

CONCLUSIONS  
AJM has released another unique ship, one of the unsung veterans of the Second World War, the Anti-Aircraft ship HMS Ulster Queen.  This is a solid kit, one of the ships that doesn't get the attention the big warships do, but one who's role was crucial to the success of winning the war. Overall, the casting is good, though some of the smaller parts might be better represented by 3D printed upgrades.  Along with over 180 resin parts, there's a lot of of photo-etch, decals, brass wire and solid instructions. The packaging of the overall product is very good as well.

Overall, Ulster Queen is a nice kit from AJM Models, and will be a nice change of pace from aircraft carriers and battleships.  As with many of these resin ships, due to the myriad of photo-etch and small parts, this isn't a kit for beginners.  It's also a historically interesting ship, which saw lots of action in a lot of different theaters of the war.  If you are a fan of these "oddball" combatant ships, you'll want this as part of your scale model fleet. Recommended. 

This is AJM Models' 1/700 HMS Ulster Queen, kit number 700-046. The model is currently selling for around $81.00 online.  I'd like to thank AJM Models for the review sample. 

As always, this is an in-box review, your mileage may vary once you commence construction.