| HISTORY |
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The Royal Navy
Dido class of cruiser consisted of 16 ships built in four groups
that were intended as multi role ships to replace the C and D Classes that
dated from World War 1. The four groups of vessels were split into five,
two, three and six. The initial intention was for the main armament to
consist of 10 x 5.25” Dual Purpose guns in five turrets but a shortage
of these turrets/guns lead to several of the initial ships to only have
four turrets with a pompom and director in Q position. Some ships were
later refitted with the missing turret. By the time for the third group
built, two ships, Charybdis and Scylla were fitted with 4 x 4.5”
guns with additional light AA. The 5.25” turrets did not perform well and
were refitted later in the war with raised vents on the turret tops.
The last five ships were delayed in construction and from the outset
modified to omit ‘Q’ turret and that meant the bridge was a deck lower
and as a result smoke from the stacks did not foul the bridge so the stacks
were vertical rather than the raked funnels of the first eleven ships.
The kit represents HMS Naiad, one of first group of five ships
and one that received a full complement of 5.25” guns from building. This
means that out of the box very few of the sisters can be built without
major modification.
References:
Ref A. Raven, Alan & Roberts, John, (1980). British
Cruisers of World War Two. Naval Institute Press ISBN 0-87021-922-7-59114-078-8
Ref B. Friedman, Norman (2010) British Cruisers – Two
World Wars and after. Naval Institute Press ISBN 978-1-59114-078-8
Ref C. Raven, Alan & Lenton, H. Trevor (1973) Ensign
2 Dido Class Cruisers. Bivouac Books Ltd. ISBN 85680-003-1 |
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| The
Trumpeter HMS Naiad (Kit 05366)
According to the box top, the kit consists of over
600 parts and looking at the instructions it consists of the following:
hull, two deck pieces, 17 sprues, a stand, a small set of decals, chain
and six photo-etch frets. |
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| THE
HULL (SPRUE A) |
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| The box-lid has the length of the
model at 455mm, but when I measured the hull, it came out at 445.5mm, so
I am straight away concerned about the length. However, checking references
the OA length of the Dido’s is listed at 512’ or 156.1m, which scale
to 446mm, just about as spot on as it can be. Panic over. The beam also
measures perfectly to scale dimensions. The hull is nicely molded with
a number of fine features, the armour plating is nice thickness the de-gaussing
cable is prominent and the scuttles that are presents look in about the
right place. However, there is a second row of scuttles missing. Checking
photos in each of the references, each of the sisters had the de-gaussing
cable in different place, with several not having one at all, however,
a picture of Naiad in 1941 matches what is in the kit. It does mean
that to make any ship other than Naiad means this will need to be
removed. A photo in Reference C (Ensign 2 Dido Class Cruisers) of
Bonaventure from her port aft quarter shows off the armor belt and this
looks like one of Trumpeter’s best efforts. |
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| DECK
(SPRUES B1 & B2) |
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| The deck is in two pieces, with the
fo’c’sle featuring well represented details with almost all of them added
as separate pieces. The breakwater is reasonably thin, just ahead of ‘A’
barbette, and the planking is in typical Trumpeter style. The aft deck
has raised locating areas for deckhouses and holes for all the additional
add-ons. In neither deck part are there holes to be drilled. Also, on the
underside of the two deck pieces there are reinforcing strakes that help
minimize and flex in the part. |
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| SPRUE
D1 THROUGH D4 |
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| Going a little out of sequence are
four deck parts, D1-D4. D1 is the forward deck superstructure with ‘B’
and ‘Q’ barbettes, D2 is the bridge superstructure, D3 is amidships superstructure
and D4 is the aft superstructure with ‘X’ barbette. These parts or already
cut off their spruces and are loose in bags. Each part has a number on
the underside. Once again holes are predrilled, and the details are quite
proud, reminiscent of Trumpeter’s Cornwall kit. Part D2 has places
for internal bridge detail to be added later as well as pillars with spaces
to represent glass on the bridge sides. |
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| SPRUES
E1 THROUGH 36 |
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| This is two sprues with E1/E2/E3 on
one and E4/E5/E6 on the others. They are the deck houses with the exception
of E6 which is the bridge deck. These are very similar in detail quality
to the D parts. Holes are pre-drilled except in the case of E3, which has
four very shallow indentations, which when looking in the instructions
are the location spots for PE parts that are Carley Float holders. |
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| SPRUE
C |
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| This is a single sprue
that contains 39 parts of various ship fittings. It includes the bridge
wings where the splinter shields are a little thick around the signal lamps.
This sprue includes the two pieces for the fore-funnel that includes external
ribbing as well as venting. Part C39 is the main part of the DCT, though
looking at the instructions has 5 PE parts added to it, to provide commendable
detail. Part C16 is the 0.5” AA gun platform and whilst the splinter shields
are again a little thick, they also have a representation of bracing. Parts
C25, C38 & C39 form the tripod foremast and as they are separate pieces
they will be hard to remove from the sprue and then assemble however, this
does mean that they will form a good template for replacement metal masts.
All of the parts on this sprue are among the best I have seen from Trumpeter
for 1/350 plastic ship. As an example, part C8, the Barr & Stroud 12’
range finder is pretty good for a 1/350 plastic mainstream kit. |
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| SPRUE
F2 |
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| This consists of two sprues,
F 2 and F 3. F2 includes the funnel caps, prop shafts, rudder, Pom-Pom
decks, yard arms, torpedo tubes, a couple of other parts and a nameplate.
Once again, the parts are well represented in plastic, though the funnel
caps are a little thick. F3 is a small sprue with the aft funnel parts,
the mainmast tripod supports, and a few small detail parts. |
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| SPRUE
F3 |
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| F3 is a small sprue with the aft funnel
parts, the mainmast tripod supports, and a few small detail parts. |
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| SPRUE
G (X2) |
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| There are two of the G sprue and this
includes all of the repeatable parts. Carley floats, paravanes, searchlights,
mushroom vents, davits, 27’ whaler, capstans, the plastic parts for the
4-barrel pompoms and others. All are in line with the detail of the rest
of the kit. |
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| SPRUE
H1 (X2) |
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| There are two of sprue H1 and three
of sprue H2. The H1 sprues come covered in foam for protection. They include
several derricks that are on the bridge structure as well as the 0.5” AA
guns and the HACS. The 0.5” guns look a little thicker than the pompom
barrels, so these are slated for replacement. The HACS are only represented
with a cover and the cover is not as nice as in the Cornwall kit,
so they also will be replaced. |
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| SPRUE
H2 (X3) |
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| The three H2 sprues are taken up mostly
by the 5.25” guns and turrets. There are two on each sprue, so you are
given six turrets. These turrets consist of five parts from this sprue
and one PE parts. The turret shape looks pretty good, but the raised detail
on them is about the least defined in the kit. The vents on the turret
tops depict the early version of the turrets, which is correct for Naiad,
but a depicting a later (post 1943) ship would require aftermarket parts.
Also, there is a small boat on this sprue. My references show that the
two small boats carried by this class are a 16’ motor dinghy and a 14’
sailing dinghy, so these should not be the same, but I cannot be certain
that this was in fact the case, so Trumpeter get the benefit of doubt here. |
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| SPRUE
J |
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| The last regular sprue is J and consists
of more derricks, davits platforms and other fittings. Also, the 32’ motor
cutter and the 30’ motorboat are in two pieces each. These parts in consistent
with the other sprues, though like the other boats, I will replace them
with 3D parts. |
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| DISPLAY
STAND OPTIONS |
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| There is a four-piece display stand for use as
necessary. |
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| ANCHOR
CHAIN |
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| The kit comes with an un-blackened
anchor chain, in a small plastic bag. |
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| PHOTOETCH |
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| There are no less than six PE frets
included. Fret A is longer railings, radar, screens, and some platforms.
Parts PE-A23 (1) and PE-A43 (4) seems to be a park bench that are placed
on the fo’c’sle deck against the for superstructure. I could find no pictures
as to what these may be! Fret B is more long railings, ladders, davits
and bridge binoculars. Fret C is more railings and some radars. Fret D
is an access ladder, prop guards, funnels grilles, DC rails and a few other
things. Fret E (2) has pompom parts and inclined ladders and some other
bits. |
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| DECAL |
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| There is a small decal sheet that
has two Union Flags and two White Ensigns. One of each flat and billowing.
They have little carrier film, look well printed in register and the Union
Flags have the correct orientation. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions are in booklet form
with 16 pages and 56 construction steps, though there are a number of sub-steps
within each section. |
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| The painting instructions are on a separate color
sheet. They depict Naiad in a scheme that matches a picture taken
of her in 27 September 1940. However, the paints are listed in Mr. Hobby,
Acryvision, Vallejo, Model Master, Tamiya and Humbrol. The only ones that
I would trust are Sovereign Colourcoats. Also, the scheme shows the colours
as Blue, Dark Seagray and Light Gray, whereas I understand from the authoritative
source for RN colours that they should be Dull Black, 507A and 507C. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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| Overall, I am very pleased with this kit. It is
definitely one of Trumpeters better 1/350th scale ships on a par with other
Royal Navy cruisers that they have released, Belfast excepted. I
did not see any molding flaws in the kit and no flash or obvious sink marks.
The detail is good and although some modelers will wish to replace details
with 3D printed parts, the kit as is will certainly look good for an out
of the box build. This is a nice representation of a Dido-class
cruiser, and with a little work some of Naiad’s sisters can be made,
and with a lot of work other ones made as well, with careful attention
to the revised AA fit of her sisters during the war as there were many
changes to all of them. Recommended
This is Trumpeter's kit number 05374, the 1/350
HMS Naiad. The model retails for $119.99, and is available from
Squadron
Models - who provided Modelwarship with a review sample - for $89.99.
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