Starling Models
1/350 Scale HMS Deptford – Royal Navy Grimsby Class Sloop



Reviewed September 2024
by Felix Bustelo		  
HISTORY
Leading up to and at the start of World War II, the Royal Navy had a serious shortage of destroyers. A surplus of World War I era destroyers were scrapped and tonnage limitations imposed by the 1930 London Naval Conference made the shortage even graver. During World War I, destroyers provided the bulk of ocean convoy escorts for the Royal Navy. However, the remaining vintage destroyers were insufficient in numbers to perform escort duties for both fleet operations and convoys. To address the gap in destroyers, a large building program was initiated, but they were expensive to build, had lengthy construction times and there were a limited number of shipyards capable of building them. Also, there was a greater need for destroyers to screen fleets and to carry out offensive actions against the enemy. With this reality, it was necessary to construct escorts more suitable to act as convoy escorts that would also be cheaper and easier to build with shorter slip times. With these parameters, they could be constructed at shipyards that had little to no experience building warships, thereby increasing capacity. Within the broader class of merchant escorts, the terms “corvette”, “frigate” and “sloops” were used to classify them. In addition, these ship classes were generally not limited by treaty.
Beginning in the late 1920s, sloops were initially designed to be mainly minesweepers. The two Bridgewater class ships, Bridgewater and Sandwich, were launched in 1928 and were fitted with a large minesweeping winch at the stern and armed with two 4-inch guns and two 3-pounder saluting guns. They were also fitted with two depth charge chutes with four depth charges. The Bridgewater class measured 266ft 4in long with a beam of 34ft 1in. The next class of sloops, the four vessel Hastings class, were similar to the Bridgewater class in terms of dimensions, machinery and armament. The following group was the Shoreham class, built in two batches of four ships each, but with a 15-foot longer hull and beam increased by 11 inches. While larger than the preceding classes, as built Shoreham vessels had only one 4-inch gun but two additional 3-pounder saluting guns. Of course, during the course of the war, all of these ships had their armament and ASW capabilities improved.

To address the need for minesweepers, the Halcyon class was designed to be mass produced and cheaper to build. As a result, with the Grimsby class, the main role of sloops shifted away from minesweeping to primarily escort duties. While the hull length was reduced to that of the Hastings, the beam was increased to 36ft. Due to the emphasis on escort duties, the design armament was two 4.7in/45 Mark IX LA guns, a 3-inch HA gun and four 3-pounder saluting guns. For ASW purposes, four depth charges were fitted. However, minesweeping paravanes and other equipment were still fitted. Not all ships in this class received the design armament, with one ship, Fleetwood, fitted with two twin 4in/45 Mark XVI guns. Also, as air defense requirements increased, a shift was made to 4-inch guns, which had shell that were lighter and easier to handle which in turn increased the rate of fire. As the war progressed, the Grimsby class ships were fitted with better AA armament and radar, HF/DF equipment and increased depth charge loads. A total of 13 Grimsby class sloops were built between 1933 and 1940, with eight commissioned in the Royal Navy, four built in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and one built in the UK for the Royal Indian Navy.

HMS Deptford was laid down on April 30, 1934 at the Chatham Dockyard. She was launched on February 5, 1935 and commissioned on August 15th of that year. In 1939, two Vickers quad .50-inch machine guns were added. With the outbreak of war, her depth charge capacity was increased to 40 and later 60 charges. A hedgehog ASW launcher replaced the 3-inch gun in the B-position and several 20mm Oerlikons were added over time, two replacing the quad Vickers.

Deptford was deployed to the Persian Gulf on commissioning and subsequently in the Bay of Bengal and Singapore performing a variety of duties. With the outbreak of World War II, Deptford performed convoy escort duties in the Western Approaches and later in the North Sea and Mediterranean. In December 1941, Deptford sank U-567 with depth charges during a convoy attack. After completing repairs in March 1942, she joined the Freetown, Sierra Leone convoy route and then supporting Operation Torch. For the remainder of the war, she returned to the Mediterranean and lastly as a convoy escort in the English Channel. In 1945, she was placed in reserve and sold for scrap on March 8, 1948.
Starling Models HMS Deptford  
The Starling Models HMS Deptford kit is comprised of cast resin hull, 3D printed parts, photoetch parts, brass wire and a decal sheet. The kit represents Deptford in her as built pre-war fit in an overseas station paint scheme. The contents come in a sturdy flip-top box. The hull is enclosed in bubble wrap with the 3D printed part rafts in either plastic sleeves or within small cardboard boxes. The PE and decals are stored inside a clear plastic envelope with cardboard backing. As an added bonus, two packages of Uschi brand elastic rigging line are included in the box.  
HULL 
The cast resin full hull is very nicely done. The hull itself does not have a lot of fittings cast into it as they are all done as 3D printed parts. The deck has planking that is realistically done with realistic butt ends. The deck has a mix of raised sections, shallow openings and scribed locations to accommodate the majority of the other resin parts that fit into the deck. The hawse pipes at the foc’sle have sufficient depth and do not need to be drilled out. The hull itself has portholes, bilge keels and locator holes for the rudder and propeller shaft struts. There is a remnant of a casting block along the keel that will need to be sanded down if you are building it hull full. 
3D Printed Parts 
All of the 3D printed parts are gray in color and come on rafts with thin attachment points for easy removal. All of the 3D printed parts are very well done. Each raft as an assigned letter to help identify it to the parts list in the assembly guide.

The two largest parts are the lower bridge and aft gun deck structures. Both housings have portholes and square windows with eyebrow and door openings. Again, these parts do not have too many other details other than some skylights and raised sections and scribed locations for smaller parts. 
3D Printed Parts Raft A
Raft A has the upper bridge, funnel with separate funnel cap, breakwater, range finder tub and searchlight platform. 

3D Printed Parts Raft B & B2
Raft B has 4.7in/45 Mark IX LA gun mounts, barrels and shields and the 3-inch HA gun. Raft B also has the searchlight, anchors, rangefinder (with a spare), inclined ladders and a brace that I think is part of the minesweeping equipment. The smaller raft B2 has the anchor windlass, funnel vent piping and platform, and aft storage racks.

3D Printed Parts Raft C
Raft C has the bitts, fairleads, large and small mushroom vents, cable reels in three different sizes and hatches fitted to the hull sides. 

3D Printed Parts Raft D1 & D2
Raft D1 has the motor launch, two whaleboats and two dinghies, a pair of Carley floats and paravanes. Raft D2 has cowl vents in four sizes with two of each provided. Raft D2 also has boat davits in two styles, paravane davits, main mast yardarm and tall vent pipe.
Somehow, one of the dinghies was missing from Raft D1. Apparently, it must have broken off during packing the kit up. I contacted Mike McCabe, owner of Starling Models, and several days later he replied and said he would send a replacement. A couple of weeks later (keep in mind that Starling Models is a one-man operation), a package with a 4-pack of 16ft dinghies which are sold separately in the accessories range, arrived in the mail. All I needed was one, so I now have three in the spares box – thank you Mike!

3D Printed Parts Raft E1 & E2
Raft E1 has a number of small parts, including ammo lockers, storage lockers, watertight doors, propeller shafts with struts, crow’s nest, bridge fittings and other detail parts. A few of the watertight doors broke off the raft and in a senior moment, I neglected to include them in the photo. Raft E2 has the propellers, rudder, 3-pounder saluting guns, individual depth charge roll-off racks, additional lockers and fittings. Finally, there is a print raft without an identifier with the minesweeping winch.

PHOTO-ETCH
Two photoetch frets of different thicknesses with corresponding part numbers etched into the frames are provided. The photoetch is nicely done with relief etching. The larger but thinner photoetch fret contains all of the railings, vertical ladders, mast ladders, square window hatches in open or closed positions, storage racks, storage lockers, rigging eyes, stored accommodation ladders and various other detail parts. 
The thicker photo-etch fret as the searchlight platform supports, skylight hatches, boat davit pulleys and some handling davits. Apparently, the part numbers etched in the thicker fret are incorrect as the assembly guide has an image with the corrected part numbers.

There are several parts on both frets that are not used with the Deptford and are meant to be used with Starling’s other Grimsby class kit, HMAS Yarra.
 
BRASS PARTS
Two lengths of brass wire in two different diameters are provided. The thicker wire is to be used for the masts and the thinner for yardarms.
DECALS 
A small decal sheet is included which provides the Union Jack and White Ensign in two sizes each.
RIGGING MATERIAL 
Two spools, for lack of a better term, of Uschi brand black elastic rigging line are included, which is a very nice addition. I have never used this product, so it will be interesting to try something new.
INSTRUCTIONS
The assembly instructions come in a 16-page booklet which is among the best that I have seen. The cover page has a profile view of the ship with general instructions below. Pages 2 and 3 have an inventory of the resin and 3D printed parts and the photoetch. The smaller 3D printed parts are grouped by the print rafts they are on. As I mentioned above, the smaller photoetch fret image has the corrected part numbers. Resin and 3D printed part numbers are within squares and the photoetch parts within circles to differentiate them in the detailed assembly diagrams that adorn the following nine pages. I did notice a few spots were either a part number was omitted or there was a mix-up. For example, in the image showing the assembly of the funnel, the vent piping parts, 21 and 22, were reversed in the image. Not a big deal and does not take away for the how well done the instructions are. The next three pages provide a very detailed rigging plan, which is a topic not commonly covered in assembly instructions. One thing is that the photoetch rigging eyes are part 6 and not part 2 as stated here. Again, not an issue but something that I wanted to point out. The back cover of the booklet has a 3D render of the completed model with full rigging.
The painting instructions are provided on what could be described as a small poster rolled up in the box. The color references are for a pre-war overseas station scheme of white hull with 507a upperworks, which would make for an attractive model that will stand out among grayer ships in a display.

 
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, I find this to be a very complete kit that will build into a detailed model of a pre-war as built Grimsby class sloop. Research by the modeler will be required to see which of the other ships in the class could be built in a pre-war fit. The kit is very well detailed, though it is recommended for modelers with experience working with 3D parts, some of which are tiny, and photoetch. 

This kit is available directly from Starling Models.


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