Armada Scale Models 1/350
V/W Class HMS Vega

Reviewed by Laurence Batchelor
This kit was produced by Custom Dioramics in Canada and is now no longer in production. But I’ve a had a lot of people wanting to know form be about this kit so I thought the best way would be to do a review for Tim and Sean to put on the site for everyone to see. 

The Box is nice and simplistic and shows a completed kit on the box top and side built by Bob Russell. This is the only real colour guide in the kit and it helps to give an indication of the final build assembly but most who build this kit will prefer I have no doubt a nice camouflage scheme rather than the 507B which it appears she’s been painted in the picture.
Contents include 42 resin parts in total. A 2-piece hull for a waterline or full hull model is provided. 2 bags of resin parts including boats, guns and davits are provided as well as a brass photo etch fret.  A nice touch is she also includes 2 wooden prop stands for the model to sit on if being built full hull and she can then sit proud and raised from a base.
HULL PARTS
Onto the kit itself the hull measures at waterline around 26.3cm long and the beam 2.6cm. The casting on my kit appears crisp and clean for the lower part of the hull but there is flash right along the edge for the full hull lower section. There are also a few small gaps and this will need filling and sanding to get a good meet with the upper hull. The top flat part of this lower section also seems to be finished in a kind of glaze which at least makes it very flat and joins the upper hull section flush, which has it also. Click images
to enlarge
Moving onto the main kit part, the vessel herself, above the waterline is cast in one part with the basic deckhouses, bridge and funnels. Again all along the bottom edge it has large amounts of flash and on my example a small bit missing at the bow. On a brighter note I can see no visible signs of air bubbles and no signs of warpage in the resin. The hull is devoid of surface detail apart from portholes. 
Above decks the doors and portholes are represented well, but of course would look better with a little photo-etch. I can also see the odd deck hatch and capstan on the kit but other that that it is devoid of surface detail, no visible signs of planking whatsoever. On the forecastle it shows some extra surface detail that looks good ok.
SUPERSTRUCTURE AND SMALL PARTS
The smaller parts come in the kit in bags labelled 1 and 2 and are plagued with flash again. Though examining their general forms they all seem acceptable if a little under detailed. Again 1/350 photo-etch perhaps from WEM/GMM may of help here. The 5x 4” gun barrels provided would again benefit from being replaced in the form of either small turned brass or aluminium ones and the breach blocks scratch built. Also as well as providing you an extra 4” gun barrel an extra 12pdr gun is also thrown in for good measure. The 2 triple 21” torpedo tubes provided again they seem basically sound but lack any kind of detail, super-detailing seems the answer.
PHOTO ETCH
A brass photo-etch fret measuring 2 ½” by 8 ½” with over 70 parts is a welcome addition and also 2 small brass rods for the masts and some nice black anchor chain. The photo-etch fret also contains spare parts for the modeller and for this kit it is equipped with railing, ladders and propellers to name but a few of the goodies!
INSTRUCTIONS
The instructions are quite clear with step-by-step assemblies shown and also a complete drawing and description of the kit parts. What would have been nice would have been a colour chart showing examples of camouflage schemes from different periods and different navies. Another way the instructions would have better would have been some kind of rigging plan and/or a diagram of a fully completed kit. 
The kit itself represents a V/W in their unmodified WW1 state. With a little work any WW2 ship could be produced though if a ‘Wair’ AA escort was attempted this would involve more work. A small piece of paper is included in the box stating the kit was made from a set of David McGregor plans and an address is provided to help you order them or to order other plans from him. To my knowledge he’s no longer alive anymore and the new holder of these plans is: -

Jean Chaplin,
C/o Great Britain Trust,
Great Western Dock,
Gas Ferry Road,
Bristol, BS1 6TY

I believe a full catalogue can be ordered if you right to the above, they cover sailing ships and WW1 and WW2 vessels though I don’t own a catalogue myself.
Conclusions:
Well that about sums up this kit. To my knowledge it is the only 1/350 scale V/W class that has ever been produced. WSW did a 1/700 ‘Wair’ WW2 ship but this unmodified by Armada Scale Models in 1/350 gives the modeller the opportunity for lots of build options. To rate the kit I’d give it 4 out of 5. The instructions could be better if they were as good as say White Ensign Model’s. The resin quality isn’t as good as today’s standards and the smaller resin parts though useful will be discarded by most. The deck lacks relief detail or planking. On the positive the photo-etch will provide added bits n bobs for the spares box as will the smaller resin parts and we all know in 1/350 RN ships are not well catered from aftermarket vendors. Overall though for a resin kit that is around 5 years old this is a good place to start until anything more up-to-date emerges.

Thinking of the top of my head there was around 54 V/W class ships in service in WW2. They served in the Royal, Royal Canadian and Royal Australian Navies respectively and proved to be very rugged and touch little ships. The very fact that many were still in active service in 1945 is testimony to the skills of their WW1 builders such as Denny’s, William Beardmore, John Brown, Cammell Laird and J. Samuel White’s to name just some of the major ones. 

On reflection I do hope you enjoyed this review and I’d like to say I’d like to see many more of this class modelled; historically speaking they were pressed into service and adapted into fleet destroyers; escort and anti-aircraft roles all of which they were never intended for and this was very much at a crucial timeframe of the war. In WW1 they were seen as purely operating in the North Sea. In WW2 they were given the arduous task, like most Destroyers of the Commonwealth Navies to being sued in the Artic theatre, the Atlantic, the Channel, Coastal convoy duties, the Mediterranean and the Far-East. 

Happy modelling! 
Laurence Batchelor