Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| The Turbine Class Destroyers were built in the inter war period. They consisted of 8 ships the Turbine, Aquilone, Borea, Espero, Euro, Nembo, Ostro, and Zeffiro. The were fast reaching over 39 knows on trials. They had four 4.7" main guns in two twin mounts, and six torpedoes in two triple mounts. All ships of this class were active when the second world war broke out operating out of Libya together as destroyer squadron one and two. They were used to bombard the British in Egypt and to bring in supplies to the beleaguered Italian forces in North Africa. Six of these ships were sunk in the supply role, but two, the Turbine and Euro survived. The latter nearly being sunk in an air raid that resulted in her losing her bow. She was towed to Taranto and repaired and survived yet another close call against two British cruisers. Italy signed an armistice in 1943 ending Italy's involvement in WW 2. Euro escaped to the Allied side and operated on the other side until she was caught by German Stuka dive bombers in Leros harbor in the Easter Mediterranean. The Turbine was captured by German forces and renamed TA14. Her anti aircraft armament was upgraded and she operated in the Aegean sea escaping several close calls until her luck ran out in 1944 when she was caught by US bombers and sunk. | |
| This kit from Regia Marina can be used to build any of the eight ships of the class or even the Turbine as the German Navy Torpedo boat TA14. The hull is well cast in a molding process that leave only a small pouring gate along the mid line of the hull bottom. This makes clean up very easy. Deck detail is quite good with several vents and pipes being cast in place. It is unlikely that you will have to replace the funnel grills as they are exceptionally well defined in this scale. |
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| Superstructure parts are cast on a sprue with only a small connecting gate to remove. Splinter shields and wall are thin and have only a small amount of flash to clean up. The main gun barrels are turned aluminum and the anti aircraft armament is represented by photo etch. |  |
| Instructions are pretty basic showing an exploded view of the parts placement. There are several detail views that are specific to the individual ships. The Turbine and Euro are shown with their camo designs that they wore during their careers. |  |
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