¹⁄700

HMS Bulwark

The latest in a long line of interesting and unusual commissions for my favorite patron is the HMS Bulwark. The kit was originally Orange Hobby’s HMS Hermes in 1/700. As usual, the Orange Hobby kit was OUTSTANDING. Molding and finish on the resin was very good. A bit of flashing and over pour on the secondary parts frets, but little to none on the hull itself. The deck is molded on the hull as one piece thereby reducing seams to fill and allowing for a great finish.

As good as the hull and molding are, the kit really begins to shine in the photo etch department. Three full frets cover EVERYTHING top to bottom with railings already notched for perfect fit bending. In fact the level of detail in the photo etch is ALMOST too much. I had to draw the line at the windshield wipers they attempted to do for the bridge windows. While they were almost invisible to the naked eye, once attached to the window, they were clearly out of scale – so I omitted them. Other than that, the PE is OUTSTANDING and while extremely small, virtually requiring magnified working glasses, allows for a very good result. Clearly not a kit for beginners to the PE world, but well worth the endeavor for those with the patience to stick it out.

Model Shipwrights would like to than David Salvin for providing photos of his HMS Bulwark