Hello!

I am looking for any one who has built the kit, or knows something about British Battleships. I really love the unique layout of the Rodney, but am having trouble finding any wartime pictures or drawings with dates on them. For instance, was the Catapult, pom-poms, etc. installed when it fired on the Bismarck, or were they installed after?

I'm assuming that there is going to be some scratch-building involved, but I have already bought the kit plus PE set from Toms Model Works, and am itching to get started!

Thanks for any help!

- Steve

Steve
The best sources of information are two books by Alan Raven and John Roberts, Man O' War 3, Rodney and Nelson and British Batlleships of the Second World War, though both are only available second hand and expensive. You might find copies through your local library.

The Tamiya kit is an old one but still pretty good, it shows the ship in late 1920's fit not long after launch, but there aren't a huge number of changes to 1941. At that time she carried a catapult on X turret and three 8 barrel pom poms, two on mounts beside the funnel and a third on the quarter deck. Also there were two 20mm oerlikons on B turret, two quad 0.5" mounts on new bridge wing platforms and changes to gun directors and the addition of radar. It isn't a huge amount to do but just be aware that there are differences.

Mike

Mike,

Great! I'll look for pics with those specifications for the fittings vs. the Bismarck. If more than 3 photo-etch pom-poms survive construction, I may look into doing a later version. What do you think about updating it to '43 or '44? I read on the Tamiya instructions that it had a total of 8 pom-poms? And the TMW set shows a few extra 20mm fittings.

I also found that the HMS Rodney homepage will only open on 1 computer at work. So...I'll check that out again tomorrow.

Thanks again,

- Steve

Thanks for your help!

- Steve

Steve
Send me your email as I have some photos of Rodney that were on the Rodney website but don't seem to be any longer.

The Nelson kit is of a late war fit so might be a better starting point, though numbers and positions of AA differed I think.

Mike