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Last December we announced a new kit of the HMS Naiad was coming. It's now available and we have images of that coming kit and it looks like it's a real jewel.

A Dido-class light cruiser, she was launched on February 3rd 1939, and commissioned July 24th 1940. She initially joined the Home Fleet and was used for ocean trade protection duties. As part of the 15th Cruiser Squadron she took part in operations against German raiders following the sinking of the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay in November 1940 (by the Admiral Scheer. In December and January she escorted convoys to Freetown in Sierra Leone, but at the end of January 1941 was back in northern waters where she briefly sighted the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau south of Iceland as they were about to break out into the Atlantic (Operation Berlin). By May 1941 Naiad was with Force H in the Mediterranean on Malta convoy operations, and flagship of the 15th Cruiser Squadron. Naiad participated in the Crete operations, where she was badly damaged by German aircraft. She subsequently operated against Vichy French forces in Syria, where, together with the cruiser Leander, she engaged the French destroyer Guépard. For the remainder of her service, she was in the Mediterranean, mostly connected with the continual attempts to resupply Malta.

In March 1942 she sailed from Alexandria to attack an Italian cruiser that had been reported damaged. This report was false, and on the return, on March 11th 1942, Naiad was sunk by the German submarine U-565 south of Crete. 77 of her ship's company were lost.

This muli-media kit (No. FH1112) is available from HobbyEasy for approximately $26.00 (US) plus shipping.

Look for a forthcoming review at Model Shipwrights of this kit!