the real Flowers...

The flower Class Corvete was designed and built in the 1930s as a whaling vessel, firstly. The ship then showed to be more versatile and appeared perfect for escorting convoy’s, and during World War II, was built in large numbers and served in many navies, including the British, American and Canadian forces.

the 1/72 scale model...

The Revell Models kit of the Flower Class Corvete was actually first produced by Matchbox (QUITE a few years ago!), and is a classic, very build-able kit for this subject. The basis of the kit is quite good, although there are some issues to deal with. The scale is exceptional for a ship of this size and allows plenty of room for detailing, aftermarket and scratch-build spruce ups.

the bmk company - a small introduction

Breaking into the A/M accessory market now, BMK, based in Germany, is producing some very impressive upgrade sets, covering accuracy issues in many popular scales, and kit subjects. This new company started out as a “cottage industry” by a group of German ship model builders, who wanted to further increase the accuracy of their own models, and now is fast becoming a thriving business with an impressive and rapidly growing company catalog. Products manufactured by ship modelers for ship modelers, I like that...
concept!

The Kit:

The kit itself is packaged in a very modest style, simply sold in a heavy weight, clear zip-loc bag, emblazoned on the front with the company logo, kit part number, and kit name.



contents.

Inside the bag, you will find two finely turned gun barrels of brass alloy, in this case, one barrel to replace the kits original 4"/45 BL Mk.IX Gun, and another much smaller, but still finely detailed brass turning of the 40mm/39 (2-Pdr) Mk.VIII single gun barrel.

Upon first examination, both barrels look uniform, and free of defects, both very smooth and precise turnings. Scale measurements (see photographs) are accurate for these two guns. Closer examination will reveal that both of these barrels are cut clean and burr free on the exterior surfaces, which in turn will finish out with great results.

The 4” tapered barrel has been precisely bored out, leaving a very smooth, quite accurate looking bore end. On the opposite end, the barrel has been reduced to the proper sized mounting pin to mate with the original kits part.


Moving next to the 2 pdr. Pom-Pom, at first look we find another fine looking turning, much more precise than the first. This barrel looks to be a very accurate facsimile (comparing to the original gun photo) complete with the funnel shape muzzle brake, and the three step turning of the barrel size itself.

Again, under magnification, this turning is very smooth, with no visible burrs or defects, both outside and in. As in the first, the opposite end is turned down to the proper pin size for attaching to the original model kits gun mounting.

Final conclusions:

Overall, this set of barrels from BMK impressed me equally with the quality of the craftsmanship, as well accuracy of the subject. Finely turned, with precision scale, these two barrels will both increase the accuracy and appearance of your next Flower Class Corvette in 1/72 scale. Judging from the quality of this kit, BMK will fill a badly needed niche in the model shipbuilding market, by offering a more accurate accessory, at a very reasonable price. This set comes very highly recommended, from this modeler’s point of view.



Many thanks to our friends at BMK for providing this review sample for Model Shipwrights.