HMS Antelope...

During that confrontation a number of aircraft were lost and several ships slipped beneath the waves with the help of bombs and missiles. One of these ships was H.M.S. Antelope, a Type 21 Frigate that sunk after a huge explosion on board. A number of crewmen were trying to defuse a bomb that had hit the ship earlier in the day but had not exploded. Antelope’s keel had been laid in 1971 but its career came to an end on 24 May 1982. The aft mast was also destroyed during the attack by one of the Skyhawks hitting it.

One of the four Skyhawks that attacked the Frigate was lost and a two others damaged by missile and cannon fire.

Two personnel on the ship were killed that day, a steward killed by the bomb when it was initially dropped, and a bomb-disposal technician after the bomb he was trying to disarm exploded.
It was lucky there was not much greater loss of life as the two bombs that hit the ship did not explode on impact.

Cyber-Hobby have released a 1/700 H.M.S. Antelope to mark the 30th Anniversary of the loss of the ship as kit number 7122, part of their Modern Sea Power Series.

The box is a sturdy cardboard box with top and bottom halves. The color scheme is shown on one side of the box, and a series of CAD pictures of various features of the kit on the other side.
First Impressions

Opening the box reveals several polythene bags one with two sprues in it. There is also the usual Cyber-Hobby grey cardboard sheet in the box as well with a small decal sheet and a fret of brass Photo-Etch attached to it, both items in their own bag.

Inside the box...

The box contains the following:
1. The Sprues are as follows:
- Sprue A is the ships upper hull.
- Sprue B are the various decks and superstructure sides.
- Sprue B (yes there are two Sprue Bs) is shown in blue type and the vast majority of the sprue is not used. My kit had two of these sprues even though only one is needed.
- Sprue C contains most of the items specific to the Antelope.
- Sprue D is lower part of the hull.
- Sprue Z is part of the stand (two fineals)
- Sprue MA is the Photo-etch sprue with ladders and railings for the ship.
2. Typical Cyber-Hobby (read Dragon) instructions in black, white and blue.
3. A small sheet of decals for four ships.

Instructions...

I have almost finished building the Antelope even as I type this and can tell you that Cyber-Hobby/Dragon desperately need to get someone to proof read the instructions after they are written as the alpha-numeric codes on many of the parts are wrong, either pointing you to the wrong sprue or the wrong numbered part on the sprue. This gets to the very sloppy stage when you find two C4s both for totally different pieces.

Other than the many numbering mistakes the instructions are fairly clear but are very busy to use. You need to check to make sure you have attached all the parts of each step much more carefully than if there were less parts in each step. Take it slowly and you should have no trouble.
Page One of the instructions has the box top painting at the top and the Sprue Map at the bottom. Most items on Sprue B Blue are marked as not used.

Page Two is the usual ‘Read carefully before assembly hints and tips. Then it lists the usual cautions including common sense ones like don’t injure yourself on sharp tools etc. Then the colour chart showing Gunze Sangyo’s Hobby Color (Acrylic) and Mr. Color (Enamel) and Model Master paint codes.
Then we finally get to the assembly instructions with two assembly steps on this page. Step One is the assembly of the upper deck. Step Two is the assembly of the forecastle, main mast and funnel areas.

Page Three has the final two steps. Step Three is the assembly of all the deck pieces, PE parts, attachment of the upper hull to the lower hull, attachment of the shafts, screws and rudders. The final part of this step is the assembly of the stand.
Step 4 is the assembly of the tiny Sea Lynx helicopter and has the paint callouts for the helicopter as well. Pity there are no call outs for the ship itself during the construction phase.
On to Page Four where you will find the painting and marking guide. Before I go any further Cyber-Hobby have made yet another mistake here and there is no colour indicated for the decks of the ship. That is a fairly large oversight in my books.
Other than that the scheme is grey over the anti-fouling red lower hull with a boot-top of matt black between the two.

Decals are provided for four ships;

1. HMS Antelope, F-170
2. HMS Arrow, F-173
3. HMS Alacrity, F-174, and
4. HMS Ardent, F-184.

The instructions for applying the decals is at the bottom of the page in six different languages.
What about the quality?

Molding is first class with no flash visible and only minor molding seams to contend with. I have found no ejector pin marks but you will need to remove a number of plastic nubs used to eject the sprues. This is a small price to pay for no ejector pin marks in my eyes anyway.

The fit of the parts I have assembled so far has been very good with almost no filing required to get parts to fit. The upper and lower hull’s joint almost disappears when they are assembled. No filler needed as the boot top hides the joint.

And Then I am not going to comment on the accuracy or otherwise of the kit as I am no Type 21 Frigate expert but in its unbuilt form it looks to portray the ship as it was just before it was sunk.
The Antelope was released by a company called Waveline previously but that kit is difficult to find and does not come with any photo-etch parts. This Cyber-Hobby release is an excellent kit let down by the instructions. Don’t let the dodgy part call out and lack of color call-outs put you off as you will find this tiny ship a pleasure to build.