1/350 HMS Prince of Wales (Tamiya)
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by Tony Sutherland |
1/350 HMS Prince of Wales (Tamiya)
This is my build of HMS Prince of Wales in its exact camouflage for
Force Z as of December 1941. A lot of research went into the camouflage
colors including the Raven Books, photos and using WEM paint chips and
CC Paints. The paint on my model is exactly how HMS Prince of Wales would
have been painted when it arrived in Singapore.
After the Denmark Straight Battle HMS Prince of Wales was painted in
MS1, B5, MS3, B6 and 507C. It was like this for the Atlantic. In October
1941 MS3 was painted out completely. This is the green color that Prince
of Wales had and the scheme on the Tamiya box is incorrect for its location.
It is not hard to compare my model to that of the Tamiya pattern to fill
in the missing gaps and realize where MS3 used to be painted. The camouflage
pattern on the Tamiya kit was very close to its actual camouflage scheme
but the colors were mixed up and incorrect. Regarding the rigging I am
confident that this is how it was rigged and that cables running to the
four parallel cables actually came down to the top level of the funnel.
The rigging can be clearly seen in photo of HMS King George V in 1945 and
it is very clear where the rigging is connected. So based on the late photos
I am confident that the rigging did not change during the war although
the mast configuration did.
I have also constructed HMS Repulse at the same date and included two
photos of the models together.
