1/700 HMS Naiad (Flyhawk)

The HMS Naiad belonged to the class of Dido light cruisers. Sixteen ships were built of the class and these were based on the Arethusa class light cruiser. The armament was to consist of five 5.25 in (133 mm) guns in twin turrets. These towers were also used as secondary armament in the King George V battleships. Due to supply shortments, however, not all ships were equipped with them. The Naiad was laid om keel on 26 August 1937. The launch took place as the first ship in the class on February 3, 1939. The commissioning followed on 24 July 1940. The Naiad belonged to the group with five 5.25 in gun turrets. The other armament consisted of two quadruple 40 mm pom-poms guns, two 0.5 in quadruple MGs, one 47mm cannon and two 21 in triple torpedo tubes. Initially, the Naiad was used in the Home Fleet. In January 1941, the Naiad was used in the northern sea and there spotted for a short time the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In May 1941, however, she was transferred to the Force H in the Mediterranean and became the flagship of the 15th cruiser squadron. There she took part in the supply trips to the island of Malta. On March 11, 1942, she was discovered and sunk by the German submarine U-565 south of Crete. In the process, 77 men lost their lives to the crew.

The kit comes from the company Flyhawk and is thus one of the best plastic model ships available on the market. The construction also progressed quickly and does not cause any problems. But you should always have the construction manual in view and follow it. It was also a bit strange that the superstructure parts had a lot of free adjustment. This makes it necessary to make sure that they are correctly aligned when later gluing the superstructure parts. With newer kits like the Prince of Wales this has been better solved by  Flyhawk. Otherwise, the kit includes everything necessary to build a great model. I used additionally turned brass barrels for the 5.25 in guns from Flyhawk. Likewise, I used Bigboyblue replacement for the reels and etched parts from Flyhawk for the light AA guns.

I have painted the model with Vallejo colors and but not with the color of the instructions, but in the more usual 507A, 507B and 507C camouflage scheme. The wooden deck was also painted with Vallejo colors. The aging took place with oil paints. The water design was done as usual with the Water Effects from Vallejo. For the waves, I added cotton into the water surface again.

Gallery updated 3/9/2018

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