1/350 HMS Queen Mary (GaGa Models) by Nick Dogger

I think this is a nice kit, with good detail, accuracy and quality. Such features as the wood deck and the furled torpedo nets, which can elsewhere be rather clunky and over scale, all here look quite delicate and "to-scale".

A bit of clean-up and filling is inevitably required where the parts have been detached from the printing rods, and where the printing has slightly roughened the surface of a couple of areas on the hull sides. But this is all easily fixable.

And for this particular ship the kit designer has also, accurately in my view, not added excessively thick armour plating and strakes to the hull sides. This permits the ship modeller to simulate better to-scale and accurate outline versions using tape and paint, as I have tried to do here.

The kit hull comes in two sections, but these are so designed as to fit snugly together, although a minimal resulting gap requires a bit of easy filling.

To give the two hull parts further rigidity once fitted together, and also a little more depth, I added a thin base base plate to the hull.

Some other additional changes which I made to the kit may be worth mentioning. All the kit on board companionway ladders came without handrails, and so I replaced these entirely with ladders from Micro Master. Similarly, while the kit originals were not at all bad, the main turrets, anchor cables, 4" gun barrels, and all the boats, apart from those stacked either side of the forward funnel, also came from Micro Master.

The tall resin forward main mast and yard arms in the kit were too flimsy to take any rigging stress, and so were replaced with a metal scratch built version and purchased items, respectively. The extensive rigging itself, as carried by this ship, for the masts, torpedo net booms, and funnel stays and hoists, was made from finely stretched sprue.

For the main and boat deck railings I used the Atlantic Models' set of individual stanchions which I then rigged with caenis thread. To my eye, this gives these railings a nice scale effect. However, for the bridge decks I used Atlantic Models' photoetch RN railings which, being stronger, I could then infill with white glue and paint to depict their canvass covering.

The rather smooth, but nicely to scale, furled torpedo nets on the kit were roughened a bit by lightly brushing and dabbing on diluted water based putty, to try to give a sense of the chain netting.

A more difficult part of the build was aligning together the kit bottom and top halves of the aft boat deck superstructure so as to create a seamless and uniform whole.

In my case this was only accomplished after much rebuilding, sanding and filling! For other details, such as the cable reels, awning stanchions, coal shute scuttles, wood bridge deck, cutter boarding nets, hull booms, flag staffs, and assorted deck fittings, I used parts from the spares box or, in a few cases, made these. The mooring bouys meanwhile came from L'Arsenal, the flags from Starling Models, the RN crews from Black Cat Models, and the two deployed hull companion way ladders from Swordfish Models. To simulate a gently rippled sea, with the ship riding peacefully at anchor, I used appropriately textured artist's card paper which I then painted in various colour washes. At this time I believe these ships were quite dark in colour, and I tried to replicate this, and the overall weathering of the ship, by mixing and applying various shades in thin streaked washes. If you are a fan of WW1 era ships it's a pleasure now to see kits of so many great and interesting subjects of this era on the market (and accessories to go with them); and for me the elegant and graceful battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary is certainly one of these. Photos by Nick Dogger and Jim Baumann