HMS Kelly by king derelict - Flyhawk - 1/700 - PLASTIC

[king derelict]

Well, I got distracted by incoming figures. This was what was supposed to be on the workbench next.

HMS Kelly was a “K” class destroyer commissioned in August 1939 and had a thoroughly rough and short war.

 

On the afternoon of 14 December 1939, the tanker Atheltemplar struck a mine laid by German destroyers off the Tyne Estuary. Kelly and the Tribal-class destroyer HMS Mohawk were dispatched as escorts for the rescue tugs Great Emperor, Joffre and Langton. During the operation, Kelly also struck a mine and sustained damage to her hull. While Mohawk put a party aboard Atheltemplar, and Joffre and Langton took the tanker under tow, Kelly herself was taken in tow by Great Emperor and returned to the Tyne. Reaching the Tyne just before midnight, Kelly was assisted upriver by the tugs Robert Redhead and Washington. She was towed to Hawthorn Leslie's yard for repairs, which took just a little over three months.

This was the second of Kelly's misfortunes, having just returned to active service after a month in dry dock following storm damage. Repairs were completed on 28 February 1940, and Kelly returned to the fray. Astonishingly, she was involved in a collision with HMS Gurkha, just two days later on 2 March, necessitating a further 8 weeks in dry dock, this time on the Thames. She was released on 27 April, in time to assist with the evacuation of allied forces from Namsos.

On 23 May, during the evacuation of Crete, she was bombed and sunk, with half her crew killed. Kelly did succeed in shooting down three of the attacking Stukas, while another was badly damaged and crashed upon returning to base. The survivors were deeply affected by the loss of their ship; Mountbatten shared their loss and tried to console the ship's company by reminding them all that "we didn't leave the Kelly, the Kelly left us!"

 

This is a deluxe edition Flyhawk kit with PE and brass barrels and masts. For such a small ship there are an awful lot of bits in the box.

 PE looks quite civilized, nothing too minuscule to deal with.

 There are two sets of instructions, one for the kit and one for the PE, a lot of reading is needed to successfully integrate the PE.

The paint guide has Kelly in overall grey but my book of British warships camouflage schemes shows two alternatives.

Mountbatten pink, the man himself was skipper of the Kelly

And this rather striking design 

I'm leaning towards this one as something a bit different. And I see Ive got stuck with yet another tripod mast.

A tentative start has been made. I cut back the kit plastic barrels and replaced them with the brass one. It was only after letting the drill bit skip into my thumb on the third set that I remembered that my recent Black Cat order included 4.7 inch guns. Oh well, it’s all about the challenge. I left the base of the guns in the sprue as being easier to hold, seemed to work quite well.

Thanks for looking in, I hope you enjoy the adventure.

alan

[Old Collingwood]

Fantastic to see  you start this mate  - did you every see the fim about her  - 

 

OC.