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.

 

 

 

[king derelict]

On 8/29/2025 at 12:35 AM, Old Collingwood said:

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

Thanks OC. No I’ve heard about it but never seen it. I’ll definitely take a look.

alan

[king derelict]

I was busy with the black primer over the weekend on both the vexillarius and the Kelly. Then a coat of light grey and this morning I masked the hull and sprayed the black parts of the camouflage. I’m either getting better at masking or the Tamiya paint is easier to work with, no seepage under the masks. It probably helps that it’s 86F in the garage and the paint is drying on contact.

This gets me to the point where I can start sticking some bits together.

Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments.

alan

[Old Collingwood]

Looking  sharp mate,  glad the vid link was of use  - its a cracking  film.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

It’s been a mixed day for modeling today. I started well adding the decks and most of the superstructure to the hull. Everything fitted very nicely. I added the bridge and started on the details. The PE includes screens dividing areas of the bridge, something I haven’t seen before. 

It looks straightforward in the instructions but the pieces are tiny. Here’s the bigger part #5.

Folding part #4 was a bit of a nightmare, trying to put a curve into such a small piece. I ended up with this.

And then onto the plastic details, searchlights, binoculars, binnacle etc. It was then that I realized that the bridge wasn't sitting flush on the deck. I was able to remove it but during the subsequent efforts to find out what was stopping it sitting down I gradually knocked off everything, the PE screens, both binoculars, the binnacle, pelorus, and the searchlights. Amazingly I found them all with the help of the hand held vacuum. So everything is back in place and I will continue tomorrow. The black camouflage and the dark gray deck makes it hard to see how good the fit is at times.

So this is where I am now.

It impresses me how much detail Flyhawk cram onto the bridge and how detailed the parts are. The binnacle and pelorus are really nice.

I decided to use the kit quad 0.50 cal guns, they are quite well detailed and the printed ones are not significantly better. I’ll keep them for a Trumpeter or IBG kit

Thanks for looking in, the likes and comments.

alan

[Old Collingwood]

We certainly challenge our selves at this scale  - the amount of colourful words I used when building my Flyhawk Hood   - keep at it Alan  its a great start  so far.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Great subject and excellent start!  Glad you were able to locate the knocked off pieces.

 

Does the hull come with the windows already like that?  Looks really good.  Makes me want to pull out one of my Flyhawk kits.  I think I have the Lutzsow and Bismarck in the stash.

[AJohnson]

You have the patience of a Saint Alan! 👼