Admiralen-Class Destroyer 1929 by FreekS - FINISHED - Pacific Crossroads - 1:350 - PLASTIC

[FreekS]

The Admiralen class destroyers were a series of eight destroyers built between 1928 and 1931 for the Dutch Navy. All were lost in WW2, one in Rotterdam and seven in the Dutch East Indies.

The kit is from Pacific Crossroads, designed by Boris Mulenko, who is Russian and has built models of many of the Dutch ships that fought in the Pacific. The kit is a mix of resin parts and PE, and I have never used either.

 

Here are some of my pictures of the start of the project

 

Started with my (also new) airbrush. I practiced a bit on a small helo project (still visible!) but now started using it in earnest. Waterline is nice and straight and painting the PE before use seems to work. I put the resin parts onto double sided tape.

 

The hull after painting on the box from Boris.

 

First experience with PE - I bought one of those bending tools and read a bit on Internet. Main tool seems to be patience and it's still holiday...

 

The nearly completed bridge, I count only 7 errors (all of them thinking errors - wrong parts on wrong places etc) !

 

And a start on the 75 mm gun platform between the funnels.

 

All for now - so far I like the work and I very impressed with the extreme detail in the kit.

 

freek

[FreekS]

Another day work - a few hand wheels lost and mother few errors but on the whole it's starting to look like a nice destroyer.

 

 

Freek

[FreekS]

Last dast day of the holidays

 

Further work towards the stern, starting to look like a real "jager"!

 

 

 

 

Freek

[FreekS]

the model is finished. I've decided on the name Hr Ms Banckert. this destroyer was in dry dock in Soerabaya when the Japanese invaded Java, and was sunk (including drydock) by my other model Hr Ms K-XVIII (herself then destroyed by her crew). All 8 of the class were sunk in WW2, one by the Germans in Rotterdam and the others by the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies.

 

The first time working with PE and with airbrush has not been a disappointment. With a lot of patience it was well doable and the overall level of detail that Boris built into this model is very nice. pacific Crossroads has a set of models of many other Dutch warships that fought in the pacific, and I can certainly recommend then to anyone interested.

 

 

 

 

freek

[amateur]

He is nice! How long is the model?

 

Jan

[GuntherMT]

Very nice looking ship, of a subject that most of us in the ol' USA probably never heard of before!  Thank you for sharing.

[FreekS]

The model is 28 cm (or 11-odd inches) long. It's a 1:350 scale model of a adapted British destroyer design built in the Netherlands in 1929 to 1931.

Modern in its time, they were completely outclassed by 1942.

 

As to knowledge of this naval event in history, the battle of the Java Sea (in which two of the eight of these took part) was the largest surfac gun engagement since the battle of Jutland - not that is impressive. 10 allied (American, British, Australian and Dutch) cruisers and destroyers were lost trying to interdict the main invasion fleet heading to Java, mainly by the superiority of Japanese gun calipers, their superb long lance torpedoes, and their almost total air superiority. It was a very tragic battle lost in the 1930s military budgets, costing over 2100 lives and delaying the invasion of Java by exactly 1 day.

 

Other destroyers of this class faced even more insurmountable odds, one was the escorting a merchant ship and became the sole focus of hours of air attacks from a Japanese fleet carrier, and another faced German Stuka divebombers trying to displace German paratroopers in Rotterdam.

 

I think very few Dutch people know this part of history, except for the famous last words of Admiral Karel Doorman Leading the Allied ships into the Battle of the Java Sea: " ik val aan, volg mij". (I attack, all ships follow me). Our newest, largest ever and soon to be commissioned Navy ship was named after him.

 

 

Freek

[ccoyle]

I happen to be reading at the moment Ghost Ship by James Hornfischer.  The book chronicles the events of the Battle of the Java Sea and the Battle of Sunda Strait.