Q: Airfix 1:600 H.M.S. Warspite

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- Gernot Hassenpflug
  
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posted
14 years ago

Sun, Dec 27, 2009 2:51 PM

Hi all & hoping you all had a good Christmas and are looking forward to the new year!

I have a question on the re-release of the Airfix 1:600 Warspite. The box shows her in the 1944 paint scheme (IIRC) for Normandy, and the instructions seems to give colours both for this and for the 1940 Norway scheme. So, are alternative parts for the 1944 version included as well, or instructions for modifications? Or is this the identical kit which we all know and love from way back, with only the 1940 version supported?

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- sctvguy1
  
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posted
14 years ago

Mon, Dec 28, 2009 2:22 AM

Wasn't the Warspite at Jutland also? If so, what would have been her color scheme then?

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- ha4h-grnt
  
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posted
14 years ago

Mon, Dec 28, 2009 4:55 AM

Yes she was. Presumably the same as all other Grand Fleet battleships of the time. You might get the exact colors from any number of warship-related sites, such as

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whose forums include a Colors & Camoflage sub-forum.

However, there is no way one can easily depict the Airfix kit in her Jutland fit: the kit is in her after 1939 refit with completely new superstructure, AA outfit, and probably very much enlarge torpedo bulges.

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- Moramarth
  
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posted
14 years ago

Mon, Dec 28, 2009 1:18 PM

Overall Dark Grey, but building an Airfix "Warspite" to an "As Built" "Queen Elizabeth" is a major undertaking, and would probably involve a few compromises. There was an article on how to do this in "Airfix Magazine" back in the late 1960s, and I started the project - it's still around somewhere, unfinished... Even in the era of "looks right" rather than "rivet counting", I discovered the article was full of errors, especially when I streached my youthful budget to a print of the QE taken from an original glass-plate negative! I fixed some, such as putting the extra 6" casemate guns in the right place, but by the time I got to main deck level and some basic superstructure real life interrupted the project, never to be resumed.

Regards,

Moramarth