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HMS Zulu 1941
RN Tribal Class Destroyer

Trumpeter, 1/700 scale

S u m m a r y

Catalogue Number and  Description

Trumpeter Kit No 05758. HMS Zulu Destroyer 1941.

Contents & Media

94 light grey/burgundy plastic parts on five sprues with 3, upper hull, waterline plate and  lower hull being separate. A 3 page double sided fold-out instruction booklet with parts plan, 9 build diagrams and a separate paint/decal instruction sheet in colour. A small decal sheet with two White Ensigns and three hull numbers (G18) for Zulu only.

Scale:

1/700

Price:

Around AUD$25.95. Distributed in Australia by J.B. Wholesalers

Review Type:

First Look

Advantages:

This is in fact Trumpeter's second tribal in this scale and is identical to the first, HMS Eskimo except for box-art, instructions, decals and the name plate on one sprue.

Disadvantages:

The fo'c'sle deck is parallel to the waterline through-out its length, ie, no rise at the bow, main gun turrets don't have enough chamfer on either side of the roof and gun breeches are moulded into the turrets meaning barrels can't be elevated. There are no boat davits and the foremast would be better scratch built. Torpedo tubes don't look correct and there is no loading derrick.

Conclusion:

You might think from the faults above that this kit is a disaster but it ts not, as most are easily fixed and the important bits are there and reasonably accurate.


Reviewed by Brett Green


Trumpeter's 1/350 scale HMS Zulu is available online from Squadron.com
 

Background


HMS Zulu was one of the twelve RN Tribals (out of sixteen built) that didn't survive the war. Suffering some damage from Italian shore batteries while on a raid to Tobruk, she was bombed on the way home, one of which exploded in the engine room causing her to lose all power. Taken in tow by HMS Hursley, she was bombed again just 100 miles from Alexandria which caused her to roll over and sink. 12 of the crew died and 27 more were missing.

 

 

FirstLook

 

As this kit is identical to the Eskimo kit, I won't go into all the ups and downs of it, just provide a link to the original.

 

 

Suffice to say, although there are many faults, all are fixable or easily replaced by an experienced modeller and even built OOB will still produce a reasonable Tribal in this scale.

 

 

Compared to Tamiya's resent 1/700th scale British Destroyers, E class and V&W class, detail is not quite as good but Trumpeter's kits have the advantage of being able to be built as a water-line or full hull models. It is light-years ahead of Tamiya's O class and Revell's Tribal but I must confess, I haven't seen the Matchbox K class but I doubt it would be as good as this.

 

 

The one difference in the plastic is the name plate on sprue E but if you turn it over and look at the back of the letter, it says HMS Eskimo on each sprue.

 

 

Conclusion

 

We now have two Tribals from Trumpeter and I believe a third is on the way, HMS Huron ( or should that be HMCS), but I don't know if it will differ in any way from these first two. I'm also led to believe that Trumpeter will be up-scaling them to 1/350th in the future and that will be interesting to see.

Thanks to J.B. Wholesalers for the sample

Review Text Copyright © 2009 by Glen Porter
Page Created 17 August, 2009
Last updated 17 August, 2009

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