HMS Eskimo 1941
RN Tribal Class Destroyer

Trumpeter, 1/350 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

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

After building the “A” to “I” classes in the mid to late twenties and early thirties, the Royal Navy decided they needed bigger destroyers based on what was being built in Japan, the US, France and Germany. The result was the 16 Tribals labeled Fleet Destroyers because of their size and the fact that they were predominately gun ships. Of the 16 built for the RN, only 4 survived the war, so handy were they for front line service. Canada and Australia also built Tribals during the war and 1 Canadian ship was lost.

The first thing you will notice is the bulletproof box, one point to Trumpeter. Then you will notice the art-work on the box, we’ll have that point back. In three different places, the ship is shown flying the white ensign in inappropriate places. Is this a sign of things to come?  Well yes, it is. The people who moulded this kit, I believe it’s Pittroad/Skywave, have not bothered to check if any of the planned changes are correct for this class of ship.

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There is no “A” sprue, just a one piece hull in a separate compartment with-in the box. Faults will be covered further down. There are two “B” sprues which carry most of the small items such as gun turrets and their guns, Boat’s davits (Yippee), some of the smaller AA weapons and most of the separate ready-use lockers that are spread all over the decks plus a lot more.

The “C” sprue has a one-piece B gun deck, in the 1/700th scale kit it was 5 pieces, odd, the underside of the after weather deck, two parts in this kit and four in the smaller one, between the funnels AA platform, two of the four boats including the wailer and the breakwater.

“D” has the midships and quarter decks, fore and after funnels, a beautifully moulded eight barreled Pompom (Grrr), torpedo tubes and some other small items.

The “E” sprue carries the forecastle deck, a name plate, the top of the after weather deck and similar for a Canadian ship plus the one piece bridge structure, 4 bits in 1/700th scale.

“F” is the fore and main tripod masts plus other small items all of which are superior to those in 1/700 except for the odd looking crows nest.

The last sprue, unmarked with a letter, carries a four piece stand.

A PE fret with several bridge items including a compass deck platform, bridge windows and an awning frame, guard rails for the two weather decks, anchor chain, funnel caps and ladders but no guard rails for the forecastle or main decks.

There is a small decal sheet with two white ensigns and three G numbers.

Trumpeter released their 1/700th scale Tribals a while back and I did the review here on Hyperscale. Their two main faults were the lack of sheer (rise) in the bow and no davits for the boats. Disappointingly, the sheer problem has been ignored but they have added boat’s davits and also corrected the strange looking torpedo tubes.

Some people have claimed the boats are of a German pattern. I don’t know about that but I do know they are nothing like what you would find on a British destroyer of WW II with the exception of the 27’ wailer

The 1/700th scale 4.7 breeches were moulded into the back of the turrets so you couldn’t build you ship with the guns elevated. In this one the barrels and breeches are one piece and are added into the otherwise empty turrets. The 4.7 guns had a limited elevation and were therefore considered unsuitable for AA work and so most Tribals had the “X” position gun replaced by a 4” twin D/P Turret when they came in for refit in 1940. This gun is supplied in the 1/700th kit but not in the 1/350th offering.

The real blooper concerns the pom-poms. The 1/700th scale kit has one of the best plastic 4 barreled pom-poms I have seen. Okay, not as good as some of the items the resin people have given us but it actually looked like a pom-pom. So, what do the people who moulded this 1/350th kit do? Obviously, with out checking, they add an eight barreled gun. No British destroyer carried eight barreled pom-poms. They were simply too heavy. The Tribals were designed to have two 4 barreled units but one was cancelled due to weight considerations.

A part from the above mentioned eight barreled Pompom (Grrr) there are also two Vickers four barreled .5” M/Gs, two single 20mm Oerlikans, two twin gun Oerlikans and two .5” browning M/Gs. Only the Vickers guns and the single Oerlikans are mentioned in the instructions, the problem being there is some doubt if any destroyers were fitted with Oerlikans so early in the war.

The 1/350th scale kit does not have the water-line option like the smaller kit. I think this is a backward step but I believe we can’t blame Trumpeter for this as I’m told these kits are moulded by Pittroad/Skywave who also supplies the likes of Tamiya, Hasagawa and others. I guess Trumpeter decided it would be better to have a flawed kit of a very rare RN destroyer rather than none at all.

From what I’ve written above, you might think this kit is a complete write-off. You’d be wrong. All of the faults are fixable one way or another, even the sheer in the bow. What is good in this kit IS GOOD. WEM have expressed an interest in supplying boats to which they could add a PE fret, 4 barreled pom-pom and a 4” twin from their recently cancelled 1/350th scale Tribal and even add some colour notes along with paint recommendations from their Colorcoats range.

It just seems a pity that no-one bothered to fix some of the many faults in the 1/700th scale kit for this one.

Recommended.

Review Text Copyright © 2013 by Glen Porter
Page Created 8 April, 2013
Last updated 8 April, 2013

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