Time for some gin to get the taste out of my mouth
Posted by Don Murphy on April 18, 2013, 11:59:36
Huh?! Been building aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many airplanes lately. I needed to build a ship to retain my mojo and reputation as sole ship guy at my local model club. So imagine my shok when I saw this craftsman kit. Craftsman?" Ummm...yeah...that's ship-speak for a box thats missing some parts. "Some." Normally "major" parts. But WTF if it's a cool ship, right? Here it is...HMS Agincourt by Russian kit makers Combrig.
This is one of Combrig's early kits, evidenced by the fact that it comes with no photo etch parts. The previous owner possibly used some of the parts on other kits so I'm left with just the main superstructure chunks.
As most ship photo etch companies give you tons of extra stuff, it won't be a problem coming up with ladders, stairs, rails and other stuff. I'll have to build my own masts but I normally do that anyway with brass rod, right?
I also wanted to stick to knocking out my 1/700th scale kits first and this one is 1/700th scale too. "Gin?" Oh yeah...her nickname was the "Gin Palace" as in "Gin" (Agin) and "Palace" (Court). Agincourt was the b###hin-est ship to ever sail. She had a gun turret for each day of the week and at the time of her launch she was the ship every navy wanted and feared at the same time. Here's what she looked like...
Yeah that's seven turrets with two guns each. Pretty evil-ass awesome. Repeat after me..."Britania rules the waves..." Easy to see why the Royal Navy was official British policy. She fought at Jutland and kicked ass with German and British observers alike witnessing her fourteen gun salvo and remarking that it looked like the ship had blown up! A price of $25 kicked ass on my wallet. Xl-ent value for money for a resin kit.
Yes, the Juniper-Juice Guns-O-Ganza - there never was another like her!
And the irony (true story, now) is that she was originally ordered by a foreign navy (Argentina or something like that, IIRC). A few years later the Brits would go on to actually deliver the world's most powerful warship - which they had both designed and built - for the Japanese: the Kongo.
And AginCourt, with all her turrets looking like she was blowing up when firing a full salvo - that sounds very much like two other of her near-contemporaries - just one turret shy, with six turrets apiece - the Yamashiro and Fuso, who were both reported to have blown up, at various moments in their final battle, and most probably never did. That battle - in Surigao Strait - took place at night, and one can only imagine what that full-dozen 14-inchers, going off all at once, along the entire length of each ship, must have looked like!
As for your Combrig "10-piece" kit (one hull, two funnels...and seven turrets!) , seriously, that price is right, plus it's not the quantity but the quality of casting that makes or breaks it. And I concur 100% - especially for a ship like AginCourt - the required PE, and no doubt most if not all other, simple additions - will be very easy to come by.
Excellent (often hilarious) post, Donny - will love to see what you turn her into, buddy!