HMS Iron Duke

alumni72 wrote:

Great - just because I picked up this book I'm reading now, I'm all sorts of interested in WW1 ships now. Does anyone know if the Airfix 1/600 HMS Iron Duke kit is hard to find?  I see two of them on eBay, but I'd feel silly paying a certain amount on eBay and then finding out I could have gotten it for less just about anywhere else.  Because - well, you know, on eBay everything is "rare and hard-to-find". I see a PE set from WEM for the kit at Squadron, but the kit itself isn't listed on the WEM website.  I've got 2 days or so to pull the trigger on the Bay for one of the kits there - but is it the right decision?

Don't limit yourself to searching for this kit. 1/600 scale is essentially dead, you will find almost nothing else there to go with the Iron Duke. The best models of WW1 era battleships and battlecruisers will be found in 1/700 resin. High quality and reasonable prices will be found in the kits from Combrig (Combrig kits are sold in the US by Pacific Front Models in Oregon, an internet dealer). Other companies make WW1 kits in resin also with the most prolific being H-P models. Quality from H-P varies wildly so stick with companies like Combrig, WSW and White Ensign Models. Should you have questions about a specific model post here on FSM for opinions before you buy or take a look on Modelwarships.com or SteelNavy.com for reviews. You could also check reviews on the Rajens List of ship kits on line. I maintain a database of battleships, battlecruisers and coastal battleships from 1890-2000 that lists what is currently available in plastic, resin or metal in 1/700 so if you want to know who makes something that you are looking for just ask. WS

MPC was the American distributor of Airfix kits for quite a while back in the sixties and seventies.  Kits in MPC boxes generally are identical to their British counterparts; the only differences I can recall were the colors of plastic (I once bought an MPC H.M.S. Victory that was molded in olive drab) and, in some of the aircraft kits, the decals.  (For a while, toward the end of the arrangement, MPC was putting some bizarre "custom" decals in Airfix 1/72 aircraft kits.)  I wouldn't hesitate to pick up an MPC version of an Airfix ship, if the price was right.

The Airfix Iron Duke is indeed a nice kit.  The biggest problem I recall was that, for some reason, the barrels of the secondary armament appeared to have enormous donuts slipped over the muzzles - but those could be sliced off.  I believe White Ensign offers a set of photo-etched detail parts for it (probably an enlarged version of the fret that was made for White Ensign's own 1/700 resin version - now, I believe, no longer available).

I've been complaining for years about the plastic kit industry's failure to pay attention to WWI warships.  If you're particularly interested in that period, you owe it to yourself to take a look at the line of resin kits from the Russian company Combrig.  Excellent quality (especially the more recent releases) and, by resin standards, extremely reasonable prices.  A good way to check them out is via the Steel Navy website:  www.steelnavy.com.

Good luck.

I'm sure MPC (Nodel Products Corporation) is an American firm but I admit I don't really know much about them.

For up to twenty years until the recent collapse (and subsequent rescue) of Airfix all their kits were being moulded in France at Heller's facility as both companies were owned by Humbrol.  They obviously decided it was cheaper to run only one moulding plant.  I have had issues with Heller kits and their patchy quality control and I'm not sorry it's ended.

Michael 

There's one from MPC and one from Airfix listed right now.  I'm revealing my vast ignorance of model company lineage by asking - is MPC from France?  I don't see any indication in either auction that it is made in France.

I notice the contender on eBay right now is described as being "made in France" which means it's not exactly vintage and certainly not "rare", though that doesn't mean it'll necessarily be easy to find.

If I were after one I'd try to find an original "Made in England" - not out of patriotic fervour but simply because the tooling would have been in better condition.  I also have little respect for Heller's production standards.

Michael 

Thanks for the info!  I'm not so much concerned with the quality of the kit - I understand that Airfix quality can vary quite a bit - but they always had a very different selection of ships from everyone else, which makes them quite appealing.

It's been OOP for quite a while. Am not sure when Airfix dropped it, but am pretty sure that it wasn't listed in the Airfix 2005 & 2006 catalogues. It's a nice kit by the way, I have one in the stash.