KIT #:	MDW056
PRICE:	$100.00
DECALS:	small sheet that includes flags
REVIEWER:	Marcello Rosa
NOTES:

HISTORY

The kit represents De Ruyter at the start of her career, in the mid 1950s, and is made by Doggy Industries, defined in their Facebook page as “a small workshop operated by Liu and his friends in part time”. Don’t let this modest self-assessment fool you: this is a serious kit. In addition to the resin parts, it comes with 3 extensive frets of photoetch parts, metal barrels for the main guns, and decals for pennant numbers and flags. I did not need anything other than paint, glue and rigging line.

The photoetch is excellent. The detail is fine, yet the metal is easy to cut with a standard scalpel blade, and to work with. Every single door and hatch is represented as a separate part, and can be modelled open or closed. Every single vent is there. Every section of railing is individually numbered, has clear bend marks, and fits precisely where it is meant to go. Insofar as I could determine from the photos available online, every detail represented is accurate. You also get an impressive amount of spares, which was very reassuring for someone who is always losing small stuff, and enough extra railing for another ship.

My construction started with sanding the hull to make the surface a bit smoother, and to tone down the armoured belt (which, as in most 1/700 kits, appeared overscale). At this stage you can also remove the resin boat cradles, which are too thick and can later be substituted with photoetch parts. Following application of a few layers of Mr. Surfacer 1000, the hull was ready to be painted. I then treated each level of superstructure and funnel as a separate sub-assembly, each being lightly sanded before application of the endless number of photoetch doors, hatches, vents and ladders, and priming. This strategy made easier to mask when necessary, for example to paint horizontal versus vertical surfaces in different greys (see below). Complicated parts made primarily of photoetch, or combinations of photoetch and resin (e.g. armament, cranes, and masts) were also built and painted separately, and kept safe in a box until the final assembly stage.

The next major job was to add the many tiny resin and photoetch parts that ornament the deck and other horizontal surfaces, before joining the superstructure levels and funnels. Here is where I found my only real difficulty, with the second level of the aft superstructure being warped, but resisting all my attempts to re-shape using hot water. Supergluing while applying strong clamping partially solved the problem, but the result was still not optimal. Fortunately, this was an isolated problem, and the fit was quite good everywhere else.

Then it was a matter of adding things from the centre towards the periphery, and from the bottom up. For example, cranes and boats first, then primary and secondary guns, then fire control radars. This was followed by the railing (again, from inside to the outside) and things attached to the hull (anchors, propeller guards). It was then time to face the inevitable and apply those pesky whip antennas and masts. The whip antennas were hard to get aligned, because there is no clear place to attach. It is more a case of apply a tiny drop of cyanoacrylate and hold until they don't fall. To ensure alignment of the masts they were first positioned held only by white glue (Micro Krystal Klear), and only then secured more firmly with cyanoacrylate. Rigging was done with Uschi elastic thread (0.03 mm).

With the model completed, the only remaining step was to add a sea base, using a standard technique (if you are interested visit this link.

I could not find accurate records of the appropriate paints used by the Dutch Navy in the 1950's. The few colour images that made to this day suggest a very light grey with some blueish tint for the vertical surfaces, and dark greenish grey for horizontal surfaces. To make things more complicated, none of the images I found was from above. Therefore, some guesswork was required. In the end, I felt that it was reasonable to use airbrushed SMS Light Admiralty Grey (PL169) for the hull and vertical surfaces. This could be touched up when necessary with a paintbrush using AK Air 3rd generation ADC Grey, the difference between them being imperceptible. For horizontal surfaces, the choice was airbrushed Mr. Color 36 (grey green).​​ Everything was sealed with airbrushed SMS clear gloss (PL09) before applying decals, and then a mix 50:50 of PL09 and SMS flat clear (PL10) when fully completed (including rigging).

CONCLUSIONS

To me the highlight of this kit is the photoetch set, which is impressive in terms of precision, ease of use, and availability of spares. The resin parts, while competently done, could do with some extra refinement.

This was a challenging, yet enjoyable build. We are lucky to live in a time when you can get high quality kits of less famous ships like this one and build them essentially out of the box with minimal fuss. Like all 1/700 resin kits, this is best tackled if you have some modelling experience under your belt. If you would like to see more pictures or ask questions please visit my modelling web site (www.marcellorosa.com).

In addition to the photos provided with the kit instructions I referred to google image search to get closer views of items such as turrets, range finders and radars.