All:
I recently purchased the Choroszy Modelbud 1/700 scale British Hunt II class destroyer ORP Krakowiak, which was manned by a Polish crew while serving with the Royal Navy during WWII.
Photos and a description of the kit by Jim Baumann can be found at
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/index.html, so I will limit my comments to the detail and accuracy of the kit.
The kit is extraordinarily detailed and very cleanly cast. Be advised, that this is a very, very small kit; most people will require optical visors and very nimble fingers to clean up, assemble, and paint this kit.
In terms of dimensional accuracy, the kit comes up about 3mm short in overall length (about 119mm vice 121.9mm) but the kit is spot-on in the beam (13.7mm). Fortunately, it seems that the shortfall in the kit’s overall length is spread both fore and aft, and is therefore not really noticeable.
The shape of the hull is basically accurate (in terms of the sheer of the bow and and shape of the stern), though the bow flair seems a bit exagerrated. Deck detailing is excellent, and gun shields and interior bracing (a very nice touch) are finely cast and generally appear to be the correct shape--though when viewed from above, they are perhaps a bit more angular and less rounded than they should have been. Scuppers are delicately rendered, and nice and straight. The hull plating is nicely rendered too, though it seems that the lower row of plating ends a bit short of the stem. All sources I consulted show the lower row of plating running the entire length of the hull to the cutwater. Likewise, the aft end of the Y gun shield is enclosed. I believe that this is incorrect, and it should be open (i.e., when viewed from above, the aft shields should look like two parallel ellipses). It looks like this is the result of a misinterpretation of the plans used to build the master for the model. This, however, should be relatively easily remedied with a knife and some sandpaper.
The resin used in the kit is a bit brittle—it requires careful handling while removing casting gates and cleaning up parts, if damage is to be avoided. There were also a couple of tiny pinhole bubbles and some roughly cast surfaces on the bridge that were easily repaired with thinned putty.
The kit is a bit on the pricey side (I paid $45 plus postage, direct from the manufacturer), but given the astonishing level of detail and number of parts in the kit (including turned brass gun barrels, an extremely detailed PE fret, and decals), the price seems justified: I’m pretty sure this is the most finely detailed 1/700 scale kit ever produced.
Those who would like to build a different Hunt II from this kit should keep in mind that the Hunt IIs were built with several different pattern bridges, and funnels of different heights. As best I can tell, one cannot build any of Krakowiak’s Polish sisters (Kujawiak or Slezak) using this kit (they had a slightly different style of bridge). One can, however, build several British Hunt IIs out of the box, including HMS Chiddingfold and Calpe, with perhaps only minor modifications, depending on the ship (e.g., building up the funnel height, omitting the type 272 radar from the searchlight platform and back-fitting the searchlight, etc.).
As for the paint scheme, I have no idea if the color call-out on the instructions is accurate, though I can say that the pattern does seem to match up with that depicted in a photo on the internet, which can be found here:
http://wp39.pl/niszczyciel-orp-krakowiak-2In sum, I can strongly and enthusiastically recommend this kit, though only to the more experienced model builder. I hope that Chorozsy Modelbud will continue with their 1/700 scale series and release additional Polish and Royal Navy subjects. I will gladly pay the extra money they charge given the quality and completeness of their product.