The Ship Model Forum

This is an inbox review of Seed Hobby’s 1/700 Spanish Heavy cruiser Canaris. I have a fascination with the naval elements of the Spanish Civil War (it takes all sorts) so this kit was a must have, the only other option being a long out of production HP Models which is looking rather dated.
As with most of their ships in this period the Spanish turned to the UK for warship design and In this case the Canarias and her sister ship Baleares were based on the British County class with a distinctive (some say ugly) teardrop bridge and large single funnel. Spanish copies of the 8” turrets would be used for main armament and 8 Spanish made copies of the Vickers 4.7” (120mm) HA in open mounts as used in the Nelson, Rodney, Glorious and Courageous. AA was likely to be copies of the 2pdr (40mm) pom poms. I say likely here because there is very little out there on these ships and they rarely agree with each other on the AA weapons.
Construction began in 1928 but progress was slow and when the civil war broke out in 1936 they were still fitting out. The shipyard fell to Nationalist control who rushed to complete these two powerful warships. Canarias had all 4 main turrets fitted but no secondaries or AA and no fire control. But needs must and with some secondary guns from the battleship Espana and with a scratch crew Canarias was sent out on active service. 6 4.7” became available towards the end of 1936 and these replaced the Espana’s guns. By Feb 37 the other 2 4.7” were added and 2 German twin 37mm and some 20mm were also fitted. The twin 37s were fitted in the aft AA positions, the 4 AA positions around the funnel either has 4 20mm or 4 single 40mm fitted depending on which source you want to follow, there were probably another 3 20mm fitted. In 1940 the 4.7” got shields and the AA was rationalised with 6 twin 37mm. The kit depicts Canarias in this 1940s configuration which, in a stunning coincidence, is the fit depicted in World of Warships.
What do you get when you open the sturdy box? All the parts, including the hull are 3D printed in a black resin, which looks a little brittle but the details are top notch, fine and crisp, and up there with the very best in my opinion. And this is a proper kit with a parts total of over 100 along with 3 sheets of PE. Taking the hull first the wood planking is very well detailed and the breakwater is wonderfully thin. Placed alongside my completed Aoshima HMS Norfolk it is head and shoulders above the injected plastic model. But it is also longer…. These ships were slightly longer than the Counties but not by that much so out comes the calculator and the ruler. Most sources give a waterline length of 192.15m and overall length at 193.9. This scales out at 274.5mm and 277mm. Model measurements are 284.5 and 285.5mm. So that is between 8.5 and 10mm to long. That is disappointing. Beam is spot on though.
Another disappointment is the mount and shields for the 4.7” are printed as one piece 4 to a raft. You need 8 so need 2 rafts but I only got one. Oh dear, but I am not going to build it in 1940s guise so I was going to have to source unshielded guns from somewhere (I thought the excellent Micromaster used to do these, but I couldn’t find them on their website). The 8 barrels are on a separate raft and look stunningly thin (and delicate). I wish when companies make parts this fine and delicate they would supply some spares. The bridge and funnel are very well done with very fine but subtle detailing. I am afraid my photos simply do not do the black 3d printed parts justice.
Instructions are adequate but there are no pe specific instructions and no painting details.
Overall I think this is a stunner and goes to show just what 3D printing can do. You have the potential to make a highly detailed model of this unusual ship. Just as long as you can deal with it being slightly too long.

A quick light coat of primer on the bridge and funnel has bought out some of the detail. Current puzzle is that the deck around b turret and the bridge is plain, but the world of warships illustration and (perhaps) some ariel pictures of her circa 1970 suggests wood planking. Ariel pictures of her in the SCW are rare and poor quality so inconclusive.