Aoshima 1/700 Flower-class corvette

[embarked]

One of the variants of the Aoshima HMS Exeter includes two Flower class corvettes. I don't feel I know the ships well enough for a full review. I have the first one in progress alongside a WEM corvette I got from Ebay, short of a few bits.

The Corvettes are obviously packaged for release as a standalone kit some day. With the Exeter there isn't anything in English on the box to say they are inside nor what ships are included. The sprues are sized for a typical destroyer-sized box. They come in a separate bag from the Exeter, obviously. There is a main sprue, two different minor sprues for the difference between the two versions included, a ton of brass, a tiny wooden deck set and decals for K08 (Spiraea) and K166 (the ubiquitous HMCS Snowberry). The brass sheet is captioned K08 and K128, which would be Samphire. There's a fairly normal instruction sheet for the plastic and a very nice two-page full colour set with 26 photos for the brass. The decals have enough K-numbers to do any Flower, with a funnel band for Spiraea. Oddly the names of the ships are not mentioned anywhere unless it's there in the Japanese version.

The models are waterline. Normally that would suit me fine but the WEM Flower is full hull and it somehow works better, Flowers would normally be showing something below the waterline any time there was a wave. The shape seems OK to me except for the impression that the hull starts tapering towards the stern a little too early. Both are long-focsle, K08 having slightly earlier type 271 radar and the mast ahead of the bridge, matching the ship after early mods. K166 has the mast aft of the bridge, different radar and really not much else. Neither has a hedgehog, both have the enclosed bridge which AFAIK is wrong for Snowberry. I intend to try and cut back the focsle for the second one, it doesn't look too difficult.

A word about the PE. This set is twice as big, per ship , as the WEM brass. It is very comprehensive. Ever try folding a 271 radar lantern? The way the packaging works I can't be sure the PE will come with any planned standalone corvettes.

I'm pleased with this kit, but I am not the ultimate judge on Flowers. I can say they are the best injection Flowers in 1/700.

Anybody in the UK want HMS Exeter 1942, untouched?

[Haijun watcher]

Anybody in the UK want HMS Exeter 1942, untouched?

You willing to ship to Canada?

We're all one big Commonwealth...

[drasticplastic]

No pics of the Corvettes, and PE?

[embarked]

https://imgur.com/Xff8LlW
https://imgur.com/I0cXvAU
https://imgur.com/f53LDmK
https://imgur.com/BYgLK7n

Above is a scan of the instruction for the brass. I think it tells more than a phone pic of my mangled model would.

(If I've done it right, of course)

[FrancisMcN]

Anybody in the UK want HMS Exeter 1942, untouched?

Sending pm if Canada bid not feasible

[drasticplastic]

Looks like I'm going to order an Exeter just for the corvettes, too. With some improvements and substitutions they will be very nice models. Too bad there is no laser etch decking.

[Timmy C]

The kit comes with laser-etched decking, but you can see in both the instructions and these photos of the completed model that they're way over-scale.

[drasticplastic]

Yeah...I noticed that; Not too great looking, to say the least! The bridge roof looks more like it's made of corrugated (brass-colored) steel! Wonder if the plastic kits parts under the PE decking have scribed planking?

[embarked]

The planked parts of the deck are scribed, although I don't find the sticky deck too bad.

Haijun, pm me your email and we can take the Exeter thing offline.

[drasticplastic]

Oh!! That IS laser-etch decking? I thought it was PE! My bad!