Singapore-based retailer Hobby Bounties has re-issued Airfix’s 1/600 HMS Repulse and King George V warships… the latter now packaged as HMS Prince of Wales.
Both these much-loved kits were first moulded in 1982, but are now available under the FROG label, owned by retailer Hobby Bounties. They are emotive subjects, as the real vessels were sunk on December 10, 1941 – by bombs and torpedoes from Japanese aircraft – just days after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor.
Above: Armour plate, porthole and hatch detail on the hull of ‘Repulse’.
Above: The moulding is pleasing given the vintage of both kits. Visible here on the 'Repulse' main deck are plank details, fine breakwaters and sharply defined superstructure/gun mounts.
Airfix’s Repulse and King George V were, at the time of release, highly regarded and still impress today despite their age. Almost no flash was present on Key Model World’s samples, and the detail is surprisingly good… both having planking lines and very fine anchor chain moulded on the deck, as well as crisply rendered mounting bases for the superstructures. The styrene runners come in clear bags with a card wrap, the latter featuring retro artwork of the vessels.
On Repulse, the two-piece, vertically …
