Trumpeter 1/350 HMS Eskimo Destroyer 1941 Kit First Look

by Dave Manter

First Look

HMS Eskimo (L-75) was a Tribal-class British destroyer, laid down by the High Walker Yard of Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle-on-Tyne on August 5th, 1936. It was launched on September 3rd, 1937 and commissioned on December 30th, 1938.

Eskimo participated in the second battle of Narvik in April 1940, supported the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942 and served with the 10th Destroyer Flotilla at Plymouth. It attacked and sank the German submarine U-971 while in company with the Canadian destroyer HMCS Haida and a Liberator aircraft of the Czech air force in the English Channel north of Brest on June 24th, 1944. During the final days of the war, it operated in the Far East. For most of the spring of 1945, she was employed in operations south of Ramree Island (Burma) where odd parties of Japanese were holding out. Eskimo and other Tribal class ships later joined up with Force 61 to intercept and destroy what was left of the Japanese surface fleet. She was sold for scrap on June 27th, 1949 and was broken up at Troon.

The 100% new tooling Trumpeter kit of the HMS Eskimo consists of 207 parts on 8 sprues and 44 photo etch detail parts. All parts feature very fine details and there is little to no flash present. One thing that is a little different on this Trumpeter kit is that there is no waterline option with the main hull. Construction will be very straight forward thanks to Trumpeters well written instructions. The main parts fit very well and the main guns are moveable after construction. Lots of details are provided, but Trumpeter does not include the railings for the main deck. They do provide railings for the upper decks. Painting instructions are provided on Trumpeters now normal 4 color guide.

This kit will build into a great replica of the Tribal class British destroyers.

My sincere thanks to Stevens International for this review sample!