February 2025 Part 2

HMS DARING (D05)

Link to Website Index:

HMS DARING

Daring Class Destroyer, Mediterranean Fleet, 1952

Airfix 1/600

Link to Website Index:

HMS DARING was  the nameship of the Royal Navy’s post WW2 Daring Class of destroyers.  Ordered in 1944 and incorporating bitter wartime experience, they were large ships, so much so that they were initially not classed as Destroyers, but given their own category of “Darings”.  With their very heavy armament of six modern 4.5 inch guns, six 40mm guns, eight 21 inch torpedo tubes and a single anti submarine mortar, they were capable of a wide variety of roles, from shore bombardment, anti air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti surface warfare.  They were also very fast, easily capable of keeping up with the RN Carrier Fleet.

Eight ships were built for the Royal Navy plus 3 for the Royal Australian Navy. The first 4 RN ships had more traditional DC electrical systems and this eventually limited their upgradability, so that DARING only served for 16 years before being placed in reserve and finally scrapped in 1971.  


Building the Airfix HMS DARING


This is undoubtedly a serious “nostalgia trip” for me.  This kit came as part of a 2 ship set (with HMS TIGER) issued by Airfix in 2002.  It was originally issued in 1961 and I believe I must have built my first one in about 1970 - so one of my very first kits!   


So how much better a job can I make 55 years later?    


The mould seems to have held up well (at least back in 2002), and whilst there is some mould misalignment apparent on the smaller parts, plus a few sink marks, it remains much as I remember it.   I gav esome serious thought to buying the Atlantic Models photo etch (railings, lattice mast etc), but having closely examined severl builds posted online, I’m not sure it adds a huge amount, and fiven my hate of CA glue, I probably would have messe dit up.  Instead I concentrated on cleaning up the parts that Airfix provide and building mostly “out the box”.  


The kit represents DARING in her original configuration;  the aft torpedo tubes were removed quite early and  the large gun director aft and above the bridge was replaced by a more modern, more accurate and lighter MRS3 director.   The kit also contains some obvious mistakes, the most bizarre of which is the single rudder, something that makes no sense on a fast and manoeuvrable twin shaft ship.   The after mast is also missing, although this is easily rectified with some simple stretched sprue.  The instructions also show the ASW mortar fitted pointing aft, which is wrong.  The barrels were set up to fire over the top of the ship and land forward of it, with the resultant explosions occurring alongside/just aft.   


The walkways between the 3 superstructures were added with plastic strip; the main deck would not have been safe to traverse in rough weather and the engine rooms prevented travel inside the ship., So removable walkways were fitted. I’m sure there are many more shortfalls, but these are the most obvious to me.   Having not spent out on the PE railings and mast, I decided to add some very thin fuse wire for the HF whip aerials, which adds a little fine detail to finish.  Although I applied it, I’m not entirely convinced by the Red Lead Oxide undersides - whilst this was definitely in widespread use, I can’t see any demarcation between black and red on any of the reference pictures that I used.


Ultimately, this was a quick build of a kit that holds some fond memories for me.  Recommended for those who enjoy a bit of harmless modelling fun!  


Some of the earlier box art -I remember the one on the right, but I’m not old enough for the one on the left!!!!


Link to many more Ship models on my Ships Pages

<<Link to previous month Link to Next Month >>

<<Link to previous month Link to Next Month >>

Background Image - Daring Class Destroyer HMS DIAMOND

Link to Part 1 - Hawker Kestrel FGA.1

Link to Part 1 - HS Kestrel FGA.1