Background - The Admiralty Type Flotilla Leader, also referred to as the Scott class, was a class of large destroyers designed and built for the Royal Navy as
leaders towards the end of World War I. The function of a destroyer leader was to carry the flag staff of a destroyer flotilla. To perform this function, the ship
design was enlarged to accommodate additional crew, work space and offices and more signaling equipment. The larger size also allowed for the fitting of a fifth
gun 4.7-inch gun amidships. As a result, the Scott class was among the largest class of destroyers built at that time, measuring 322-feet 6-inches and displacing
1,580 tons. A total of eight ships were built, all named after Scottish historical leaders. The eight ships were Scott, Bruce, Douglas, Campbell, Mackay, Malcolm,
Montrose and Stuart. All except Mackay and Malcolm were completed in time for service during World War I. Two additional ships, Barrington and Hughes,
were ordered but eventually cancelled with the end of the war. All but two of the ships were built by Cammell Laird & Company in Birkenhead.

HMS Scott was the only ship lost during hostilities, when she was sunk off the Dutch coast on August 15, 1918, less than a year after she was launched. The
cause of her sinking remains unclear, but evidence points to a mine which may have been laid by UC-17, which was patrolling the area. The remaining ships in the
class served for many years. HMS Stuart was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1933 and HMS Bruce was sunk as a target ship in 1939. During World
War II, HMAS Stuart and her five Royal Navy sister-ships were converted to escorts and survived the war. After the war, all of the ships were eventually sold to
the scrappers.
The Kit - AJM Models follow-up to their 1:350 scale Racecourse minesweeper is a model kit of a Scott class destroyer. The model provides a full-hull or waterline
hull option and best depicts and inter-war or early-war fit. According to the instructions, you can build HMS Stuart, Mackay, Douglas or Campbell with this kit.
The upper hull is nicely done with good detail. The steel deck is well represented with tread plates at the foc’sle and in various locations along the deck. The deck
hawsers are faint depressions and will benefit from drilling out some to give the impression of depth when placing the anchor chains. There are some details cast into
the deck, such as capstans, bitts, hatches, deck housings aft and bases for the torpedo tubes. There are some faint impressions in the deck to mark where other
structure parts and fittings are to be attached. The hull also has numerous portholes along the sides. There is some excess resin along the bottom that will need to be
sanded down whether you decide to build waterline or full-hull. There are also some air bubbles along the bottom edge of the upper hull that will need to be filled in.
The lower hull is also nicely done with bilge keels, shaft housings and locater holes for the propeller struts and rudder. The only issue with the lower hull is the
relatively substantial casting plug that will require quite a bit of work to remove if you wish to go the full-hull route.

There are ten deckhouses and platforms in the smaller resin parts collection. The largest is the 01 level of the forward superstructure. That part is designed to
accommodate a lower platform on top of which sits the two parts that make up bridge: the lower deckhouse that is topped off with the traditional British open bridge.
The sides of the housings are nicely detailed with watertight doors, lockers and other details. The open bridge has some detail along the inner bulwarks. There are
slots to accommodate corresponding tabs underneath the structures for proper fitting. The kit offers two different pairs of splinter shields for the B and X gun
positions. One pair (parts 10 and 11) is to be used for Stuart and the other pair (parts 12 and 13) is for the other three ships. The differences are minor to my eye but
part 10 has a rounder deck than part 12. The remaining parts in this group are the bandstand for the Q gun position and a small deck housing for the auxiliary helm
amidships. The casting is generally good though some clean-up is needed.
The funnels are also well done with good cap aprons and bases as well as being hollowed out sufficiently. The steam piping fitted to the funnels is done in resin and are
cast in the proper shape. A smaller structure with a cowl vent that is fitted amidships rounds off the structural parts. The main parts for the armament are done in
resin, with added photo-etch details. Parts are provided for the 4.7-inch gun mounts, the 3-inch anti-aircraft gun and the triple 21-inch torpedo tubes. Parts are also
included for what appears to be a 2-pounder gun which is an alternate for the 3-inch gun. The instructions are not specific as to which ship this gun was fitted, so
some research by the modeler is needed. The parts are also generally good with some clean up needed. Turned brass barrels for the 4.7 inch guns are included and
recommended over the resin versions. The remaining small resin parts include the propellers, rudder, propeller shaft struts, Carley floats, a motor launch, whaleboats,
various lockers, range finder, small cowl vents, various bridge fittings and numerous smaller parts. The casting is adequate though with the much smaller parts
suffering from poor casting and also coming loose during shipping. I honestly do not know what parts 41 are supposed to be but there are a lot of them and are among
those that came off the runners and not well cast. Resin part 22, which is a storage bin, can be replaced with photo-etch parts 61 and 80.

The photo-etch parts come on two larger frets and parts for the 4.7-inch guns on five individual ones. The photo-etch is very well done, with great detail and
relief-etching, and is one of the strong points of this kit. The photo-etch provides a lot of standard parts as well as detail parts. The larger fret contains the railings,
inclined and vertical ladders, 3-inch gun platform, parts for the searchlight tower, boat details, boat davits, bridge wing supports, propeller guards, torpedo tube bases,
funnel cap grills and details and sundry parts. The railings have individual stanchion ends which I find harder to work with. The smaller fret is comprised of alternate
funnel cap grills, parts for some storage bins and lockers, anchors, additional vertical and inclined ladders, accommodation ladders, oars for the boats and floats and
other detail parts. The individual frets for the 4.7-inch guns have the mounts, gun shields, gun bases and hand wheels. Part numbers are etched into the two larger frets.
Turned brass parts are provided for the 4.7-inch gun barrels and the fore and main masts. I would recommend using the brass barrels for the 4.7-inch guns as they
are much better than the resin versions. The masts need to be finished off with the upper sections and yardarms cut from brass wire. Lengths of brass wire in
different diameters and anchor chain are also included, though the anchor chain appears a bit over scale. A small decal sheet is provided with pennant numbers, draft
markings, ship names and Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy flags. The decals look good and it is nice to see draft markings included as they are usually
overlooked.

The assembly instructions are printed on four pages and while adequate I find them a little confusing in spots. The first page has a breakdown of the kit parts with
resin parts having numbers within ovals, the turned brass with a prefix of “D” and the decals with a “K”. Photo-etch parts are referenced by numbers within boxes.
The bottom of the first page has the painting and decal placement guide which also serves as a rigging diagram. Color references are for Lifecolor paints so you will
have to find paint equivalents for your preferred paint brand. Now here is where some of my confusion lies as it attempts to differentiate among the 4 ships that you
can build with this kit in one spot. There are close-ups of the funnels with red bands associated with the different ships. Did the funnels for HMS Douglas not have
any bands? The same question with the pennant numbers - were two different pennant numbers assigned to HMS Campbell as stated here? The deck painting
instructions are also a bit confusing – are the steel decks in the illustration the areas in white on the foc’sle and various spots amidships that are to be painted dark
gray?  I think it is the case of trying to cover too much in very limited space. Regardless, as with any modeling project, some research on the builder’s part is needed
to answer questions. The remaining pages have several detailed and well-drawn assembly diagrams with dimensions cited for the parts that you need to cut from the
brass wire provided.
The Scott class kit is a good sophomore 1:350 scale release from AJM Models though there are a few nitpicky issues which in the end do not take away from the
model. Who would have ever thought that this class of destroyer would ever be available in this scale?  This is where smaller resin kit producers excel by making
subjects that more mainstream plastic firms would never consider releasing. Variants of this class in different World War II fits have also been released by AJM
Models, but this kit will give you a good basis for an inter-war and early-war version. My thanks to AJM Models for the review sample.
Felix Bustelo
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