John's Model Shipyard 1/1200 RN604 Castle-class corvette, A kit of Royal Navy escort 1943-44
The Castle-class Corvettes were improvements on the Flower-class with new weapons and a lengthened hull for better sea-keeping in the North Atlantic. This 1/1200 scale, waterline, 3D resin printed kit is by John's Model Shipyard RN604
The Castle-class Corvettes entered service in 1943 and were fitted with the Sqid anti-submarine motar and a longer hull recommended by Smith's Dock, designers of the original Flower-class Corvettes. They were too slow to keep up with the latest U-boats on the surface and U-boats were withdrawn from the North Atlantic before most of them were delivered, so they had short service careers. Five were converted to Convoy Rescue Vessels and many of the orders were cancelled.
Coastlines models has added a topmast and radar to one of these kits and painted the unique two-tone blue camouflage carried by Tunsberg Castle which was transfered to the Norwegian Navy and manned by a largely Norwegian crew and used to protect Arctic Convoys sailing to Russia in 1945. The anti-submarine Squid motar remained with this ship in Norwegian service, something that did not happen except for transfers to Commonwealth Navies.