Starling Models 1/700 Foylebank

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » Sun Dec 28, 2025 4:22 pm

It has been a while that that I wrote a first look review but no that the forum is functioning again it is time to start writing again. The subject is an familiar one to me, a bank line ship
After producing a kit of the WW2 AA ship HM Alynbank Starling has now taken on a Bank line ship in it pre-war form, mv Foylebank.
Foylebank was of the second group, or Workman Clark group, of a series of 26 twin screw diesel powered semi-tramp cargo ships build by Harland & Wolff as well as Workman Clark in the 1920s. This very large order, and the order for 52 marine diesel engines that went with it, made diesel engines an economically sound proposition for tramp owners due to economies of scale and started the gradual replacement of the classic British steam tramp.
The kit consists of a 3D printed hull, four 3D printed ‘sprues’, a small decal sheet, two turned brass masts and a photo etch sheet. As well as the usual very thorough Starling instruction booklet.
A minor problem with the instructions is the color scheme. Most reference on pre-war Bank line ships indicate a stone colored superstructure with yellow funnel and blue ventilator
insides. Starling make you paint all of that yellow. I’m not sue who is right on this.

The photo etch sheet contains the railings, ladders, stairways and part of the rigging. This is a clear and simple sheet with good ‘bottom’ rails to the railings and without the need to fold individual steps in the stairs which saves a lot of work.

3D sprue A has the superstructure parts. They look sharp and a fit together like a clockwork after separating them from the ‘sprue’.

3D sprue B has all the boats, winches and vents that make ships of this period look interesting.

3D sprue C has four kingposts and eight cargo jibs. You are supposed to make some more of them brass rod (not included). This choice by Starling means that building the Harland and Wolff sisters is not possible as these had open lattice derricks rather than the traditional jibs.
A sensible decision by Starling as I don’t think many modelers will want to fold 16 identical 19 by 1 by 1 mm open lattice structures in PE and I don’t see any other way to do this.

My kit had turned brass masts and not sprue ‘ D’ . I’m not sure if ‘D’ should have been in the box but as I will use the stronger brass masts anyway it does not matter for the build.

3D sprue E has the hatch covers. Like the superstructure they fit well a and they are sharply printed. I do think the tops are a bit over done (over printed?) so I will probably sand them down a bit and put canvas covers made from tissue paper over them.

The largest part in the kit is the hull. It come on its own ‘sprue’ and looks sharp with very nice deck detail. It is about .5mm too small in beam and 1.5mm too small in length compared to Foylebank’s dimensions in Miramar but I can live with that.

After separating the part from its ‘sprue’ however it turned out that the hull was somewhat banana shaped. As a previous Starling 3D hull from its coastal cargo set shattered when I tried the boiling water method a different solution was tried.
I filled a sink with hot tap water (which is 60 degrees centigrade in NL) and put the hull in it for about 10 minutes. After that I left it on a flat surface for 24 hours with a heavy duty reference book on it, British Tramps by I.G.Stewart. After that the hull was straight and it looks like it still is two weeks later.

The next picture show the hull with some of the (former) competition.
The first is with the hull with AJM’s Springbank. Also nice but like most AJM kits a very PE intensive kit so I work on it in short episodes to avoid burning out.

The second is with one of the steam tramps Foylebank competed against, SS Wanstead of Watts, Watts & Co. This is the old resin and photo etch kit by Loose Cannon. I love building LC kits and it is nice to see that Starling is taking the same approach toward Photo Etch and readable instructions as Loose Cannon.

In conclusion, apart from a few details this a very nice kit by Starling Models and I hope Starling will produce more merchant ships in 1/700.

reigels · Post by **reigels** » Fri Jan 02, 2026 1:15 pm

Thanks for posting -

I've been working on cleaning up the print lines on the decks with some success. Three coats of rattle can Mr Surfacer and basically "Holystoning" the entire deck with small squares of wet/dry paper epoxied to a styrofoam meat tray and things are sorted out, but all the same this seems to be a step that should have been avoided. I can see that Mike at Starling is pushing what can be done with 3d printing and I'm glad to have the kit.