Type 21 Amazon-class Frigate

This is going to be the last week of my Falklands War project, which reaches its crescendo with the British forces landing at San Carlos and me closing my scale model builds with some of the ground forces and support ships which completed the retaking of the islands. 

Today’s offering is my 3rd Royal Navy ship which served in the Falklands War. The Type 21 frigate, or Amazon-class frigate, was a general-purpose escort ship. It was designed in the late 1960s as one of the first fully gas turbine-powered ships. 8 in all were built through the 1970s and served throughout the 1980s into the 1990s.

HMS Amazon (Airfix’s chosen vessel for their 1972 kit)

The frigate’s top speed of 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph), impressive handling and acceleration, prompted the class nickname of "Porsches". Not surprisingly, the captains of these ships became known as "the boy racers”! It also had a range of 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi), and moderately good armament of the new Mark 8 4.5-inch (114 mm) gun, facilities for a Westland Lynx helicopter, anti-ship missiles and two triple lightweight Seacat short-range surface-to-air missile  missile launchers. 

With the exception of HMS Amazon (Airfix’s chosen vessel for their 1972 kit), the remaining 7 Type 21s took part in the Falklands War as the 4th Frigate Squadron, these being: HMS Antilope, Active, Ambuscade, Arrow, Alacrity, Ardent and Avenger. Each were involved in a number of battle fleet roles: performing shore-bombardment missions and providing anti-submarine and anti-aircraft duties for the task force. 

The decals included with the Airfix kit were for HMS Amazon, so I left them in the box

On 10 May, having no minesweepers in the task force, a Type 21 was called on to perform a most unusual task. Battle group commander, Admiral Sandy Woodward, rang through to Commander Christopher Craig of HMS Alacrity to go and probe Falkland Sound at night to see if there were any mines. The fear was that having already seen them being laid around Port Stanley, if found here too, they would impede the planned the D-Day landings. As any mine found would have likely sunk the vessel, one of her sister ships, HMS Arrow, was sent to accompany her to pick up any survivors! Alacrity, however, found no mines but did engaged and sink an Argentine naval supply vessel located while in the Sound. Then, on exiting at daybreak, both Alacrity and Arrow were attacked by the Argentine submarine San Luis, which fired two torpedoes; one hit Arrow's submarine towed decoy (as intended) and the other bounced off her hull, having failed to arm itself. 

Not all of the Type 21s survived the War. Ardent was hit by bombs dropped by Argentine aircraft on D-Day, 21 May, while engaged in a diversionary bombardment operation, and consumed by fire. Antelope was then hit by bombs on 23 May, one of which was set off by the bomb disposal team attempting to defuse it on 24 May, causing the ship to catch fire and setting off her magazines, resulting in her breaking her back and sinking.

HMS Ardent was hit by bombs dropped by Argentine aircraft on D-Day, 21 May

The Lynx HAS.2 ASW variant, as carried by the Type 21s, also participated in combat operations. A combination of the Lynx and Westland Sea King helicopters were used to maintain continuous anti-submarine patrols in order to protect the British task force offshore from the Falkland Islands. On 3 May, a Lynx from HMS Glasgow conducted the first combat-firing of a Sea Skua missile, firing on the Argentinian patrol boat ARA Alférez Sobral, inflicting considerable damage to the vessel. I’m Although none were shot down in combat, a total of three were lost aboard vessels that were struck by attacks from Argentine aircraft, these vessels being HMS Coventry, HMS Ardent and SS Atlantic Conveyor.

The Lynx HAS.2 ASW variant, as carried by the Type 21s

In addition to the dangers and damage brought on by the conflict, all the Type 21s started to develop cracks in their decks during the campaign. Due to the different expansion properties of steel and aluminium, a vulnerability particularly demonstrated under the severe weather conditions that they encountered in the South Atlantic. Steel reinforcing plates were eventually fitted down the sides of the ships to keep them afloat and to allow the eventual sale of the six surviving Type 21 frigates to Pakistan in 1993–1994!

As the decals included with the Airfix kit were for HMS Amazon, I decided to leave them in the box and thus allow me to view the finished model as any of the 8 siblings. Then looking at how yellow they had turned since being printed some 50 years ago, I also decided to hand paint the helicopter landing pad markings.

I actually completed this kit before Christmas and before starting on Invincible and Fearless. It was its rather subdued paint scheme, with lack of weathering, which encouraged me to get more adventurous on the other two!

This was a very simple kit to build, hardly worth the premium I paid for such a rare Airfix model, and not my finest by far, but I really wanted to add it to my growing Falklands War collection!

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The Kit:

Brand: Airfix
Title: H.M.S. Amazon
Number: 02204-6 (Also listed as F7S)
Scale: 1:600
Released: 1972 | Initial release - new tool