I have enjoyed the work of making HMS Kelly and although I worked slowly (many months of inactivity when I was fully employed).
I used many photos from the Imperial War Museum photo collection to verify my model and noted a few errors in your plans:
1) Model plan is for HMS Kelly after the May - December 1940 rebuilding. The 1939-May 1940 version had
- 2 sets of torpedo tubes, both facing aft,
- no 4-inch H/A gun,
- no gun platforms beside the main searchlight,
- no Oerlikons, machine guns were mounted beside the bridge and not even the gun platforms beside the searchlight, (HMS Kelly was the very first ship in the Royal Navy to get Oerlikon guns, and only did so in December 1940. This is very a propos because Mountbatten had argued strongly for the purchase of this type of gun.)
- the RDF antenna (diamond shaped) was on top of mast.
The modifications in Fall 1940 included:
- aft set of torpedo tubes replaced by 4" H/A gun,
- gun platforms beside the main searchlight,
- Oerlikons mounted beside main searchlight and beside the bridge,
- RDF antenna mounted in front of ASDIC office,
- rectangular radar antenna mounted at top of mast. If purchaser of the kit wished to make the model to reflect the 1939-40 version of the ship, the kit does not have the requisite parts (the second set of torpedo tubes).
2) All photos show that HMS Kelly carried only 3 boats: a whaler (starboard side), a Captain's barge (starboard side), and a motor launch (port side). Small motor launch and dinghy are not visible in any photo.
3) All photos of HMS Kelly before September 1939 show a light grey hull colour and no number; between September 1939 and May 1949 show a dark-grey hull colour and no number [Source: HMS Kelly, IWM photo FL14304]; after December 1940, i.e., in the Mediterranean, show a light-grey hull colour, and no number [Source: IWM photos A2787, A2908, A3602].
4) There is a support to the roof of the turrets between the counter-weights. [Source: IWM photos A251, A291, A659]
5) There are 7 cross braces on the blast screen. [Source: IWM photos A251, A659]
6) The RDF (after December 1940) is mounted in front of the ASDIC office. [Source: IWM photos A2787, A2908, A3602]
7) Red and Green navigation lights are mounted on exterior of searchlight echelons. [Source: IWM photos A2908, A3602, A4078]
8. Face of the protective bulkhead under searchlight slopes back from centre-line of ship. (That is inside edge forward of outside edge.) [Source: IWM photo A4078]
9) After December 1940, there are 'skirts' along the rails beside the turrets, protecting 'ready-use' ammunition. [Source: IWM photos A2787, A2908, A3192, A3409, A3602]
10) Bridge windscreen fits directly at top of sloping roof of ASDIC office, not a foot back. [Source: IWM photo A18039]
11) Horizontal part of bridge windscreen is opaque on HMS Kelvin, HMS Roebuck and HMCS Haida with stiffeners/braces on the upper sides. [Source: IWM photos A659, A18039]
12) Gyro-repeaters on either side of the bridge of HMS Kelvin just in front of the break. [Source: IWM photo 659]
13) There is a wire mesh over the Crow's Nest. [Source: IWM photos A252, A2469]
14) Two sets of horizontal cross members on tripod mast. [Source: IWM photos A2787, A2909, A3602] The upper set is at the level of the range finder (part #C-2); the lower set at the level of the signal boxes (part #B-34). The white navigation lights on the mast are at the height of the upper cross members.
15) Ladder to Crow's Nest goes from roof of galley to first cross member of tripod mast on starboard side, then from half way along the starboard cross-member to the starboard side of Crow's Nest and attaches at the upper cross member. [Source: IWM photos A238, A631]
16) Both sets of fore-guys to mast are attached to the forecastle in front of deck cleat (which is just forward of the break of the forecastle), not at the break of the forecastle.
17) Sirens (part #E-6) are vertical, not horizontal. [Source: IWM photo A474]
18) Location of ship's bell missing from plan. On other ships of the class, it is on the forward bulkhead of the aft superstructure. [Source: IWM photo A475, A1534]
References
Colman, Kenneth, HMS Kelly, William Kimber, London, 1954.
Hough, Richard, Bless Our Ship: Mountbatten and the Kelly, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1991.
ISBN 0-340-543396-5.
You can see most of the cited Imperial War Museum photos on-line on its web-site.
Since you did not send enough railing (120 inches needed, 90 inches supplied), I made my railing from 3/32" brass stanchions and thread (tied at each stanchion). I also made my tripod mast from aluminum tubing instead of brass tubing - to reduce top-weight). As much as I paid extra for the brass fittings, I used little of them - mainly because I could not identify the parts and you did not answer my request for the identities of the pieces on the etched sheet.
I am including photos of my model, which I permit you to include in your website, if you wish. If so, I suggest the associated text be:
Model:: HMS Kelly
Builder: David Gray, Ottawa, Canada
Additional pleasure was had by confirming details of the original ship with photos obtained from Imperial War Museum and by consulting WW2 naval veterans.
