Started this about three weeks ago, I'd no intention of starting it, just opened the box to put some accessories in a safe place, before I could stop myself I was attacking the plastic with great gusto.
Got the kit from Models for Sale for £50, RRP looks to be about £90 so another bargain from these guys.
As usual, the parts count is quite high with lots of etched brass. For some unknown reason, Hobby-boss haven't included any railings for the weather decks, that's for-deck, main-deck and quarter-deck, all the rest are there.
I found a set of railings and some wooden decks to solve the problem from Artwox,
these are a different design to the normal railings and look very nice. The plastic decks are good enough to paint and wash but seen as I've paid for wood, I'll use it.
The fit of plastic to plastic is almost too good, everything needs dry-fitting but that's no bad thing. The plastic is commendably thin where it needs to be although there are some technical errors to correct, the entry to the chain lockers on the for-deck being an example. The wood decks need quite a lot of effort to get a fit and there are some errors between the kit and the wood but nothing insurmountable with some artistic licence.
The brass barrels, from Starling models proved a bit of a problem. you're supplied with resin castings to mount the guns instead of having to modify the plastic parts to fit. My usual superglue refused to work, I resorted to MIG Slo-dry which worked a treat, just goes to show that all super-glues aren't the same.
The instructions are a bit confusing. As is normal with most ships, you get lots of small sub-assy's which build into bigger sub assy's. The instructions dance about from page to page with no logical sequence or identification of each assy, easy to get it wrong.
Here's some pics of where we are now, nearly ready for some paint. before I start painting, I must finish USS Guam, then a Chines Iron-clad which is about 60% done.
Haddock.