by Tracey Love
1/350 USS Missouri BB-63 (Tamiya)
This is my first model in quite a few years. I started this project back in early September for my Boss's Christmas present. We are both fans of history, especially WW II, and I figured he would get a kick out of it. Little did I know. I never worked with Photo-etch before and have never attempted a project this extreme. Luckily I picked up a lot of info on this site, as well as some others. Many thanks to Ed Mcdonald, whom I emailed on this site, for answering all of my endless questions. I didn't know at the time what I was getting into with all this fine detail stuff. It was a learning experience, which I really enjoyed and hope to expand on for the next project. I'm pretty happy with the results of my first attempt. The one sour note is the rigging. I started with fine wire air-brushed white, since it fit perfectly in the pin holes of GMM's flag bag detail. It didn't look so good after it was installed, so I cut most of it off and went with white thread. Once you start working with it though, it starts getting fuzzy. Might try stretched sprue next time, or maybe even snip some of my wife's hair. Have to ask Ed about that. I plan to use all of the photo-etch from GMM's Missouri sets as well as Eduards. I won't be under a time limit, so this shouldn't be a problem. Working on this model was a lot of fun. Working against the clock really sucked.
P.S. The model isn't that washed out looking, I'm just not good a taking pictures.
