by John Bange
1/500 RM Zara (Tauro)
This is a kitbash of an excellent Italian kit of Zara in 1/400.
Sadly, the kit did not come with decals so I was not able to add her motto, Tenacemente to Y turret. ( this is not a recipe for concrete in Italian). The paintjob on the floatplane is lacking also.
To change scales, I shortened the deckhouse and shaved a little off of the bridge. I used new plastic rod instead of the kit supplies parts for the control tower. The boatdeck lost a lot of space and I used only the smaller of the very good boats supplied with the kit.
The " place bomb here " paint scheme is from The Encyclopedia of the Worlds Warships by Hugh Lyon. It is a well worn source of info I use which happens to have color drawings in 1/500 scale. It was a lot of fun to try.
PS: the instructions were awful.
