by Ulises Garcia |
Going up the scales. After building the Revell 1/700 took the challenge to build this discontinued Academy 1/600. This kit is loaded with mistakes that some I couldn't correct while others I was more than successful. Firstly, I sanded down and reshaped the ship's prow. I did eat through the hull, so I had to use some putty that nicely covered up the opening. After this, I added the forepeak detail using strips and cutting a part of the foc'sle assembly. From there opened up the forward and aft well decks and used Evergreen strips to build the bulkheads or add new ones since whatever the kit supplied was out of scale. Added a third stanchion on the fore-end of B deck since it was missing one. Other major areas that needed to be built up or heavily modified were the Grand Staircase housings, funnels, and central propellers. With the Housings, I tossed whatever came with the kit since they were wrong and used Tom's Modelworks 1/700 photo etch, evergreen strips, and Stynlrez prime to mold the new housings with much success. With the funnels, I blasted away all the excess plastic around the funnels and sanded them smooth. Then, went ahead and trimmed the piping around the third funnel since it was truly off. I had to cut 1-1.5mm of piping to make it look correct. Then, finally modified the central propeller by out one of the blades, lightly sanding, and added just a top blade to make it a three-blade prop. Happy with the results.
