Update to 5/6/19
Comentarios
Ted M AutorI went with the MK1 photoetch kit (ordered from Australia on eBay). It has railings, doors, antennae, a white-metal RHIB and a few other odds-and-ends.
TreehuggerAah. Interesting. I must buy that MK1 set myself. 🙂 I wasn't aware of there being any photo etch for this kit. Thanks!
Bart Goesaert@ treehugger, when you are able, Pontos has several upgrade kits in which one is very elaborate... I would recommend this one seeing your work (USS FFG Oliver Hazard Perry ..Pontos Model 37019F1, 1:350)), costly but very much worth it....
Model is looking good so far... when dealing with small parts, there are other ways to remove parts then simply cutting. Don't know which tools you use, but a small saw can be of more use then some pliers (when you use pliers, I'd recommend a sidecutter), cutting the attachment bit by bit with a sharp knife/scalpel, ...
Ted M AutorThanks Bart! I'll try out a razor saw for the small/fragile bits in the next round of assembly. I do have some older side cutters (Army Painter brand I think) but I don't think they were really meant for small parts. An exact-o gave marginally better results...once I put on a new blade.
Bart GoesaertCreatieve cutting can also help: scalemodelguide.com/..ve-parts-from-sprue/
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Album info
I started this build around march, and did not think to document with photos. I'm still pretty new at this and I'm hoping that documenting the build will help in my future attempts.
Overall the main hull assembly went smoothly, although it was a very tight fit to compress the main deck and the helicopter deck into the hull. The kit has parts for the long-hull version of the ship, but no instructions on how to assemble it. The long-hull helicopter deck would clearly not fit. It was only later that I noticed that an extension for that deck is included in the C sprue, but I was unclear how I was supposed to attach it to the hull.
I next fit the deck walls to the hull and cemented in place. Fit was good overall, with some minor filling and sanding with 3000 grit paper.
I decided to scratch build a partial helicopter bay containing a folded Seahawk. Although by no means accurate, I wanted to capture some of the cramped storage I had seen of a similar bay on tour of an Arleigh Burke destroyer. I painte
