Have guns, will travel
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June 12, 2009
Man... I really can't work on this kit for more than 2 hours at a go. The parts are very small and requires a whole lot of more concentration than 'normal' kits. Still, I'm having fun so far...

Work continues on the superstructure, this time the front radar mast. The kit comes with a PE component for part of the mast. At first I thought of not bothering with it. But the plastic part is really ugly. So snip snip, off it went!

I carefully used CA glue to attach the PE and more CA glue to attach the tip of the mast. The rest of the mast is put together as per normal. So many tiny parts! Glurk...




As per the instructions, I cut out the parts required to depict the AEMS-equipped Arthur W. Radford. Only then did I take a look at the decal sheet and bugger it all, Dragon provides decals to depict all the various Spruance-class destroyers. Just needed to mix and match the numbers. Sigh.

Anyway, more parts are now attached to the super structure. I must comment on the instructions and the kit as a whole. The instruction is seriously vague in some spots and more than once, I had to refer to the boxart. Also, most of the tiny parts have no locating pins so careful cementing and placement is required. When there are locating pins, they don't align with the corresponding holes.

So this is what I have after 2 hours. I haven't cemented the various subassemblies together. Keeping them separate should make it easier to paint later. There's still some parts that need attaching to the super structure but I had to take a break. Heh.
June 04, 2009
Construction continues. This being my first ever Dragon kit, I find the instruction sheet unclear in some areas. Not all the parts have locating pins too so I had to refer to the boxart from time to time.

A few observations after a total of 2 hours of work:

  • Parts are very small so very careful cutting required
  • Need to be careful not to let any of the parts fly off or fall off the table. Doubt I will find them if they did
  • I'll probably need to get one of those light + magnifier lamps pretty soon. Eye strain!

And I haven't even begun on the PE parts yet...


Now I have a decision to make, the kit comes with parts for 2 configurations: the pre-1997 version or the post-1997 version that has a AEMSS (Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor System) system installed. This comes in the form of a huge cylinder on the rear of the superstructure (see boxart).

What's the dilemma? For one thing, in 1997, the USS Missouri, the other half of this vignette, had already been decommissioned. So it's not 'accurate' to model the AEMSS modded Radford side-by-side with the Missouri. But the AEMSS mass was exactly the reason why I got this kit. It looks so interesting heh.

I better make a decision soon though.
May 29, 2009
As part of the Unknown Territory Ahead (UTA) groupbuild, I decided to tackle a ship model. In fact, if it all goes well, I'll do up a vignette with 2 ships. The premise of UTA is simple: do up a project in a genre that the modeler is unfamiliar with. I fulfill the requirement by:
  1. Building a ship model
  2. Scratchbuilding water

Why 'Have guns, will travel'? Because this vignette will include the USS Missouri, which happens to be the final battleship ever commissioned by the US Navy. It's armed with 9 (!!) 16 inch guns to wreck merry havoc.

First up though, the destroyer escort. For this I got Dragon Models' USS Arthur W. Radford, a Spruance-class destroyer. The USS Missouri is a lot more complicated so I decided to tackle this one first.

First up, the UH-60 Seahawk helicopter. It's... so... tiny. Yet it's made of 6 parts, including individual landing gear (!!). I'm just glad I didn't break any part. The blades do seem out-of-scale to me so I may consider switching it to folded version instead.


Then I simply cemented the bigger parts on the hull. I'm quite surprised that the destroyer is quite long. It measures more than 20cm. Below is a shot of the stuff finished after about 30 minutes of work.

Unlike Tamiya or Hasegawa ship kits, the waterline is not colored in red. Non issue though. The kit also comes with the full hull, propellors and display stand. Nice option.
Kit Info
Manufacturer: Dragon
Scale: 1/700
Media: Injection Plastic
Status: In Progress
Kit Info