HMCS Snowberry

I’m thinking of buying a Revell 1/144 scale kit of the corvette HMCS Snowberry, but I’m a bit concerned about complaints about the apparently out-of-scale railings and the high cost of detail photoetch sets. And I can’t find any threads about this kit here in the discussion board. In other words, can anyone with experience with this model offer their comments?

Bob

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Hi Bobstamp!

Hey, I cant wait till you start that sub. I am curious as to any problems you might face in the build. T.B.

I find frequently that optional photo-etch can exceed the cost of the basic kit.

but with them as optional at least you benefit from a cheaper kit and a choice, rather than no-choice expensive kit. Only you can make the right decision on whether the options are worth it.

https://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/p/176578/1978288.aspx?page=1

Sorry about the images. They are on photobucket.

i bought two of the three Eduard PE and it has pretty much stalled the build.

i’ve sen builds where the modeler added canvas dodgers to some of the railings and it looked pretty good.

If you build it out of the box and finish, that will be impressive.

Bill

Bill, you said, “i bought two of the three Eduard PE and it has pretty much stalled the build.”

Why did it stall the build? I think I know.

I’ve continued cogitating about buying and building the 1/144 version, but looking at all those sprues (more than 500 parts), plus three possible photoetch sets, and detailed instructions, well, I think I’d be nuts, especially since I would want to buy two kits to cover breakage, errors, and lost parts. (I always seem to lose parts!)I have several kits I’d like to build in my stash, including some given to me by my friend, Mike Strachan, while he was fighting a difficult prostatic cancer condition which took him away from us in only eight months or so. Among those kits are ones for a B-17G, a Lancaster, a Fokker Tri-Motor, and a Luftwaffe Condor. Much as I’d like to have a model of a Canadian corvette, the best course is to forget it.

Bob

T.B. I’m not sure if you’re referring my Nautilus submarine project, or you mean “tub” (the corvette). The submarine is nearing completion. I’m pleased with the addition of “sealife” to the base, and a custom display case has been ordered. If it’s the submarine you want to know about, I’ll post additional information. I should do that anyway, but your interest gives me an excuse not to work on the model. It’s been a long, difficult slog.

The railings in the photoetch kit are flat, unlike the real railings. Saemann of Germany makes photoetch rail stanchions that you drill a hole and glue in the deck and then use fine wire to make the railings. I have used these on both 1/144 builds and 1/125 builds and I am very happy with the results. They are available in various lengths and in 2 and 3 rail versions. I used Detail Associates 0.008" for railings (just over 1 scale inch diameter).

Whoa!BobStamp:

My interest gives you an excuse NOT to work on the model? Why?

Bob, I built that kit and and they didn’t look out of scale. If you want to put a ruler to them, they may be a little large, but from 3-4 feet away they look just fine.

Nothing personal, T.B., and kinda tongue-in-cheek. I didn’t mean to offend.

The Nautilus has been a very difficult kit for me, my limited skills, and lack of a real airbrush. I made so many mistake and had so many mishaps that I got a bit skittish even thinking about next steps. But I’ve persevered, and am now ready to do some minor touch-upsl and add the rest of the “sea life” — extremely fragile dried seed pods from weeds, collected last autumn from a small park near us.

I had a lot of trouble with the LED lights I installed, but I think that’s now sorted out. In a week or so, I should receive the display case I ordered from Modellers’ Workshop in Montreal. I cannot recommend Modellers’ Workshop highly enough. I’ve now ordered four display cases and an acrylic picture frame from the owner, Rick Shousa, and have no complaints at all.

When everything is finished and on display, I’ll send a photo as well as a build review.

Bob

That’s good news. It’s not as if I demand scale perfection. Among my first models was a 1950s Revell kit of the hospital ship U.S.S. Haven, which I built as U.S.S. Repose, where I had surgery after I was wounded in Vietnam. The kit doesn’t specify the scale — about 1/500 — but its beam is too little compared to its length. As far as railings go, there are none that don’t look like solid walls. But I’m happy enough with the completed model to have spent a small fortune on a custom-made display case.

So, assuming I could live with slightly out-of-scale Snowberry railings, how about the difficulty of the build? It would be my eighth mode; the largest one (the Pegasus version of the submarine Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) has just over a hundred parts. I’ve learned a lot from building those eight models, and seem to be making fewer beginner mistakes, but I’m concerned that a model with more than 550 parts could be daunting in terms of time and complexity. Could you please comment on your experience building Snowberry?

Bob

This engine room skylight has 96 pieces of PE added to the kit parts.

Bill

Update: After long and what I think was careful consideration, I decided not to buy the 1/144 HMCS Snowberry model. After reading through a detailed “build report,” I couldn’t imagine dealing with the large number of parts, some of them rivaling bacteria in terms of size! And I have to admit that the out-of-scale railings wouild bother me, just as they bother me with my completed model of the hospital ship U.S.S. Repose. I would have had to buy PE railings, an I just didn’t want to go into that level of detail and expense. So, an idea, buying that model, evolved into another idea, NOT buying that model! Which proves I’m not over the hill yet.

Speaking of being over the hill, I actually like being on top of hills and small mountains, including the “Matterhorn of the Southwest”. See my web page about climbing New Mexico’s Cooke’s Peak. It doesn’t have a thing to do with models, but you might enjoy it anyway! Go to “Climbing Cooke’s Peak”.

Bob

It is a Great Kit of a Rare subject ,. i have it [1/144} and also 2-1/72 Versions ,.Granted it has a great number of parts but if built in sections it can ease the Pain,.i will be building mine out of Box,. Funds are tight and prefer to spend them on a decent kit than splurge on something that most folks wouldn,t recognize or appreciate once Painted ,.Best of Luck and hope to see some pics of the Kit in Progress!