There are a lot of storage compartments that can be opened up to show detail included but I will be building this one buttoned up with crew. If all goes well I may get another without the slat armour to open all up.
Oh it was! You will see.
Yes that is $99 Canadian and since I am in Canada paying in Canadian funds that means it is $99 NOT however much it would be reduced by applying exchange rates.
Plus:
Well so far it lives up to the hype!! The plastic is right in that Goldilocks zone of not to soft but not too hard and takes glue like a champ. Exquisite detail is added with some smaller parts but they have such perfect locaters that they just pop into place. The longer seams in the multipiece hull are so well engineered and molded that they completely disappear with just glue and no touch up required.
Minus:
There are far more sprue gates to clean up than “normal” but that is probably the price for the detail.
For example 7 very heavy sprue attachment points each.
Working on the hull. I was not fond of the instructions method of starting at the front and putting all the fiddley bits in place as you work to the back so put all the larger pieces in place and THEN start on the small bits. I just know that putting all the small stuff on while working back would be a recipe for disaster for me.
I did not like the looks of the etch handles for the bins and such. They are too flat and not deep enough for even 1/35 fingers to fit through. I picture the poor crew with constantly bleeding fingers from simply opening a bin! Since they should be round bars material I just drilled out the indicator marks for the etch and inserted appropriately shaped and sized wire. Now the guys don’t need to carry a case of bandaides with them.
Most small items added to upper hull and bottom joined to top. There are a lot of small pieces that need to go together but the engineering is very good so it doesn’t become tedious. Vision blocks and some other clear parts will go on after base painting. Most of the rear deck will be covered by the turret so all that work will never be seen again unless the turret is turned sideways.
I may have been premature in my praise of the engineering and parts fit based upon the hull. The turret has been an entirely different kettle of fish! Multiple parts used to make up even some basic shapes, poor fit, unfortunate sprue attachment point locations and often very ambiguous placement instructions have made this a fight. Still an enjoyable fight but a fight all the same.
Eight hours in and I am about 25% done the turret.
I don’t know equipment after about 1985 so have no clue what this does but it consists of 14 parts including 4 etch pieces that are just flat and add no detail. None of tis wanted to go together and fought me every step of the way.
The small arms cabinet can be posed open and at first glance looks pretty cool. A bit closer however shows that the small arms molded on in relief look like they are molded inn relief. Considering they make everything else up out of a bunch of small parts some separate weapons here would have gone a long way. I was closing it up anyway so not a big deal.
The gun mount went together flawlessly but they sort of missed telling you something in the instructions. Wasn’t hard to figure out but it is a rather critical you do this right.
Note Part E24 is show as do not glue but then is shaded red (which means “glue here”) at the hinge point. DO NOT GLUE THERE! It has to move.
If you try this (as I did at first) you just trap that hinged panel inside the opening and there is no way you can close up the bottom.
In order to get the flap on the outside where it belongs you nee to flip it straight up, put it through the opening, slide the whole works back and THEN flip it back down.
All of their fine details are exquisite. The anti slip panels are beautifully done, bolts, rivets and welds are finely represented and in scale, even the molded hinges have visibly separate pins and pivots. Where I have questions (not really complaints) is with the number of seemingly over engineered , multi piece assemblies that are just way over the top for what is needed. Now I am of course not a mold maker so it is possible that they could not do things any other way but I just don’t see it.
For example the mounts for the stand off armour on the front of the turret require 6 pieces to be very VERY precisely placed for it to fit properly. The turret fittings fought every minute of installation. There is no detail inside those armour sections to show off so why make them removable or have a semi accurate mounting system? A simple post and hole alignment system would have been just fine.
And why? Just why. Did they feel that the third piece was needed for the drive sprockets? I get that on the real thing this is a designed shear point but once the sprocket is assembled it is invisible.
