¹⁄700

Building the Garibaldi

The PE:

The biggest shortcoming of the base kit is the lack of PE. I replaced all of the radar assemblies with Lion Roar USN modern radar set. Railings were courtesy of Lion Roar’s modern US navy set which also included the deck safety nets going all around the ship.

Once glued to the hull, I finished the island by applying all the railing up to the top deck. Thereafter, I applied the pre-built radar towers and other arrays. Last to apply was the rigging. (stretched sprue)

The Airwing:

An aftermarket decal sheet available from Delphis provided the markings for the air wing. The helos were well formed, but my only complaint was again the lack of PE for the rotors. I only painted the red and white stripes on the top of the rotors leaving the edges black to try and minimize their depth appearance. All aircraft were painted, then Tamiya clear-coated.

Decals applied, Microset was applied (and sometimes re-applied) to the decals to get them to adhere well. Thereafter, they were all dullcoated with Testors Dullcoat.

The harriers in the kit came with drop tanks and hellfire missiles, however as par for the coarse, the small parts were mostly broken. A bit of microsurgery allowed for most of the parts to be used with the harriers. I think the ordinance gives a much more realistic view of the aircraft. The kit also included the deck tractors and equipment.