¹⁄35

Mother Joined the Navy

let's build it!

Built mostly out of the box with the exception of the rails and radar antenna. Now I’m no ship builder, and as a matter of fact this is my first one.

So I won’t go into the accuracy of the kit. I decided to install the ships handrails, helicopter deck safety netting when I dry-fitted most of the kit and saw that it look pretty bare and open.

The kit provided AN/SPS-49 radar had to be replaced as it was nothing but a thick clunky piece of plastic. I followed the kits directions which has you building it in sub-assemblies.

I did drill all necesary holes in the decks before I glued everything down. I started out by drilling about 200 holes through out all the ships decks surfaces using a 0.5mm drill bit.

I scratch built a jig to cut the posts and using Evergreen Plastic 0.5mm rod cutting them 3/16th of an inch. Starting on the lower deck I installed the posts moving my way to the upper decks. Once complete, I started on the rails. Using 0.3mm rod I installed the second rail and started from the top and worked my down to the lower sections, repeating in this manner for the top rails.

Both masts received the same treatment, the wire cables on the center mast are 0.3mm rod. The antenna cable running between both masts was made from stretched sprue. White Elmer’s glue was dabbed on to the cables and wire to simulate the insulators. The Helicopter decks safety net was made from 0.5 brass rod and fine mesh screen was glued on.

Now that I had my sub-assemblies finished, I installed the pieces together and had it ready for paint.