Here are my first impressions upon receiving the Trumpeter 350 scale Alabama supplied by --ME.

First thought, man is this a small ship as compared with the other battleships I had built but she was 680 fett as opposed to NC's 729 and Iowa's 887.

What I liked was how they did the 3 piece deck as the joining area was very small and will be easy to cover. The fit on my kit was great when I dry fitted the decks and the 2 hull peces. This has been a problem forTrumpeter that I am glad has not shown up here. Ok, I am no expert on this ship and definitely not a rivet counter so I can't tell you what is wrong or right about it. Looking at parts, they seem to be well defined and molded. They give you two sets of main guns, One so you can pose them at differet angles, the other you can attach to blast bag pieces. The ends were "drilled" out. Of course if you want to improve the kit, get a PE set so you can replace the cranes, catapaults, radars and add gun shields to the 20mm's as well as railings, ladders and hatch covers

40 mm gun tubs were thinner than usual. They stack up pretty well with the resin ones provided in the Yankee Model Works conversion set which I had recieved courtesy of Mark Smith (Gunny) and YKM. Just a brief look at the conversion. I liked that minimum surgery had to be performed on the Original kit. In fact you could just about get by using the Evergreen N gauge boxcar sideing and cut the thin strips to get the deck pieces. The detail was really super on their parts, and matched up quite well with what I saw on the kit parts from Trumpeter. I don't know if you really would want to purchase this particular version unless you were a purist, as I don't see big differences between the 2 kits. I would say that if you wanted to do the South Dakota, to definitely go with the YKM conversion as I am sure that the part construction would be similar to what I saw in this one. The directions wre very well laid out and ample photographs and diagrams were provided making the how to easy to do. This set would be great if you were to say purchase the Trumpeter Massachusettes. Hey if you fnd one on super sale it may be woth it. But right now, the Alabama is on sale at Great Models at $95 and $7.50 shipping in the US.

No excuses....get yours today

Oh this was worth the wait....RROOLLLLLL TIDE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought I'ld drag this one back to the forefront as it has my assesment of YKM's Alabama conversion set as well as a box look of the TRumpeter kit. I guess I should have done a proper review with ships history and all that, but for me myself, If I want that I'll google it, what I want to know is it worth the price, and why should I purchase it

I am very impressed with my kit. Definitely A team work.

Kenny

Squadron had them 1/2 price this month, so I bought one - and it already arrived. I've only looked at it in the box, but my first impression was the planking looks waaaaay overscale. So did the "diamond tread plating" on the bases of the 40mm guns (not sure this is even accurate). I'm inclined to build her waterline, but a test fit of the upper/lower hull halves looks more promising than most Trumpeter kits - and the shape of the lower bow appears to be more accurate than the 1/350 NC.

When you paint her, be aware that the art work on the instructions looks to be incorrect - Alabama wore 3 colors, it appears they only call for two, while the pattern doesn't look accurate either.

It's a decent kit, but not great. If resin isn't your thing, or in your price range, this should make you happy. However, while I got it for 1/5 of the retail price of the resin versions, this is not, IMO, as well done as the YMW SoDak or YMW 1942 Indiana, both of which I also have in the stash (can ya tell I like this class of ship?).

GPM will not be basing it's masks off of the kit instructions.

Gator

Here's what I'll be using for the camo mask:




I don't quite see the third color in the photograph. Martin, can you help out with that?

Gator

Just aft of the funnel, from the hull up into the 01 deck, looks like 5-L. Also on the aft part of the funnel and on the tower superstructure, there looks like some 5-L. The rest of the ship is 5-N over 5-0.