Group;

I just picked up a Sea Way Model / Fujimi #15 / 1/700 IJN Kongo. I bought it for $16.00 at my local HS. It was a discounted item and I have a thing now for IJN ships.

I have been looking around on the net and I know GMM has a IJN Battelship set. Should I go with that one or do you guys have any recomendations?

Should I go with just single PE sets? Ex; railings, hatches, ect?

Any info would be great.

Thanks
Sam

Group;

I saw the super detail set for $110.00. I can't go down that road for the price. I just want to detail it to the point it will look good in the display case.

Any help would be great.

Sam

Hi Sam,

I think you can beat that $110 price tag about in half. Tom's Model Works Set #731 for Kongo Class Battleships includes the various towers, crane booms, catapults, AC Trolleys, AC Props, anchors, Radio Direction Finder loops, Railings, Ladders,both vertical and inclined, that you would need for the ship for $15 on the website. They also carry a set of IJN Doors and Hatches #762 for $10; as well as #755 Cable Reels for $9.00. That brings it in so far up to $34 plus shipping.

http://www.tomsmodelworks.com/catalog/index.php?osCsid=624764bcfe84ac404a7279702d40cc96

You might consider adding Fly Hawk's AA Weapons sets from Lucky Model, Numbers FH 700068 and FH 700069 at $9.59 a pop. They don't charge shipping on PE Sets unless you order up a 20 pound box of the stuff.. They also have a IJN Davits and Cable Reels set for $8.59 that would take care of one thing Tom's doesn't have on their cable reels set, the Davits. They also make a IJN Small Boats set that is pretty nice and lets you build up the kit parts with decks, cabins, oars, small boat keel mounting parts, as well as the crew safety railing on the larger barge and the other little niceties that make them in to some pretty spectacular models by themselves. It goes for $9.99, the number on it is FH 700058.

http://www.luckymodel.com/scale.aspx

So for around $55 to $65 you can outfit that Kongo in a pretty grand manner. The Cable Reels on the Fly Hawk set is easier to deal with than the Tom's set, they just fold together with a styrene axle rather than individual parts that have to be built up.

The Gold Medal Models set is lacking a lot of the smaller parts that you get with Tom's set for the same price. Don't get me wrong, Gold Medal Models PE is some great stuff, a little thicker which does offer a bit more ease in assembly and when you go to paint it and do some shading, that thickness helps as well in the depth of the detail. I have used both but for the bargain conscious shopper with one model to work over the Tom's set is a better deal.

http://goldmm.com/

Not to be left out White Ensign makes a lot of fine sets that could also be utilized for things like this but they are a little more limited in the scope of what you get and you would have to purchase a lot of smaller sets to cover as much of what can be done with Tom's and Fly Hawk sets.

http://www.whiteensignmodels.com/acatalog/index.html?http%3A//www.whiteensignmodels.com/acatalog/catalogbody.html&CatalogBody

I look forward to seeing how your Kongo comes out.

Jay;

Your the man! Just what I needed.

Thank you.

You are most welcome Sam.

Learning to work with improvements like PE are great fun, but with all the choices out there, sometimes it is difficult to figure out just what you need to pick up. As I am working with these older designed kits like the Hatsuharu I have the original built "out of the box" kit I did a number of years ago sitting in front of me as I work on the one I am currently building. Seeing what the original build came out like and knowing what it can be with improvements is like a difference of night and day.

Of course, in working these things over, the references you can come up with go a long way in sprucing them up. If you can locate one, the Morskie Monograph on the Kongo Class is a gold mine of information. BS #4 on the Kongo is 69 pages mostly devoted to photographs of the ship from construction through it's working life. There is one 3 page drawing of the ship in profile and overhead at the end that shows a lot of the finer details that it carried. The only drawback being that it is all written in Polish.

Jay;

Thanks for the info and I just started working with PE about a year ago and no turning back. Just by adding railings alone it gives the ship a snap to life. I could live with the $55.00 that you came up with as far as the shopping list for the Kongo PE parts.

Still having a hell of a time with photos. I will have the wife help with that this weekend.

Sam