Hi all, first post on MS; although I have my fingers in all of the model building pies I rarely stray into deep waters(joke inserted , a punny one at that ) other than subs.
However, last week I accepted a job to build a 350 scale Roma battleship for a private modern warfare museum here in town.
Showed up yesterday, tore it open and saw it was big, nicely detailed but needing some obvious upgrade. It was here I saw I got fooled by Squadrons' description touting PE ladders, cranes and railings. Yes ladders and cranes, but no railings.
I am considering laying in the railings by hand(done it years ago with small stuff), but man o man they be a plethora of rails on a capital ship.
Where o where can a guy get a PE set that would work, or brass/steel rod that size for stanchions?
Since the build time is not pressurized by the client, today I'm starting on prepping small stuff; this boat is my winter project along with a railway artillery piece for next years' contest circuit, then it goes on display at the museum.
I do appreciate any help on the PE, tips from anybody who has built the Roma in particular are most welcome. I am taking in-progress photos for the client and so I can put them up here for your perusal.
Cheers all!
Edit: I've seen the Roma by Kostas, a beauty it is!

Hi,
I built Roma a few years back. As is often the case with Trumpeter and their ship kits they sell an upgrade as an extra. You get the metal barrels, brass screws and,yes the railings you require. If you check around I am sure you find the set.

Cheers
Michael

Thanks, Michael-I found a set and threw some money at them. Cheers!

I built the Roma a while ago and I can confirm PE work is complicated, not because of the size of the parts, but because of the construction of the platforms/mast just in front of the forward funnel. I used the WEM photo etch set and it comes with specific railing for each area, so no measuring and cutting is required. Their PE platforms were a pain to build since it was hard to line them up with the mast, the holes were too small and the PE supports underneath them were challenging. For the rest, great set.

By the way, watch out with Roma and all the boats. Those boats were in the plans, but never on the ship, except for few. Also the AA on the real ship was in a slightly different configuration. I recommend the Warship Pictorial book about the Roma, especially for the camouflage. The red/white stripes on the Trumpeter instruction sheet are wrong. And the antifouling on the bottom of the hull should be green according to most people, not red.

it is a beautiful ship, have fun