The Set…

The detail set comes to you in a standard sleeve style box with a photo of the plastic kit after the PE has been applied. Inside you will find the instruction sheets and the 8 frets sealed inside bags. The whole package of PE is wrapped inside bubble wrap.


Fret A
This fret holds some of the deck portions of the carrier. The foc'sle section has both non-skid and linoleum sections. The support gussets are nicely done and have the proper holes in the structures. These holes were placed in structures for different reasons. Sometimes they were used to reduce weight of the beam, other times they are places to prevent excessive drag on the structure. None the less, they are present and will make your build pop.

A nice detail on this fret and others are the underside details of the added decking. The support locations are laid out for you as raised lines. So, when you are adding the beam sections you have a good guide as to their locations.

You will even find the Chrysanthemum crest for the bull nose. Remember these are gold, so leaving it raw metal might look really nice. Or do like I have, I use a 23K gold paint pen my wife has.


Fret B
Again you find more deck sections and some of the deck edge section for the gun positions. Two of the parts from fret A and B act as top and bottom for each other, these are parts 8 and 4. So, be careful aligning these two, PE can be tricky when placing two parts together. Once again non-skid is present on parts where needed.

Fret C
Still some more of the decking sections along with some other great replacement parts. The ships antennas are present in multiple parts. These are going to cause some headaches when folding and assembling, but will sure look great. The anchor chains are preformed to install right onto part A18, the foc'sle. They even have a hole in them for the kits capstan.

Fret D
Flight deck safety nets, funnel caps, and two of the ships catwalks are present. The catwalks run down the port and starboard sides of the ship. They are supported by small triangular brackets. These two areas will need all of your skills to install. But, you can do it! Just stay away from the coffee before hand.


Fret E
More safety nets, ladders, gussets, and direction finders. The ladders are some of the best I have seen in 1/700. You will also get the forward and aft jackstaff.

Fret F
This is full of gussets and under deck support pieces. Some of these are identified by both a number and then a letter. This helps when making sure the right support ends up in the right spot on the underside of its deck section.

Fret G
Detail parts for the ships boats. The ship's boats will really look top notch after you install these parts. There are also the ladders for boarding the boats while they are in the davits.

Fret H
Getting toward the end we have the ships railings. The forward section is pre-curved and should fit much better than a straight section. Their railings come in two styles, chain and straight. The chain sections show the droop between each up right. It is good to see these as some sets only include straight railings, which are not always correct.

Fret I
Exterior watertight doors, cable reels, boat supports, and props for the ships float planes. The exterior doors are folded to give then thickness and also detail on both sides fo the door. The door frame also includes the drip guard above the doors.


Fret J
Hand/foot rails, davits, accom ladders, and anchors. Again all of these are very nicely done.

Instructions…

The instructions are found on two sheets of paper. They take the modeler though a series of construction step in no particular order. When you are building your project you will need to make sure you will be able to incorporate the PE parts into your plastic kit.

The instructions do a decent job of letting you know where the different parts go on the model. After they show you have to make certain platforms they show you where to place it. Also when a platform has support structures underneath these locations are provided by a secondary diagram.

Areas that are neglected are railing locations as well as those for the watertight doors and for the cable reels. These should be easy to figure out based on locations on the plastic fro doors and reels.

A builder with mid level skills in adding PE detail sets should have no problem working through the instructions and getting all of the parts added.

Conclusion…

Overall this is a nice set. One item that seems odd to me is the absence of a PE flight deck for the ship. Some of the prior sets have included PE flight decks for that particular ship. This set should provide your project with a new level of detail that is lacking in most plastic kits.

You will need to plan your build and do your best to stay a couple steps ahead of yourself. Get a good magnifier, a bunch of new blades, and you should be fine. Oh, yeah do not forget a good folder for your PE as well.

If you are looking for a good set to get your feet wet for a major detailing project, this might just be for you.