by William Bowden
1/350 USS North Carolina BB-55 (Trumpeter)
I built Trumpeter's big Showboat with the addition of Lionroar's huge PE detail set and I airbrushed Vallejo paints. It was my first time using Vallejo paints, and they are certainly different from what paints I'm used to. They have a VERY high pigment ratio as most of you know, meaning that a lot of thinning is needed, and I had my airbrush on the lowest paint flow setting throughout the project. It took a few spray sessions to get everything right but I got the hang of it. The PE parts were fine for the most part. Some of the railings could have been better sized though to save the pain of bending and rebending them to get the right fit. The same goes for the radars. I could also swear there were parts which did not have locations specified for them, but oh well. The kit itself has received enough flak from poor fit of superstructure pieces, and I agree that things could be better certainly. I expect Trumpeter to continue to improve though as they roll out new kits. The base is just a stained piece of wood and the water was made from acrylic gel and paint, and turned out ok for my first attempt at molding water. I was frantically rushing to finish the ship while doing schoolwork, so I didn't have time to properly weather it or detail it how I would have liked. I actually added the clear coat at his house after giving it to him, that's how badly I procrastinated over the summer. Previously I had used fishing line to do rigging but it was terrible. This time I tried EZ line and it works wonderfully. I will definitely be using it for future rigging unless I develop some micron of skill and figure out how to do stretched sprue without lighting the model on fire. Two sample packs of the thin line (I think it's .003 inches thick) should provide enough to fully rig a ship like the North Carolina in this scale.
I built the ship over a few months and presented it to my friend Hank for his 22nd birthday. He already has the USS Missouri that I built for him a year ago, and I have definitely come a long way as you can see comparing the two projects. He still wants a Fletcher so I suppose that's next in line. One day I might build a boat for myself even, if I can pry myself away from tanks and aircraft. With all the new releases in 1/350 scale coming out, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I capitulate and go buy one of those kits.
Comments and questions are always appreciated, happy modeling!
