The kit has 212 parts in grey plastic. It is easy to see that the old Revell 1/426 scale kit was used heavily in the design of this kit. The hull is split into lower and upper halves for waterline display and there are 3 drop in sections for the decks. Detail on most parts is sparse and over-simplified but some of the parts show fairly nice detail. The GMM set replaces many of the chunky parts and is simply fantastic. Cranes, catapults, gun tubs, railings etc. are all provided and the addition of these parts makes the kit infinitely better.

Being quite used to the "fall together" quality of ship kits from Tamiya, I was worried about certain areas of assembly, especially the spindly looking fighting top supports. I should have done more work to clean up the kit’s seams etc. but I felt I would do more damage than good. I confined my surgery to cutting off all molded in staircases and gun tubs. I also used all the brass replacement parts with no problems. I wanted to take full advantage of the exquisitely cast brass ladders, gun tubs, cranes, catapults, and railings to make the model look sharp and to draw the viewer’s eye away from my mistakes!

I used model putty to replicate the blast bags around each 14-inch gun. The thick plastic gun tubs were cut off and sanded. The turret 3 aircraft catapult was a one-piece affair in the kit but the brass replacement consisted of around 8 pieces. The aircraft cranes needed to be a mix of plastic and brass and was a difficult chore to get them to straighten up and dry properly.

Most of the kit went together moderately well. I would caution anyone to dry fit more than normal to ensure parts sit flush and properly. My only problem was as I suspected with the supports holding up the fighting tops. Assembling them without making a mess was tough and the hardest part was achieving the proper angle for the fighting top in relation to the supports. As it turns out, the maintop when attached to the superstructure is angled too far forward and the foretop somehow got twisted slightly to the left. I tried to correct them but once again the modeling angel on my shoulder stepped in and said- "bend that part again and you are going to screw this whole thing up!"

I wanted to build the ship as she appeared just before the attack. This calls for Measure 1 --which is a dark grey on all surfaces except the deck up to the funnel top. Above that --which means the fighting tops, the color is light grey. I used Tamiya Dark Grey lightened with a few drops of flat white and Testors Camo Grey for the fighting tops.