mtdoramike

I know you can buy a ton of Photo Etched brass upgrades for this kit, but I don't plan on buying very much upgrade or detail; up sets for this kit. You can buy brass turned canon and such, but the guns to me from the kit look quite detailed and fine. I did however purchase a wooden deck for the Big Mo and chose the blue deck, which is like a peel and stick.

I also decided not to use the twin screw setup from the previous owner and opted to go for the realistic look of the actual ship and use a 4 screw setup and ordered it from China, which set me back $199.00 shipped. Now let me point out here, if I were going to keep this model for myself, I would have used the twin prop or screw setup rather than the four screw because I saw a video of the Big Mo with both twin and four screw in operation and then performance of the twin screw was way better than the four screw, which required a lot more room to turn and slower to react than the twin screw.    

I adopted an orphaned kit of a battleship by Trumpeter 1/200 scale of the USS Missouri aka:Big Mo a while back and has been awaiting it's turn on the building bench. It had never been started, however one of the previous owners (not sure how many? purchased a twin screw drive system from England for it. First impression, this kit is huge, and not for the faint of heart.   

upon completion of the Big Mo, I will either offer it for sale or possibly see if a local VFW would be interested in it to raffle off as a donation. 

It measures out to about 32" in length, which is a manageable size. Absolutely beautiful kit for sure.

Beautiful model!

Absolutely stunning.

The first model ship that I tried to build was a Bluenose Canadian fishing boat. I got so aggravated with it that I placed it on the driveway and ran over it with my truck, backed up and ran over it again, then gathered up the pieces and threw them in the trash can. It didn't fix anything on the model, but it did wonders for my frustration. My wife asked me in a sarcastic manner "did that make you feel better"? I simply replied "yes it did".

May I ask why you are on to the next project when you have these to finish?

Say WHAT? I was just informing the group of an outstanding deal if there were someone dreaming of building a magnificent model in the near future. But a schooling in business practices and how to screw over the IRS is always appreciated.

Model Expo also has the Wappen Von Hamburg regular $1500.99 sale $999.00

Amerigo Vespucci regular $1499.99 sale $949.00

The SOS is on sale until 12/31 regular price $1499.00 sale price if $849.00 a savings of $650.00 plus free shipping. I am soooo tempted. But I got way to many projects. 

I'm glad to she you make great progress on this beauty. It is turning out purdyful. 

I have a few orphans awaiting their turn on the bench. Trumpeter USS Missouri 1/200 scale, Dumas Super Sport or the Dumas Jenny Lee. I will choose one in the next few weeks, I'm going to take a few weeks off from modeling to do some stuff around the house that I have been putting off for that (Tomorrow). It's finally cooling off here in central Florida so it's not as bad being outside.

Well, I have some good news and some bad news depending on who you are, I just sold the 3/4 finished Miss Chloe to a friend who wants to finish it, but wanhts to make it into a fishing/Lobster boat and intends on distressing it or weathering it. But the good news is, I have the plans as well as the templates to build another one as well as the materials. But that will be a future project. 

thats the one

4 hours ago, tarbrush said:

Hi Mike, 

I am enjoying your build of Miss Chloe!  The decal that you have for the transom is awesome did you make it yourself or buy it?

 

john

No, I ordered from an ebay graphics company that I have been buying from for years.

21 hours ago, TBlack said:

Nicely done. Good plans to work from. You obviously know what you're doing.

Tom

Thank you for the kind words, yes, I have done this more than a few times. But it seems on every project there tends to be changes or modifications maybe not so much needed as preferred. Yes, Pat does a wonderful job on drafting plans of his creations, which makes building them a breeze. 

Thanks Bob, wait till I get the canopy on her.

I'm pressuring the heck out of him hahahahahaha.

Alright John, I'm glad to see her being adopted to a worthy home and getting the care she so craves. Looking forward o the build.

On 11/6/2022 at 10:56 AM, rshousha said:

Shipping cost is not so bad, actually, considering how many hours went into the construction so far.  $125 USD would do it, for Florida. 

 

Regards, 

 

Rick 

 

I mentioned adopting another orphan and it didn't go over very well, I remember something about a moving truck, packing of bags, and needing another place to live. So I'm hoping someone else fairly close to you will step up. 

Well, I would have loved to finish it because it would be a shame for it to wind up in the dust bin after all the nice work you have put it her. She deserves to be all that she can be. But alas, I'm a bit to far from you for pick up and shipping would be outragous. I would love for it to go to someone who will actually finish it and do a build log on here so we can see the finished product rather than snippers who just want something for nothing only to allow it to sit at someone else's home or workshop.  

Looks like you are on a good start on the Biz. You got a smoking deal on it for sure. I'll be following along to see your progress.

4 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

 

I am not sure that 1/350 would be easier than 1/200 kits. It is about the same amount of work and probably more tedious and delicate work with the smaller scale. The final result will be so much more impressive at 1/200 scale, if you have the room to display these mastodons. Yes, I agree that displaying a Bismarck, a Yamato and a Missouri all in 1/200 scale would be a major statement in a household.

 

Yves

I will not be displaying the USS Missouri when it's complete. My goal is to find it a good home with someone who would appreciate it and hopefully run it in their local watering hole, which will put the display burden on them. I try not to have buyers remorse and just try and make do with what I'm presented with, but it can be a might disconcerning at times.

On 10/29/2022 at 12:43 PM, ted99 said:

Looking at the information posted by Yves and comparing it to my experience, so far, with the Nichimo kit; I offer my observations to anyone deciding between the two.

If I don't specify which model, I am referring to the Nichimo:

1.  The hull and deck castings are Styrene plastic and all the detail plastic parts are ABS plastic.  One needs a special cement for ABS (Plastruct).

2.  The hull plating details are vastly inferior to the MRC kit.

3.  The hull desperately needs the interior reinforcing that the MRC kit provides.  After assembling the hull and decks, I had to add (belatedly) interior reinforcement in the mid-ships area to bring the deck up to "level" to allow the superstructure to sit on the deck properly.

4.  The plastic decks are child-like and you will need to purchase an aftermarket wood deck.  Parts of the wooden decks from scaledecks.com do not line up with cast-in protrusions in the Nichimo decks requiring alterations to one or the other. This wood deck is an extra cost of almost $100, depending on your source.

5.  The instructions are "scanty", at best.  For instance, line drawings of fully assembled deck modules are provided, but not step-by step drawings.  You have to pick out each part, locate it on the plastic sprue and puzzle out the best fit.  It's doable, but subject to error.  A lot of space is devoted to motorization of the guns and other bits.

6.  The ABS plastic detail parts, like radar antennas, cranes, dollies, etc are crude at best.  If you are a serious modeler, you will need to throw all this away and purchase the PE detail parts from Nichimo, Toms River and Gold Medal Models at an extra cost of at least $300.

7.  The main gun turrets are designed for motorization and compromises have been made to accommodate the "ability" to rotate and elevate the gun barrels.  As a consequence, you can purchase after market metal gun barrels for the MRC kit, but you are stuck with Nichimo's toy-like offering.

8.  Original versions of the Nichimo kit were manufactured almost 50 years ago and I'm sure that many kits now found on resale sites date from that era.  My hull seems to be brittle and modern kits rarely use ABS plastic.  Also, has the grade of styrene plastic used in models improved in 50 years?

 

I'm only at the hull closure stage, now; but I have used time waiting for cement to set to pre-assemble parts of the superstructure.  Check out my build log for more information as I do not expect to make further contributions to this thread.

 

I'll offer the following generalization.  The Nichimo kit is well-served as a "stand-off" motorized model for deployment on water.  It is NOT a display-quality static model.  With the addition of $300 to $400 of detail parts, it can be one; but the added hull detail (and probably more modern plastics) of the MRC kit makes it a better choice if a display model is your desire.

Well your review indicates you are loving this kit and having loads of fun building it.

On 10/21/2022 at 2:39 PM, mtaylor said:

I have seen a model that the owner actually sat in to cruise around a lake.  Need a good size trailer to hull it and a friend to be on  board also to help run it.  Maybe we model builders are bit on the crazy side? 

You think?