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Thanks for the advice @king derelict. Based on what I see from your comment I can get rolling. Hopefully, we will see actual progress tomorrow in my thread!!! I have a nice piece of heavy glass downstairs. I'll grab it tomorrow and get my game face going. And, bend my knee praying to the Gods of Scale Modeling. This is going to be a tough build for me. But fun.

So, I'm woefully unprepared for this build. The PE is part of every sub-assembly excepting the hull. I have no tools for photo-etch. I wasn't expecting that. I thought I could get the major assemblies done without the PE, but some of the PE is deep in the build and kinda locked in place. Can anyone provide a list of the basics? My 'research' indicates: A pair of PE pliers A good (diamond) file And, maybe a bending tool I don't want to break the bank, but I do want decent equipment. I will be using PE on my next builds. This video from 'Norwegian Modelling Bench' is the best discussion I have found - but, his skill and his needs are far beyond what I am looking to attain three models into this... I just need the basics for this kit. I can get more stuff for either the Graf Spee or the FFG-57 when I start using some after-market. Also, do I have to do anything special regarding the priming and/or paint for PE? Opinions differ radically.

Thanks for the nice comments... I kept finding this site when Googlin' builds for the North Carolina, Fletcher, and Repulse. The NC build kinda s31t the bed, the Fletcher was quite a bit better after reviewing RGL's build, and the Repulse came out pretty good after finding a nice build in another site. I think I am ready for a public build. It will be OOB, but I think this kit will shine OOB. This is where I am at. When I bump to 1/350 I may try railings or even some rigging - but, not now... The instructions look very well laid out and clear. They even credit some relatively well known modelers (maybe, don't know - too new at this) as 'Project Supervisors' - Rob McCune and Timothy Dike. You can actually read Dike's review of this kit here... He was spot on. His unpainted photos will help me deal with the photo etch. It is much easier to see the final shape of a 'complex' fold when there is not a lot of camo painted on it. CyberModeler gave the 1/350 Dragon Z-38 a Skill Level tag of 'Experienced'. After looking at the sprues I would hazard this 1/700 kit is likely for the experienced modeler as well. By experienced, I don't mean 'God's Gift to the Modeling World', I just mean lots of small parts. I think I can handle that at this point. After close review of RGL's and MikaH's builds I am going to prime early and paint in major structures. There is a simple 'wavish' camo pattern on the funnels - but I don't think it flows into the superstructure - which will be a good thing... After the Repulse, I don't think the dazzle pattern will be a kill shot. Keepin' on keepin'... This kit did not include mines. I wonder if I can get a rack of them at 1/700??? They look awesome. BTW, my thoughts on storing the mixed paint for the base hull color: Uh, I have two colors That means I have two bottles So, in a mixing jar the paint contents go And, then the mixed paint goes back into the bottles. My next kit is the Academy Admiral Graf Spee - so, I will need that mix again soon anyway!!!

These build logs are wonderful: RGL: MikaH:

I have completed two recent ship builds - the Tamiya 1/350 Fletcher and the Tamiya 1/700 Repulse. I picked the Fletcher after absolutely failing on a Trumpeter 1/700 North Carolina. When I say an 'absolute fail' I do mean it. What I ended up doing with that partial build will make nobody happy... Anyway, after researching the web I chose the the Fletcher and then after that the Repulse. I wanted success and I wanted a build progression. I loved both kits, but wanted something that could challenge me a bit more. It has been multiple decades since I built a scale model so there has been learning process - and a bit of a rework process😊 I chose this Dragon kit because it gets great reviews for detail and accuracy and because it includes a bit of photo-etch. I have never worked with photo-etch. This will be something new... And, look at her!!! Ain't she a beaut with that 'dazzle' camo pattern. That will be a paint challenge. She seems to have had that scheme right out of the shipyard in late '43 and a monochrome scheme after she took damage and got repaired. Then again, maybe this photo (which was obviously used by World of Warships when camo'ing their image of the ship) is Fake News. Who knows. Don't tell me. I love accuracy, but I am in lust with this😍 Anyway, for whatever reason everybody posts a photo of the box art and frets - so, here goes: I guess that really doesn't show it in all it's glory, but me being in a wheelchair kinda limits the angle. This is how I see the world😁 And, here are the paints I am going to use: I am getting my Vallejo Model Color color matrix from: https://app.box.com/s/2hz3x8hp57kqk8qqyu40y0lndkdnc696 It seems to be the go to for matching air and naval colors to Vallejo stuff - which I can easily get about 2 miles away. I am seriously looking at the Sovereign Hobby's stuff once I run out of this. Part of the Fandango behind the North Carolina is that I ended up with about every paint available for almost any navy. Ugh. Since I can't read the notes, these are the paints/mixes: Hull & Superstructure Hellgrau (light grey) 70.989 + 70.883 Sky Grey + Silver Grey Mix 1:1 Hull & Superstructure Mittlegrau (medium grey) 70.989 + 70.991 Sky Grey + Dark Sea Grey Mix 1:1 Hull (Dark Over pattern) Deck: Dunkelgrau (darkish grey) 70.991 + 70.987 Dark Sea Grey + Medium Grey Mix 3:1 Deck As 'The Noob of Noobs' I really like it when folks document their paint. Questions: Given this amount of photo-etch (minimal) what tool(s) should I expect to use/purchase? And, how can I save paint after I mix it. That was a problem with the Repulse. I never got the same color/tone multiple times. And, a comment: Yowser, RGL and I have extremely similar tastes. I find a potential subject using that well laid out PDF and there he is with a build. I'm doing this public build here because of that dude. He and some others around here were the reason I found this site. I'm looking at you CDW and COG. My research pointed right here. GLHF.