Chinese barbette battleship Ting Yuen

An exceptional build! Definitely a "silk purse" .This is a very interesting subject - one of the few early "pre-predreadnought" armoured battleships to actually see combat - it's a pity that the only kit of it, at least larger than 1/700 scale, is so awful. But this builder has transformed it into something more than worthy of being displayed next to the Hasegawa Mikasa and Zvezda Borodino!

I built this kit a few years ago and made quite a few improvements to it (notably fixing the turret sides), but, unfortunately, didn't use PE rails or ladders, neither did I make any attempt to fix the awful deck planking. I've since bought another kit, which I'm planning to build using PE and more extensive scratchbuilding, but am still not really sure how to replace the planks (given that the superstructure and main deck are moulded as one piece). Using individual wood planks, as the builder of this model has done, is one possibility, but I'm not sure my skills are up to doing this in 1/300!