Trumpeter's 700 Pennsylvania: 600 reasons to avoid?

All I can say is  "YIKES!"

LOL  HOLY COW! And the Revell 1/720 Arizona is what, 100 or less!  So the Main Batteries are what, 20 seperate pieces each?  And the twin 5" mounts a half dozen parts each?  Talk about eye strain.  I hope you have a large magnifier. 

In all seriousness, it sounds like they may have included enough parts to make any version of the Pennsylvania, or Arizona, after 1929.  That would be a nice option.  Does anyone know if this may be the case?

Over on Ship Model Forum is this same thread.  Someone posted this link to a review of this kit.

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/bb/bb-38/700-dr/dragon-review.html

The parts sprues include two complete PT Boats in scale with three hulls each to show them as "On Display", "Sitting in Water", and "High Speed in Water".  Cool concept.  Why they are in this kit?  Don't know, don't care.  Nice little addition.

PS - Its a Dragon kit, not Trumpeter.

There are a few issues with the Dragon Pennsylvania, none of which are deal killers. As to the number of parts being an off putting number don't worry about it. There are lots of extras for your spares box. The most serious issues are the fit of the foremast assembly (fixed by lots of dry fitting before breaking out the glue), the over scale 20 mm guns( their rather strange assembly makes the over scale problem worse than it should be) and their placement (over scale leads to very crowded superstructure) and the lack of detail on the hull (the hull is smooth when in fact there were many prominent details that should have been molded in, like the plated over portholes, etc.) 

No reason to avoid, just be prepared to deal with those issues and the usual stuff for any plastic kit.

WS

That is kind of a Trumpeter trademark.  While others may mold a deckhouse in one piece, Trumpeter uses five (four walls and a roof/deck).  But, there is an advantage.  Otherwise one must  leave a relief angle such that walls are not really vertical.  The result is very nice deck houses but at expense of a lot of work.

Oopps. I'm working on Trumpeter's Washington, so I must have had the brand in mind. The Pennsylvania is a Dragon kit. I don't know how I missed the instructions on the Modelship review: thanks for the tip. (Copying the instructions is a really helpful feature - wish all major reviews did it.) I can see the extra parts orgy. But I can also see a lot of complication when compared to Washington. I've got Dragon's 350 scale Laffey (430 parts) and building that will tell a lot I guess. (I've never built a Dragon kit - got five so next time.)  I do believe that there's a point of diminishing return in build complication, but that point is obviously related to how well the parts fit. If things go well, there's a kind of odd pleasure in slogging along or maybe scratch-building a fishing rod to throw into one of the boats. (They actually had them available at Espiritu: wasn't much to do in that area of the world.) If things don't fit, I suppose I annoy my wife by walking around muttering darkly.  Better get ready though - I have an ICM Konig waiting for me: 500+ parts made in the Ukraine.

Eric

Hi, I don,t know about DRAGON,S "PENNSY "but I have another little jewel that is running a close second.I have a 1/400 scale "MIRAGE" , U.S.S. WARD that ,not counting the photoetched parts has so far gotten me to assemble 100 parts and I,m not even above the main deck yet! I do believe that it,s a moot point though.I have many of REVELL,S box scaled ships and they would be a heckuva lot nicer with out ALL the parts that are,molded on.If they were seperate then they would be very nice vessels even at the odd scales.  Tankerbuilder

The gun from the Ward that supposedly sunk the IJN mini-sub was manned by Minnesota reservists and is on display in front of the state capital. Hey, we can't brag about or football teams. Someone gave me a rebox of the old Revell USS Buckley. I think it has about 15 parts. None is less than three inches long, so laser rockets are not likely. But I'm going to make a USS England out of it anyway. Am experimenting with Navy Blue and Deck Blue - it will be a nice big guinea pig. (The cover art is pretty spiffy anyway. And it does look like a DE.) I've got a couple of Airfix 600 scale and they're not too much more complicated. But Rule Britannia. White Ensign sent me a 700 Tamiya Enterprise - that will be CV6 mind you - which I could not find in the USA. Had to buy an Iron Duke and Renown out of sure gratitude. Strangely shipping was very fast.

Eric

My first Trumpeter kit was the North Carolina, and it was a big surprise for me to see all those parts when I opened the box. But the thing that kind of irked me was the poor fit not just with all the "ant toenails" (thanks for that one, btw!), but basic stuff like having the deck plates fit the hull, and the upper hull fit the lower hull in a way that didn't inhibit structural integrity. Flimsy as it was,  I backed it all up with lengths of sprue underneath the decking and around the waterline, but it just doesn't speak well for Trumpy's engineering.

Rusty

I've only built one Trump ship, the San Francisco. It had a fair number of parts, not too crazy. What I appreciated though is that I did not have to remove anything to use PE, just substitute. I'm having the same experience with the Trump Jeremiah O'Brien. It's nice to not have to carve stuff off. Revell on the other hand, you'll be cutting off splinter shield all day.

i was going to complain about the 2 kits i just got  the 700th laffey and the 700th monssen/livermore  4 ships all together  each only 5 1/2 -6 in long and pack over 200 parts each

Ahhhh DURR, you are missing the true beauty of 1/700 - you can have an entire fleet on one bookshelf *evil grin* ... but I hear what you're saying. The older I get, the harder it gets to maneuver the itty bitty bits to where I want them to go, as opposed to where they choose to plop down.