this week has been frustrating and i need to vent a tad. got into modern ships after getting a trumpeter ddg 173 kongo at an auction. looks nice but no pe and the lionroar costs more than the model. should be able to use GMM modern ship pe for the railings and helo nets.
picked up a dragon ddg51. that looks like it is going to turn into a practice piece for ship modeling. because of the way it's molded probably take half again as long to paint as the trumpeter one. not to mention sanding all the bumpies off the hull and repairing or replacing the stabilizers. (and i don't even care about the flight deck length issue). both have pe railings but the trumpeter kit doesn' show what number railings go where. for a kit at that price (even on sale) to be defficient in something basic is annoying. i do have the 2 burke books and the 1/192 plans from bluejacket so the lack of instructions isn't a deal breaker.
building the 1/35 italeri MAS boat and the molding just doesn't seem up to their usual standards. some significant parts don't fit well and one torpedo halve dodn't even mold completely (missing the warhead). the fits are fixable and i can always use the practice since i have the time. the torpedo will be interesting to try to fix and i have requested replacemnt parts from MRC. also ithe sprue connections are thick and it takes more care and patience to remove the parts without breaking or damaging them.
oh and i dropped a pair of 7mm pe railings on the cement floor (as noted in another post) and can't find them. don't care if they are ruined, just frustrating that i should be able to find at least one of them.
ok i feel better now think i will go back to the dark side and work on a pair of tamiya MK-IIs and a k-5 rr gun tanks are so much easier than ships.