Photo-etch doorways and hatches

Thanks for the tip.  

I use a square ended xacto #17, but either way, if you can, put masking tape around the door. It'll save you repairs down the line.

Good show, it's a great kit.

Thank you for you reply.  The doors on the O'Brien do look very good, so will be leaving them.  Thank you for the tip on using the needle file.

Thank you, you have been really informative.  I made have jumped off the deep end, but I am patient and will proceed slowly.  I will leave the doors on and check the photos of the O'Brien I have to see if any are missing, that maybe I can add a few just for practice.  Again thank you and I wish the best with your kit.

I was hoping not too.

I generally remove the doors as cast first.  However, on a couple of kits the cast-in-place doors were so thin I elected to leave them in place. In another, not all the doors were molded, so it saved effort on that kit.  But I generally do remove them.  I use a needle file from my needle file set.

I took out my O'Brien this evening and had a look. I'm about 50% done.

Definitely the cast doors would have to be removed.

However, several points.

I had forgotten, but looking over this model and the Gold Medal set: it is a very difficult project, certainly beyond even average ship modeler level. To begin with, everything is pretty small at 1/350. It's not a big ship and there's a lot of detail. You've jumped off way in the deep end. That's ok, but realize that there are other kits out there like the Revell Burton Island with PE added, for one, that will be a whole lot easier. There's a reason my Liberty is on the "chill" shelf. This is a very hard model to build.

As for the doors, often PE sets come with parts that are usable at different levels of skill.

The railings, a given. The winches and reels, not too hard to deal with as if they don't work out they really won't be missed by most folks who look at the model.

The doors cast in plastic look darn good. I think the point of the PE set was to make the wood ones look like wood, etc. I would seriously consider leaving them alone as removing the plastic ones is difficult.

They are really an option to replace.

As I haven't performed this myself, I am unqualified to answer. But, from what I have gleaned from the forum over the years, it is better to remove the molded on doors first.