My first ship...or what I did over my summer, that bled into fall, and carried into winter

You have done a very nice on her indeed.....

She looks good!  Captures the sinister elegance of the real thing.

Thanks for the positive comments.  I had stared at that kit in my stash for a couple of years and finally decided, "what the heck."  I am sure that once you all get stuck in, your builds will surpass this one.  I did enjoy it and learned a whole slew of techniques that will serve me well in the future.  lot of good info on this forum and the model warships forum.

I like creating my own bases.  I do wish I had used something other than basswood for the ties.  Another lesson ive learned.  

I am going to do something relatively simple for my next project.  I am thinking a Fine Molds Tie Interceptor followed by a t34/85 with tank riders. I may come back to ships in a couple of months.  Good luck on your future builds

Looks real good from here

I only hope that I can make the warships in my stash look anywhere nearly as good as your build. I second the comments about the base... it's really nice.

Mike

well done. very well done

Wolfp excellent work. I hear what your saying about Trumpeters parts design process (eg where you refer to the bridge being 4 parts better off as 2). I'm building the T-80BV at the moment and I'd have to say some of the parts are designed that way just to get a higher parts count to the kit its certainly not for strength or a better build.

man I hope my future foray into ship building is half as nice as yours, I'd even settle for a quarter that good

Nicely done! I would say the result was well worth the effort. Something to be proud of right there!

I know what you mean about the chains. I've found that with a lot of effort and thought, I can make replacing them look better if I hadn't!

I really like your base.

Thanks for the positive comments.  You all are too kind.

 G, the only fit problem I had was after painting.  I thought I had opened the bases on the 01 level and up enough to fit after painting, but found they weren't.  Just required a little extra to be removed and all popped in well.  There are a host of decisions as far as the parts design goes that I wasn't really sure why trumpeter did what they did.  For example, the bridge is 4 angled slabs that you have to glue together edge on.  That was a little frustrating, I would have much preferred a two pice and dealt with a seam on the sides or middle.  A few other mistakes I made were removing the plastic chains on the foredeck and rescribing the wood lines.  I goofed up the lines the first time as the scribe guide I was using just wouldn't hold.  Deck is a bit thinner in that area because I had to take it down then rescribe a second time.  Also, not paying attention to the instructions, which Im famous for, I missed the piece about how the torpedo launchers were supposed to be attached.  Consequently I had to punch a couple of disks out to cover the guide holes then glue the torp launchers to them directly.  It worked, but it was just one more frustrating adjustment  Ihad to make because of a failure to follow simple instructions :D  

Very, very nice.  The paint job looks really nice and clean.

An great looking model.

Besides the ship itself; the base is really well done.

Trump makes their little aircraft that way. The idea is to end up like you did with a clear canopy.

Did you like the way the kit went together? Were there fit problems?

It appears to be an overall excellent build.