Trumpeter 1/350 Tsesarevich 1917

I've got one I've been dabbling with. So far I've only had one complaint, and that is the pieces that fit on the inside to provide the shutters for the near-waterline guns. I just could not make them fit well and cut some sheet styrene to replace them with as I found that easier.

Otherwise, the hull is together, the aft deck piece is fit and glued in place. The rudder sticks out and can be a little fragile - due to the hull shape mine rolled out of it's box at one point and fell to the floor, which broke the rudder free, but it wasn't difficult to re-attach it. Some of the skylight pieces have large attachments points literally right next to small alignment pins, but I was able to remove the leftovers fairly well with a pair of flush cutters and clean up what they  missed with a knife carefully enough to not lose the alignment pins.

One of the superstructure pieces requires two holes be drilled through, but this isn't shown as a required step in the instructions. I don't have the kit with me to know the part numbers, but you'll know it when you come to it as there will be a smooth top and the drawing will indicate there should be holes. They're on the inside and just need to be drilled through.

Thanks Tracy. I had picked up some sheet styrene at the same time I bought the model to use with my Trumpeter Dreadnought, so I guess that was unintentional good planning on my part! I'm hoping to have some time this weekend to start work. I recently purchased a great book from the US Naval Institute on ship modelling techniques, and I hope to use some ot the tips on this model.

I've now got the hull together, and I was able to get the plates that covered the low gun positions in with a bit of work. The stern ones are tricky, but go in without major problems. The midships positions are a bit more difficult, with one on each side going on without difficulty. Oddly enough, it is the forward on on one side, and the aft one on the other side that are ok. The difficulty comes in with the other two, and I was able to make them work by cutting them in half, so each piece could be put in separately. The aft deck was also a bit of difficult job. I assembled and glued the two halves together, and they look fine. Then I had to do a bit of manuevering to bring in the stern deck piece from forward and below to slide it into position. As this was such a trying manuever, I may just glue it in place, and prime and paint it in situ.

What is the problem that they dont fit. I looked at the instructions last night and it looks pretty straight forward on how they go in. I have not tryed fitting the parts but was wondering.

Bill

I had found a review that said that there were fit issues with some of the pieces that are intended to close up the tertiary gun emplacements low in the hull. The ones at the stern fit fine, although you have to come in at the right angle to do the job. The ones amidships are tougher, and I found it impossible to do so with one set on each side. It appears that they were molded too close together, so cutting them in half and inserting them separately seemed to be the only way to go, short of discarding them and using sheet styrene to do the job. The review also said that the stern deck did not fit well, and that you would either have to leave the stern halves of the hull unglued, then fill them after the deck was in place, or glue the hull and shave the deck to fit. I found that none of that was necessary, and I glued the hull halves together. Then I slid the deck in place from forward and below, necessary due to some overhanging parts of the hull in that area. I've now begun some assembly of subassemblies like superstructure and guns. So far things are progressing very smoothly. Cheers to Trumpeter so far.

I just started mine and had the same fit issues as  you guys did and solved it the same way. The stern deck was no problem at all to fit. Working on filling the hull seam now. I think this is going to be a great kit.

Bill

Anyone have any ideas on the color skeem. Is light gray and a darker gray the way to go?

Bill

I went with light ghost gray for the hull. I haven't decided yet about the darker gray areas like the stacks, but I am leaning toward dark ghost gray. Things were humming along quite well until I masked the hull and did the hull bottom. Despite letting the gray dry for a week, when I removed the tape, it took off some of the paint. So it looks like I will have to remask and repaint the gray. Aaaargh.....just when things were going so well, as usual. On the positive side, the superstructure and its PE is going well. I will probably not put the railings on top of the secondary turrets, as so far I haven't been able to bend the extremely tiny tabs on them without bending the rest of the rail.

I just cut off the tiny tabs and glued them right to the turrets. cant tell the difference.

Bill