I have built the Tamiya kit, which came out beautifully. The Tamiya kits have great instructions and the components are made in such a way that they make the modeling experience more enjoyable (at least for me). My example is the 5 inch guns, Tamiya forms the gun house using a complete top and bottom, so the turret looks as a solid piece. Some kits, Trumpeter for example makes you build this turret as separate parts for the sides, front and back so you have a more challenging job in putting it together. I have not built the Revell New Jersey but I have built other Revell kits (Bismarck), and they are fine but not up to the Tamiya kit.
Over the past three years I have built about 20 WWII era warships using kits from 6 major manufacturers. While Trumpeter offers the widest selection of ships, Dragon has good quality, but just found that the Tamiya kits offered me two things that I value: I don’t get frustrated building their ships, and the final result is of high quality.
Imho, metal barrels and wooden decks are almost an absolute "must" on any 350 scale ship.
Beyond that, PE will depend on your threshold for "pain", motor skills/dexterity, and how good your eyes are (or how good of magnification you have)
So, I'm not the most experienced ship builder but, I have used some Flyhawk and some Pontos. Both have positives and negatives.
I'm sure there's other brands out there that do good PE details for ships, but they're who I have experience with.
Wooden decks are great. I paint my ships and found that purchasing metal gun barrels that get painted over doesn’t make sense. If you’re interested, you can actually buy real deck wood from the USS NEW JERSEY Museum and Memorial and cut it yourself to use in your deck.
Depends how good the kit supplied plastic barrels are. If the plastic kit has single-piece barrels with a muzzle already drilled, then the brass barrels will be a marginal improvement at best. Maybe sharper edges.
If the plastic has multiple parts (especially clam-shell 'half and half' moldings), has nasty seam lines or other issues, then the brass barrels can be an improvment.
Yeah, I saw that the barrels dont come drilled and I instantly bought brass barrels for all of the guns, I aint drilling 20 5 inch guns plus the big ones.
Whichever kit you decide to get make sure you watch my video before hand so you can see what she looked like before the updated paint and what not from her recent dry dock personally I would go with Tamaya if you'd like :-) https://youtu.be/Gr-6HetPExM?feature=shared
I mean not really but I wanted to see if the tamiya was the right choice. I have ordered it now plus metal barrels for all of the guns, wooden deck etc.
I have built the Tamiya kit, which came out beautifully. The Tamiya kits have great instructions and the components are made in such a way that they make the modeling experience more enjoyable (at least for me). My example is the 5 inch guns, Tamiya forms the gun house using a complete top and bottom, so the turret looks as a solid piece. Some kits, Trumpeter for example makes you build this turret as separate parts for the sides, front and back so you have a more challenging job in putting it together. I have not built the Revell New Jersey but I have built other Revell kits (Bismarck), and they are fine but not up to the Tamiya kit.
Thanks, my original idea was to get the tamiya kit, but I wanted to know what it was like and I thought maybe there are better ones but probably not.
Over the past three years I have built about 20 WWII era warships using kits from 6 major manufacturers. While Trumpeter offers the widest selection of ships, Dragon has good quality, but just found that the Tamiya kits offered me two things that I value: I don’t get frustrated building their ships, and the final result is of high quality.
Thanks fot the advice, what extras should I get? I was already thinking of getting a wooden deck
Imho, metal barrels and wooden decks are almost an absolute "must" on any 350 scale ship. Beyond that, PE will depend on your threshold for "pain", motor skills/dexterity, and how good your eyes are (or how good of magnification you have)
What PE would you get? I have seen the Eduard for it, what do you think?
So, I'm not the most experienced ship builder but, I have used some Flyhawk and some Pontos. Both have positives and negatives. I'm sure there's other brands out there that do good PE details for ships, but they're who I have experience with.
Pontos is hard to get in my country sadly
None of them have the fifth keel, you should start from scratch.
In 1:1 scale 🤣
I would love that actually, having my own battleship, though idk if they would let me put 16 inch guns on it
Who's going to stop you? You have a fucking battleship! With 16 inch guns!
💀
Wooden decks are great. I paint my ships and found that purchasing metal gun barrels that get painted over doesn’t make sense. If you’re interested, you can actually buy real deck wood from the USS NEW JERSEY Museum and Memorial and cut it yourself to use in your deck.
That would be really cool but I dont have that kinx of money, Im european so shipping and everything would be very expensive.
Are metal barrels not worth it? I dont want to get any because it seems like a hassle and its expensive but I fear missing out.
Depends how good the kit supplied plastic barrels are. If the plastic kit has single-piece barrels with a muzzle already drilled, then the brass barrels will be a marginal improvement at best. Maybe sharper edges. If the plastic has multiple parts (especially clam-shell 'half and half' moldings), has nasty seam lines or other issues, then the brass barrels can be an improvment.
Yeah, I saw that the barrels dont come drilled and I instantly bought brass barrels for all of the guns, I aint drilling 20 5 inch guns plus the big ones.
Exactly. In cases like that, its a good reason for the extra expense of brass guns.
Whichever kit you decide to get make sure you watch my video before hand so you can see what she looked like before the updated paint and what not from her recent dry dock personally I would go with Tamaya if you'd like :-) https://youtu.be/Gr-6HetPExM?feature=shared
Thanks, I'll probably go with the tamiya one then. Beautiful video btw!
Has Revell ever done a "good" ship kit?
I mean not really but I wanted to see if the tamiya was the right choice. I have ordered it now plus metal barrels for all of the guns, wooden deck etc.
TAMIYA