RichardP wrote:
"I am still waiting for a Model Maker to produce a kit Designed Explicitly for PE."
I would say the Pontos Yamato fits this description. It cannot be completed without using the PE sets/turned brass included inf the box, unless you want to buy additional IJN weapon sets, in which case this is probably not the kit to own given the price; it assumes the modeler wants to go whole hog on the (in places minute) detail, using PE for everything that can be, not just the usuals e.g. railing/crane/catapult/radar. This is an extremely tricky build with 1000s of individual brass parts.
I have seen it.
But it still does not have the plastic and PE designed to be “engineered together.”
I.e. The plastic has no regiastration holes, slots, or insets that would allow for a perfectly aligned PE that sat flush with the surface. And the PE isn’t designed such that it has tabs, overhangs, or registration-points built into it that align with the plastic registration holes, slots, insets. This would also create more ‘area’ where the PE and plastic join for a much stronger fitting.
A good example of something like this would be the splinter-shielding for AA gun emplacements, where the PE contained a ¹/₃₂” additional material below the base that would sit flush with the deck, and then the deck itself would have a ¹/₃₂” deep “slot” built into it that the shaped PE would then be inserted into.
Or the PE Windows on a Bridge that have an overhang above/below the windows that fits into an inset edge of the plastic, so that the PE is both perfectly aligned, and without a seam (once you put some CA into the gap, and sand it smooth & polish it).
I have found some PE that allows for some of these things, but you have to create the registration holes/slots/insets yourself. Fivestar Models 1/700 Trumpeter USS San Francisco PE, the Flyhawk PE for the 1/700 Dragon Benson/Gleaves DDs, and the newer 1/700 Pit-Road/Skywave/Flyhawk Kagerō PE; these
allhave
some parts that allow for this kind of attachment (The Prop-guards on the 1/700 Trumpeter USS SF, the rigging-guides on the sides of the stacks and many of the ladders for the turret sides on the 1700 Dragon Benson/Gleaves DDs, and multiple parts on the new 1/700 Kagerō).
I have some Wargaming projects for 28mm/30mm Miniatures currently taking priority, but I have thought about producing something small as an example of a model designed explicitly with PE as an integrated part of its construction.
The Pontos Yamato in 1/200 is a better example of what I mean, as it DOES have some of these engineered-in features. But I think most 1/200 scale kits I have encountered are like that, because the PE represents things that are not possible to engineer on 1/700 ships, and difficult on 1/350.
MB
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