The Ship Model Forum

So the Pontos instructions show placing the PE over top of the existing molded on hatches. Do you guys do it this way or would the best practice be to chisel ff the raised plastic and then apply the PE? Here’s a pic of the Pontos instruction. Note it’s fuzzy because they are fuzzy in real life lol

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In the shipyard - Trumpeter 1/350 USS Kitty Hawk

You should download the PDF versions of the manual from their website - you can zoom in a lot more: http://pontosmodel.com/html/37019f1.html

It seems like they're suggesting you shave off the details from the plastic hatches, but leave the actual hatch "bump" in place. This works well because while the PE can hide the scuffs and scratches from shaving off the details, the PE hatches are too small the hide any similar scars resulting from trying to remove the entire hatch.

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Just remove all the underlying detail. They prolly just glued them on top of the original to save time.

I would say that depends on how much stand-off from the bulkhead you want - and that also depends on the scale. In 1/350 (and larger scales) the molded-on hatches are usually (sometimes) the right depth, and replacement PE hatches are way too thin. For 1/350 I just remove the raised hinge and handles detail and glue the PE directly to the remaining raised hatch. That's also a way to ensure the new hatch is properly placed. In 1/700 it would probably be better to completely remove the plastic hatch then replace with the PE, so that it won't be sticking out too far.

Ok good ideas! This is 1/350 so I’m going to chisel off the raised details first. I’ll lay out the hatch opening and see how it looks. If it’s too high still then everything goes. I’m thinking it may lookgood tho with just the details removed. Will let you know later tonight. Daylight is for power washing the house today. Beautiful here in Cincinnati for outside jobs!

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In the shipyard - Trumpeter 1/350 USS Kitty Hawk