JTninja wrote:
, the instructions will tell you to use the PE-C21 Ladders. I tried it, and they were way too short.
Now he tells me

Yeah found that issue as well and did the same thing, used PEC-24 which seemed to fit perfectly.
This is why you should remove the adhesive film prior to cutting the PE parts

Another part that leaves something to be desired in the instructions is the open deck/support structure boat storage. This is my interpretation of how it should go, according to the Yorktown's GP's and a couple of photos, I don't feel that this part is accurately shaped. Instead of driving myself nuts on something that will be near impossible to see, I just went with it as close as I could feel was right. You will also note the mangled railing on the PE platforms, more on that later and the beginning's of seam filling using Mr. Dissolved Putty.

Here you see some minor detailing of the gun decks, again per Yorktown's GP's and photos of her battle damage after the Eastern Solomons. I still need to make a 5 inch powder cabinet at the rear of the gun decks, most of this detail is really hard to see once the Flight deck is on.

By Santa Cruz, the Big E had her after flight deck cut down to allow more 20mm's. Merit molded a groove on both sides to aid the models in accurate removal of the unneeded section.

While I was looking at that, it dawned on me that the aft flight deck support truss was not equally called out.

Flip forward a couple of pages you will notice in step 12 that there are 2 pieces cut away to allow for the platforms. Which is a pretty simple fix if you catch it on the front side and not after you have glued the truss down. So that brings us to this, pretty much the end of assembly to the accursed aft end of the ship. The bow went together relatively easy, but the stern was a PITA to get it together. I still have a lot of seems to fill and some more PE that I will add at a later safer date. The PE platforms PE-B7 and PE-B8 had those gnarly rails that did not fit inside of the truss without bending and the 20mm gallery also jacked them up. I honesty could have left the rails off and you wouldn't have noticed because they are almost 100% obscured now especially with the flight deck fitted.

I can at least move on to the dreaded Hangar sides now and see what fun lies in wait for me there.

Matt