A second project I've been working on from time to time when I need a break from my
1/350th USS Salem build is Bronco's recent 1/350th Type 055 Large Destroyer. The
class is a very fine looking ship, borrowing heavily from the Arleigh Burke class layout and essentially being a cleaned up, stealthier looking version. I figure if the South China Sea cooks off it will be nice to have a rendition of our adversary in my collection.
Bronco's kit is what I'm calling "win some, lose some." Overall I'm very favorable to it and think it's a great kit for the money. However, there are some areas that counter a solid "A."
Starting off, there is a lot of multiple-piece molding (aka Slide molding) that went in to this kit. Lower hull, upper deck and superstructure, bridge, and central exhaust superstructure and you have probably 90% of the kit in just those five pieces. The first "lose" is the forward hull, where the interior stiffeners they molded in caused slight depressions and sink marks along their length. I used a single layer of Mr Surfacer 1500 black to make this stand out better:
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File comment: Starboard bow with Mr Surfacer 1500 black applies and sanded smooth
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In addition to the vertical sink lines, there's a bit of a mold step that parallels the sonar dome joint below it, and the very bottom of the hull between the aft/left most vertical depression and the aft end of the sonar dome was squared off and not faired smooth as the rest of the hull. As I said earlier, it only took one application of the Mr Surfacer to take care of the vertical depressions. Easy fix, maybe 20 minutes total time of work if you subtract the time waiting for it to dry. The fit of the sonar dome halves was pretty decent and there's a solid alignment channel for placement against the hull, but as you can see there was a sizeable gab between the two parts:
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File comment: Sonar dome fit to hull
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I initially tried to flood the joint with the same Mr. Surfacer Black 1500 but ran into issues - I don't know if I didn't initially shake it well enough at one of the multiple stages or if I just didn't give it enough time to truly set, but I could never get a good flush fill. Eventually I wiped most of it out with some Mr Color thinner and then used the old tried and true resin ship builders air bubble filler of baking soda flooded and saturated with thin CA glue. I initially packed and rolled mostly smooth and then hit it with the thin CA glue. Here's another shot of all of the lines before I gave up and went back on the joint:
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File comment: Lines all over
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By the time I had finished sanding down the CA glue and baking soda, the horizontal mold seam line had been sanded away, so maybe ignore it for a bit if you're going to follow my lead and see if you need to worry about it after concentrating on the joint seam. A bunch of sanding and shaping later and we have what I feel is a good enough and strong enough fill:
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File comment: So sleek and smooth!
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For those who haven't used this technique before, a couple of tips. Start with dry baking soda and make sure to saturate all of the granules. If you must use some out of the box you have in the fridge, I'd literally bake it in the oven for a bit to cook the moisture it's soaked up out. I haven't personally seen this, but I have a friend who used this as a filler and did not saturate the soda powder, which began to soak up moisture and a couple of years later started to ooze out something nasty. I have models that I used this technique on 20 years ago with good results and no such growth. Second piece is to work with it within a week or so as it becomes very hard over time and will be more work to sand down and shape. This stuff is tough, so don't be afraid to hit it with some coarse grit to knock it down fast and then clean up with a finer grit.
There's a pretty hefty knocking pin hole in the bottom center of the hull as well. Not difficult to fill and sand smooth. Win some, loose some - I'm not sure if there was net loss or gain in having a single piece hull with separate sonar dome seam versus a two piece hull with a longer seam to fill. For what ever reason, I really like hulls with bulbous sonar domes so I enjoyed working on mine as they molded it.
I haven't done much to the upper hull and superstructure yet but here's a couple of photos - first is the tip of the bow, which on mine was bent. I'm not sure if this was a production flaw (knocking it against a surface before it had cooled and strengthened) or was a result of somewhat cheap packing and a three-month sequester in a Chinese shipping center due to Covid19 hold. REgardless, it's pretty tough and has resisted most efforts to bend it back to shape:
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File comment: Raptor nose.
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Small sink mark on the forward superstructure below the bridge level piece. Single application and sanding of Mr. Surfacer 1500, maybe 5-10 minutes time.
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File comment: Bridge
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There was another 1-2mm depression on the port side near the aft corner of the forward superstructure that I did at the same time.
Detail on the doors is a bit soft or maybe "stealth."
_________________
Tracy White -
Researcher@Large"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-
Barbara Tuchman