Black cat models USS Ward - in box review

[Mark Deakin]

As far as I am aware there is not plastic 1/350 USS Ward available, there are 1/700 (Flyhawk), 1/600 (Airfix) and the 1/240 box scale from Revel, there have been several resin ones BlueJaccket ? and WEM to name but 2, and there is now another, this one from Black Cat models.

What makes this one stand out is not the resin hull, but rather the 3D printed upper works, so a hybrid of resin and plastic, so let take a look....

The kit arrives a rather large box, which open opening contains a lot of packing to ensure no breakages

The hull arrived in bubble warp and is cast in a very pale tan resin and appears to be of excellent quality, with no pinholes or voids, I have spotted some minor flash on the aft part of the hull and a bit of roughness on the underside of the hull, both very easy fixes.

More to follow...

[Mark Deakin]

And on we go.......

A couple more shots of the hull, this time from above

The deck has various grooves within it indicating where the upper works need placing, and hopefully they should be visible if the deck colour is applied prior to adding then upper works.

The 3D printed parts arrived in 3 separate containers, with each wafer then stuck to the bottom of the container with a piece of double sided tape, which is nice as it decrease the chance breakages.

Unfortunately for the review I have not removed the parts form the containers, 2 reasons I will loose or break then if I do as my current project is taking up a large amount of room...

Anyway some 3D parts for you to droll over......

This shot shows the exceptional level of detail on these parts

Next comes the instructions and some observations and thoughts....

[Mark Deakin]

The instructions are a colour booklet that identify the 3D printed / PE parts and then reference these in the construction

There is a single small PE Fret and some brass fittings and transfers included in a separate bag

Plus there is an extra funnel (something I will investigate when I do the build)

The painting scheme is shown at the end of the instructions, my minor nit pick is that plate is very dark and initially I failed to pick light grey above the funnel line.

And onwards to the last bit....

[Mark Deakin]

Some final observations of my limited review....

The hull is an excellent piece of cast resin and the 3D parts look superb, the biggest challenge I suspect removing these from there printing trees, I will let you know.
The actual dimensions from my very rough measurements are length 274MM (scale 95.9 M vs actual 95.8M) beam 26MM (scale 9.1 M vs actual 9.42 M) so the differences may be my measuring.

So the basics are right, is it accurate ? well I am not an expert BUT I have confidence in Black Cat doing the research, no doubt there will be better reviews that address that question.

What I like is the attention to the small things, like the bubble wrap in the box, the sperate boxing of the 3D parts to ensure the customer gets the kit in perfect condition (some major manufactures could take note).

It is however quite expensive in the UK, so I did ask myself is it worth it ?
And the answer is yes (I brought this one) as it is a full kit, with all the bells (literally) and whistles you need, you will not need additional PE or parts to build a superb replica of the Ward.


I have eluded to my other project, so could not resist a couple of photos..

A size comparison of Ward sitting on a rather large (1/200) IOWA class.....