"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
What a fantastic insightful and detailed review, I was lucky to grab Set B and set C for 50%, Hobbylink have a backorder on the DX set Taiho that comes with set A only, im monitoring prices in china and japan and so far Hobbylink DX appears the cheapest in AUD.
I look forward to Dan's reviews. His vast resources on the subject make him a storehouse of information by himself and he has brought it all together to selfishly save me the time and effort of digging for it on my own. I always learn something from Dan's reviews and his eye for details is amazing.
I am another long-time fan of the Taiho for it's advanced design, which seems to be the culmination of everything that went before. I am especially happy to see that Dan seems pleased with the planking on the flight deck. I bought the DX version, as well as the two other update sets and this is one case where the plastic deck in the kit is better than the wood aftermarket deck. Aside from the five brass torpedoes and carts and some additional etch details, I haven't decided if this set was worth the expense.
After reading Dan's review, it seems I have some adjustments to make. Thanks for the tips.
Like you, I bought everything. Yes, the wood deck sticker is not better (unless you don't care to paint and wash the deck), but, the PE that's included is the only way to get a PE version of the perforated wind barrier/palisade as well as the crash barriers. I don't know of any generics out there.