WonderWoman

These two stages are pretty straightforward hull sections, and gets you to this much done:

Admiral's Bridge These two pieces, once constructed were attached to the side of the Admirla's deck. The lighting LED is connected to the glass window part, and then the side walls of the bridge were pushed into place all around the glass section. The walls are held into place by the windows being pushed through the holes, so no gluing require (and preventing glue marks on the clear plastic). I did add some glue to the roof and then this holds everything together: Now for the bending of the rails. I am finding that flat-head pliers are easier to gently bend off the parts from the sprue as they can get a good wide grip so dint put undue pressure on the part that your don't want to snap! Firstly I was quite cautious with the bending technique, using the side of a scape along the bend-crease to hold it firm while I bent the metal. This got a good finish, but became awkward when trying to get into small places. So in the end I resorted to just finding where the bend creases were and gently bending with my fingers, this was no problem with the metal bending exactly where it should do and not breaking or bending in the wrong the place. Adding in the lighting and the deck work The results are pretty cool! Next I threaded in the searchlight assembly and added a drop of glue to secure it all in place Stage complete!

if you have broken the pins you can live chat or email customer services and they will be happy to send out replacements.

Firecontrol and starting the search light. Technical hitch on this stage - seemed to have lost all the photos 😔😔😔😔😔😔😔

More hull!

Putting together the foretop radar The first part was to put the two pieces of the deck together and then start constructing the actual radar unit by first attaching the arms Three small items go on the deck, and on the side is attached a door and more locker space. Once done, I then slide the radar unit through the decking held it in place with glue. and finally some more of the hull, not only is getting longer, but also wider!

Motor, radar unit and further hull. Well what can I say? The hull continues to expand!!!! Getting the second gear in place to line up with the first cog was fiddly and kept falling out of place, so my solution was to thread the cog onto a coacktail stick, put the end of the cocktail stick in the retaining hole and slide the gear into position. Worked like a dream! I added the motor unit to the radar: and then attached the two parts together.

This stage gives us a bit more of the stand and the hull, but also carries on with the detailing parts from the previous stage. These four parts were attached with a dab of glue, though the instructions don't actually say what they are! These two large storage boxes fit easily to the deck, these are the type of thing to be careful not to use too much glue as it will squeeze out and be visible on the deck as you position it. Next go several smaller storage units, which I presume are going to stand against something that has yet to be put in place behind them. The next two stages are quite exciting as I can see the deck structure getting larger. First the radar deck section sits on top of a lower deck... ...and then this whole assembly is placed on top of another deck, so I can really see the model growing! Once in place I add some railings to either side And then I move on to the ever-expanding hull!

Pack 4 starts with the motorised radar. This time, I have tried experimenting with different gluing techniques - is it best to put the glue in the hole or on the peg? Firstly I tried adding the six locker doors by adding a spot of superglue on the inside of the control centre, then pushed the locker into place allowing the glue to set from the reverse. This avoided getting any glue 'splurges' oozinging out to be visible, but occasionally I did not have sufficient glue in the hole to make a connection and hold in place: For the arms of the radar I put the glue on the 'peg' of the arm which worked fine as long as I kept a steady hand - any wavering and the glue could find its way on to the wrong part of the radar housing Moving on to the gears inside the control centre, the instructions said put the first one in place then add the pin, as in this photo: After struggling with dropping the pin through though hole I tried taking the gear out and putting the pin in the gear before putting the gear into its place which was much easier: found that the plastic blister packaging that comes with the parts is a good stand to hold the control center in place as the gear cogs go into place. Next I put the motor in place: Moving on to the metal work around the radar - a thin knife and/or pliers to bend of any metal work from its frame. Attaching the metal ladder, I tried putting the glue in the holes from inside the housing which worked ok but in this case the holes are much bigger than the ladder pegs so was harder to get to actually connect and stick. Black radar antenna added: Tiny detailing on the control centre, and then putting the pieces together: And to finish, previewing how it is going to fit together:

Thanks - I've just seen that in Pack 4

Yes it is the Hachette one, but you can now buy it worldwide, and particularly in North America where it wasn't previous available. Also, this is complete in only 12 months, unlike the Hachette version which was about 2-3 years.

One piece of hull but a lot of detail work in this final stage Here is how the hull is looking at the end of Pack 3: First accessories are the two yellow life rafts which glue onto the main structure. and then I added a fan to the end Next up was some super-detail parts, starting with a couple of hatches in the deck Then the control station and the communication console which were glued to the front of the deck, plus two ventilators a little behind them. Next up some metal work. I was a bit concerned about getting these off the sprue as I tried a knot but it didn't seem to jut. So I carefully bent them back and forth until they fell of, being cautious to put equal pressure across each joining bit. Each of the navigation lights get a metal protector above and below, and then I addended a variety of ladders And here is the stage, and Pack complete: Its always nice to add bits together already done to see how its all looking:

A bit similar to stage 30 this one - the other rangefinder and more hull! So I will just show a few pictures...

The range finder (and a bit more hull of course!) The rangefinder is assembled in 5 parts, and you need to make sure that it is facing the correct way when you add it to the deck (arms point forward).

Adding the mast deck to the bridge The decking detail added: The bridge windows are all put in as one piece: When I opened this stage the brown deck detail was already attached to the gray mast deck section, but on closer inspection it was on the wrong way around. Maybe it came together in transit? Anyway, check this. It came out ok and Here it is the correct way around:

For some reason I did this stage in the opposite order to the instructions. I think I missed the first two stages (the hull) and jumped straight into the bridge work! Here is the bridge with the intake cover attached: The navigation light is super-tiny, so I needed tweezers, also the light is not glued into the housing (danger of getting glue on the red) you need to be careful it doesn't fall out when you lift it to glue the housing to the deck wall There are a couple of small detail parts to add on around the lights, and also the same process for the starboard light. Here it is from the other side Finally, back to the bit I missed and here's another panel on the hull and finally, finally here is my mini-screwdriver recharging....!

..and the hull keeps growing! I didn't show the LED in much detail in the previous stage diary, so here are some close ups of putting it in place and this is where I am up to after Stage 27:

Some accessories for the bridge and the starboard green light I added the rain hood but on closer inspection the ct from the sprue was not very good, leaving an annoying bit of plastic on the front facing edge. So a quick file with a fine filing block smoothed it off nicely. Adding in some doors next, I reverted to dabbing a little glue on the main wall and then used tweezers to position the door in place. this helped avoid splatting glue where it would be seen. The painted detail pieces, such as the fire hoses look so good on the battleship gray: Once the LED light is installed I've placed these two deck parts together to see how they are looking!

The starboard side of the hull continues to grow: and I'm finding that tiny screwdriver very useful! With this pack I get a couple of white lifebuoys to attach to the wall. These add a nice bit of colour against the gray backdrop A big bit and some tiny ones makes this stage complete. As you can see both the hull and decks are growing constantly, which is quite fulfilling!

Continuing the deck The two supplied deck parts are screwed together first A few more precision use of the tweezers to add some more detail: And then I added more to the deck section:

More hull and some deck The first part of the hull section screwed in easily enough from above, ....however to be able to access the screw holes for the attaching bracket I needed the supplied tiny screwdriver - there is just enough working space to reach in with a full size screwdriver! Here is what the hull is looking like: And then attaching the two pieces of deck together: A few more detail parts are then glued to the side of this deck piece:

Adding the Barbettes to the next deck section. These two barbettes simply clicked into place. Then it was a case of screwing together the deck to the deck part from stage 19. Stage complete!

The forward section of the superstructure deck: I bought this great screwdriver magnetiser online (the green thing in the picture) as my screwdriver was losing its power. Now I just leave the screwdrivers in it when not being used and its keep them fully magnetised! Well worth the small investment - much recommended It makes placing the screws into position before tightening them so much easier, especially on a highly detailed model like this: The other thing I learned from YouTube was to put the glue into the plastic blister and then use a cocktail stick to apply tiny bits of glue where needed: So when I added glue to these protective walls I could get just a tiny bit of glue in place reducing the risk of it being seen when attached to the deck: With ultra-small bits like this skylight, I found it easier to diet the tiny pegs into the glue first then attach to the deck: For the protective hoods, I tried putting the glue into the recess first, then placing the hood into position. This worked too. For the doors I 'dipped' them in the glue:

Stage 19 - bow light. Before fitting the bow light, the barbette for the second turret is assembled, quite easily, just I just clicked it into position: I found that threading the fibre optic cable was straight forward however tying the knot was frustrating because it kept coming undone once pressure was applied pulling it through to its final position. Perseverance prevailed though! Once the jackstaff support was fixed then it was a case of threading the fibre optic through and securing at various points: I then wired up the test pack, and hey-presto the light works!!!