The chocks on the flight deck are hollow, but those on the forecastle / forward hull are not, however they are indented to replicate a hollow chock.

Part D20 (gun barrel) is misnumbered as D21 on the sprue.  There are two different D21s on the sprue.

The hull and deck pieces fit together very, well.  I painted the superstructure and the hull sections separately and then attached them together.  There is a slight seam between the two pieces and this could be filled in with putty, however I didn’t fill the seam for fear of ruining my paint finish. There are two small gaps in the corners where the superstructure meets the helicopter deck.  These will definitely have to be filled in with putty.

Part E21 (top superstructure piece) fits nice and tight to the deck of the main superstructure piece F1.

I found that the locater pin atop part E21 does not allow for alignment of Part E18 (mast base) to the centerline as well as the alignment to the vertical perpendicular.  I could get one alignment, but not the other.  I cut the guide pin off and filled the guide hole on the mast base with putty.

The partition in the superstructure between the two life raft canister windows on the port side is wider (3/64”) than the same feature on the starboard side (1/32”).  This makes one of the identical Parts D23 (life raft canisters) physically unable to fit in place on the port side without modifying Part D23 by enlarging the gap between the two canisters and/or thinning the inside corners of the patrician.  I used a micro chisel and small jeweler’s file for this. 
 

Prior to attaching the mast, I prepared the water base and attached the model, to it.  I used Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium and spread a very, thin layer on the IMEX display case base.  With a wide, wet brush, I textured the Liquitex to a suitable wave pattern and with a hobby syringe, I built up the wake patterns with additional Liquitex.  I used Model Master Acrylic Dark Sea Blue and Flat White and Gloss Clear Coat.

The mast, proper, is made up of two pieces.  Most features being molded on, already.  It easily attaches to the mast base structure.

The other items attached to the mast base are tiny, even for 1/700 scale, and are nicely cast and are important details to have been included and cast separately.  The antenna “rods” fit nicely in their guide holes on the top superstructure piece.
 

The gun turret is nicely replicated, including the barrel.  The turret has an indention in the rear of it, but this is to replicate the door in the rear of the real turret which is not so, prominent as that portrayed on the kit’s turret.

I found the life rings on the forward bulkhead to be a bit bulky and oval-shaped.  These would be better depicted with photo-etched replacements.  I intended this build to be an Out-of-the-Box build for contests, so I didn’t replace the life rings.

The RAM launcher comes in three pieces and is a nice rendition as are the small gun turrets atop the aft superstructure.

The recesses in the top superstructure for the chaff launchers are tight, but everything fits inside of them!

The plastic .50 caliber guns are a bit, oversized and bulky, especially when compared to the photo-etched ones in the kit.  I was curious as to why other, even smaller, pieces can be cast while keeping adequate detail on them, but these plastic .50 caliber guns couldn’t have been cast more proportionately.

While attachment of some tiny parts like the ship’s bell, and side lights (E8) on the port and starboard sponsons were manageable, I found the loud speakers (E3) to be extremely difficult to attach in place.  My tweezers just wasn’t small enough.  These loud speakers cold have been easily molded into the bulkhead instead of being included as separate pieces.

I like the signal lights (E7), but they might be a bit too, tall.

A nice attention to detail was the inclusion of a separate rear wheel for the helicopter. The instructions tell you to cut of the molded-in wheel and attach part D31 in its place, a little farther aft on the fuselage. I chose not to include the helicopter on my build.

The small fret of photo-etched pieces includes barrels and shields for six .50 caliber guns (only four are needed) and the flight deck safety nets whose dimensions are a perfect fit to the hull.  I displayed the safety nets on my model as raised and had to clip off the triangular sections from the aft corners.

I hope that someone develops an after-market PE set for this model.  Besides the life rings and angled railings, pieces to replace the dome foundation amidships (D25), jack staff (D21), port side forward post (D18), helo blades, stern doors and starboard door and radar array (E15) would be nice.
 

The decal sheet includes a one-piece flight deck lines decal for the white outline of the deck and two separate decals for the dashed lines going perpendicular to the centerline.  There are red warning circles, hull numbers, ship’s name, helo markings, flags, and hangar door warning stripes.  There are extra decals (one extra) of each of the hull numbers, ship’s names, helo markings and hangar bulkhead white stripe.  This is nice just in case you mess one up.  I had no problem with these decals.  They were firm and didn’t rip and their film disappeared against the gloss coat and with the application of Solvaset.

I created some custom stencils from a fret of photo-etched brass mesh.  This was rather labor intensive and tedious, but it was still the easiest method that I could think of, short of masking tape, to achieve the finish appearance that I’ve seen photos of the real ship.  This is where the photo DVD Volume 74 for LPDs and LCSs, from Ray D. Bean at Still Motions Photographics, really came in handy.

One stencil is for the superstructure and works for both sides of the ship when it is flipped over.  Another stencil is for the hull and needed to be attached and airbrushed in three steps along the side of the hull.  Yet another stencil was just for the angled area below the bridge windows and, once again, this one could be flipped over and used for both sides of the ship.  A fourth stencil has irregular patterns of panels, large and small, for airbrushing the patches of varying shades of gray on the superstructure.

The hull section was prepared the same way as the superstructure, with primer and Gunship Gray. Then, with the other brass stencil, I air brushed the lightened Dark Gray (F-15).

I gave both sections some vertical stripes, using the brass stencil, with the darkened mix of Neutral Gray.

The flight deck and forecastle were airbrushed with Gunship Gray and the safety nets are Neutral Gray.

The black marks for the hull's exhausts was made with Flat Black and black pastel chalk.  The stacks atop the superstructure were painted with Testors Brass and dulled with a black wash and black pastel chalk.  The deck around the aft gun turrets were painted with Model Master Acrylic Armor Sand.

For the louvered openings on the superstructure, I brushed on Polly Scale Grimy Black and Model Master Acrylic gray for the others.  The bridge windows are colored with “The Detailer” black wash.  It takes a couple of applications of this wash to get the entire window blackened.

I applied a clear gloss coat with Model Master Acrylic Clear Gloss and then applied the decals and then gave the entire model a coat of Model Master Acrylic Flat Coat.
 

Completed Model
 

I found this easy to assemble model kit to be a fun build of an exciting subject.  The challenge lies mostly in trying to achieve an authentic looking finish and trying not to lose some of the smallest pieces.