| Pontos Model Company of Korea is on a
roll lately. They have designed several exciting upgrade sets for many
of today's plastic kits. These sets are truly multimedia and address the
weaknesses of the kits with virtually everything that is needed to take
it to the next level. This one is designed from the Academy
1/350 Warspite kit. |
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| DECK |
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| This first upgrade is the wooden scribed deck that measures
about .01" thick with a self adhesive backing. The deck is laser cut with
deck cutouts for the various plastic parts. The planking is scribed into
the surface. This deck set has the advantage of being relatively thin and
the modeler will not have to worry about cutting the plastic parts off
the deck and shimming them up. Resin and photo etch parts enhance the areas
such as the anchorways to make sure you have an accurate and three dimensional
finished part. |
click images
to enlarge
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| PHOTO ETCH |
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| There are four brass photo etch frets that feature relief etching.
The first fret includes precut railings, doors and hatches, and platforms
and the above mentioned anchorway wear plates. The fret is designed by
S. H. Parks and you can tell he did his homework and included virtually
everything needed to turn this kit into a museum piece. |
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| This fret includes the starfish platforms, bracing, wood decks for
the ships boats, boat cradles, inclined ladders and much more. |
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| More doors and hatches are featured on this fret as well as the upgrade
parts for the pom-pom anti aircraft guns. Cable reels and rigging details
are among the other items. |
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| The remaining fret corrects some fit issues with the previous frets. |
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| METAL BARRELS AND CHAIN |
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| This set includes many machined brass gun barrels, davits, and mast
parts. Real chain and Fine brass wire is also included. |
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| The 15" main gun barrels are nicely done and fit perfectly into the
supplied resin blast bags. The ends of the big guns are machined to simulate
the barrel with the usual plug that is normally installed to protect the
gun from the weather. The 6" guns have the ends drilled. |
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| The pom-pom gun barrels are really nicely done and are
incredibly fine. The ends are flared with a hollow appearance. Be careful,
these parts are very small and easy to lose. I am amazed that you these
parts can be machined to scale as small as they are. If you desire a true
to scale looking gun assembly, these are among the very best out there. |
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| Bases for the 20 mm Oerlikon machine guns are provided to work with
the photo etch guns above. |
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| A length of real chain is included to simulate the anchor
chain. This will look great on that new deck.
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| RESIN PARTS |
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| New parts cast in resin include gun tubs, main gun blast bags and sighting
hoods, anchorway base, and searchlights. All are cast very well on and
very little flash is present. The gun tubs are in a variety of sizes and
have nice thin shields. The blast bags are well done, and the new rangefinder
sighting hoods look nice. The searchlights include separate mounting yokes
and light assemblies and look very realistic. |
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| DECALS |
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| A decal sheet with black and white draft marks in the roman numeral
style appropriate for the Royal Navy. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions are two color sheets and while nicely
illustrated using diagrams and real photos of the assembled ship, they
are a little lacking for this extensive set.
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| BUILDUP PHOTOS FROM THE MANUFACTURER |
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| The following photos from PONTOS show the finished kit
and some subassemblies. The CAD renderings of the pom-poms help illustrate
the extremely detailing.
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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This new set from Pontos, may well be all you ever need to elevate
that Academy kit to a show winner status. This set seems to address every
weakness of that kit with a superdetailed solution. I am very impressed
with the wood, resin, and brass details in this set.
The retail Price of $120 USD may seem steep, but when you consider
all the details that are included, you will agree this set is a bargain.
Check their website
for more information or inquire
on the forum about the set. |
