| I just received my Iowa from Pacific Front and am quite
impressed. The kit seems well worth the $79 price. |
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| The casting is by and large excellent. I found few
if any bubbles on the smaller pieces and very little flash anywhere.
The hull has a few bubbles that are easily filled, though there is a slight
warp to the hull that is going to require some work in hot water or the
microwave to flatten out. |
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click images to enlarge
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| The kit comes with decals (not shown in the photos) hull
numbers and some safety lines for the helo landing area. Hull numbers
are only for the Iowa itself, not for any of her sister ships. |
| Also included is a small PE fret. Note that there are no railings;
you'll need to purchase these separately, though the main radar is present. |
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| The ship is the Iowa in her early 1990’s fit and while I have not yet
gone over things in detail in comparison to my references, the parts seem
to scale out well, and all the important details are present. The
16” barrels are very straight and usable as-is, as are the 5” ones.
Blast bags for the big guns are molded on to the turrets, a nice touch.
You get one Sea hawk, with a PE rotor. Even the basics of the UNREP
gear are included. |
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| The detail parts, including the helo and CWIS, do not appear to be
simply copies of Skywave/Pitroad parts, another nice touch by the maker. |
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| Perhaps hard to see in the photos is that the deck is delicately etched
with wood detail, and the non-skid portion is left flat, making masking
and painting much easier. Included with the kit is a brownish gray
stick on sheet a few inches wide, presumably for use on the non-skid areas,
though trying to trim this material to fit around the deck hardware seems
like it would be harder than simply masking and painting the non-skid. |
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| Packaging is well done and my kit arrived undamaged.
Detail parts are in individual little clear plastic bags, and there is
a piece of Styrofoam stuck on the bow of the ship to protect the delicate
detail. |
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More of Peter's work:
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