AOS book is invaluable!
One thing I forgot to mention about the platform supports -- as I said before, each support is made from 6 pieces, and unfortunately, the diagrams do not show (as far as I can tell) how those six pieces are supposed to go together. Once again, the AOS series title on Agassiz saved my bacon by showing a more detailed picture of the supports. So far, I have not had to make extensive use of the book, but the few times the kit diagrams have come up short, I've been very happy to have the book nearby.
An aspect of the kit's design that rather surprised me is the construction of the 4" shell holders. The parts supplied in the kit (#120) only make the base of the holders. The real-life item included two brackets that extended above the base and actually held the shell. Considering the phenomenally small detail parts that have been supplied elsewhere in the kit, I thought it interesting that this particular feature was thus simplified. In any case, in the interests of time saved, I chose not to scratch-build this extra detail, nor to individually turn the 18 4" shells called for. At this point in the build, I'm quite pleased with how things are turning out, and my wife even made a comment to the effect that the model is looking "more like a ship" -- and coming from her, that's high praise indeed!
TTFN,
One thing I forgot to mention about the platform supports -- as I said before, each support is made from 6 pieces, and unfortunately, the diagrams do not show (as far as I can tell) how those six pieces are supposed to go together. Once again, the AOS series title on Agassiz saved my bacon by showing a more detailed picture of the supports. So far, I have not had to make extensive use of the book, but the few times the kit diagrams have come up short, I've been very happy to have the book nearby.
An aspect of the kit's design that rather surprised me is the construction of the 4" shell holders. The parts supplied in the kit (#120) only make the base of the holders. The real-life item included two brackets that extended above the base and actually held the shell. Considering the phenomenally small detail parts that have been supplied elsewhere in the kit, I thought it interesting that this particular feature was thus simplified. In any case, in the interests of time saved, I chose not to scratch-build this extra detail, nor to individually turn the 18 4" shells called for. At this point in the build, I'm quite pleased with how things are turning out, and my wife even made a comment to the effect that the model is looking "more like a ship" -- and coming from her, that's high praise indeed!
TTFN,