One of my co-workers asked me to build this model of the Prince of Wales for his son. He gave me the model with no directions and missing pieces so this was basically a challenge I couldn't turn down. I added a dazzle paint sceme, made a dry dock out of balsa wood, added 1/450 brass photoetch railings and bought a trumpeter model case. I also had brass name plates made up at the local mall. The model kit is made from Revell Germany and is 1/570 scale. The model fits together extremely well but take it real easy when glueing the pieces together. I find Revell kits use a softer plastic and have a tendancy to melt easy. I started this model by glueing the two halves of the hull together
and then adding the one piece deck. After I had all three of the main pieces together a started to paint the hull. With a small scale model like this one I find it alot easier to paint it after. Reason being is that you can sand and fill around the deck line and not worry about ruining the paint job... You can do that all later. If the scale is larger and there are more pieces, then you have to change you game plan a little bit. Now when I say paint it all after with the smaller scales, what I mean is the large sections only. For anyone just starting out DO NOT put the whole model together and then decide to paint it because you're going to run into some interesting problems. I always like to put th
e hull together in sections. I'll build the hull and superstructures seperate and then put it all together later. When I painted the hull I used a spray for most of it including the dazzle paint. Some of the dazzle paint required some brush painting but not taking more than about three coats max. Dazzle paint was used during the War to confuse enemy submarines of the size and direction the ship was going. To this day they're not sure if it worked but it boosted moral for the crews anyway. The deck was easy using one coat of tan and one coat of wood. The superstructure and gun turrets were all sprayed and the camouflage was brush painted. Afterwards I added the photoetch railings and dull coated the entire model. I highly recommend spraying painting the pieces if you can get away with it. Spraying allows you to apply an even coat with no brush strokes. Options include Airbrushing or Spray Cans. If you are going to use a spray, there are lots of great options out there and I really don't have anything bad to say about any of them. If you're going to be brushing I highly recommend Humbrol. Testors makes a great spray ( I use it all the time ) but find the brush on doesn't cover very good even at the best of times. Also remember not to go cheap on the brushes either as they can make all the difference. I also like to dull coat the entire model when I'm done as it makes everything uniform and helps hide any brush strokes you might have. As far as any missing pieces are concerned it's real easy to take spare pieces out of old kits or make them from the tree's holding the pieces in your kit. Overall Revell makes a great kit and I highly recommend this one.
One of my co-workers asked me to build this model of the Prince of Wales for his son. He gave me the model with no directions and missing pieces so this was basically a challenge I couldn't turn down. I added a dazzle paint sceme, made a dry dock out of balsa wood, added 1/450 brass photoetch railings and bought a trumpeter model case. I also had brass name plates made up at the local mall. The model kit is made from Revell Germany and is 1/570 scale. The model fits together extremely well but take it real easy when glueing the pieces together. I find Revell kits use a softer plastic and have a tendancy to melt easy. I started this model by glueing the two halves of the hull together
and then adding the one piece deck. After I had all three of the main pieces together a started to paint the hull. With a small scale model like this one I find it alot easier to paint it after. Reason being is that you can sand and fill around the deck line and not worry about ruining the paint job... You can do that all later. If the scale is larger and there are more pieces, then you have to change you game plan a little bit. Now when I say paint it all after with the smaller scales, what I mean is the large sections only. For anyone just starting out DO NOT put the whole model together and then decide to paint it because you're going to run into some interesting problems. I always like to put th
e hull together in sections. I'll build the hull and superstructures seperate and then put it all together later. When I painted the hull I used a spray for most of it including the dazzle paint. Some of the dazzle paint required some brush painting but not taking more than about three coats max. Dazzle paint was used during the War to confuse enemy submarines of the size and direction the ship was going. To this day they're not sure if it worked but it boosted moral for the crews anyway. The deck was easy using one coat of tan and one coat of wood. The superstructure and gun turrets were all sprayed and the camouflage was brush painted. Afterwards I added the photoetch railings and dull coated the entire model. I highly recommend spraying painting the pieces if you can get away with it. Spraying allows you to apply an even coat with no brush strokes. Options include Airbrushing or Spray Cans. If you are going to use a spray, there are lots of great options out there and I really don't have anything bad to say about any of them. If you're going to be brushing I highly recommend Humbrol. Testors makes a great spray ( I use it all the time ) but find the brush on doesn't cover very good even at the best of times. Also remember not to go cheap on the brushes either as they can make all the difference. I also like to dull coat the entire model when I'm done as it makes everything uniform and helps hide any brush strokes you might have. As far as any missing pieces are concerned it's real easy to take spare pieces out of old kits or make them from the tree's holding the pieces in your kit. Overall Revell makes a great kit and I highly recommend this one. 
