The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Just arrived.



The two interesting things to note are:
-- it is snap-fit !
-- it is multi-color plastic and says "no painting required", although there is small section covering detail painting. A shame I cannot sneak it into the Matchbox GB

It is the first of their "Plesiosaurus" Series -- thus the kit number of PS-001.

More to follow, shortly.

I saw the sprues on the Meng stand at Telford. They looked very impressive.

Sounds an interesting concept for this scale; I'll be intertwined to see the box contents

Here we are:

First, all the sprues are in their own bag, seems slightly inflated, with plenty of room in the box, so it was all well protected.



Here are the hull parts, in assembly order -- bottom, waterline/boot, hull, main deck, wood deck planking. And some detail of the wood planking section.





Here's the stand, the superstructure, and other parts. Note the top of the main superstructure has wood planking but it is not in wood color.





And here's the armament -- all sprues, and two in detail. Note the very fine gun barrels, appropriate for this scale.





Now, it says and I repeated, that no paint is needed, but there are some detail paint recommendations, your can see the deck section on the superstructure is unpainted, and of course, the disruptive camouflage carried by Rodney is not addressed at all. There is no photoetch, so no railings. There are enough illustrations to guide one on rigging the masts, etc.

It's not what I expected, I don't think I saw snap-fit, but it certainly looks good - the fineness of detail, see gun barrel, really sets this off from a lot of OOB 700 scale kits.

I am thinking of doing it OOB, as is, for the Feb Blitz, then later seeing if I can take some of it apart and do a proper disruptive paint job. I need to look ahead and be sure it is easily "un-snap-fit".

That looks to be a very finely tooled moulding; I do hope we see it in the forthcoming Blitzbau!

Very impressive moulding of the fine details. Interesting approach - snap-fit and coloured plastic - even down to a separate layer to be the hull boot line colour!

I am still trying to figure out the logic of naming it part of the "Plesiosaurus" Series!

David

dwomby wrote:I am still trying to figure out the logic of naming it part of the "Plesiosaurus" Series!
David

I gave it about 15 seconds, then moved along .... but perhaps a subtle (or not) dig at ships like this being "extinct marine mammals" -- or more likely it's an idiom that doesn't translate well ...

It looks a nice kit, but slightly out of my price range.

Thank you for taking the time to carry out the review, I look forward to seeing it built.

Regards Splash

splash wrote:It looks a nice kit, but slightly out of my price range.

If I had paid attention when I pre-ordered it, I might not have. I honestly did not see the snap-fit and was thinking there might be a bit more in the kit, like some railings. I am building a Meng kit now and know of their finely molded and detailed plastic so I was ripe for pickin' ... Might be interesting to compare this to Trumpeter's new release 1/700 Rodney .... but not me ...

Interesting. A snap-fit with some very nice looking detail. It might cost less if they moulded it in just one colour though - the old "no painting required" claim of model company marketing departments gets a snort of derision from me however and is arguably OK in kits aimed at youngsters (although I think kids should be encouraged to paint models, with adult supervision when they are young) but I don't think this particular offering is.

It looks very neat. I may grab one if I see any about. Thanks, John.

Mine is still sitting there un-built, mournfully looking at me. I think the issue is I really want to do a full camo, not just gray.

Multi coloured frames and sprues,Matchbox lives again

jRatz wrote:Mine is still sitting there un-built, mournfully looking at me. I think the issue is I really want to do a full camo, not just gray.

I'm interested to see just how the layers look when stacked up. Clever idea. The deck may need painting either bleached teak, or maybe grey.

1940 - 41. Main Deck was all wood. Other decks MS4a. After that. Main Deck appears MS4a and other horizontal areas 507a. For Nelson

Rodney was the same up to 1942. After that, she had a real mix of colours on deck, which matched her sides. Her camo was changed slightly in 44-45, but I don't have any shots of her deck at this time.