There comes the point in every model when all the “necessaries” are installed on one side of the fuselage, waiting only to be joined with the “blank” half and that is where the trepidation sets in. I have built large scale planes that have had ¼” or more gaps requiring grinding, fitting, uncementing, and copious amounts of profanity... Well, Hersch, not in this case. In fact, aside from the complexity of the engines, this is almost a “shake box” kit...click fit!

I don’t know really what more I can say than “WOW”! This moose of a kit is as close to perfection as anything I have previously built. In fact, it gets my nomination for “Large Scale Kit of the Year” award. The previous segments can be viewed at Part 1 and Part2 .

From the beginning to the end of this build to be as follows:

Ahoy, Mates! Welcome to the first installment of Zvezda’s 1/72 Pirate Ship “Black Swan.” One of the things I love about review team duty is the chance to try subjects I wouldn’t normally build. This is one of them. In fact, this is my first attempt at building a sailing ship. I think I’ve avoided it because, like biplanes, there’s usually a lot of rigging. Just can’t imagine building models over a lifetime and never building a sailing ship, so here goes! I’m not up on all the proper terms, so I hope the pictures show what I can’t describe.

Squadron has done it again. Here is another outstanding pictorial and brief narrative of one of our historical WWII ships. The USS Kidd, named after Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd, CO of the USS Arizona, is a Fletcher Class destroyer. Launched 28 February 1943 at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Kearny, New Jersey, she was commissioned just short of two months later, on 23 April, 1943. There were 175 Fletcher Class Destroyers produced, therefore making it the largest class of destroyers built. She first served in the Atlantic and then the Pacific. On 11 April 1945, she was stuck by a Kamikaze that killed 38 and wounded 55 of her crew. She returned to the fleet on 1 August 1945 to finish the war. USS Kidd was decommissioned and placed in the inactive reserve fleet on 10 December 1946.