Forward superstructure
This whole assembly is more or less accurate to the appearance of the ship during this time and was built straight from the box with just a few minor alterations. Firstly DO NOT attach kit part PE15, this is an air conditioning duct (one either side of forward lower section of superstructure) and was not fitted to the ship until her Mid 1944 refit post D-Day to prepare her for service in the Pacific including major reconstruction and fitting of AA weapons and radars. Another part not required is kit photo etch part PE8 inclined ladder, not used as wasn’t fitted in that section indicated by instructions.
I replaced the kit aerial photo etch with examples from the WEM etch I was using and also slightly relocated some of the inclined ladders and signal lamps. I also replaced the kit parts F-30 two-part bulwark section on rear of open bridge deck and rebuilt this with plastic strip. The HF aerial on the front of the Bridge was replaced with WEM etch and I made some ready stowage ammo lockers for the 20mm Oerlikons on this structure. These were made from square plastic strip cut to size. The lower signal lamps kit part G-10 doesn’t actually fit centrally to the platform they are mounted on but off set. This was easily sorted by filling the mounting hole and simply relocating the part slightly over to its correct position. The aircraft hangar was to have its doors open – one hangar more than the other to show inside and also a stowed aircraft in one. The remaining etch was added in place including deck edge railings and vertical ladders etc.
Walrus aircraft
The aircraft in the kit are pretty good but are cast in clear plastic which for me is terrible, because I can’t see if the parts are cleaned up, so I raided two Walrus aircraft from a Tamiya HMS Prince of Wales’s kit and used these for the aircraft. The Tamiya examples are beautifully cast in grey plastic and required very little clean up. I built one aircraft wings spread for flight and the other with wings folded using the WEM parts included in their detailing set. After fully building the aircraft I decided to test the fit of the folded example and found to my dismay that it was slightly too wide to fit through the hangar doors, Daaaahhh! After calming down I decided that I would fully paint and weather that aircraft, fit into place inside the hangar and then glue the forward superstructure in place over it, success …! This was done after the painting of the hull and fitting of the Artwox deck veneer.
The directors that fit on top and to the side of the Fwd Superstructure were built and painted as separate assemblies. The three director tubs kit parts G-7 were tweaked by building up the inside of the tubs, the actual mechanism on the actual directors was covered in a canvas cover with just the aerial visible. Trumpeter would have you just stick the aerial part to the central part G17. Using some square plastic strip cut to size I attached it in place on top of the tub. Then using model filler I made the sloped shape either side of the plastic strip attached to top of tub. When rubbed down and shaped it looks like the canvas cover and the aerial was simply attached in place on top of the plastic strip, sounds more complicated than it is.
Aircraft catapult
The kit example is nothing more than a plastic “blob” and so was completely replaced with the example made from parts in the WEM detail set from photo etched brass. There’s over a dozen parts that make up this part. I extended the catapult run to portray it in launching position. This simply fits neatly into place on the main deck behind the Fwd superstructure. Do NOT fit until the wooden deck is in place.