Dragon Models 1/350 German Battleship Scharnhorst 1943 Smart Kit

So here's my review;The kit is pretty awesome. Definitely not for a rookie modeller. Lots of pieces, and lots and lots and lots of photoetch and more photo etch. It takes a HUGE amount of time to complete. I literally had over 400 hours into building it. Not including drying time for paint n whatnot. Alot of pros and cons, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons big time!The negative first.1.) This kit was way over engineered. There is 1,293 individual pieces(literally). There are also 4 sheets of photo etch, which is cool and all, except that alot of the parts are too small to even work with unless you have a magnifying glass. The anti aircraft guns for example are made of 7 or 8 pieces. Half being photo etch. And even when finished the aa guns aren't any bigger than maybe 4 mm tall. And a mm or so wide. So definitely not the beginners kit.That said, the other downsides of this kit are parts that should have been more pieces arent.. the larger pieces seem to have been simplified, and the tiny pieces seem to have been made overly complex. So the aa guns for the example of this again, compared with the main battery turrets. The main gun turrets consist of maybe 10 or so parts,depending on which of the barrels you are going to use. (See what I mean? Shouldn't the main guns have more parts than the aa guns? Same goes for alot of the super structure.The final cons The model doesn't include the railings. SMH. For 1293 parts ya could have just made it an even 1350 and included the railing lol. Everything else was overly complicated, so why not just go all out?It also doesn't include the ships coat of arms that she(and most all german warships named after a person) had. This was disappointing. Ended up buying one with a decal kit from ebay.The last con was it didnt have decals for the swastikas she(as well as all other ww2 german warships) had on her decks. No, im not a neo nazi. But I do like to be historically accurate though. I got these with the decal kit I mentioned above.Other than that, needs a guide for doing the rigging cuz I would like to do that to her.Now for the good!The final model is actually very nice. Actually VERY VERY NICE! I(as well as every single one of us today) have never seen the scharnhorst with my own eyes, only pictures and some small portions of video. But from those sources I do believethis model depicts the ship perhaps as much as 99% accurate. Including the historical camoflauge. (Yes, the camo is what she had on her fatal Christmas 1943 sinking).It's also forgiving if you don't happen to use every part in the kit(such as those of us whom drop tiny parts here n there. My model is probably missing atleast 50% of the photo etch, and if you didn't build the ship yourselves you wouldn't even know!This model makes you get super good at doing photo etch. Before this kit, I sucked at photo etch. After this kit and it's a breeze.The kit offers 2 variations of the main gun barrels, depending on which you would like to build(one is the single piece barrel, and the other is a 2 piece barrel with blast bags). The blast bags are made of a weird rubber like material. Kinda strange, but they look way more authentic than any other blast bags on any other model kit I have seen in my life.Sorry for the long review.

Dragon is one of about four GREAT Model Ship (and other genre) makers! Hasegawa, Trumpeter and Fujimi also come to mind, with Hasegawa hulls being the absolute BEST (all plates, etc. are engraved in relief. Tamiya was one of the very best, but these four companies have surpassed them (in my humble opinion!) The most exciting aspect is that GREAT Photo-ethching afer market items are available for these models, that will turn them into Show Winners! Dragon's instructions are followable, but the least clear of the "big four" (at least to my aging eyes.) All the parts go together very well, hardly ANY flashing, all sprues are clearly marked, etc. Most of these models are Full Hull / Waterline so that you can construct each ship either way, with, of course, the waterline versions perfect for dioramas. The largest scale is the 1/350 scale, as these models average between 20 and 30 inches in length. My personal choice is to not use the included polymer stands, but make a better one (I only use full hull models) out of a good piece of wood, and get some brass pedestals from a company like <[...]>, and many others! As good as the gun turrets are in these kits, there are also aftermarket companies that will make turrets so real you think that they were shrunken from the real thing! One can also get actual brass propellers and aluminum gun barrels that are drilled out. And, this particular model, KM Scharnhorst, has the very interesting 1943 Eastern paint/camo scheme, that should make a very fine finished model. YOu simply CANNOT go wrong with this kit, or others like it from those four companies, and Tamiya is also to be considered, as aftermarket companies have many products to upgrade their fine models, too!