So I was sitting around this afternoon and discovered that the family had all left for a shopping trip.  The cats were asleep, everything nice and peaceful (uncommon around here)... and there's Montana sitting quietly in its box, calling to me.

I cleared off the "this is where I work on big-*ss models" section of my workbench, wallpapered it with sandpaper, and began cleaning up the hull and deck join surfaces.  After about an hour I was (very) happy with the joint itself: however and as YMWs points out in their instructions, such large pieces of resin are almost guaranteed to shrink at different rates, and sure enough I will have a bit of a challenge blending these two pieces together.  Nothing a little bondo can't fix - "that'll buff right out."

After goofing around with the hull pieces deciding how best to align/join them (I'm going to drill holes for locating dowels under each of two turrets thru the deck and into the hull, then use piano wire stock to ensure accurate alignment during attachment/gluing - is this standard practice for large resin ships?), I decided that now was the time to figure out how all that secondary resin fits together.  The result is, to say the least, very impressive, even for a quickie mock-up exercise.

Below are a few photos I took of this fun - careful, the full size pics are LARGE: I did this so you can see firsthand the quality and detail in the "basis parts."  Once the pic loads you may have to click on it to see it full-size.

-Randy

Clicking on any thumbnail will take you to a larger version of the photo.

		Here she is - all the major resin pieces in their (sort of) place.  This thing is going to be B*I*G.  I've already ordered some Fuyuka barrels for the primary and secondary guns: the white metal pieces are such a disappointment - YMWs really needs to re-think their current solution.
		From astern.  I'm getting excited about the possibilities this thing presents.  A few minor broken parts here and there (mostly thin bulwarks which will be easily repaired with styrene), but no major problems discovered.
		Overhead view.  Did I mention this thing is B*I*G?
		Port quarter looking aft, detail shot of amidships arrangement.
		This time from starboard quarter looking forward.