Ship review

Reviewed by Timothy Dike
March 2015

For as long as the Big 5 Battleships have been available in 700 scale, modelers have complained about the over-simplified appearance of the cage masts. On the real ship, the main mast has an hour-glass shape that is not possible to achieve by rolling a piece of photo etch up into a cone shaped tube. The best option was to assemble one and swell one end. Well you can forget about that thanks to this new product from Carl Allsup of A2Z innovations, LLC.

Two upgrades are available; new fighting tops and new cage masts.

FIGHTING TOPs

The tops are finely detailed with hollow interiors and thin wall sections. They are printed on thin support legs, so removing them from the wafer will be easy. the surface detail is pretty good and the layered effect from the printing process is barely noticeable.

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CAGE MASTS

Both masts are included in the set. They are printed out of a plastic like material that is surprisingly strong and yet somewhat flexible. They are not brittle like early 3D printed parts. The structures are printed using the smallest possible framework so that even after a coat of paint, they still look as close to scale as possible. These masts will fit the Trumpeter, Hi-Mold, Classic Warships, Midship Models, and HP Models kits of the Colorado and Tennessee class.

BUILDUP EXAMPLE

Below is a build up by Carl using the new set showing how it it improves the appearance of the kit.

Conclusions:

This is the new standard in realism for your 1/700 Pearl Harbor Battleline.

1/700 Fighting Tops for Maryland/West Virginia/Colorado are available here for $5.95.
1/700 Cage Masts for "Big Five" Colorado/Tennessee-class battleships are available here for $19.95.

These items blow away any of the kit included parts and anything else in the after market world for these ships. Highly recommended!