Skywave / Pitroad

1/700 US Weapons set #E-6
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
Early on in the production of the Waterline series of Ship models, the weapons on some of the kits were poorly shaped and crude in nature. Also early resin kits did not include many of the secondary weapons. Skywave attempted to remedy this by releasing a weapons set to replace some of those weapons. You might have notice that I often refer to the Skywave set in some of my 1/700 ship projects. First the bad news, it is out of production now, the good news is that it can still be found. This weapons sprue is included in some of Skywave's ships that require some of these accessories.
There are two identical sprues included with this set. The molding is quite good, even though this set has been around for a while. The best part is the 5" 38 Cal. Single gun turrets, they are the best injection molded turrets available in this scale. The twin 5" 38's are also quite good, much better than those in the US Battleships that are available in 700 scale. There are also some 5" MK 39 that were used on the Midway Class CVB's.
Also included in this set are 5" 38 cal open gun mounts, these are nicely shaped, but when assembled are too tall. To fix this either drill out the mounting hole on the gun base or cut off about 1/32" of the gun mounting pin. 3" open mount guns and single, dual, and quad 40 mm guns are provided, as are 20 mm singles. The guns are a little on the thick side, but as small as injection molding permits. 
Simple instructions are provided on the back of the box for some of the components, but not all the parts are shown. My E9 set includes a separate sheet, so I wonder if mine was missing from the box. There is also no english translation so it's a little hard to follow. 
Some of the parts included in this set are:
  • 5" 38 Cal single enclosed and open mounts
  • 5" 38 Twin mounts
  • 5" Mk 39
  • 3" dual purpose open gun mount
  • 3" Automatic anti aircraft guns single and twin mounts
  • 40 mm double, and quad mounts
  • 20 mm single guns
  • torpedo launchers in triple, quadruple, and quintuple styles (separate shelters are included)
  • torpedo cranes
  • flag bags
  • search lights
  • gun tubs and director tubs in various sizes
  • misc. motor boats, whale boats and life rafts
  • gun directors for 5" and smaller guns
  • misc. radar's
  • hose reels and anchors
  • heg hog in fixed and trainable mounts
Hopefully this set will be made available again with english instructions. If not keep your eye out at the swap meets or pick up a few of Skywave's Destroyer Escorts for the extra weapons. 
 


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