Building the Dragon 1/350 Scale
USS Mobile Bay

by Noel Carpio
This 1/350 USS Mobile Bay Dragon Kit, most will agree, is so far the best representation of this Aegis Class CG's in 1/350-Plastic Injected Kit.  I initially planned to build this lady as the USS Philippine Sea or the USS Leyte Gulf. Unfortunately, the stern decals fell apart! So I had to build is as the USS Mobile Bay.
The kit is fun to build except for a couple of flaws.  Besides the decal nightmare I had to go through, Dragon Decals are thick and they don't adhere well even with Solvaset.  I had to use some of my Gold Medal Modern Ship Decals and Flag Decals to complete this baby. 
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Even if I planned to build this Straight Out of the Box, I was tempted to use the extra radars that came with the GMM Spruance PE Set and with that the catch nets for the helipad.  I placed PE railings and ladders leftovers from other projects to improve the looks of the finished product. 
 As a warning, parts D5 don't fit well with the bow.  I did A LOT of wet sanding to come up with a smooth surface on the bow. The same goes with part E16, E19, E34 and D@ which will leave large gaps along the hull and the deck area.  Sanding these areas took most of my building time. I assembled the deck from bow to stern to make sure that the bridge will be in proper place and fit.
I used Model Master Gunship Gray for deck and other horizonal surfaces. I initially sprayed the vertical surfaces with Neutral Gray then oversprayed them with Gunze 308 Light Gray.  This enabled a light paint or scale effect. I then washed the corners and details with diluted Black oil paint. Then some diluted burnt umber on some areas.  The chopper was painted Light Gull Grey then washed with Black Oil paint.

This kit is easy to build but with the desire to improve on it and arrive with a better finished project, one may take time treating it as any other expensive kit - with a little more respect.
Noel Carpio 
Contributing Editor
Modelwarships.com


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