JCS 1/400 USS Helena

Reviewed by Timothy Dike
The USS Helena was a St. Louis class light cruiser, and in my opionion one of the most elegant cruisers of all time. I have models of this ship in many different scales so when I saw this JCS paper model, I just had to have it. It looks like a nice kit with plenty of potential. It comes painted in Ms-21 with unpainted wood decks. As a bonus there is a small yard craft Y-75 included.
The pages of the kit are illustrated below, they are printed on heavy cardstock. I have heard many paper modelers say that it is best to laminate these pages onto heavier card to make them even more rigid. There is nothing to stop you from laminating it to styrene for the ultimate plastic scratchbuild.
The beauty of this type of model is that you can use a copier to reduce or enlarge the pages to produce most any scale of ship that you like. In fact I would recomend that if this is your first ship that you begin working with a copy of the ship.
The instructions are in Polish but are numbered and where two connect there are interlocking numbers. The exterior parts are printed in color so no painting is necessary.Plan and elevation views are included as well as some detail views of the sub assemblies.These are adequet to build this ship, but a feew extra subassembly views would be helpful.
     This kit is priced at 6,90 EUR which is about $8.50 US a pretty good price for a 1/400 ship. Check out the e-papermodels.com website for even more ships and detailing accessories to enhance your kit.


© ModelWarships.com