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The New Jersey kit from Tamiya is of the modernized warship, and like it's other 1/350th scale ships is quite large. The New Jersey is one of the Iowa class battleships, which were built for service during WWII. Though not as large as the Yamato, it still outsizes the Bismark and Prince of Wales. These ships were built with a narrow beam, so as to be able to pass safely through the Panama Canal. The kit has been built straight from the box, except for the addition of photo-etched brass detail parts from Gold Medal Models.
The parts were molded cleanly, and assembly was straightforward. The hull was cast as one piece, and required only a little filing down the centerline. The superstructure and gun turrets were treated as sub-assemblies, being constructed and painted separately. Notable differences between the old configuration and new configuration of the ship is the addition of more modern ordnance, including missiles and radar controlled anti-missile defense guns. The float plane catapults and crane on the stern have been removed and replaced with a simple helicopter landing pad. Newer radar equipment adorns the mast of the New Jersey, and all of the smaller anti-aircraft batteries have been removed.
I painted the kit as instructed, using an overall grey for the superstructure and hull above the water line. The upper surfaces of the superstructure and deck were painted in varying shades of grey and blue, again, in accordance with the kit illustrations. The helicopter was painted light grey, with black ink for the cockpit windows penned in with a fine tip rapidograph. The plastic rotor blades from the kit were replaced with brass copies from the photo-etched detail set. The detail set also provided replacement pieces for the radars. These pieces were very finely engraved, and therefore fragile and a bit tricky to work with. The final result was definitely worth the effort. The christmas tree thingy at the bow was also constructed with some of the detail set parts, with very thin stretched sprue running between the spokes. This one piece took me several hours, because the sprue kept breaking, or being dissolved or melted by the glue. I should have kept it simple and used Elmer's. Always learning...
Additional details included drilled out gun barrells, model railroad chains for the anchors, and rigging which is actually close to accurate, unlike my Yamato kit. If I were to do it again (and I might just replace the bits anyway, someday), I'd use very thin guage brass wire for the bridge antennae. I might even have drilled out the windows on the bridge, and filled them with krystal kleer. Overally, I'm very pleased with this kit, as it is both highly detailed and colorful. I have it sitting in a display case, on top of a faux marble base, next to the other battleships in my collection, and I must confess to it being my favorite.
