With so many fittings cast as part of the hull, the count of smaller resin parts is rather small. The two largest of these parts are the bridge and navigation deck. The photographs show the bridge piece with thin resin in the windows. You can just paint these windows or you can remove them creating open windows for glazing with MicroKlear after the bridge roof is attached. The front face of the bridge has an interesting angular design. You will also notice that there are locater holes for the fore mast. My copy came with five 4-inch/50 guns, although you need only four and a single AA gun. I really like the detail of these guns although a couple of the 4-inch barrels had a slight warp that will need to be removed through heating. As with all of the smaller resin parts, there is plenty of flash to be removed with a hobby knife. Likewise I received five twin tube torpedo mounts when only four are needed. These have good detail with banding and end detail. In the box were two resin foremasts with crow’s nests. One of them has a warp to be removed. One is for the main mast, which is shorter from the fore mast. In addition to shortening it, you’ll have to remove the crow’s nest. It obviously would have better to have a separate mainmast casting. There are nine ventilation cowls of different sizes included with the kit. Other smaller resin parts, including search light, signal lamps, anchors, ship’s boats, boat davits, binnacle, ship’s wheel base, galley stack, bridge roof support pillar, rudder, propellers and propeller support struts. A couple of the propellers had blades broken off the hub, which can easily reattached to the hub with super-glue. The smaller parts are adequate in casting quality but will require various amounts of clean up. Clean up includes removal of flash, reattaching and broken parts and removing any warp from masts and gun barrels. None of this is hard to do but will take a little time. ISW will also supply more parts to replace broken ones if that is your wish.
The ISW O’Brien comes with two brass photo-etch frets and brass rods for propeller shafts. The large brass fret has a lot of goodies. This fret is probably used in all of the ISW models of Flivvers and 1,000-tonners, since all of the brass parts on the fret are not used on the O’Brien. In the parts laydown of the instructions, ISW shows which of the specialized brass parts go into the O’Brien. These specialized parts include bridge wing support lattice work, depth charge racks, funnel grates, ship’s davits, boat position details, bow anchor davit, ship’s wheel, yards, propeller guards, aft davit, streaming anchor with chain and inclined ladders with safety railing and poseable treads. None of the brass parts are relief-etched. Also included on the main fret are various runs of railing of different patterns, although the instructions fail to show which pattern goes where. The main fret also has plenty of runs of vertical ladder. The second photo-etch fret has standard railing and vertical ladder. This fret provides four long runs of four bar railing with widely spaced stanchions, two runs of four bar railing with closely spaced stanchions, two runs of three bar railing with widely spaced stanchions, one run of three bar railing with closely spaced stanchions and two runs of vertical ladder. I like this form of railing in which the bottom bar serves as a the bottom gutter. I find it far easier to attach railing in this format than attaching railing with separate stanchions.
The instructions are adequate but have some major gaps. By far the biggest cloud is the placement of the railing, especially the specialized types. There are notes on railing, which state “Bottom run used on bow”,”Middle runs used amidships for torpedo tubes”, “2-bar rail used for bridge top and top of aft deck house”. These make sense when you study the fret but are initially confusing. They don’t mention anything about railing at the stern. I assume that the railing on the smaller fret would be used here. I think that a better approach would be to include them railing in the assembly drawings. The instructions are six single sided pages on thick paper stock. Page one has general assembly tips. Page two has the resin parts laydown. This shows the mainmast as a resin part, which I assume means the second resin mast could be used for the main mast once the crow’s nest is removed and the mast shortened. Page three is the main brass fret laydown with specialty parts lettered and the above mentioned notes on the railing. Page four has bow assembly with a profile and a plan view. With the small amount of resin parts in the kit these drawings can be followed without significant problems. Page five has two midship plans for attaching the fittings and equipment there. There is also an inset showing detail of boat launch facilities, including notes on plastic rod to be cut for this location. Page six has a plan and profile for the stern from the aft deck house through the quarterdeck. This includes dimensions for cutting propeller shafts and main mast boom.
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