Container Ship Colombo Express

This container ship kit from Revell is a challenge to build but if you plan your build and take your time, you will be rewarded with a realistic masterpiece. I have been building model car kits exclusively for years so this was my first ever ship build and I am glad I chose this one. When I opened the box to view the 226 parts I was very impressed with the molding because every part has nice clean detail and no flash. The instruction manual is nicely done with number call outs for the assembly,and alpha call outs for the recommended paint colors. The hull and deck assemble nice and easy, take the time to aline the 2 halfs of the hull up when gluing so that there's no gaps to fill and the seam line is minimal before clean up. The 23 container stacks are a good challenge, each assembly contains 6 parts, take your time to get the parts lined up square so that they will rest level on the deck of the ship. I assembled the first 14 then painted them. I decided to paint the last 9 while still attached to the sprues and then assemble. It was very difficult to assemble the 6 parts of each container stack without smudging the nice smooth paint I applied so I had to do a lot of paint touch up later. I highly recommend assembling the containers first and then painting them. The bridge construction is the most challenging part of this excellent kit. 11 steps in the instruction sheet with 44 parts to assemble. Here again you must take your time to get every level of the bridge square. I completed the entire assembly before painting which makes detail painting each deck more of a challenge but my bridge sits square and correct on the deck. I used Rustolium satin finish paint colors for the hull and deck, and Tamiya and Testers lacquer paints for the containers and bridge. The decals are beautiful and apply with ease. This kit definitely requires good building skills and a lot of patience to achieve a nice clean finish. I highly recommend this fine kit from Revell. I have tried to add a photo of my build but it would not upload at the time of this writing.