Big Mo!
Though dwarfed by much newer aircraft carriers, the size of the Missouri is no less impressive.
Greetings folks!
Today, I have the great pleasure of showing you a kit made by Occre (Spain) of a legendary Big Mo, an Iowa-class battleship that fought in WWII, Korea, Desert Storm, and on whose decks the peace treaty between the US and Japan was signed.
I am still working on the full kit review and will share all the parts in great detail with macro images later (hopefully in a week or two). Most likely, it will be a multiple-chapter review as the kit has more than 6000 parts, yeah, you heard it right.
The historic and celebrated USS Missouri is one of the last surviving US battleships. Not present at the attack on Pearl Harbor, she arrived shortly thereafter, in December 1944, and saw battle across the Pacific and around the world. Today you can tour the Mighty Mo, It's docked on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, on Battleship Row. The USS Arizona and its memorial rest nearby.
The assembled (finished) model. * Image courtesy of Occre
Model Technical Sheet:
Scale: 1/200Width: 178mm
Height: 320mm
Length: 1355mm
Difficulty Level: Advanced
Number of pieces: 6,096
Approximate build time: 1,400h
USS Missouri Ship Model - OcCre
Model of USS Missouri BB-63⭐ Instructions in 5 languages. Video tutorials. Step-by-step HD photos. Lifetime warranty. 100% money back guarantee.
occre.com
The Kit Box:
The kit comes in a sturdy\corrugated box (image above) shipped directly from Spain. The actual kit box was nicely packed inside the shipping box. The kit's box is heavy, handle it with care.If you have already built at least one kit from Occre, you will not be surprised to see Occre's signature box with an open window showing the transparent container with small parts (fittings). Occre keeps the signature style on each and every one of its kits. USS Missouri is not an exception.
The Content of The Kit (unboxing):
Once you remove the protective seal film, you can lift the top portion of the box and see how compact and sturdy the various parts are packed. To see other parts, you must remove the packing tape from the top and both sides.
Only then, you can see various parts. The first thing you might think: 'WOW', there are not too many parts, but... the Occre counted those parts for you: it is a total of 6 thousand and 96 parts to build Mighty Mo! They even counted the total hours required to build a model. I'm not sure how this was done and what rate was chosen while calculated but the number is pretty impressive - 1,400 hours, which is 58.4 days, 8.3 weeks, or 1.9 months. Now back to the content of the kit. below is the relative dimension of the kit's box
I don't know about you, but when I open a new kit box, I am like a child while opening a new toy box and want to play right away, I am happy and want to start building immediately. I am sure you ever had that feeling once. So, let's check what we get here... Briefly, after an initial look, I can identify framing parts, various milled planks, color paint charts to use for assembly, some balsa wood, cardboard tube (there are color photos of Big Mo in scale 1:200), and two transparent plastic boxes of various deck fittings. Most of the parts are metal cast parts, while others a brass and wood, Here you can find brass CNC-turned main caliber barrels for main turrets. These are just the visible parts; other parts are hidden underneath.
Underneath, there are more parts to build a sturdy frame, as well as the parts to assemble deck superstructures. Most of the frame and superstructure parts are MDF.
On the bottom of the box, there is an instruction manual (step-by-step images) and a parts identification list written in 5 languages: Hispanic, English, French, Italian, and German. Going through all the parts identification could be time-consuming as there are 6 (both sides) pages of the parts list with dimensions and the materials they made from. Also, the same brochure has several templates used in different stages of assembly. A very good approach to marking different assembly stages alphabetically. i.g. if you working on stage 'A' you will locate all the parts marked A. This is awesome, IMHO.
Here are the milling strips and two transparent plastic containers with small parts. I think, it is a nice touch, where parts can be safely stored until assembly is finished, and then you can wonder why there some parts are left
BTW, there are massive frets of PE parts, they are wrapped and hidden between the structural parts to avoid accidental bending. I will show those and much more in detail in my kit review.
Here is the content of the cardboard tube. There are rolled color photos on a scale of 1:200 (1:1), of the side and top views of the USS Missouri.
Finally, an overview of all parts in a single view: From one side
... an opposite side
Alright... I think I have not hidden anything while opening the USS Missouri (Big MO) kit made by Occre. I am impressed with the number of parts and how they are packed and presented. What touched me was the parts identification sheets written in 5 languages. That simply means that at least 5 members from different countries can build this model without struggling with translation. Also, Occre made YouTube video instructions to simplify the assembly process. BTW, the instruction manual is colored step-by-step images, it is just an imaging representation of the videos.
Well...this is it for today, the following week/s I will be busy taking photos of individual parts. I know you like to see macro images, and I promise you to have those as well. The kit is nicely packed and well-presented. I hope to see all of you when I post the USS Missouri kit review.
Until then, so long, and thank you!
Look forward to following your build. I'm considering adding a 1/200 Mo to my stash, but not sure I'd be game enough to tackle her in primarily wood, as I've never built in that medium. Good luck!!