A newish distraction

A bit of history first, this kit was given to me in 1989 in the state that these kits usually seem to be acquired - partly assembled then buried in a cupboard for tens of years. As a 15 year old who'd been building Airfix and Revell up to that point I was in love! ;o)

Two years later, my father and I had built what we thought was a passable "as plan" replica, we sailed her a few times then I went to University and she spent her time gathering dust on a shelf.

fast forward 25 years and my parents have finally been able to join me out here in New Zealand and they've brought along Mo.

Due to the general incompetence of the removal firm (Clown Dislocations as my father refers to them now) she has taken a bit of a knock. 

At this point, with the work to do on her anyway, I was in a bit of a quandry - which period do I restore her to?

I eventually plumped for the 1950's as per the original kit but with a make over and updating of the majority of the components.

the aim is to replace the 16" guns, 5" guns and the battery controllers with resin replacements. Replace the Quad 40mm bofors with the Veteran models 1/200 kits and generally update a lot of the radars etc with brass etch.. after that it'll dpend on my finances! 
I'm also going to take the opportunity to upgrtade the old 2 channel control to an 8 channel set and motorise the turrets and maybe add a couple of extras (light, sound, maybe..)
well, time to kick off with the pics.

i'll start with a great reference set of pics I've found for the Mo in the 50s: the excellent photos of Amory haughton III

and now onto my sorry lady, she's a 1/192 scale (1/16" to 1' for those who were curious) all balsa kit from the late 1950's. she's 55" long with a beam of 6"

 As she arrived, sans some of the 5" and quad 40mm guns and the main mast

 I did briefly consider changing the drive to a scale 4 prop layout, briefly....

 and onto the work, stripping all of the deck fittings and guns off

 then removing the deack for sanding and to allow access for the new radio gear

 all of the detail removed from the superstructure for sanding and repairing

The box o bits

It's fair to say, between gaming, cash and family, I'm going to be working on this old lady fopr the better part of the year