Revell 1/535 USS Missouri - Unboxing

I ran out of white paint, and feeling a bit better today, I popped outside for a quick visit to the hobbystore. As you know what happens when I go buy paint, I couldn't resist to browse the shop and pick out a USS Missouri. It was only €15, which is within my limits for an "impulse purchase", AND it's on my wishlist.

The box-art is stunning, but the box opens at the side. I hate these, because this means you can't store anything in it, like sub-assemblies or loose parts. The sample pictures of the finished model on the side of the box are a little low quality. It's handpainted, which I can respect, but it's not very neatly done. It actually looks like something *I* would achieve with handpainting, which isn't saying much.

 
The box contains 3 sprues and the lower and upper hull. All in all, there's 75 parts, but 30 of those are cannons, so there's really only about 40 parts to be assembled. Prepare, however, for tackling at least as many seams. There is a lot of flash and some quick dry-fitting tells me I'll have a lot of work sanding all the parts flush. The hull parts are slightly warped and no amount of tape or clamps will fit them nicely together. The starboard side is acceptable, with the upper hull protruding about 0.2-0.5 mm, easily solved with (a lot of) sanding. The portside easily protrudes up to 2 mm, so that will require either hard work or simply accepting the way it fits.

Some research tells me this is actually the very first Revell kit ever made, in 1953. I doubt they're still using the same, 60-year-old molds, but the quality of the kit does suggest it isn't very recent.

I do have to note that the quality is acceptable for this price. If you want a topnotch, highly detailed USS Missouri, you can buy the Tamiya 1/350 version, but you'll pay 10 times as much.

There aren't a lot of decals. Just the name, identification numbers and a row of windows for the tower.
We'll find out later how they handle.

There's 2 suggested paintschemes. Portrayed above (as the boxart) is the 1944 camouflage scheme. I won't be doing that one, since I've kinda had it - for now - with painting camouflage. The alternative is the 1945 blueish lightgrey. Another good reason for choosing the latter is that the rigging has been removed.

The paint callout suggests painting the deck brown ochre, for the wooden planks, but that seems incorrect.
I'll be portraying the "Mighty Mo" as she was at the 1945 signing of the Japanese peace treaty. The deck was painted blue-grey, according to the official "Measure 22" paintscheme. The teak-coloured deck was installed only later, if my references are correct.