The decks are glued in position, and so is the rear wall. Stern is glued on. Forming the stern planking to fit the ship was not that easy after all, the glue gets a grip pretty quick and you have to dry-fit everything carefully before you apply the glue. In the end, I was satisfied how it turned out although things can always be done better. When looking at other builds here on this forum I always have to remember myself that I am not that proficient, and that this is my first build. You can't just mimmick 10 years of cardboard building experience that I simply don't have. However, allowing myself some slack, nevertheless I find much pleasure in the build itself and building the kit is a relaxing experience, you can completely set your mind to something else as the usual daily cr@p you need to deal with.
As far as the kit goes, I have several "rookie remarks" that thus could be completely irrelevant but here it goes nevertheless. Hopefully, someone with some building experience can say something about that as well:
I think the manufacturer could have made a better job in his instructions. I have experienced things like "join A + B" where the manufacturer seemed to find it obvious where A should go on B, but I didn't... no more instructions available. The written instructions are in more languages, but I would rather have settled for BETTER written instructions in just one language. Furthermore, the building instructions include only a few sketches on difficult areas. I think the instructions should have had many more of those sketches.
Furthermore, there are no instructions on what to color when, to avoid white lines all over later. I can't seem to find any color numbers as well. But like I said, all of this or some of this may be my personal lack of experience and/or understanding. To me, as a beginner, the instructions seem like a "hasty job" and I do not think they live up to the quality of the design which (until now) seems fairly good actually.
Another thing I keep thinking is, that the designer also seems to have cut expenses on the materials for the frames. I can however see that after gluing on the decks and the planking, more rigidity is coming into the model. So it won't collapse on itself I guess, but nevertheless the build would have been more stiff if thicker cardboard would have been used. Besides the sets for details and railings, a laser cut set for frames would also have been great.
With regards to the historical information on the "de Ruyter" I also think that the publisher has made too little effort. I think the publisher should have made more work on historical information and maybe a few more pictures of "de Ruyter". There is lots of information available, and it beats me why the manufacturer restricted himself to only about 1/3 of an A4-page. One is building a model with an historical background, it simply deserved more.
There seems to be a book available on the "de Ruyter":
Hr.Ms. Kruiser ''de Ruyter'' 1933-1942 from the hands of author H.J. E.A. Legemaate, but the book is (as almost an antiquity) rather expensive at €75.
So, as I am building along, finding my own weaknesses and trying to resolve all kinds of building problems and issues, these are my remarks until now. Some pictures to go with this.
