I really don't know how many others are building this kit or are planning to build this one but I will give you guys a little insight into this kit.
When it first arrived I was like a silly school boy getting his first big assignment and knowing he is ready for the challenge. As I opened the box and looked over all the trees and examining the details of the molded injected plastic, I was very impressed with the quality that Hobby Boss put into this kit. As I was going through the box I came across the photo etch, I set it aside after a quick glance, grabbed the instructions and gave them a good once over, as I did so I quickly figured out that this was something I really needed to study as there was so many pieces of PE involved in nearly every build step, then all the subassemblies,
Now, I am not a master model builder but I also at the same time am not to bad at building things. I realized studying the instructions that this was not only going to be fun but challenging as well, the PE in this kit is very well made, pre measured and the etching was done so the "bends" where easily made, I did however come across a few pieces that where a tad bit long and had to be modified to fit. It was simply a process of "clip, strip, stick, and set", many of you know how it goes. I have never used a PE set that was so "FORGIVING" I had dinged some railings and with a blade was able to nudge it back rather easily, something I always struggled with.
The kit its self is something that can be made into a wonderful model, as this is one of my all time favorite ships I was over joyed to see a 1/350 "plastic" kit for it a scooped it up at first sight, the quality of the kit is some of the best I have seen for Hobby Boss Models, the fit of pieces is spot on, I have used very little filler and only when I did something wrong
we all have those days.
Pieces go together very well and very little clean up is needed on parts, most is at the tree connection points as always. So, if your thinking about this kit and not sure, or you have this kit in your stash, you are in for a treat when you start this kit. As far as accuracy I feel it is very, very close. I have viewed pictures of the ALASKA, GUAM and seems to me that the details are spot on, now since I am doing it OOB just for fun, you might research more in depth to find all the flaws you can and hammer this kit to pieces but I think HBM has done a great job since there are limited pictures of the ships showing great details.
Best of luck and hope this little review is helpful.