u/Krokietor

12GO again delivered a unique set which many manufacturers won't even consider making.

The Good:

- Looks beautiful. The set is simply amazing look wise for me.

- The turret rotates 90° each side as it should.

- 12GO revised their cables, the tube is more plastic than rubber now which makes it bend cleaner.

- Finally a 12GO set without a whole sheet of custom molds, a big plus from me for that.

The Bad:

- Used techniques often put a lot of stress on parts (see the gap on the turret) which results in bending the whole part.

- The build process is quite demanding with a high probability of self deconstruction (mainly fenders and turret parts).

The personal issues:

- one of the 4x4 printed squares had molding issues (last 2 photos), i needed to literally "bake" it to somewhat fix it.

Overally, highly recommend for someone who wants a unique, good looking set, but be prepared for a build wich requires some patience.

After a long time of waiting Cobi finally made a non-German set and it is beautiful.

After a few 12GO sets this one felt refreshing, very fun to build but requires some patience. The cloth on the mantlet looks amazing, it isn't as hard to put as i expected but needs a bit of patience, thankfully Cobi gives tools that will help with that (looking at you 12GO still without a proper tool to place those round small bits).

Another thing is a Kettenkrad with trailer and Goliath. Honestly i don't know what is better, Hellcat or those two. While a bit more tricky to build because of size, the final effect is fully worth it.

I hope Cobi will release more non-German sets. (Winter T-34-85 with PaK gun is coming as a LE).

12GO made a good impression on me with their E100 series and Ferdinand/Tiger (P) sets so i decided to try their 1:300 ships. USS Colorado is the first one and guess i had my expectations a bit to high. (Cobi USS Arizona added as comparison)

The Good:

- Ofc the price, a bit more than a half of a similar size Cobi set.

- Thanks to the custom molded pieces set is very detailed but loses a bit of brick built magic.

- Additional rigging makes a very cool looking effect.

- Nice, three tone camouflage pattern.

- The build is quite stable when completed...

The Bad:

- but isn't quite stable during the building process, some superstructure parts are only holding on one stud. Some patience required.

- The base included with this set isn't great, it is just two big molded hollow plastic pieces which aren't very stable. Additionally, the ship is not connected to the base like in Cobi design so you need to be cautious when moving whole thing.

My notes:

- Brick quality is just OK, those clip and fit well together but have common visual defects. Red ones feel very cheap, some bricks are like semi-transparent when connected to darker ones. Prints are sometimes misaligned (photo included). 12GO as always gives lot of spares so no missing bricks in the set.

- The rear deck is sticking above the hull wich looks weird in my opinion.

- Hull curves aren't smooth like in Cobi designs wich combined with printed parts breaks the camouflage surface. (photo included)

- Whole superstructure, while very detailed, is painted one color and blends together. I'm considering painting some parts (like AA guns or smoke stack covers) black to give it some details.

Conclusion:

For the price set is great but isn't flawless. The build process requires some patience and force balancing while putting bricks together, not terrible but worth noting. I would say, you get what you paid for. This set made me realize that 12GO bricks quality is rather variable and is nowhere near Cobi (despite many ppl saying otherwise). Overally, solid 7/10 would buy again.

USS Montana and USS North Carolina are waiting but for now they aren't high on my priority list.

12GO does a great job recently with their brick sets.

The model is very detailed (and unlike others 12GO models, this one does not come with 2 pieces molded gun barrel which is imo a plus) and sturdy enough when completed. The only issues i had was with the turret, it is quite fragile under construction but not very annoying to build after all. The sloped turret roof wasn't fully closing so I used leftover sticker pieces to hold it in position (last picture), probably my fault when building the turret but i don't want to disassemble it again just for it.