Loose Cannon Productions

1/700 Mare Island Supply Building

Kit Number: B-007

Reviewed by  Charles Landrum, IPMS# 26328

MSRP: $15.00 Available directly from Loose Cannon Productions:   Loose Cannon Productions   12384 E. Cedar Circle   Aurora, Colorado 80012   (home.earthlink.net/~loosecannonproductions/) I would like to thank Hugh Letterly for this review sample. Loose Cannon Productions has released a series of accessories for those modelers on 1/700 who want to display their ship's in port. It is a great idea! While nothing is more majestic than a ship at sea, nothing is more visually intense than a bustling shipyard/dockyard. Now you can achieve that look. This building is one in a series based on actual prototypes in the now closed Mare Island Naval Shipyard and has the right look and feel of a typical early 20th century industrial building. It is a concrete foundation, with probably iron (or maybe wood) columns/beams and corrugated metal siding. This is a well engineered, easy kit to assemble. The kit comes with Plexiglas components and paper components. The Plexiglas provides both rigidity and the "glass" for the windows, while the paper provides the detail and ease of painting. Assembly was straightforward. I decided on a silver finish corrugated look for the building and sprayed the paper with Floquil's old silver. You can easily tell which side to paint because the backing has a speckled finish. Once dry, I brush painted the foundation parts of the wall MM Camouflage Gray. For the window mullions I followed the instructions and dabbed MM Neutral Gray paint into the recesses and then wiped the surface clean - just like aircraft panel lines. Once the paint dried, I peeled the protective paper off the back of the Plexiglas and peeled the backing off the adhesive of the paper walls. I then carefully aligned the window openings with the mullions and pressed down. Voila! The result was a very convincing wall with recessed windows. I repeated this last for all of the sidewalls and the doors and then assembled the building with Ambroid Pro-weld applied with a Touch-n-flow applicator. Once the doors with in place I brush painted the side framing. At this point I realized that I no longer had the roof sections; who know where they went between Kansas City and Norfolk. So I used .010 sheet styrene (.020 would have been better - more stiffness), painted with Floquil Old Silver and cut it to the appropriate shapes. In total this project took an hour, not including paint drying time.

Now I have crossed a threshold into 1/700 scale buildings! I used to be an N-scale (1/160) railroader and everyone thought that our buildings were small. This is an easy kit; fun to assemble that makes a very convincing shipyard structure. You do not have to be all that skilled; just make sure that the windows align. At $15 the structure is well priced and competitive with those offered to model railroaders. Kudos to Loose Cannon Productions for offering something a little different. Highly recommended.

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