
As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm not a huge fan of Takom kits due to their soft styrene and large sprue gates. I also think that Meng have better detail, but a direct comparison between the same subject matter should hopefully prove interesting.
Each kit is made up in different ways - not unexpected. I started with the Takom kit and right from the outset, decided that better detail was required.
The exhaust is just a cylinder with a larger diameter centre section. The real ones used an asbestos type rope wound around the muffler/silencer. Also, where the pipe work goes through the side wall, the protective plate is moulded as a solid piece. I decided it was easiest to completely rebuild the exhaust from scratch using styrene, fusewire and brass tube with some nylon string.
Secondly, the engine vents. Far too chunky in styrene and not at all realistic looking compared to the real ones. Again, some scrtachbuilding is required. And a lot of head scratching too. While the side pieces are simple enough, I spent a few days trying to work out what material to make the louvres from. Lead foil seemed to work best but was too thin. Eventuially, I hit upon the idea of simply folding the lead in two to make it thicker. An obvious solution but one that I still took a while to come up with

A comparison shot of the two hull sides - one detailed and the other with kit parts dry fitted...

And the scratched parts in detail...

Gary