USS Arizona - 1/350

[DocRob]

A belated happy new year to you all and I finally decided about the build I will contribute to the GB. My year started a bit rough with house issues AND modelling issues to solve. Some were connected and affecting my initial choice to build the Fore Schnellboot S-38 in 1/72. One reason, I choose this one was, that during a heavy rain in December water entered my cave and soaked the box of the S-38 to a pulp. I took the manual, decals and PE away from the sprues to a safe and dry place and when I started the build the PE and decals were gone. I know, where I stored them, know that I took them to check some reference and then the tracks went blurry.

So now to something completely different. I chose the Eduard limited edition boxing from USS Arizona as a substitute, after I cooled off my hot temper about the loss. This will be my first plastic ship build, since I was maybe 12, building an Admiral Hipper, possibly a Revell boxing.

First, let's have a look into the box and onto the AM goodies, I plan to use.

Dramatic box art:

The two piece hull with the decks loosely fitted on:

Not that much plastic on the sprues and a lot of what is there will be substituted by PE and printed parts:

3D printed parts and Master barrels:

Lots of PE, and I forgot to take photos of another sheet:

The goodies, I bought on top of what's in the box, an Artwox wooden deck and Ion Models US Navy figure set:

Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

That looks like it might make a Nice rendition of the Arizona Rob.

[Peterpools]

Rob

Awesome choice and a very involved project/ I'll be following all the way. 

 

[DocRob]

32 minutes ago, KevinM said:

That looks like it might make a Nice rendition of the Arizona Rob.

 

19 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Awesome choice and a very involved project/ I'll be following all the way. 

Thank you Kevin and Peter, let's see how this will turn out. Looking at the plastic makes me wondering sometimes. Luckily a lot will be replaced by PE. The 'might' Kevin, will resume for a while in my mind too , as I have to find my path through the new terrain.

Cheers Rob

[Martinnfb]

Very ambitious and exciting project Rob, I am hundred percent sure that you can make it shine. Your skill set and talent is second to none. Pulling out my comfy chair 

Cheers

Martin

[DocRob]

Inspecting the plastic, I have to say, I'm very disappointed with what's supplied. The sprues are sourced from Hobby Boss, which date back to a Banner Models kit from 2001.
I never heard about Banner and don't know about their reputation, but this kit is partly very badly designed.
The hull is a two part affair which is parted at or close to the waterline and on first sight, here the fit seemed to be good. There is a battery compartment casted into , but that doesn't matter.
All plastic parts have all kind of irritations, bad casting, strange design, irregular shapes, burr and flash. Many details are casted on, but there is some light there too. The deck planking isn't too shabby, but will be covered with a wooden deck on my build.

One example for head scratching design. The halved sidewalls will luckily be substituted by PE later.

 

Another example are the portholes, where I don't want to comment what is there .

 

I drilled out all of the 200-300 portholes with a 0,8mm drill bit and removed burr and other imperfections as a first step. I will not correct all the shortcomings of the kit, but will do my best to build a decent model in the end.

The manual suggests continuing with the gun turrets, which I did. First steps were to remove the casted ladders and the other casting oddities with chisels and round bladed scalpels. I think, these tools along everything which cuts and sands in my arsenal will be used heavily through this build.

Next, I prepared the main artillery barrels. I cut the plastic barrels from their foundation, drilled a guiding hole and glued the barrels in with CA and got them aligned properly, hopefully.

 

Then it was cutting, chiseling and sanding again, removing winches, anchor chain and pollards from the fore deck which is halfway done on the picture. It looks now perfectly clean, but I wanted to show the casted detail to these of you, who were curious.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

23 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

Very ambitious and exciting project Rob, I am hundred percent sure that you can make it shine. Your skill set and talent is second to none. Pulling out my comfy chair 

Thanks a lot Martin, for putting me under pressure with kind words on a subject, where I feel like your beloved 'Fidel' out of the water  Enjoy some mojitos on the beach and remember it's 'Let's Get Wet' time 

Cheers (in the word's sense) Rob

[JohnB]

2 hours ago, DocRob said:

A belated happy new year to you all and I finally decided about the build I will contribute to the GB. My year started a bit rough with house issues AND modelling issues to solve. Some were connected and affecting my initial choice to build the Fore Schnellboot S-38 in 1/72. One reason, I choose this one was, that during a heavy rain in December water entered my cave and soaked the box of the S-38 to a pulp. I took the manual, decals and PE away from the sprues to a safe and dry place and when I started the build the PE and decals were gone. I know, where I stored them, know that I took them to check some reference and then the tracks went blurry.

So now to something completely different. I chose the Eduard limited edition boxing from USS Arizona as a substitute, after I cooled off my hot temper about the loss. This will be my first plastic ship build, since I was maybe 12, building an Admiral Hipper, possibly a Revell boxing.

First, let's have a look into the box and onto the AM goodies, I plan to use.

Dramatic box art:

The two piece hull with the decks loosely fitted on:

Not that much plastic on the sprues and a lot of what is there will be substituted by PE and printed parts:

3D printed parts and Master barrels:

Lots of PE, and I forgot to take photos of another sheet:

The goodies, I bought on top of what's in the box, an Artwox wooden deck and Ion Models US Navy figure set:

Cheers Rob

Wow Rob! You are really going all out on this one! Should make a outstanding model for sure!

[Peterpools]

Rob

Hard enough building a 1/350 early USN WWII battleship kit, adding all the PE and details but the kit molding surely created a 'boatload' of extra work.

Nice start on the turrets and cannons. Agreed, the kit is going to test all your skills (which are up to the task) and will require a great deal of tools and time.

Following all the way. 

 

 

[CANicoll]

Wow, just the clean-up is a huge job onto itself, and then all of that PE.  WHew!!  VERY much looking forward to watching this as it builds up. Your work already is turning this kit around.

Chris

[telepatu]

Awesome! I hear that the Bobbyhoss Arizona is not exactly a state of the art kit. For some reason I bought the Hobby Boss boxing, which lacks all the nice PE sheets and barrels that you have in the Eduard boxing. I will be following with interest and I'll be taking notes ✍️

Br, Jani

[DocRob]

19 hours ago, JohnB said:

Wow Rob! You are really going all out on this one! Should make a outstanding model for sure!

 

18 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Hard enough building a 1/350 early USN WWII battleship kit, adding all the PE and details but the kit molding surely created a 'boatload' of extra work.

Nice start on the turrets and cannons. Agreed, the kit is going to test all your skills (which are up to the task) and will require a great deal of tools and time.

Following all the way. 

 

18 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Wow, just the clean-up is a huge job onto itself, and then all of that PE.  WHew!!  VERY much looking forward to watching this as it builds up. Your work already is turning this kit around.

 

18 hours ago, telepatu said:

Awesome! I hear that the Bobbyhoss Arizona is not exactly a state of the art kit. For some I have still bought the Hobby Boss boxing, which lacks all the nice PE sheets and barrels that you have in the Eduard boxing. I will be following with interest and I'll be taking notes ✍️

Thank you Gentlemen, I'm not sure, if I've done myself a favor building this. Maybe it's a kind of penance for losing the Schnellboot's PE . If I had only the base kit to build, I would sod or even bin it. It's too much work for getting a mediocre result in the end, but the extras change everything, as they smartly address most of the kits shortcomings. It will be an open ended challenge though and I'm not sure, if I have it in me, but for now I don't care very much and will continue to recieve my torment .

Cheers Rob

[CANicoll]

Go for it, Rob!  

[BlrwestSiR]

Lots of work ahead of you Rob but I'm sure it'll be worth it with your skills. 

My boys are into capital ships but I haven't built one since I was their age. 

[GazzaS]

Great project, Rob!  Nice work on those gun barrels, too.

[Bomber_County]

Great subject Rob. I have a stalled King George V from Tamiya.. I hope the PE instructions are better than the White Ensign were for the KGV. As you rightly said once all the PE is fitted it will look amazing especially from your bench…..

[ScottsGT]

Some amazing “clean up” being done here.  Keep it up.  

[Landlubber Mike]

Great start Rob.  The PE/aftermarket looks fantastic - great detail!

[DocRob]

On 1/15/2023 at 2:13 PM, BlrwestSiR said:

Lots of work ahead of you Rob but I'm sure it'll be worth it with your skills. 

My boys are into capital ships but I haven't built one since I was their age. 

Let's hope so Carl, like you, I haven't built any ships except wooden ones, where I feel more homely now than with this one. Maybe we should leave it to the next generation .

On 1/16/2023 at 6:43 AM, GazzaS said:

Great project, Rob!  Nice work on those gun barrels, too.

All the extra goodies look good in this box. Yesterday, I checked a lot of historical pics, which luckily showed no blast bags, no untalented sculpting needed .

21 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Great subject Rob. I have a stalled King George V from Tamiya.. I hope the PE instructions are better than the White Ensign were for the KGV. As you rightly said once all the PE is fitted it will look amazing especially from your bench…..

I still have to see about the instructions Phil. Typical Eduard style, but they proved a bit vague in some aspects.

18 hours ago, ScottsGT said:

Some amazing “clean up” being done here.  Keep it up.  

...and that's only the beginning Scott. elbow grease will be needed for the next steps. Yesterday, I checked the underwater accessories, like shafts, props and rudders and started thinking about a dio in the water .

15 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Great start Rob.  The PE/aftermarket looks fantastic - great detail!

Luckily in this case the PE and printed parts are no AM Mike, as they were included in the kit. Without the stuff, I wouldn't have attempted the build. I read about the base kits shortcomings before, but was negatively surprised on inspection of the real thing.

Cheers Rob

[PanzerWomble]

I 110% admire your perseverance , but for me............ I'm with Marie Kondo ...that would not bring me joy..... I'd eBay or eBin .

[DocRob]

On 1/17/2023 at 6:20 PM, PanzerWomble said:

I 110% admire your perseverance , but for me............ I'm with Marie Kondo ...that would not bring me joy..... I'd eBay or eBin .

Thank you PW, I'm not sure about the future of this one either. I do like to challenge myself, but why tormenting . Earnestly, I had the plan to build a 1/350 ship for a long time with PE and extras, so I will try to stay in it.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Progress is slow, even slower due to different issues. First, I discovered, there are only nine bollards included instead of sixteen. I mailed to the Eduard helpdesk and they reacted promptly and said they sent the rest, so i hope they will show up soon.

I started with the turrets, where the manual is a it irritating, because there are three different types of turret assemblies out of four. There is some very delicate PE to add. For cutting PE, I use a sharp blade normally on a hard plastic tile, but with the superfine borders of the gun openings, I cut on a glass pane, because there is less deformation, but obviously it's not good for the service life of the blades.

The second issue I ran in, where the plastic parts, which hold the barrels in the turret. They didn't fit well with the openings in the front shields and in one case adjustment wasn't enough and I had to make a new bed from drilled brass tube

The basic equipment on the turrets is finished, except some very delicate railings, which I will add later, along with PE ladders. I started to build up the catapult for turret #3, but it is only fitted loosely for the picture.

The front turrets:

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Go for it - the kit will be putty in your hands 😉

 

[DocRob]

2 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Go for it - the kit will be putty in your hands 😉

Thanks Peter, but it might be the other way around .

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

« Putty » is probably the most relevant word for this build …

Looking at the moldings, it almost looks as if they upscaled the venerable Revell 1/426 kit  .

Anyway, if someone can tame this beast, it’s gotta be you, Rob … For me, and large ships, it’s 1/200 or nothing …

Hubert