USS Arizona - 1/350

[ScottsGT]

Rob, you’re a brave soul taking on all that PE.  I bought the 1/200 Trumpeter kit for when I retire.  I’m 10 months into my retirement and still ain’t got no time for all that detail.  🤪

[DocRob]

What started a bit crazy, suddenly turns into madness. The flying bridge construction causes a lot of headache, because it is built up with lots of components to align correctly, but even more because it needs to be removable for painting and applying the wooden deck. 
I cut the brass tubes according to the measurements in the manual, drilled holes into the plastic and wooden deck and glued in short pieces of brass rod for alignment.
A third rod was glued into place on the superstructures top deck for the front post. The three tubes are not glued, I only checked, if the mating distances on top were ok, to accept the flying bridge.

To enhance the rigidity and add the possibility of wiggle the flying bridge in place, I glued some bent and cut Albion Connecto brass parts into place onto the underside of the flying bridge, that will later accept the brass tubes.

Than, I glued the lower brass deck to the front post, added the upper brass deck and when the CA half dried added the back posts and glued them into place. While the CA settled, I bent the whole construction into it's correct shape and after drying, added some more CA from the undersides for rigidity. Needless to say, that during preparation, the construction disintegrated a lot of times, while adjusting .

Now I have to finish the flying bridge assembly and then glue it on top of the posts. 

Cheers Rob

 

[KevinM]

Yes Rob I could see some words coming from that part of the build but looks ATTM you may of prevailed.

[Peterpools]

Rob

SPECTACULAR ... doesn't come close. I've followed a few very intricate 1/200 builds with full Pontos sets and am convinced that working in 1/350 scale at the level you are, requires a completely different skill and patience level. The smaller the PE, the steady the hand and eye. Awesome work for sure.

 

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, KevinM said:

Yes Rob I could see some words coming from that part of the build but looks ATTM you may of prevailed.

 

38 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

SPECTACULAR ... doesn't come close. I've followed a few very intricate 1/200 builds with full Pontos sets and am convinced that working in 1/350 scale at the level you are, requires a completely different skill and patience level. The smaller the PE, the steady the hand and eye. Awesome work for sure.

Muchas gracias hombres, building up the PE in itself is not so difficult, but making it fit to the previously cut and grinded plastic is another level of annoyance, even more with the flying bridges, where you have to produce and assemble the brass rods along, a quirky construction.
The bad news, there is another craws nest, but I hope it will be a bit easier, because there are location points, where the brass tubes meet the decks.
Peter, I more than once looked at my SOD and contemplated about buying a 1/200 IJN Mikasa 1902 kit with some extras. I think it's not only simpler to build, because of the scale, but many structural elements remain in plastic and you have a more solid base for PE adventures.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Absolutely concur. Enjoying following your exploits and marvel at what you have done so far.

 

[GazzaS]

Rob,

    You've been making amazing progress.  I'm impressed by the difference you've made in just a few days.  Flying bridges and those other gravity defying parts are all so much trouble.  You've really done well.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, GazzaS said:

You've been making amazing progress.  I'm impressed by the difference you've made in just a few days.  Flying bridges and those other gravity defying parts are all so much trouble.  You've really done well.

Indeed Gary, physics can be a nightmare, being it gravity with the flying bridge and now capillary with finally assembling them.

I had a yeah moment, when I added the mostly finished flying bridge onto the posts, after I added railings, ships clocks and other details and two hours later, that changed into a meehh moment, when I found out, that the capilar effect of the tubes led the CA to flow to the bottom, gravity was involved too, and adhered to my brass rods on the deck. 
Very bad, because I need to remove the flying bridge alone or with the superstructure for painting, which is not possible anymore. I may have to cut the brass rods carefully and insert new ones . Some angles look a bit strange on the pics, but aren't in reality

Cheers Rob

[Landlubber Mike]

Rob, looks fantastic!  Well done on the complicated assembly.  A few nights ago I was trying to do something similar on a 1/700 build I was working on.  I didn't like the kit support poles, so I made new ones out of brass rod.  Took a while to get everything lined up for sure.  Mine wasn't anywhere near as complicated as yours, so mucho respecto for your work!

If you don't mind me asking, do you have a good way to cut brass tube?  I don't think you can use a typical metal cutter as it will crush the ends.  Do you saw yours?  I think i have a sawing jig that can work for brass tube, but just curious if you have another easy way to cut it.

[Peterpools]

Rob

Looking fantastic and the PE work is astonishing to say the least. Always seems to be something with complicated builds, but my money is riding on you to come up with a perfect workaround.

 

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Landlubber Mike said:

If you don't mind me asking, do you have a good way to cut brass tube?  I don't think you can use a typical metal cutter as it will crush the ends.  Do you saw yours?  I think i have a sawing jig that can work for brass tube, but just curious if you have another easy way to cut it.

Thank you Mike, after my experiences with the Arizona, I don't think I could do something similar in 1/700. Like you said, lining up different parts is extremely difficult and has to be done numerous times for adjusting everything.

For my brass tubes, I used a razor saw and a tiny mitre block with a V-shaped profile. Both are made by JLC, a Polish one man (I guess) company.

For smaller diameters, like for reproducing turnbuckles from 0,5 mm brass tube, I sometimes use a scalpel blade, rolling on the tube until it cuts, It's faste, but with the larger diameters, like with USS Arizona's 2 mm, the mitre is the perfect choice.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

Looking fantastic and the PE work is astonishing to say the least. Always seems to be something with complicated builds, but my money is riding on you to come up with a perfect workaround

One step forward, two steps back, Peter 

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

Frankly, that everything lines up is nothing short of a miracle, or a testimony of your building skills (I choose this latter explanation, personally).

I could almost think  could do it myself: what a delusional fool I am 😏.

Hubert

[GazzaS]

Wow, it looks great, but a bad case of capillary action.  That extra thin CA...   I used it on a diorama to hold rocks in place...  but in ran everywhere.  Truly dangerous stuff.  I've started to add a little regular CA to it at times to slow it down.  

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Rob - I think I have that exact same jig so will try that out.  Great job!

I'm also not a big fan of thin CA - I use it only sparingly in limited situations because it runs so much, and even then, I use an applicator to do so.  I find medium CA better for my purposes.  Also, the thin stuff I have from Starbond smells so much more than the medium Starbond for some reason.

[KevinM]

Rob looking wonderful but I had to about the glue brought back a memory!I had just finished a 1/72 P-61 and thought I added enough up front to make it sit right but oh Noooooooo.So, I added some more BB's and some SG on top and and put on the desk to dry I had to scalpel that beotch off.

[DocRob]

On 2/4/2023 at 7:11 PM, HubertB said:

Frankly, that everything lines up is nothing short of a miracle, or a testimony of your building skills (I choose this latter explanation, personally).

I could almost think  could do it myself: what a delusional fool I am 😏.

I'm sure you could do it Hubert and as far as there are some of the mentioned miracles available at a good price, I'm in for them .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On 2/4/2023 at 8:24 PM, GazzaS said:

Wow, it looks great, but a bad case of capillary action.  That extra thin CA...   I used it on a diorama to hold rocks in place...  but in ran everywhere.  Truly dangerous stuff.  I've started to add a little regular CA to it at times to slow it down.

 

On 2/4/2023 at 8:29 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

I'm also not a big fan of thin CA - I use it only sparingly in limited situations because it runs so much, and even then, I use an applicator to do so.  I find medium CA better for my purposes.  Also, the thin stuff I have from Starbond smells so much more than the medium Starbond for some reason.

 

On 2/5/2023 at 1:34 AM, KevinM said:

Rob looking wonderful but I had to about the glue brought back a memory!I had just finished a 1/72 P-61 and thought I added enough up front to make it sit right but oh Noooooooo.So, I added some more BB's and some SG on top and and put on the desk to dry I had to scalpel that beotch off.

Muchas gracias hombres, thin CA can be a pain, but I like it a lot, despite it's challenges. The glue I use mainly is from Colle 21, a Spanish company and it bonds very good. The thinness helps sometimes for sealing parts through capillary action, but in the above mentioned case the same quality bit me. I never had imagined that the Ca could run that far. I use a thicker CA as well, but longer curing time makes it hard to use on the tiny bits and pieces. Sometimes I use small dots of thin to fix a part and then glue it properly with the thicker CA.
I used the Colle 21 glue for second planking my wooden Duchess of Kingston kit and really liked it there. It is runny and you have to be very disciplined using it, but it bonds fast and secure, which really helped, where no nails should hold the second planking and clamping each section of every plank would have been a nightmare.

Cheers rob

[Bomber_County]

Rob, you are the PE master, that flying bridge is awesome ……..

[RockieYarwood]

5 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Rob, you are the PE master

Totally agree!

[Peterpools]

Rob

Right with you on using CA glues, as these days I do use a lot more CA then in the past, both Extra Thin and Medium. One area that the use as greatly increased is in filling in seam and I've been leaning more towards the black CA glues, as it's a lot easier to see where it is.

 

[DocRob]

There was almost no progress, as this build is wearing me out a bit and I had my other delicate and cost intensive hobby (passion) in focus.

I decided a while ago, it's about time to upgrade my Transrotor Fat Bob-S turntable a bit, a hefty piece of German precision and sheer mass in polished aluminum. The tonearm is a modified Rega one, with better cables and connectors and a more refined counterweight, but it is still a Rega, not bad, but has it's limitations. I ordered a very fine Japanese Sorane tonearm, an engineering masterpiece, looking like it was finished by the same people finishing the good old Nikon F2 cameras or maybe Leicas.
My moving magnet pickup is a good one, but I wanted a better fit to the new tonearm (you wouldn't believe the physical backgrounds) and added an also Japanese Phasemation moving coil cartridge to the order. 
Then I thought, all these precious goodies with my old modified Lehmann phono-pre-amp, no, let's get away from the bit cheeky and unrefined Teutonic sonics and change to another Japanese jewel to amplify the weak signals of the cartridges and ordered a Aurorasound Prima Vida amp, a bit of a quirky design, but should sound exceptional.
Last but not least, I had to get rid of the DC residues in my house, which are artefacts, interspersed through our relatively new photovoltaic power system. What's the benefit of a good hifi-system, when nothing good comes in, first.
You can imagine, that it took the better part of my freetime the last two weeks, to read, to discuss and to brainstorm about the upgrades.
In a few weeks, everything will arrive on my island and then it's testing and installing and adjusting time, which is almost as delicate as assembling the USS Phoenix's PE.

Today, finally, I got something done. I drilled two 6,5 mm holes into the hull, to accept screws later, if I decide to use a stand and don't display her in acrylic water. The nuts were glued into the inside with two component epoxy and after everything cured, I glued the top half of the hull onto the lower part and rubber banded and clamped all.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

It's always good to take a break, Rob. 

[Peterpools]

Rob

Nothing more persona; and intense then a true passion for a hobby and while I didn't understand most of the technical names and descriptions, comparing them to a Nikon F2 or a Leica, turned on the light bulb for me. I've owned three Nikon F3HP's and finally have a F2 on its way, so I can appreciate your passion for listen to music on such sophisticated stereo (if this is the right word) equipment.

At some point the nuts for the base had to go one once you decided against the water base.

 

.

[DocRob]

On 2/13/2023 at 3:26 PM, Peterpools said:

Nothing more persona; and intense then a true passion for a hobby and while I didn't understand most of the technical names and descriptions, comparing them to a Nikon F2 or a Leica, turned on the light bulb for me. I've owned three Nikon F3HP's and finally have a F2 on its way, so I can appreciate your passion for listen to music on such sophisticated stereo (if this is the right word) equipment.

Hehe, I only need the right word to trigger you Peter . Earnestly the tonearm has a finish which strongly reminds me of the times, where camera bodies were heavy duty tools and pieces of art as well along being engineering marvels.
There are some similarities between cameras and turntables, at least engineering and precision wise. It always fascinated me, that this micro groove cut in vinyl, contains all the information to replicate a complete symphonic orchestra or every other kind of music and a decent turntable can transform this into a perfect sounding output.
The way from the stylus to the ear is complicated and full of obstacles though, which needed to be addressed. You can imagine, it's a madhouse for nerds like me, similar to modeling..
Most people live with digitized media (I do as well) and that's ok, they are handy and can sound absolutely perfect with the right equipment and file quality. With vinyl, there is no easy way to a very good result. You have to test a lot, discuss with people of knowledge and don't let yourself get caught by marketing phrases. 
I'm still blessed with good hearing abilities, but my ears are not very analytical. I can detect if something sounds right to me or not, but that proved to be enough. Analyzing analogue equipment is a passion to me, but at some point, after changing elements and testing them, it transforms into hearing fun. This is my ultimate goal, enjoying my vinyl at a very high level, without thinking about the how and why.

Cheers Rob